Hey all, I wanted to jump on this and start things out right. I just bought a '52 chevy coupe deluxe (I'm sure you knew that from the title) and will get started as soon as it gets towed to my house. Her body is very nice aside from three dents and some light surface rust. All the chrome bits and pieces are there. The interior is all there...in a sense. lol Original engine and powerglide! But the engine needs complete overhaul. No brake booster and a pretty surface rusted chassis, but nothing serious. My order of taking this project on to get her back on the road quickly and safely is the following: -strip her down (who needs dollar bills when you have a grinder?) -bang and fill the dents then primer her up -cut the rusted floor and replace it with sheet metal (22 gauge?) -EZ wiring harness -tack weld angle iron across the floor then pull the body off the chassis -find an s10 chassis to bolt her to (don't worry, I'm saving the original to rebuild it and I also know how taboo this is) -make the needed adjustments to the length and track -drop a sbc 350 in with a th350 (don't worry...I'll rebuild the inline 6) -then work on the interior If this is a bad approach, please let me know. Any tips or advice is MUCH appreciated!!
well does it run now? you dont need power brakes unless your gonaa drag the car and the s 10 frame is a a problem i have a 50 chevy i lifted the bod off and rolled the frame and drive line in to the drive wa and cleaned and painted it in one day and the body back on the next. the only upgrade i did is the t 5 over drive tranny and i made my own wiring harness for about 40 bucks from radio shack and it is cleaner the any ez wiring kit. unless you want a race care that inline six is great and has plenty of hourse pwer if it is a babbit motor consider a post 53 235 you can find them all day for 150 to 500 get a tri 5 rear end with a 3.36 third member. drill 2 hole and walla you have an open drive line. but first and foremost it is your car. what do you want to do? i like origanal engines supped up and then t 5 trannys. decide what you want a srew the rest good luck
I'm definitely not looking at a drag car. I want something easy to work on with cheap and easy to find parts. Reliability is what I want from this project. I can build a bullet proof 350 and drive train so starting will never be an issue. The ONLY reason I'm looking at the s10 and 350 swap is for parts availability and cost. That's it. My baby doesn't run right now. I don't know the first thing about my engine to be honest. I rebuilt my bike's engine and 350s. That's it. I'm also on a very strict budget (26 years old and fresh out of college).
Welcome to the HAMB! DO NOT even consider doing a S-10 chassis transplant, keep it simple, strip the S-10 for parts ONLY! Too many projects end up being "permanent" projects, and good cars are fucked up during the process!!! Good luck on you're build, ask lots of questions, listen with you're ears wide open, and you will have a nice little car on the road in no time.
Welcome from Canyon Lake. Rick is right, Keep it simple. When it gets home, get it started & go from there. I have projects that are older than you are. Good Luck. Lucky667
Thanks Rick and Luck. I know my "plan" will change along the way. As it sits right now, that's the most logical in my mind. I need steps to follow when I do one of these or I'll never finish...damn ADD. Body first. Floor pan. Pulling the engine. Then I'll see what I can and can't do with the suspension, steering and brakes. I really want to pull the body off, sand the frame and primer it. That's also going to give me a good view of other rust boogers that might be eating my car from underneath. The hot rod shop I bought it from told me to tack weld some angle iron to keep the body from bending. Thank you so much for getting me back to KISS (Keep it simple stupid).
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