So i just drug this home. Guys brother started building it in the late 50s. He finished it around 1974. Parked on his porch to rebuild the car, and thats where it sat for the last 30+ years covered by plywood. 283 powerglide 8 inch rear. Check out the fake blower setup. Im gonna put a tripower on it, change the wheel/tire combo, and take it back to the 60s Sent from my SM-G960U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That thing was pretty cool! Looks really solid considering it sat outside all this time. Someone is going to have to explain to me why the "fake blower" fad even happened.
Looks like a great start. I like your plan to lose the "blower". Obviously from the "show"vs "go" era
Can't wait to see what you do with it. Great find. I've been a fan of your work since you built that Nash.
It will steer easier and handle better if you change out those front wheels to some with less offset. Made a world of difference on my truck.
If the blower had the correct ends plates, and pulleys I'd re-engineer it a bit and run it, just to piss people off. To me, it'd just be a different looking carb spacer. No different than the guys running one working carb on multi carb set-ups.
I agree RJP, get it running and drive the hell out of it! When you think about padded vinyl dash boards and upholstered firewalls, velour upholstery and the rest, the fake blower fad is far cooler in my opinion. It speaks to the budget home shop builder with a shoe string budget. Blown engine looks! If you have fun with it, who cares! Will you look back and think damn, I had a period rod.... and changed it?
Been tinkering on it. Pulled the fake blower for a tripower and picked up some americans for the rear. Need to order some towel city slicks for the rear. Gonna loose the headers in exchange for some corvette rams horns. Also started sanding off thre primer and most of the original paint is still there. Just gonna buff it Sent from my SM-G960U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Neat find!. Wet sand the primer carefully with 600 or so until it's just about through, followed with rubbing compound. Naval jelly will pull the light rust from chrome, follow with polish. Polishing stainless and chrome with steel wool (even 000 extra fine) is a shortcut but will sometimes leave a zillion scratches (if you look closely). In the sun, the part will have a dulled finish. I'd run the weed burner headers.
Great find! It looks like, in the last pic in the first post, that they had newer rafters up on the porch it was sitting under. Looks in pretty good shape considering how long it sat.
It would be easier to extend the 1/4 panels behind the doors. Not as much inner structures to fool with. In think Brookville makes these panels