Over the last few years I've had a few 67-72 C10 trucks. But with the birth of our two sons last year, priorities have changed. It's now much more important to haul the family than motorcycles. I know that most four doors aren't cool, but I'm going to try my best with this '62. I decided on a BelAir over an Impala because I like the 4 tail lights vs. the 6, and don't mind the post. I found a clean, original factory A/C sedan down in Orange County and bought it sight unseen. I had it shipped up to NorCal and started cleaning it up. My plan is to convert to discs up front with CPP's 2" drop spindle, and 1" drop springs up from. Rear will be lowered 3" using Jamco's springs. I've got 2 piston Wilwood calipers with drilled and vented rotors along with a Wilwood master cylinder. I hope to get this done in the next couple of weeks. I started with a set of steel wheels from Pete Paulsen. 15x5 in the front and 15x7 in the rear. I'm running white stripe 225/75 in the rear and 215/75 up front. The wheels were powdercoated by MAAS Brothers in Livermore with a gloss black and some gold flake. I should have my center caps this week, they will have the Vet disc brake centers. The rear deck lid is in pretty bad shape, so I found an original one in Phoenix and had it shipped. I needed to fix some minor rust issues and dropped it off last week at Myers in Oakland to have blasted. I also found another passenger front door and am taking this down to bare metal. The one that's on the car is too hammered to work with.
Also, here's a pic of my two little guys that have motivated me to build the family hauler. Kade is driving the train, Nash is riding on back.
That is not a bad looking 4 door. Will make a really cool family hauler. A friend of mine in highschool used to own a gold colored car exactly like that. We used to cruise everywhere in that thing. He had it lowered real low with body color steel wheels and poverty caps. We all thought it was bad ass..
I don't have a lot of time for this thing, trying to stay very involved in diapers, play time, and feedings with our twin boys - now almost a year and a half old. Over the last few weeks I took the floor down to bare metal. POR15 and Dynamat. Replacing the original beat up bench with Procar buckets. The universal brackets were a little bit of a project, four different leg lengths. But, drivers seat is 100% centered and perpendicular to the steering wheel, level left to right, and -5 degrees front and back. I actually used an iPhone app, the 2nd option on the iPhone instead of a bubble level. Worked pretty well. OEM used passenger door and super clean deck lid are at a buddy's shop that is helping me with paint. Both were stripped at Myer's in Oakland. Drum to disc conversion, frontend rebuild, and drop will be done in a couple of weeks. Then it's hours on the road to get ready for Reno in Aug! And here's Baby A (Nash) getting comfortable behind the wheel.
Tried blowing through some suspension and brake upgrades two weeks ago. Started Friday afternoon, worked late all three days and finally wrapped up around midnight on Sun. Went with 2" CPP drop spindles and 1" drop springs up front, and 3" drop springs in the rear with new CPP shocks all the way around. Installed a Wilwood master with HydroBoost. 12.19" vented and crossed drilled rotors on the front with 2 piston calipers so I could run 15" steel wheels. Ran into a couple of issues. Front calipers weren't clearing the aftermarket Pete Paulsen steel wheels. Ended up using a 7/32" spacer, the minimum to clear the caliper. Without the spacer the wheels were locking the front brakes. We needed to move the car from one bay to another, but didn't have front brakes and the car wouldn't roll. Pretty sketchy on car dollies. We also had a problem with the HydroBoost assembly. After mounting it to the firewall, couldn't get the car into park. I need to detach the HydroBoost unit, drill out the key where it mounts to the master, then rotate 180 degrees. And then run new lines. Took the whole frontend apart, replacing all bushings, tie rods, steering linkage, etc. Soaked everything in a heat tank and sprayed in Rustoleum. If all goes well this thing will be driving in the next week or so. Thinking about going to a 195/75 or 205/75 in the front, and a 205/75 or 215/75 in the rear to bring it down a little bit more. The tires look a tad bit tall as it sits with 215/75 in the front and 225's in the rear.
The Jalopy Journal
