Hey guys… Im Joe. I'm 48. I've been a gear head since I was about 5. I've got a '55 Bel Air hardtop that I've owned more than half my life (bought it when nice ones were still cheap!). I like going to Burning Man mostly for the "Mutant Vehicles". Some are schlocky piles of crap, but some are marvels of engineering. I built a few myself. My Chevy looks very 1975. It's lowered a bit, with 8" Corvette rally wheels and 235/60/15 Radial T/As, and a small block with dual quads and an M-21 four speed. I've always REALLY wanted a gasser-style '55 but I think this car is too nice to cut up, which leaves me with an eternal dilemma. It's still almost entirely stock, too stock for it's own good. It's still got it's single-piston master cylinder feeding four-wheel manual drums. Whether it's "gasser" style or not, I want to ditch the 1975 vibe and go for a '60s vibe with it. Maybe just some chrome reverse wheels and whitewalls, or old-style grey-center Americans with some redline tires. It's got late-'80s Corvette aluminum heads on the motor with center-bolt valve covers which kinda' screw up the look. Life in general (property taxes, dentist bills, new septic drain field, etc. etc.) has me too $$ strained to do anything right now but this car needs to become what it really should be. I work with a buddy evenings and weekends restoring or modifying '50's Cadillacs. He does it for a living, I do it for fun and so now and then I can do stuff at the shop. My usual internet forum used to be the Burning Man "eplaya" but I've sort of "burned out" on that. This looks like the place that is filled with the kind of people I can relate to. So, I'm movin' in!
Hey Joe, I'm also Joe, a FNG, and living in Washington (near Olympia)... Welcome aboard & nice car, BTW! I have a buddy with a '55 Chevy - I've always wanted one, but it will need to wait for another lifetime for me, as I already have too many projects & not enough time or money. Most of my projects are too new for this board ('67 Camaro, '01 Custom Softail, and a '00 K3500 SRW Crew Cab). 3 months ago, I bought a '48 Diamond T that I would love to turn into a hot rod hauler... I seem to be good at acquiring projects, but not as good at following through... We'll see how it goes. =)
I had a nice four-speed '67 Camaro, back in the 80s when they were cheap! My GF-at-the-time rear-ended a Subaru with it. Wish I'd kept it, it wasn't hurt very bad, but at the time, they just weren't worth much. I've also got a K3500 crew cab, a 1986 4x4 dually that I swapped a '98 Vortec 454 into. Wish I had a diesel but too many projects here too! I'd love to do a ramp truck or even motorhome conversion with an old truck like your Diamond T. I think I'd swap the whole thing onto an '80s motorhome chassis from some good-running but leaky and rotted motorhome.
Sounds like I have more in common with you than I do with my wife... Ha, ha! I'm keeping my eye open for a donor truck for the Diamond T project. I plan to have it powered by a Cummins 6BT diesel. I have a vision for what I want it to be... Something along the lines of the orange & cream Diamond T in this link: http://www.davintosh.com/2008/10/01/hot-rod-diamond-t/ I picked up my original '67 Camaro back in 1995 after it had been rear-ended & totaled, so I got it for a song. I ended up buying a roller a few month later and made the two, one. I put in a rebuilt 350 with 202 Double Hump heads, roller rockers, Victor Jr. Intake, a 650 Holley Double Pumper & drove it once... It's pretty much been sitting in my enclosed car trailer ever since I moved to WA in 2005. It's nothing special, so I plan to do the Pro-Touring thing with it, ground up, but my priority has been getting my 2,400 Sq. Ft. shop built in my back yard (mostly done, now). Since this isn't the place for Camaro talk, I'll save the rest of my stories for another board. =) I turn 45 this summer, and my last kid is a Junior in H.S., so I hope to be able to dedicate more time to my projects and hopefully have a few extra dollars to invest in them EVENTUALLY.
I hope I can meet someone on here somewhat local to the Pacific Northwest who has a gasser style '55 - '57 that will take me for a ride in it. I've always wondered how they really handle and drive. I'm not hard-set on the gasser plan, but I do want to back-date the style of my Chevy to the '60s. Maybe just a set of chrome-reverse wheels with no hubcaps (maybe I'm the odd man out but I hate baby moons!) and some 2" whitewalls. I have a set of American 5-spokes for it but they are the modern full-polish ones. Those would make the car look even MORE generic. I also think I like the idea of old-style grey center Torq-Thrusts with redline tires. The "Hot Wheels" car look… never seen that on a '55, always on a late '60s pony or muscle car. I'd look at a later-model chassis swap for that Diamond T because it would end up looking cool but driving nice. I'll try to never mention my old Camaro or my '79 Trans Am on here… unless I put a flathead in it! Come to think of it, I remember a story in Hot Rod magazine back in the '70s about a guy with a late-model (at the time) Pinto who swapped the stock motor for a '32 Ford "B" 4-banger!
The Jalopy Journal
