Well after losing the motor on the way back from Viva 2013, I'm finally getting around to getting her back on the road! With the help of some guys in our club (Vintage Rollers), we're gonna pull the motor and rebuild it to make The Rose City Roun-up 2014 in June. Here's a brief history on this car. I bought it as a "stock" '53 in January 2011. Went to The Rose City Round-up that year, got a ton of ideas to "customize" the car. Took it out to my buddy and co-club member Eric's shop and we tore her apart. Shaved all Bel-Air trim, shaved hood and truck, shaved the rear door handles, frenched headlights etc. Pulled the orig motor that was knocking really bad and had a newer 235 to put in. I became really busy opening my Barber Shop and Eric and a few club members finished the bodywork, painted it and put it together for me (see: stories of friendship and brotherhood). I finished up some odds and ends getting her ready to drive from Bend, Oregon to Las Vegas for VLV 2013. Drove her there, had a blast at the show and started driving her home. 5 miles out of Vegas and the motor just quit running. It sat at a friends house in Vegas for a few months till it was brought home to Oregon. Now, its rebuild time...more to come! green/cream picture is how I bought her one pic cruzin to VLV '13,another at the show Last is her on a trailer in front of the shop for a rebuild
Thanks for the nice comments on the car. She I definately becoming the car I dreamed about when I was younger. I've sick the last couple of days but will be getting down to the shop tomorrow to start taking the front clipoff. It'll be a lot easier for Terry to make the motor mounts that way and also easier to take that motor apart. I pulled the head off the motor I had in the garage (thanks yetiskustoms) and I looks really clean. Its an 848 casting # head so it is the higher compression head! I'll be posting pics of the progress!
Made some good progress on the car today. Rolled her into the shop and got started on pulling off the front clip and hood. Once the clip was off we loaded it into Terry's truck to make room in the shop. Now that the motor was easy to get to, it was time to take it apart and see what we were dealing with. Pulled the valve cover and found that 2 rocker arms had broken off and 2 pushrods were shaped like the letter "s". I pilled the head and believe it or not, no damage to the valves or pistons! You can see the broken rockers in the pics where my fingers are pointing. So we loosened the timing cover to see if what we all****umed happened had actually happened. Yep, the timing gear was sheered smooth. You can see that the teeth on the gear, below the screwdriver in the pic, there are no teeth. Terry is going to fab some new motor mounts and then we'll pull the motor out to do a complede teardown and then rebuild!
so are you doing a rebuild? also was interested with what paint you went with for the black, it's nice. I was thinking of once mine goes a little more south to shoot that type of black, then shoot gold and brown, then shoot teal, then sand the teal through for aged patina then a satin clear.
Yeah, we're tearing down the motor, removing it from the car and rebuilding it on the cheap! Honing the cylinders, new rings, bearings gaskets/seals, timing gears etc. Should be a nice motor when we're done. As far as the paint, I'll ask yetiskustoms. He got the paint and painted it for me. I'll let you know here in a bit. I like the sounds of your paint idea! Would be cool.
yea I seen actually a neat video of a truck that got this paint treatment and first I thought faux patina going to be***** but it turned out very very well but I think so because it wasn't overly done and didnt look like a bunch of sanding but real patina it was very cool, so the idea is perhaps to go such a route once my paint decides to go a bit more the next few years, plus it woul be hard to really mess it up to much lol.
Terry fabbed up these great motor mounts. We would have had to re drill the old mounts due to the drivers side was about a 1/4" off (not bad for eyeballing it when we first made them) and sheered off the bolts 2 times. Now with everything lined up 100%, these will work great.
So we've come across a little snag...the cylinder walls are really smooth but when you get to the top, there is a huge lip. We haven't measured the cylinders yet to see how much boring needs to be done but everyone seems to think that it would need to be bored much larger than a normal boring. Do any of you guys know how much is ok on these 235's to bore the cylinders before you get into trouble with overheating and weakness etc? Any help here would be great!
So we got the motor pulled from the car today. Started pulling it apart and checking to see what we had to work with. Everything like the crank, bearings, journals, lifters, cam, etc look great. I do know there will be cylinder boring and am able to go up to 60 over. From the looks of things, its only going to take 30 or 40 over on this one. Possible new pistons and for sure new rings. Depending on the cost, I may look into a new cam with a bump in performance. I'll take some pictures and show where we're at. I sure can't wait to get her back on the road!
I've got the same basic car as you.... so I'm dredging this back up from the dead. Where you at with the car? It looks awesome. I am working my way into the Cherry City Bombers in Salem with mine. It'd be cool to roll with another one. ~TK~
This pick is at RCRU 2014. Car made it and we all had a great time. Travis had a family emergency and had to sell it regretfully. Everyone is good now and he's building a 53 Plymouth choptop now. Can't wait untill its done
It's a bummer that she ended up on a trailer! But it's awesome that you drive her long distances and don't just automatically put her on a trailer to take to shows!! Just wouldn't be as much fun! RESPECT! Best of luck on your rebuild!
The Jalopy Journal
