Projects Doin' the Business! (NZ) 1953 Chevrolet 150 business coupe.

Sent the mokopuna (grandkids) home today, tidied up after the hurricane then headed to the shop for some meditation. So the other 3 wheels are done now, ready for paint this week.happy with the outcome, shower time now.
All looking quite sharp!

Even the back sides!

The wheel lathe! Very technical!

 

What do you call it when the engine crane wheels won't fit under the crossmember?....... Just right!


Out and on the deck! Ready to find a new engine room for a while.



Wheels are primed. Masking tomorrow to get more paint on.

 

Spent some time at the paint booth today. Remasking the wheels to etch and prime the front sides. I will pick them up tomorrow to do the sanding for the colors to go on next week.

All masked up.




Etch going on.

And the first of 3 coats of primer.

 

Following.

 

A quick sand for them all then into the booth for a couple of coats of dynamic white.

And a coat of clear. Next week we mask again and apply some color.

 

I'm loving the progress.

 

Cleaned up the engine bay, sorted the hinky plywood spacers that were under the engine mount bases. While dropping the engine back in the hole and trying to mate it to the gearbox, the gearbox rolled sideways off the jack and let me know that the rear mount had degraded from all the oil leaks and had collapsed. So now I will drop the box out on the floor, replace the mount, bolt the box and engine then put them in together.

 

Like the 59 a lot also, a good year for many things. JW

 

We completed the autopsy today on the 305. 2 separate pieces of dipstick tube floating free in the sump, fragments of metal also. 5 missing valve guide seals. Many valve seats needing some work too.

Block in the machinists for 40 thou bore and big end grind.
I have decided to take the opportunity to throw in a fresh cam and few other bits too.

 

Yesterday we made a trip to the big smoke and while there I squeezed in a couple of jobs. Dropped off the sanderson headers to get hpc coated. I also grabbed some 40 over pistons, pushrod, rings and bearings for the 59 engine.

 

The driveshaft u joint has left evidence under the floor of recent contact. Before I send the seat base away to get covered I figured that it would be wise to sort any issues with the floor, so.....

Out with the grinder, sabre saw and multi tool to scrape off the sound deadening layer then chop an exploratory hole before going full size.
I have made a panel to go over the hole, but will epoxy coat it all before welding it into the hole.

 

Looks like a removable cover would be nice for maintenance.

 

A slight modification to the back seat base was the order of the day, to clear the new floor. That done, it was time to apply a bit of etch prime to the seat frames, as they had been blasted by the previous owner and never painted. The upholsterer is still flat out busy at present, but he has given me some pointers for what I can do to get things ready for him and save paying him for hours of basic work. I am always happy to learn, and save some coin in the process.

 

Subscribed . I like the direction you are going.

 

Today was an upholstery apprentice day. As per the instruction by my upholstery guru I set up to glue a hessian layer onto underfelt material, cut oversize to fit the seat bases and backs.

First up I sorted out a couple of workstations. One a table to lay out and cut.


The other a cover sheet of particle board standing, with a couple of spring clamps to hold fabric.
Why vertical? There is method to the madness...... Aerosol cans spray more consistently when upright.



Starting with the cardboard template I made earlier, I marked out the underfelt 2 inches oversize all round. Cut, hung and glued, before placing the hessian and reactivating the contact adhesive with the boss's steam iron.


So at the end of the day, a few cans of adhesive emptied, and both seat bases and backs are glued and ready to be hog ringed to the frame.

Showing the cardboard template on the seat spring frame.



Showing how the pieces will be hog ringed onto the base/frame before I start shaping the foam......... Stay tuned!

 

Knew it… when I saw you at Arthurs with those blankets I thought to myself “I bet I see them on the H.A.M.B.”

Definitely staying tuned.

Glen.

 

Plenty of variety today, pressed the gudgeon pins into the new pistons for the 59, picked up the new tunnel piece from the workshop, masked and prepped the wheels for their coat of color, and tidied up the front side of the right rear inner guard before attaching some sound deadening. Nothing too exciting!

 

Looks good. JW

 

Everything done is one less thing on the list and one step closer to how you want it.

 

A fair bit of contemplating today. Reading the hobby car technical manual (HCTM) to understand where and how the seat belts will fit and what bracing/doubler plates etc will be required.


Because the seats are bench style and exceed 1250mm in width, 3 seat belts are required, both front and rear. The 3rd front will be a lap only, the rest all need to be 3 pointers.


In the B Pillar, for the top mount, there is going to need to be some fenagling and fabrication to make up for the lack of a suitable point to bolt.
The lower attachment point will be fairly straight forward, with doubler plates sandwiching the floor as prescribed in the HCTM.


The top rear recoil units are going to be mounted on/through the parcel tray. I am going to have to do some fabrication underneath the parcel tray to meet required standards.


So today I set to with some masking tape, measuring gear and a marker pen, to lay out all of the required placement of zones within which attachment points need to be located.


All fairly straightforward, but I need to decide where the upper points in the rear will be the most comfortable for the wearers. Because the shape of the turret top pulls in on the rear corners, this restricts the attachment position for the recoil unit. But I could place them nearer the centre and have them clipping into the receiver on the outboard side of the passenger which would sit nicer across the passenger.

 

Got a call from the paint shop today, wheels were ready to pick up.


I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work with the painter and do all the prep work and masking. Quite happy to in fact, so he could focus on spraying them and doing work on customer cars while I made dust and masking.
The color match is spot-on, and as a bonus is a standard off the shelf mix.
Now I need to get some rubber back on them and a set of new wheel nuts.

The "whitewall" look turned out perfect and I really like the finish on the direct to steel black on the in/back side too.

 

Wow... those wheels look great. Looking forward to seeing them on.

Glen.

 

They look slick !! JW

 

Following along. Great looking project.

 

Saturday specials at mitre10 (ace hardware) today. $49 for a 100mm (4") Bosch grinder! I have been waiting for these to be a special offer for a while now.
Why 4 of them? 1 with a grind disc, 1 with a slitting disc, 1 with a flap disc and one with a stripping disc. I have always wanted to be able to do a job without having to constantly change attachments.

 

^^^^^^me too! Got two, one slitting disc and another flap wheel , waiting for them to go on sale again

 

That's one of the better idea's i have heard lately. JW

 

This morning I pulled a few parts out of the new molasses bath that I set up a little while back. I dropped in a bunch of bits, some from the 53 and a couple of drive train parts from another project.


Fresh from the bath the parts look very clean, but still need a little bit of mechanical assistance, so out with the water blaster for a wash down.


After the water blast I rinse off the water with a solution of baking soda from the kitchen in a small garden spray pot. This neutralises the surface and prevents the parts from flash rusting as the oxygen gets to the parts as they dry.


The bath itself is pretty simple. A 10 to 1 ratio of water to molasses in a plastic drum. Completely skin safe but very effective.

The off topic brake discs and drive shaft pieces are virtually ready to scuff and paint.

 

A while back I found a great little compact water heated blower from a bus. It has a 24 volt 2 speed fan, 6" x 4" copper radiator element, with a simple louvered air distribution system. Not satisfied with that I have filled and tig welded them all closed, to be replaced with pipe stubs to run flex hose to the windscreen demister ports and 2 vents to warm the toes on those cold winter treks.


I am yet to cut some holes, but we always need something to do tomorrow!


I made the pipe stubs the same diameter as the connection points under the dash for windscreen demister.

 

Great job on your business coupe! I´ll be watching! I had to chuckle when I saw you bought the Bosch angle grinders, I´m using the same ones beause they have a pretty slim body and are quite handy in tight spots.