Projects 53 Poncho More Door project

Here it is,I got it a few months ago from a passed away hotrodder's best friend.. Its a 53 Pontiac Chieftain more door.an original Atlanta car.He was gonna build it but his time was cut short. So now i have it and plan on building the hell out of it and hope he can see it from up there.

I wanna make it into a cool 50's custom thats gonna be my daily. Suede paint job,frenched head and tail lights,,wide whites,, diferent grill (something with lots of teeth) ,,log intake with dual carbs, last but not least airbags .

I replaced a few things and got the straight 8 running a few days after i got it,,then started taking shit apart.chassis was covered with years worth of crap from old Ga dirt roads,,majority of its all nice and clean now.
I put 3" blocks in the rear and cut 2 coils off the front for now until i can bag if in the future.
replaced anything and everything that has to do with the brakes,,now just waiting on my bearings and i can put my chassis back together,and get this tank on the road.

plz post any pics that yall have of some cool ponchos and straight 8 motors ...thanx

heres a few pics,, more to come

day one

dirty greasy clay and shit >;(

clean

rear brakes redone

 

Nice start- you wont be sorry,I put a 56 poncho 3.63:1 centre in the diff(bolt up just change the yoke)in mine and made a nice cruiser.

 

Just gonna make a super nice ride!!
Keep us posted!!

 

bad ass

 

hey quick question will the drop spindles for his year fit my 40 poncho? sorry about the hijack Brandon

 

Fat Man Fab.. has em 37-57 for $395
http://www.fatmanfab.com/catalogpage.php?page=17


i wanna get those in the future too
almost everybody tells me you gotta have em if your gonna bag it and want it to lay out all the way.. idk im tryin to find people whove done it before on a pontiac

anybody?

 

Ive seen 49-52 and 53-54 stubs and they look totally different?

 

Check out Midnight 50. His is for sale in classified. Lotsa pics. Looks like your off to a good start. Keep us updated. Gus

 

heres a lil bit more i got done,,it aint much but im a step closer,,,i lost a good friend this weekend so it was kinda hard to get a lot done knowing hes gone....
front end is just about done ,,got it all put back together with the new stuff minus my hubs and drums

nasty backing plate

clean,bolted up and ready for some striping




heres the rear shot, done

who says you need a huge shifter,,, i found this in the trunk ,mocked it up ,,works for now


waiting for hubs so i can put it on the ground

took my headlight buckets and rings off,,buddy is bringing me 53 ford rings to french em,,stock grill is out,,putting something with teeth in


should have it back on the ground soon,,thats all for now

 

painted my wheels last nite,ill probably be blowing out golden buggers for awhile but all worth it,i got a few more coats of clear to do,, what yall think

 

Good work, should be a good car when you get it done.
Heres some random ponch pics...

 

nice keep up the good work these make nice sled's

 

lookin good chupacabra. did you get the booster yet?

 

My 41 and my old 48...cut the front coils and used blocks in the back...and I also used 55-56 third members in mine to cruise them all over the US.

 

update,,new brake booster and m/c set up mounted,(thanx TailDraggin for the info),removed all the shit off the firewall,,started putting stuff back in the engine bay,out with the generator in with gm 1 wire,painted a few things and thats about it for now,slow progress and little money so i did what i could




on a better note my friend showed up in his chopped 54 chevy and talked me into chopping mine later on this year,,if anybody has pics of chopped chieftains bring em on,,i have a few but the more refrence the better

 

Where did you get the new rubbers for the roll bar etc from?

I need some front end work on mine....

 

with my NON-very rough photoshop skills heres what i came up with on how i what it to look but not as crappy as the photoshop

 

Well fellas i been working hard on this thing with my little weekend time and have some updates,, so here we go ,,,
i got the chassis all squared way and finnaly my buddy got me my bearings so i can put the sumbitch on the ground again

Backyard style chop time
I have no garage so next to my buddies barn is where the magic happens.. After a few weeks of planning i decided to chop the top,,thanks to all my club brothers the Cretins who came out and made this happen and helped me out
no ratrod rockasilly look,just a clean nice chop
4" in the front 5" maybe some more in the rear is about what we took off
and Gambino says "chopping up cars is not a crime" so lets begin
the nite before at 3:00 Am bracing it



got back to my early before the humidity and heat came out
some tape lines and the door tops off

more tape lines

Bryant cutting through my car like butter

and off with the top,,off to a good start

the point of no return


test view for the door post,,we cut from the inside and slid it back to place

Aj took over in the welding dep..,,,hes got way more skills

not done!! but damm good for just a few hours



could have done it with out my guys...


more pics to come,,
the rear glass area will be handled once i come across a better one,,,need a late 40's early 50's rear glass surround if you got one nearby

 

awesome dude, you gonna have it at dixie fried?

 

Dixie Fried is the goal,, heres a few more pics from day one
if i cant find another rear glass section im gonna cut vw one i have stretch it and split it so it doesnt look so tiny
<tt></tt>
or if any of you guys got any ideas i got open ears


ill try to get more pics of all the details its kinda hard to remember to get all the footage while your working

 

The second to last pic is awesome!!! Good job! keep the pics coming. Im building a 49 poncho coupe.

 

Ya, I'm needing more pics as you go too! Have a 54 4-door that is aching to get chopped. Gotta see what you do with the back window.

 

VERY COOL....would love to see it for the Dixie Fried man....

 

Looking goooooood!

 

Here's Dave's Pontiac.

 

Gotta see what you do with the windshield.

 

there was a blue 4dr merc on here that had a split window in the rear,,thats where i got the idea,,i just need to figure out how to strech it and doit right,ie making the extensions in the channels where the glass sits with no fancy tools,

and for the front i cant decide on either doing a split or a one piece,,,im trying to find a good local glass shop that wont give me the runaround on what i want

 

Well NOW I miss my '53 Poncho again... great.

Just a suggestion, after looking at 100's of pictures of this era Poncho... run the stock grille and have it chromed. Especially if you run the side trim. The stock grille commands some serious respect and EVERYONE does the teeth thing when they customize. Would be nice to see more people use the stock grille. Just my $.02 though. Not cool for everyone.

Car is gonna' be cool! Keep us posted!

 

Go to www.pontiacparts.net I get all my parts from there, they have everything you will ever need.

Buzz

 

the more ideas the better man
i ditched the teeth idea,not gonna run the side trim just the belt line ,im thinkin a grill with the lil chrome knobs and some of the stock grill maybe