Projects '51 Chevy build journal

visualillusions, you are correct, I scored a rear end OUT OF a powerglide car, is what I should have said. It has taller gears in it to help with highway cruising.

 

Thanks for posting, looks like your having fun Too..

 

What kind of trans are you running? I have a buddy with a 54 belair and a 235 dual carbs, split exhaust and a S-10 5 speed, it is a sweet set up. I love what you are doing to this car. I will be curious to see the floor board fix. I am facing the same animal myself.

 

Soreback, I am running the stock three speed, converted to floor shift. I am going to start on the floor pans in the next week or so. The tunnel for the torque tube has already been raised. I still have a little more work to do around the tail lights first.

 

Hey Rob the PG rear-end swap is easy, just soak everything in WD-40 if you haven't broke it loose yet!!! And I really need to figure out if it would be cheaper to fly you and racrdad out my way to help with the metal work on my car, or if I should bring it out yer way beautiful work bro!!!!!! and I would say a soft sage pearl on the bottom with a pearl white top, maybe a lil bit of ghost lace.......

 

lookin good... im keepin an eye on this one!

 

Looks great man! Makes me that much more anxious to get back to work on my 52 more door

 

Looking really nice! Love the stance.

 

Made a little progress this weekend in between the family functions. Worked on the rear bumper a little while filling and grinding the seams and holes. They still need some work but they are getting closer.

 

Looks good man. just noticed your in angleton. m right down the road in west columbia. im working on bagging my 51 4 door right now. your body mods are making me want to start on mine

 

on to the gas door, gas fill up will be through the trunk now.

 

enough of that boring shit....tailight time! Finished welding in the light buckets and trying to get the metal as close as I could. Trying to keep the filler to a minimum which is good cause I hate body work and I suck at it!

 

I told you I made some progress! Next it was the floors. This part wasn't much fun but it was much needed! I got all four pans tacked into place and started welding one of them up until I ran out of gas in the welder. No luck getting a bottle filled on Sunday so it was beer:30! I will try and find some time this week to finish them and post some pics when done, but with Thanksgiving coming I'm sure the family will get most of my time. So, that's it for right now see ya in a few days!

 

Alright! No more Fred Flintstone floorpans. Looks good, too bad I missed all the fun!

 

Have no fear my friend, I am saving all the body work for you!

 

Your thread has given me so many ideas for my 50. Keep up the good work, car is looking great.

 

Great build thread keep up the good work

 

Your avatar makes me wish I had a Nova!

 

We will make this little guy your friend..... Its all good!!!

 

I just subscribed to your thread. Thanks for the compliment on my nova. I just wish I had the time to start on my 50, seeing all the things people are doing on the Hamb are giving me the itch.

 

Man, it's lookin good. Looks like we are both making some steady progress. Keeping an eye on this one.

 

We are going to be slinging a little Rage Gold on it next weekend if all goes as planned!! Man I am ready!!!

 

Yep, I am pretty stoked about it! So much that I am taking off work Wed. and I am going to try and get the rear trunk panel welded in and maybe the rear valance too!

 

ok, got a little side tracked from the rear pan. Racrdad came down and it was on, a couple of late nights but we got alot done! Next weekend I am going to his house so we can get some shit done on the Belvedere. I picked up a powerglide rear end from RPIERCE and got it intsalled, he has a cool 53 project he is working on, thanks RPIERCE! So it was out with the old and in with the new(er)! Had to re-do the new brake lines I had just ran, but it was worth the work.

 

Next on the list was the body work. We got the doors(4), gas door, a few dents, the headlights and the hood done and ready for primer. The hood was a beast (thanks to my impatient welding) but Racrdad hammered and dollied it forever and finally made it his bitch! Here are a few shots before the primer went down.

 

While Doug was taking forever on the hood (just kidding) I jumped inside and took 6" out of that steering column, what the hell where they thinking when they made them??? Any way, I cut it and welded it back together, then I sleeved it with a small piece of pipe welded on both ends. Then I cut down the outter sleeve an welded it back together, also welded up the two holes left over from the column shifter. Small skim coat and it was as good as new.

 

Next we pulled the front widshield, it was broke and you couldn't hardly see out of it anyway, need to save up for the one piece! The back glass came out too. Started working on the rear piece below the trunk lid. It took me forever to get the gap between the trunk and the lower panel right but I finally did it and welded in the panel. Still have some finish welding to do. Next will be removing the stamped apron and making a nice smooth flat one. We were hoping to get that far but we just didnt make it. Oh well, we still got alot done and had alot of fun. Thanks Racrdad for all your hard work!

 

Those taillights are friggin cool! I'm not much of a fan of those lights in a 51 Chevy mounted horizontally, but always thought they'd look good mounted vertically. I was wrong, they look REALLY good!

 

Damn your not letting any grass grow under your feet! Looks good. Im really liking the cut down steering column. Now I just need to get my car back home.

 

Looks like you got alot done. She's lookin' good. Are you going electric on the doors or using the cozies?