Don't chop! The stock proportions look great, and you can spend all that time and frustration getting it running, steering, stopping and comfy inside. JMHO
Thanks for the input! I think you’ve got an excellent point. It would be smart to reallocate the time that I’d spend agonizing about fitting curved and cut glass to something more productive. Especially since, as you said, it already has some great proportions.
I obviously don't know the differential width you're needing, but mid-50s Ford guys use the Explorer rear end by getting another short axel/housing from a second donor car and replacing the long side with it. Makes it centered and near the correct width for us. Nice find, I'm with the no-chop guys, but I was so looking forward to seeing the 351 Cleveland in it!, lol.
No chop. Look at the side shot of your car, it is kool without skirts or the chop. Are you a family guy? Want to take the clan for rides now an then? Should they be comfortable, and do you want to try to see out of mail slot windows, say like a late model Camaro?
Factory has great lines, but that photochop looks great. Do it, but do it last... get her back on the road first.
Today I knocked out my two goals for this week: tires and title. Two of the four tires weren’t holding air and I didn’t want to have to air them up every time I move the thing while working on it. I’m not keeping these wheels or tires so I had the local shop fit tubes. $30 well spent. Now I’ve got 4 tires that will hold air indefinitely. I bought this without a title. When I bought my ‘49 F1 it also didn’t have a title and it didn’t have a vin in the glove box. I rebuilt the entire truck and didn’t find the stamped vin in the frame until I was pretty far along. I was then able to get a new title. For this project I didn’t want to get that far along before getting that sorted out so I had to do all the legwork this morning to get it taken care of. In Tennessee you need a notarized bill of sale, an application for title, and a sworn statement from a lawman that verifies the vin. All that is done now thankfully!
Another thing I got done today was to line up a dustless blasting quote. $1200-1500 for the whole thing inside and out and frame. The next step will be to strip the whole thing down and then get it blasted!
years ago I bought a car in Nevada that did not have a clear title (car was a total and a family member got me a good deal Bill of sale from a yard) Got it home, repaired, then went to go get a title. That is when the work started. I found out a lot about getting a clear title in IL. Never again. Get a clear title first. Good luck with the car. Thanks for sharing the ride
Fortunately Tennessee (my county anyway) is not too bad so far. I’m 2 for 2 getting them pretty easily. But, yeah, step one this time!
I’ve hit 5 junkyards and no luck on the Jag IFS yet. It worked so well in my ‘49 I’m not going to give up. Might just have to buy a donor car. The good news is that the car’s finally ready to go and we’ve started tearing it down!
Made some more teardown progress today. Here’s a bit of trivia for ya: the ‘54 Pontiac hood is two piece lapped in the middle under the waterfall. It is a miracle it’s not rusted out under there! Still very solid!
Got all the rotten floor pans cut out and am fabricating replacements. It’s coming along! Here’s a video I made of restoring the front emblem:
The floor pans were pretty rough. Here’s where they started. Here’s the roughed in pans I built. Figured it was an easy place to save some $$$ by making them rather than buying pre-fab.
Made some progress… here’s the Pontiac 400 and TH400 out of a ‘77 Grand Prix! Tore it down most of the way this afternoon. Anyone with rebuild suggestions is welcome to chime in!
Today I dropped off the block and 6X8 heads at the machine shop for .030 bore, level/deck, and .060 off the heads to increase compression. I also ordered the 744 hydraulic roller cam from Butler. I’ve got a TH400 and will run a 2200-2400 stall and maybe 3:42-3:55 gear. All that to say I’ve made some decisions today after thinking about it for a long time. Haha. Nice to be able to move forward!
I won’t do that. I was just “thinking out loud”. Haha. A chop of something may be in my future just to earn that merit badge but the curved glass in the back of a ‘54 isn’t where I’ll get my start. I saw somewhere an explanation of the origin of the chop top. Basically the premise was that back in the day all of the marketing of cars involved concept art that showed lower profiles. But production those lower rooflines weren’t practical for a whole host of reasons. So the drawings that were supposed to get you inspired to fall in love with a new body style worked aesthetically as marketing. Manufactures do this stuff all the time. An artist and designer work together and the marketing people sell leaning on the concept and then you get something in reality that had to pass the scrutiny of the legal department and compliance office. Things wind up with huge ugly backup lights, bizarre road clearance, etc. So I totally get shaving, decking, chopping, pancaking, and lowering. If it weren’t better looking in some respects to monkey with perspectives they wouldn’t have done it so much in the advertising. Since this ‘54 is a junkyard rescue I’m not going to be a purist.
Exciting development today! My roller cam kit arrived today! So I may not be a purist but I am building a Pontiac 400 for this car with some help from Butler. So maybe I’m more of a purist than I’ll let on.
Thanks! I’ll look for one. Currently it’s got a crusty open carrier pile of junk. For my ‘49 Ford I found a set of Escape calipers that have an electric parking brake setup. I never installed these - I just have the stock Explorer 8.8 with disk rears and no E Brake. But for the Pontiac I may revisit the idea of using those Escape calipers to rig up an electric eBrake.
It’s been a minute since I’ve given an update! I got the 400 block, heads, intake, and crankshaft back from the machine shop a few weeks ago. Block bored, leveled, and decked. The 6X heads were taken way down. Balanced crank. I got a Performer RPM intake that was machined to fit with the machined heads. I ordered most of the rest of the rebuild parts and they are here and ready to go. I’m going to paint the block soon and get going putting it all back together. I’ll go with the metallic blue Pontiac from Eastwood. But that gets me thinking about paint…. I picked up the OG paint samples and need to decide body and interior. I think I want to go with a dark top two tone. The original color was solid Brookmere green. Here are the combos I think I’m leaning towards: Brookmere/Shannon (dark green/seafoam) Caravan/Stardust (dark navy/light blue) I’m pretty sure I want to add sparkle and flake to the dark roof.
I have a 53 Chieftain Deluxe Convertible with the straight 8 and 3 speed on the column. I also have a Pontiac V8 that I can install in it. What are you doing for frame and motor mounts? Thanks. DuWayne
Once I get all of the inner rocker rust dealt with and any other structural rust issues I’m planning to lift the body and get at the frame. On my F1 build I used a Jag IFS but for this I think I’m going to use the Fatman kingpins and c-notch the rear for a four link setup. So nothing major on the front end like a MII or a clip. The mounts will just be something I fab up when I’ve got the frame off and the engine rebuilt to see how it fits. Might need to do a tunnel which is why when I did the floor I left that braced and open.
Custom Deluxe I have this hanging on the wall in my shop P.M. it’s for sale if you need it. Frank P.S.it doesn’t fit Mercurys
Here’s a video guide I made about fixing the horn button. They aren’t available aftermarket for the Pontiac so pretty nice to be able to get a new one built for about $1.50.
The Jalopy Journal
