Projects How to ruin a perfectly good 54 Chevy!

I wanted to start a semi-build thread for the 54 Chevy that we're doing for my wife and I thought that this would make an appropriate title. We had been looking for months to try and find a suitable starting point to get her on the road and this is what we found a while back.





It was a pretty clean older amatuer resto that still had a lot of life left in it. The car was all stock aside from a 12 volt conversion. It was fine for just easing around town but about 55 was all she would do on the highway. It didn't take long for my wife to decide she wanted to go to a V8 and an automatic trans. While we were at it she wanted us to make it LOW! After putting my time in with the search feature on the HAMB I realized that Alex Gamibino at Gambino Customs was the man to talk to about setting up the 54. Orders were placed and things started to go in to motion. I just want to clarify that my wife only had a few criteria for this build. She wants the car to be fast, low and loud! She also doesn't want anything chromed or any big wheels. I don't know if the car is going to end up being "traditional" but I think she's going to like it. This is all going to be done by myself and a couple buddies in the evenings after our regular jobs as time permits. I've got a feeling that all of the old timers that have been coming up and chatting about how they learned to drive in a 54 just like ours is about to come to an end. I guess that's why I thought it would be appropriate to title this "How to ruin a perfectly good 54 Chevy!"

First order of business was to get that sweet 6 and 3 speed trans outta there.



Our plans to get it down in front include a Fatman ultralow frontend, so we had to determine the axle centerline after leveling the frame.



This came in handy.



Once the centerline was determined we pulled the front crossmember.







Went ahead and did some triming for the V8.



Tacked the hats to a piece of angle iron to keep em level while they were being tacked in place.













Welded up some of the smaller holes and made some plates to cover the larger ones. This isn't going to be a show car, it's going to be a driver. She didn't want us to put a lot of time in to trying to make the firewall slick and pretty. We'll be going back later with A/C so the firewall will end up with holes in it again anyway.



Added a touch of color to it all.



With any luck it'll run again one day.

 

Definitely was a nice starting point...my first car was a 54 chevy and I have a soft spot for them...keep posting those build pix...good luck

 

Im not a big fan of how the spring pocket cup is a seperate piece from the gusset, i would like to see it all one piece. Also not too sure if i would be using that small welder welding a chassis.

 

nice work

 

Why isn't she working on it?

 

I dont agree with your title personally. But hey good pics, useful to see as these convos are in the works for me. cool

 

Looks like you started with an awesome base, and it should look even cooler when done. Definitely keep us all posted. What are the plans for the V8?

 

The thread title is kinda tounge in cheek I guess. We just had so many people tell us that we shouldn't cut this car up because they're only stock once. I can say that I do get a kick out of my wife responding by telling people to go out and buy or build their own stocker if they like em so much. I fully agree with Gambino on this one..."Chopping up cars is not a crime".

We actually had an engine built before we ever backed the 54 in the garage for the teardown. It's a pretty basic small block chevy for reliability. This car is going to be her daily so we wanted to keep it simple. It's a 350 with a Competition Cams 268 camshaft, 1.52 roller tip rockers and an Edelbrock intake and carb. It was a low mileage engine that we went through ourselves.

 

Off to a good start

 

Man your wife is gonna have a cool chevy!!

 

maybe its just the pics, but it doesnt look like you are getting good penetration on those welds. is it just me

 

i dont know if this is a good thing or not, but ive done everything with a Wirefeed. WE put on a nove front sub on a 38 chevy with a old millermatic 90... and we put 40k miles on that car, of hard driving, and it never once had an issue.

I do all of my chassis fab now qith a millermatic 180...

if you prep everything right, you wont have an issue.

 

i was noticing the same thing.

 

Better get a gusset from the upper spring hat down to the lower crossmember on the inside of the rail. Those Chevy frames are thin and in it's current configuration the upper hat is going to rip right off the frame.

 

Car looks good! Keep posting pics.

 

Looks like a nice car to start with, keep the updates coming

 

Yeah if your gonna use the little lincoln,
you should at least grind the paint and rust at all the weld joints.
Maybe consider double passes too.
Also welding bottom up is supposed to get better penetration,
although top down is easier.
TP

 

All of the suspension part that couldv'e been welded from both sides were done that way. We also cleaned the areas to be welded before we got busy on them.













We had to ditch the tall tires it was riding on for something a bit more subtle.



Obligatory crossmember shot.



The rack mounts don't touch when aired out....But they're close!

 

Me like what size rims and pinners are you useing to lay frame like that

 

SO with the firewall "shaving," did you just cut out some pieces of steel stock and bolt them in there instead of welding? ive never really seen anyone attatch pieces like that on there, its not some kit is it?

 

I wouldn't use a flux core welder either. Gas shielding helps with the little welder.

Not just you.

 

I do appreciate everyones concern about the little lincoln. We only used it when we tacked the parts in. Another Miller with gas was used for making the finish welds.

The tires that were on it when we got it were 225/75/15 which were about to large at the factory height. We went with a 205/75/15. I'm not sure if they'll end up being the ideal size but they were priced right. One of buddies pulled them off of his 53 ford when he went back to bias ply tires and said that I could have em. They're like new so we'll probably run them for a while. It seems like the wheels are 7" wide. Ultimately she wants to go with a 2" or 2.5" wide whitewall.

As far as covering the holes in the firewall up goes (I don't think it's clean enough to call it shaved). It may sound hokey but I just held a piece of paper up to the firewall and rubbed on it until I had an impression of the holes I wanted to cover. After that I just cut out the shape I wanted it to be and laid it on a piece of metal and traced it. Then it was just a matter of spending a few minutes cutting it out and smoothing the edges. It may not be as slick as a lot of people would prefer but it's functional.

Oh, And yes we did gusset the crossmember when the motor mounts went in. Alex sent me a set of his "Lil Dave" motor mounts. I think he said that these are like the fourth set of em that he's had made. On the ones he built and used on the 52 convertible that he posted pics of he had said that the filler plates he built to go in between were overkill. I kinda felt the same so I went a different route with ours. I think that they have a cool look to em like this. I've already had a few people ask me what's supposed to bolt in to em.

 

will it touch with the motor in it ..? looks good

 

not to be a dick man but that last verticle weld on the motor mount does agree with me at all. and it doesnt look like its a hard place to get to since the camera got a clear shot of it. take some practice on a piece of plate steel the same thickness and dial your welder in or get some practice in on the piece of plate.

 

The bottom of the engine and transmission is still higher than the bottom of the frame.

Flop, I don't think you're being a dick. I've been keeping an eye on your chop thread and I know that you do good work. I don't weld period. My friend whose shop we're working in is the one doing the welding and there are a few welds on here that don't look as good as he would have wanted them to. Yes we did have to make some adjustments to the welder to get it to work better (As well as to cut off a fan that was blowing right on us and seemed to be dispersing the gas). I think we're going to be fine overall.

 

Great post!
Sounds like you have a good plan. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

nice work...and a lot safer for the little lady to drive than before....keep us posted

 

cool man just lookin out for you and your wifes saftey . all this air bag stuff is next for me .keep on keepin on.. yah a fan isnt a good idea on a gas shielded welder!!!! i leanered that once too.

 

you might be, but do you want to take that risk? even with the bigger welder, the penetration sucks, and the bead sucks. I have been there, building jeeps with not the best welds, but on this classic car if i saw those welds, i would wonder how poorly everything else was done. just think about grinding those down turn the welder up and at least get a solid bead down.

 

The chrome is the most beautiful part of those years. I surely hope that won't get painted. A really nice vehicle to start as a project.