Projects 56 Chevy 210 Hardtop Build

This is how mine was....and the last pic is now...a tree had fallen on the roof and it was rotted out everywhere...

 

Tell us about the car car in your avatar.

 

What you have done with that car is truly amazing,It makes me want to keep my 55 that is in the classified section now.

 

If you are asking me...its just a cool pic I found.

 

The car was sitting at a junkyard, and I figured a 150 two door sedan should be saved. It was also built at the Janesville Wi GM plant, and I had worked as summer help there just out of high school along with a bunch of relatives including my Dad. The plant is closed now.

 

Well I'll take your guys advice on the steel fenders and hood. I can't really afford to choke out the dough right now anyways. But the guy with the straight axle got ahold of me this morning and we talked, I'm trading him a set of stock 882 heads that I'm going to do a valve job and surface if needed. Seems like too good of a deal to pass up to me.

 

sorry i meant that for the OP

 

Photoshop version of his car I believe...

 

Yes, Funny is right. It's just a photoshop of my car that Moose came up with over on the photoshop thread.

 

This is the one that I came up with. Just throwing a few ideas around

 

I personally like the brown version better, but with the 210 trim on. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Another vote for the 210 trim. Without the trim, people will think it just a detrimmed Belair. I have a 210 HT and it's a conversation starter. One know-it-all at a car show even told me off in front of his buddies that I had concocted/faked my '56 210 HT cuz Chevy never made tri-five 210 HT's... sheeeeeesh. A knowledgeable tri-five guy will know some of the subtle differences a 210 HT has vs a Belair HT - it's all not side trim.

 

The car will 100% definitely wear the side trim with whatever paint scheme it ends up with. But I have to ask, what are the other difference besides the trim?

 

On a 210 HT, it has a narrow stainless piece that is between the door and glass (on the outside), as opposed to the wide piece of stainless garnish/trim that sits outside the window atop the Belair door. Same is true of the area just behind the door to the c-pillar. Because of this difference, the stainless underneath the wing-window, atop the door is different on a 210 vs a Belair, and the same is true of the leading edge of the C-pillar stainless where it meets the top of the quarter panel. On the 210 the trailing edge of that wing window piece and the leading edge of the c-pillar piece are finished to not expect a wide piece of stainless on top of the door. On a Belair, those two pieces are made to tie into the wide stainless garnish atop the door & leading part of the quarter panel. Also, (if I remember correctly - door vs qtr panel) if you remove that wide trim at the top of leading edge of the quarter panel on a Belair, you will find a stamped depression in the metal to accept a fastener for the wide trim. Because a 210 HT doesn't have that wide garnish/trim at the top of the quarter, it doesn't have the stamped depression in the quarter panel sheetmetal.

So another way of saying it is... if you bolt a belair door on your 210, besides the side stainless being different, the way the stainless garnish is at the top of the door (on the outside) is different also.

One other difference is inside the car... On a '56 Belair the C-pillar stainless is made to continue on to the decorative stainless piece that is above the side windows. On a 210 HT interior... there is no decorative stainless above the side windows, so the C-pillar stainless inside the car is made in such a way to not need to continue to onto that upper side stainless.

Hope that all made sense. Maybe I can find photos sometime of what I'm describing...

Gotta56forme/Scott

 

Here is a photo of a Belair HT in the area I'm describing. Notice the wide stainless at that the top of the door and leading edge of the quarter panel back to the c-pillar base. Also notice how it ties into the base of the wing window stainless and the base of the c-pillar stainless. That wide trim is not on a 210 HT door & qtr panel.



Last comment: so be careful with that 210 specific stainless garnish as it's harder to find than the Belair garnish. If you do have to find some...I don't remember if both the Pontiac models 860 & 870 HT's for '55-'57 have the same garnish treatment as a 210 HT, but the '55-'57 Starchiefs are like the Belairs.

Edit: I've tried finding a suitable photo to show the narrow/thin stainless strip on a 210 HT door, but have had no luck. Because the few photos I found are focused on other items, the detail/resolution is so poor that the narrow strip visually blends into the chrome side window frame, sort of camoflauging it.

 

Well now I am on the search for some small block fenderwell headers, the only people I see that make them are Doug's and Hooker, both for about $500, which is a little out of my price range at the moment. I see the big block sets going for about $200 all over the internet, which is confusing to me. Anyways, I'd really like a set of stahl's or hooker adjustable fenderwell headers like my dad has got on his 57 but I think they're harder to come by. Anyone know of any laying around somewhere?

Also, I'm not running any inner fenders either, so do I have to have 55-57 specific fenderwell headers?

 

Actually got some work done this weekend, in an attempt to make the meltdowns in about 9 weeks.

Test fit some 9x30x15 slicks to see if I would clear the wheel arches, and it looks all good there. Let's me know I can run the 5.57 gears and hit 120 at 7500.

I also went through the front end, greasing everything and replacing some brake hoses. I also found out that along the way someone has changed the hubs from the stock ball bearing type to the tapered roller bearings like in a 60 chevy. I believe it's bearing part number lm11949.

 

Lookin good!

 

My dad has a 406 SBC with fender well headers. He is putting a big block in it and looking for big block headers

 

If he's looking to sell the sbc ones at all let me know, and BBC fenderwell headers seem quite easier to come by on the web.

 

This is mine. Although it's obviously not a 56. I've been having a great time with it. It is now painted white.
My bbc headers are from speedway and they fit just right. I went 7.08 at 98.9 miles per hr. last year
I'm hoping to best that this year. You can see my ball joint spacers. 56 is my favorite year.

 

Did you make it??


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Smoothy,

I was looking thru the 70's street freaks thread this morning... there are some clues in this photo that have me thinking this may be your car from years ago... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...-70s-street-freaks.775871/page-6#post-8955021



your interior:


your right side shot:


The 70's photo looks like a magazine photo shot - perhaps there is a magazine article on your car...

 

I think this truly might be the most exciting thing that's happened since the car has been in my possession. That is 100% my car. You can still see where my front splash pan has blue paint. That's my exact fender flares, my exact interior, the steering wheel that came in the car is the same, still has the same slots on it, no mirrors or antenna. This is it, and man I can't thank you enough. Now I have to try and find some more out about it!

 

Happy to help... if it was in a magazine, maybe someone else can suggest how to track down which one.

 

Incredibly cool! That'll provide a little incentive for Smoothy. Hopefully, he'll forget about the straight/I-beam axle idea after seeing how the car once was. I wonder what the exact year that photo was taken?
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I've pretty much decided to go against doing the axle on this car, just hoping right now I'll be able to find more pictures of this thing. I'm also curious as to when they were taken