Hello all, Christmas was very good to me, with the wife's blessing I drove up to upstate New York to pick up my new project. Wouldn't you know it? the seller (Denis, who coulnd't have been a nicer, more straight up guy) had a full blown Santa beard! It's a Chevy 35 Standard 3W coupe, and I can't believe how straight the body is. It's been channeled a few inches, and the roof filled, and the doors have suicide hinges installed. It's not chopped yet, which I plan on doing. Not shown here are the fenders, 3 of which are perfect, 1 with some minor poorly done repairs on it. I don't plan to use them, but I'm glad to have them. I plan on getting rid of the Mustang II front clip, as well as the wheels and tires it sits on. The small block and auto trans will get sold for parts money as I have a BBC 468 sitting my my garage from a previous car that I hope to mate to a manual trans for it. Now I've got to finish working on the house before I can get started on her (putting in wood floors) but at least this will help keep me motivated!
Great Project! 1933-1935 Chevy 3W coupes are awesome. What's the deal with the headliner? Is it fiberglass or steel? Can we get an interior shot to check it out? Good Luck! Andy
Thanks everybody! as far as I understand it, in '35 the Standard coupes had conventionaly hinged doors, and the Master coupes were suicide? my Standard would have had more wood, the Master was mostly if not all steel? As for the "headliner"... the guy replaced most of the wood in there with metal stock, then fabed the headliner with thin sheet metal about an inch or two off the surface to hide it. He then splashed some bondo on top of that to smooth it out. I think his plan was going to be to glue fabric straight onto it, but the funny thing is that he never finished it as you can see the cross brace from the donor roof he used to fill in the top of the cab. My plan is to remove it so that when I chop the roof I'll have an easier time, plus I'll be regaining a little extra headroom. 34andy - I'll try to post some detail shots soon
Nice find, ditto on the wheels going. It looks really straight, good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
34andy, here's some shots of the interior, specifically looking at the headliner... I think he said he used a Dakota roof? I'm guessing that's "great stuff" that he used to fill the gaps around the patch. There's a shot of the suicide door hinge set up. Most of the wood is out of the cab, but as you can see there's a bit left on the tops of the doors.
Despite the fact that I'm very familiar with how BBC engines look, I'm not so clear on the small blocks... can anybody shed some light on what engine this is? or is there something I need to look for that will give it away? It will help when I try to sell it down the road!
Don't know nothin about your engine, but thought i'd post on here so I can keep an eye on your chevy. looks like a fun project.
If you are familiar with BBC's you know where the casting number is. That will tell you what this is.
lol Erwin is such a goon. Great find, That looks awesome man! Cant wait to see it as it progresses. Hit me up at Autorama this weekend. i'll be posted up downstairs.
^Yep. My C10 currently has an early '90's 350 V8 crate engine. It originally had a TBI set up on it but I put an Edelbrock intake on it and a Quadrajet. The giveaways are the TBI set up and the center-bolts on the valve covers.
It's been a while since I've posted updates... I promised my wife I'd do a bunch of work on the house before jumping into my '35 build. Now that work is done! Today was a great day... I picked up the engine that replace the small block the car came with. It's a Buick Fireball Straight 8! I measured the head so I know it's not a 320, it's either a 248 or a 263. I just joined the teambuick.com forum so hopefully I'll have more answers about it soon. Number on the side of the block is 52353144, the seller thought it came out of a '38 Buick but he didn't know what model as he bought it a while ago to put into his '36. Obviously I will be lenghening the frame to fit this beast, but I think it will look SO COOL!
According to the guys on the Buick forum it looks like this is a 248 that came out of a 1949 Series 40 or Special.
Thanks Oldskooloval... I can't wait to see that big 8 in there! So Murphy's law being what it is... a few days after I picked up this 248 another engine was posted for sale close to where I live and I couldn't pass it up! It's a 320 that came out of a '52 Roadmaster. The seller had swapped in a nailhead to rebuild the Fireball and decided he liked the Nailhead so much he'd leave it in. The 320 spins freely, sounds like it has good compression. It had a complete rebuild including cam, lifters and valve job with hardened valve seats for unleaded gas. He even gave me the rebuild kit for the original 4bbl carb. I hope to unload the 248+3 speed trans in the near future so if anybody's interested keep an eye out in the classified section/send me a note! Serial number on the block is 67393817
flatmotor40 It's a mustang II front end that I plan on cutting off... I will be installing two sets of quarter elliptical springs on a solid axle much like the old Miller Indy cars did. Those wheels won't be sticking around either!
Reason I ask I bought a 35 standard sedan and it had a Corvair under it but Sat a Corvair man is coming to get it so I will go with a Hiets(spell) or something like that