History FOUND- Nick Arias Jr.'s '37 Chevy Coupe

Yep, that's my "Poppy". This car was built in the late 90's as a replica of his high school ride.. the original was orange, but had '55 Buick caps, side pipes, wide whites and a JC Whitney badgeless grille. This one is all stock appearance wise, but sports a healthy Art Chrisman flathead this go around. I learned how to drive in that car... I was about 13 or so. It's my favorite car of all time!

 

Always wanted a 10 liter hemi. Too bad I’m poor!

 

It was also the chosen car to push the Speedsport Roadster !

 

Congrats on the great find Justin. Maybe we will see it out at B-ville in a couple of years.

 

That is just awesome congratulations man

 

Got a piece to the puzzle, big thanks to Augie Esposito. Now it's time for a '37 Lasalle...

 

Love this distributor, what sort of voodoo is goin' on here?

 

Great story that continues to evolve! Thanks for sharing

 

Fisher Ignition, similar to Spalding Ignition. Chevy/GMC distributor with adaptor plate for a Nash Twin 6 cap and rotor. Twin points with a 3 lobe distributor cam allows you to run 2 coils and about 30 degrees of dwell.

 

And the pointer on the plate is degrees of advance?

 

Yep, I assume my grandfather made it. It's a slick piece that was made from a stock '37 vacuum advance mechanism. The pointer clamps to the shaft of the distributor and the 1/4" bolt is what keeps both from rotating. The aluminum plate attaches to the block using the factory hold down location. It's one of my favorite pieces that came with the car.

 

Any photos showing the 12 spark plugs in the cylinder head, love to see that sight... dyno Dave

 

The twin spark heads were on the Nash Twin Six engines of the 30's, but Bill Fisher is probably given the most credit for using those distributor caps on Chevy & GMC 6 bangers so they can use dual coils. How they performed vs. Vertex magnetos, I don't know.. but they were surely popular. The coupe came with two of them- a Spalding and a Fisher.

 

If I remember correctly, there was a lot of discussion of the Nash distributor conversion on the thread of the build of the Spalding Bros. Pat Ganahl RIP roadster with Marty Strode. Keep the good stuff coming

 

In order to use that adapter with a '37 LaSalle, you'll have to drill out that hole at about 2 o'clock from the bearing retainer cup. The '37 LaSalle trans has shift forks fixed solidly to sliding shift shafts, rather than shift forks that slide on fixed shafts. The reverse/low shift shaft protrudes out of the front of the transmission an inch and a half or so, and in a stock setup there was a hole through the bellhousing for this shaft to slide through. Note that the Cragar adapter posted earlier does have this hole drilled through, and may also require a matching hole in the bellhousing that it is bolted to, as the adapter doesn't appear to be as thick as the rod protrudes when the trans is in low gear. I wish I had taken a photo of my 37 LaSalle trans a couple weeks ago before I bolted it up to my flathead Cadillac. FYI, Jimmy Flowers had a 37 LaSalle trans laying in his shop when I was there a few months ago. He may still have it. Let me know if you want his contact info.

 

Thanks for the picture, trying to understand how this twin spark system worked. Is this a single sparkplug fired by two coils, unlike Mopar twin plug heads? dyno Dave

 

Just curious?Would this be the same using the 50 olds short tail shaft transmission?

 

I'm pretty sure the GMC just has single spark plugs per cylinder. The "twin spark" distributor has two sets of points, and a three lobe cam instead of a six lobe. So one portion of the twin spark distributor is used to fire three cylinders, and the second three are fired by the other portion. Basically it allows a lot of dwell so that the coils can saturate and deliver a nice blue shot of lightning. Point bounce is less likely also due to the three vs six lobe cam, and the points basically running at half speed. There would be a half dozen unused plug towers on the distributor cap.

If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me, but the above is my understanding of it.

I'm not sure if the Olds used the sliding shaft or not. I know that in 1940 Cadillac had sliding forks instead of shafts, so I assume by 1950 Olds did too.

If you have a short tail 50 Olds transmission you could ship it to me so I can check it out and let you know. I do have to tell you though, that sometimes when I ship desireable '50 Olds transmissions, they get "lost" by the freight company. (wink, wink),

 

LOL! Since it might get lost. I'll just send a pic of my 50 olds trans and pics of a Offenhauser ford bellhousimg to LaSalle/50 olds trans.

 

It's live! Hope you enjoy.

 

How exciting for you Justin to have this part of ARIAS history come back to life. Congratulations

 

Justin, you've done what 99% of us can't do and you should be proud! To own a piece of automotive history that was owned and built by your Grandfather, a man that has done so much for the performance industry, the feeling must be overwhelming, after the confirmation from his friend's. Congratulations Sir, I can't wait to see what you do with it. It'll be mesmerizing for sure.

 

Freakin awesome Justin... Ben also did a great job of documenting the find. Congratulations I will be following the build.

 

Wanting to put a Mercedes Diesel in a historic hot rod?

 

Great video, very well explained how you documented ALL the research verifying its your grandfathers car!!! Very cool seeing all of the little very well engineered parts and pieces to the puzzle!!! Congratulations!!!

 

Thank you fellas! I appreciate all the kind words!

 

Pretty incredible. What an amazing find and build. You have a great source documenting it all. So cool.

 

Just watched the video, it was really well done. Kudos to Four Speed Films.

 

Great Justin… a long road left but one hell of a start. The time I spent with your grandpa and the help he gave me stating in 1975 will always remain in my heart….JD

 

Justin, your Grandpa would be proud of what you are doing !