Hello, From Texas

thanks guys, 'preciate the warm welcoming, my bdays coming up May 21, I'm tryna get the car ready so I can take it for a cruise around the block, that's all I want for my bday, to be able to take it for it's maiden voyage. I ordered rebuild kits for the wheel cylinders and master cylinder, my friend and I honed them out some, but there were still a lil pitting left over, hopefully they'll be fine, I'm tryna save a lil money reusing existing stuff, but I know when It comes to brakes saving money is no excuse for being safe! also bought new pads for the front...how do you guys feel about rebuilding wheel cylinders and master cylinders? they both had small pits, even after we honed them, nothing extreme. the wheel cylinders are installed, but the master cylinder not yet. I really don't wanna have to take out the master cylinder again if it leaks, that was a feat in itself!


after removing the front drums, this is what I was working with


new gaskets here and there, the water pump is the only thing new I've bought, everything else just cleaned up and reused. I eventually wanna detail the engine bay, but for now, I'm keeping the "I just got it running" look, I did degrease it and do a lil cleaning, but that's it, I didnt' paint the new water pump so it'll patina and match everything else


a lil cleaning and new pads up front, all new hoses, gotta redo a couple hardlines, but that about wraps the brakes up....anyone have a good way to clean out the old grease from inside the front drum and bearings before I regrease? what should I use?


rebuilt master cylinder





doing work! gotta love the lines and look of a '54 Chevy! I can never get tired of looking at it

 

Suite ! Welcome from the Can !

 

Welcome to the home of rust and floorboards!

 

new copper/brass radiator from Chevy's of the 40's


off stands now...had everything ready to go, then a front freeze plug leak! none of the local parts stores carried the flat style plugs nor did they have a water pump gasket, so I went to RockAuto and ordered what I needed, good site!

 

Welcome Ricky from the West Coast of Florida.

What a great car you found for a project.

Thanks for posting all the great pictures of the car and I wish you the best of luck.

Keep us up dated as the projects continues.

 

so today I put a new freeze plug in, the old one underneath the water pump was leaking so I knocked it out and replaced it. re installed my radiator and water pump and hooked all my hoses back up and filled back up with fluids and no leaks ...so I thought....everything was going good up until we started cranking it. it wasn't cranking well so took off the starter and cleaned it up real well and used a scothbrite on the brushes and other internal parts, re installed and it started. realized my fuel pump wasn't pumping fuel to the carb , it worked before I cleaned it so I don't know what's goin on there...but it did run for a couple seconds til it burned up what lil fuel we poured into the carb. then we noticed a leak! a small leak from the lower side of the block, prob not even 1 inch....don't know what I'm gonna do now. well here it is finally on all four tires and off jacks, ready to go for a ride, but now that seems up in the air til I figure if what to do about that leak.

 

welcome from utah

 

Welcome from Union Pier, MI. I still can't get over how well that old girl cleaned up! Your doing a hell of a job and keep her the way she is, looks absolutely great. We don't find cars like that in that condition around here even in a barn.