the plan for the 53 chevy that got nailed

some of you might remember a few weeks back my friend got hit in the ass end by a toyota.

well we are waiting for the insurance company to give us the car back. but today i just got some 55 packard lights i got for 45 bucks shipped!!

so the 53 will have some sweet lights in the back!! one doner car and the lights and we will have her looking good again ill keep you posted.


heres a picture of one on ebay just so you get the idea of the lights im talking about.

 

A Toyota did THAT? Holy shit!

Looks like it buckled under the rear side window too. You guys have a lot work a head of you!

 

it did buckle on the rear side window... how could you tell from the picture???? good eye man

i think once we relieve the up and inword pressure it might go back to shape pretty easy.

the hardest part will be putting that whole back passenger section back on! it knocked it right off the floor and sides the only thing holding it up is the door!

 

That's going to be a ton of work...good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

 

doing this one wasnt any easier=P esp with only a oxy/acet to weld with

 

I've got a good deck lid. If ya end up needing one let me know.

 

i might take you up on that offer!!!... id hate to put another 53/54 out of commission for the ass end. im going to try and use as much of the rear of that 53 as i can. ill be making new ends on the quarter panals anyway for the 55 packard lights.

should be getting it back this weekend hopefully, i cant wait to see what we can hammer out and heat back in place.

 

was that Chris' car??

 

Praise the Lord that back glass didn't get busted : )

 

i can't beleve your going to fix that smashed chev hell there a dime a dosen
there a couple over at the ranch for like 300 bucks buy it and use the smashed one for parts but hell if ya got a fetish on that one all the good luck and hell if you were closer i would lend ya a hand keep us posted

 

save yourselfs alot of time sweat and beer and find a good doner car and use that...thats alot ....ALOT of work for you both to start with..but thats my 4 cents worth (inflation!)

 

I tried to tell him the same thing on another board.

 

Hey man, I'm not trying to be negitive but it looks like there is more than just sheetmeatal damage. The frame rail looks like it got bent down on the right side. Like it was said before,there are alot of those Chevys still around in decent shape & use yours as a donor. unless your car has some sentimental value it seems alot of work for a nothing car. But than again who doesn't like a challange.

Good luck whatever you do.

Billy

 

Looks fixable to me. There ain't a lot of those things around here by me, and one that runs seems like a worthy project to fix.

Hey DragginAss, I know where one of those Packards is in a local junkyard around here, one of the lenses is busted out, but one is good, I could cut off a big portion of the rear quarter panel for you so you'd have some sheetmetal to graft onto your Chevy, and then the taillights would be a bolt-in. I've also got those Edsel tails laying around here yet too, if you want 'em for $50, let me know.

 

HELL YEAH if you could get me those packard tails and the edsel lights ill paypal you the 50 plus shipping. we need one of the lenses for sure!

 

YEP. he loves that car.

and for everyone saying "its to far gone" its really not. the car still runs and drives!

the frame rail is bent, but i got a few jack stands a torch and a 2 ton bobcat! haha ill get it all straight.

the body can be straightened out, i do know how to use body hammers....

 

I'm sure i can get those rear quarter cutoffs, but I'm also sure that the junkyard owner is going to charge me for cutting the pieces off, so next time I'm out there, I'll ask him how much it'll cost to cut the sheetmetal off the car.

 

ok let me know how much.

 

man while your at it chop that fucker up drop the top 4" and do a 3"section hell ya might as well do it then you'll have torch out any ways.

 

yeah, thats what we have been talking about.... perfect belair trim anyone?

 

so!!!!! we got the car back and started straightening it out, half the metal is missing..... i have no idea were it went must have got knocked off the car.

but the "atomic ingectors" found us another 53 so we bought it(for just as much as it woulda cost us to fix this one). its the cleanest car ive ever seen!!!! its rediculasly solid! its already in primer and everything!! so all we gotta do is put our nosed hood on it, a set of steelys and wide whites, and lower it. then we are on the road again. then we are gonna put the packard lights on and chop it! pretty crazy how things work out.

the drive train from the 53 (that was hit) is going to go in todds(51ratt) 51 chevy, that will get that car on the road.(after we do the brakes too)

after we get all the parts we need off the 53 we are going to sell it all off to get more money to put into the other cars. so now you know....

zack -Graves CC midwest

 

I almost used the same tailight treatment on my 1st 53 years ago but ended up finding some 56 Packard taillights w/quarter sections...But i ended up selling the car and packing the tailights away..One thing you might want to think about is getting as much of the quarter sections (esp the tailight area)from the clipper as you can just in case.....It will save you alot of metal work.....
The car looks really hurt man but if you have the skill to bring it back..Then 'god blass you'....I wish you all the best holmes and cant wait to see some progress shots of it!

Dirty

 

so your scrapin the plans to rebuild the one that got bloused?

kinda sucks, but then again, i'd hate to do that much metal work myself.

 

like i said, it would cost us just as much money(and take lots of time) to fix that one then it would to just buy the other one.

we would have to straighten that crumpled up fender (which we pretty much took care of today) but like i said its missing a lot of metal! we would have to buy a new trunk lid, new wheel wells in back, new rockers, new rear lowers, new bottom fronts. then weld all that on and put filler on, then paint it.

so instead of spending all that time and money on that car we are just going to buy another 53 with a finished body and a running engine and take what parts we need(maybe including the plates and tags from this car)

at least this way we have something to bring to the pileup. my 31, todds 51 and matts 51 are all under construction.

 

oh!! and the 53 is hardly going to go to waste! just about everything from that car will be used and ill sell as much of it as i can. im not going to scrap anything savable! im going to keep all the good body parts around in case the other car gets into an accident.

 

Whew. THAT a relief that'll teach me to read a lil closer lol

so the body you are using is 51Ratt's car that he had to get moved and was selling right? sweet deal all things considered

 

yeah we are gonna put the wrecked 53s drivetrain and possibly brakes on todds 51.

so after all this we will have 2 working cars and a parts car.

 

My 54 is for sale homie....wink,,,wink!

 

why? 51-54 brakes are the same, Bendix. Pre-51 they had Huck brakes, which weren't so good.

 

I assume that the brakes in the '51 are bad but are good in the '53 so they're swapping. I don't think it was meant as an upgrade.