Projects 1958 Plymouth Belvedere 2dr HT Build Thread

After many years of delay I'm ramping back up on my bevedere. I've let it sit for far too long. Got it about 7 years ago out of a yard in northern colorado, and it was fairly complete. It was parked in 1966 or 67 with a blown up powerflite and sat in peace till i bought it in 04. I stripped it down in 05 and it has sat since. Life got in the way, sadly.

Anyhow, i've been working on cleaning up trim and such during the last few months and now that its warming up im starting on the body work. I can't get the car into the garage for a little while to fix the floors/quarters/rockers so i fired up the da and got to work with the 36 grit to start removing the lovely sunbaked surface rust on one of the fenders. I've got a long way to go on the car, but it feels great to be working on it again.

 

NICE!!! What a beautiful car, looks like pretty dry and healthy metal, too! ´58 was a good year for cars. Good call on the Hemi, too. What kind is it?

 

Its a 392, i kept it from an 58 new yorker 4dr that i drove for a while. Its got a whopping 70k on the motor, its pretty sludged up inside but i plan on hot tanking the motor and cleaning it up. I'm thinking ill just need to hone/re-ring the motor and pop new bearings in.

 

you'll need to keep the up angle oil filter, HH has a spin on adaptor like that.

 

Great ,thats my favoite 50's Mopar hands down.I liked them even before the "Christine" movie .I hope your not gunna build a clone of the movie car .BTW that looks like a real solid car you have ...

 

Hey,

Probably one of the best looking vehicles built in Detroit in 1958, the GM designs of this era bordered on criminal.

I wish I'd have kept my '61 Fury!

"Humpty Dumpty was pushed "

 

Thanks Shocker, i intend to avoid the christine thing with this one, but it has done wonders for the popularity of the car. I'm going to paint it Copper with a metallic dark gray roof. Should look totally sexy

 

I like the sound of the paint colors your planing .Your right the movie has done wonders for the 57-58 Plymouths popularity ,so much so that its hard to find a 2 door hardtop thats worth building ( like you have ) at an affordable price.I'd love to have one .Cant wait to see the progress on yours as it goes along .Theres a guy on Youtube called "58 Donnie" that builds clones of the movie car for customers.Even though im sick of the clones i enjoy looking at the work he does on these cars in his videos.You may want to check out some of his vids ,cuz he is awesome on building these Plymouths ...

 

There's always the 57-58 Dodge, i was actually looking for one when i stumbled across this one. I still think the dodge has a better fin and dash. Hell the 58 dodge 2dr even got the bubble top windshield. That combined with the roofline is perfection. That said the plymouth has grown on me, i totally dig it now. Donnie does good work, i've seen quite a bit of it posted up over on fowardlook.net.

 

Sexy is indeed the word. Damn you western guys and your solid sheetmetal. I'll be watching this one.

 

Since I don't have '58 to look at, I must ask why?

What keeps this from working?


.

 

great car

 

IIRC it would let the filter sit a bit close to the exhaust... I'd have to double check that though.

 

Great looking car and nice engine choice, should be a killer ride when finished.

 

Awesome Cars

 

Logical. A remote may be a better choice than an upside down can.

.

 

Ok found a pic, looks like the t-bar would be in the way..

 

Bingo!

 

I've been making some small progress since my last post. I got the fender mostly sanded down, im working on getting the last of the "black" rust sanded out of it so i can prime it. I also drilled out the spot welds on the splash pan on it and got that seperated so i can weld up a tear on the metal and such. Got all the undercoat scraped off said fender as well.

I've also re-organized my parts storage for the car and have gotten things more together. Unfortunately things were spread around a bit. Also at night when I'm not at the garage working on the fender i've continued cleaning up and polishing the plated trim. Im going to need a desk that is not made of glass soon so i can move into stainless work. My office is getting taken over by bright work and computer parts (my day job).

I also found out that i can mount an a518 on a 392 in this car with no floor cutting! woo super happy about that. Also scored a second factory A/C box/condenser and other ac parts for pretty cheap.

 

My first car was a 57 Plymouth. Love the style of the 57/58's. This one looks like a great start of a cool ride. Keep us posted with pics.

 

I'm by far not a Mopar guy, BUT, i really dig the 57-58 Plymouth body style and would even consider owning one...
Yours is a cool car and i'm looking forward to seeing the progress on it.
Looking good so far!

Tony

 

Nice progress!
My '57 4dr HT Belvedere has similar patina as yours. I'll keep mine this way for the time being but I like the color ideas you mentioned.

 

Nice progress!
My '57 4dr HT Belvedere has similar patina as yours. I'll keep mine this way for the time being but I like the color ideas you mentioned.

 

I wish i could have kept the patina, but the rust in the floors and fenders was bad enough the require a teardown and redo. I want my car to last another 40 years if i can help it. That rusty roof gets thin Neat car you have though, the 4dr hardtops are rather under appreciated in my opinion.

 

Hi I have a 59 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer 2dr . To keep on the road when the rare 350 mopar died and the braking system was junk. I install a 79 Camaro frame along with a Chevy 350/700r, 79 Trams am disc brake rearend,4 link suspention,tilt steering wheel. The car has power windows,swivel seats. Vintage air conditioning. Gota have a mopar with big fins.

 

So you went from a rare 350 to a bellybutton 350.....

 

Wow, love your 58, like the direction your headed as well, good luck. Cool 57 4-dr ht also, gotta be quite rare. That lil flamed ht is way bad as well. Love those vintage MoPars, viva forward look, here is a project I am stalled on, my 56 Plym Suburban, maybe someday ~sololobo~

 

Cool, I'll be watching this one as well since I have a '59 Firedome (albeit only a 4 door) that I want to build into a mild 60's custom. This summer I plan on taking it off the frame...Love your color choice by the way!

 

I do like those.... Sweet Plymouth.... and a 392... Nice....

 

What he said. Pretty easy to find a 383 or 440 to put in there and have some real power again.