Hi Everyone! I've done a few of these posts back over the past few years, but now the rubber is about the meet the road. I've gone from looking for alternative cars to realizing what I have and making the most of it. Long story short-ish: I'm 36 and I've grown up as my Dad has ever-so-slowly worked on his 1953 Bel Air (four door). The car has been in our family since it's first sale. My Dad purchased it from a relative in the Lower Mainland (BC). The car is in immaculate condition, but has effectively sat since 1977. My only memory of driving in the car while growing up was when my Dad got it operational (almost) until we then had to roll it to a stop after the brakes gave out. Ever since my Dad retired he had big plans to get things going on the car...until the unthinkable happened. All of a sudden he couldn't walk and was medivac ed to Vancouver for spinal treatment. Turned out that he had a non-cancerous tumor on his spine. Luckily it was non-cancerous and they were able to get it out, but on the other side of the coin, my Dad now has very very limited use of his legs. Getting better slowly, but far from rolling around on a creeper. I've been saving up over time and I've got enough set aside that I think, with a bit of hard work and a bit of expert help, we can get this thing on the road this year. I'll attach a number of photos to this post and some of the subsequent posts to come. Get ready for a ton of questions from a rookie!
Car looks really solid!!! Hopefully you can go through fuel/elec and get it running. Looking forward to updates. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
Ok. Trying to find wide white wall tires is more complicated than I anticipated. I'm hoping to find widest whites possible for the stock wheels. Any idea as to where they can tracked down in Canada?
You won't find them in Canada. Make your own or order from Coker, Diamondback et. Have them shipped the Blaine or Sumas. First thing to do is get rid of the dead rat on the front seat.
OK, next question for the day. Getting some parts on order. Looking at the 2'' lowering blocks from Chev's of the 40s. When ordering it gives the option of square or round u-bolts. Any suggestions? I can't image there is a huge difference but I thought I'd ask. Kit is here: https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/detail/11827/Lowering_Blocks_2_With_UBolts.html
if there are any original parts you are looking for, let me know. we have a couple hundred parts car (49-54 chevs) plus thousands of used parts. Just give us a little heads up, we still have lots of snow on the ground
Thanks! I'm positive there will be things we'll need. PS...I live on the Arctic Divide and we still have a pinch of snow too...
Looks solid and complete, big bonus. Whats the drivetrain plans, tune up whats there? Might be worth pulling and regasket everything. Brakes need a thorough teardown and inspect, order wheel cylinders or rebuild kits, same on master cylinder. Body and paint look good, ready for a good buff and polish. Pull all the chrome (excluding pot metal) build a wood box and line it with plastic. Mix tsp of oxalic acid (wood bleach) or citric acid per gallon of water and let it soak, 24-48 hours. Wipe the parts down every 4 hours or so. Youll be amazed at the results.
Interesting, I haven't heard of this approach before. Would you consider it a better approach than giving the chrome a hand polish?
Hi Everyone! Long awaited update. I've got things moving on the car now. The old bias plys had basically melted off of the rims and I've replaced those with some temporary tires to roll it around. When I tried to roll it the car would not move so I ended up pulling all four wheels and freeing the calipers from the drums. The right rear brake was severely gunked up but the others seemed to have just rusted against the drum a little bit. Now the big question. My Dad and I tried to rock the car back and forth to ensure the engine hadn't locked up. Unfortunately, it seems to be a bit stuck. Engine is the stock 235 with a manual transmission. We have pulled the plugs and put oil in the cylinders and now I'm playing the waiting game. Any tips on my next steps? The car has sat for the last 10 years in a garage. The engine would start and run 10 years ago. Oil was fresh as of 10 years ago and the coolant is fresh as of 10 years ago as well. Is there any way to attach a breaker bar to the harmonic balancer to turn it over manually? I've seen some posts about a strap wrench, but I'm looking for some more information on that too. Any tips would be appreciated! Knowing that engine isn't seized up (and theres no reason it should be) is critical as I move forward. Thank you!
Could possibly be stuck valves, hanging up due to varnish on the valve stems. Rock the engine back and forth gently, and be patient, it may take a few days to get loose. You can check to see if the valves are hanging up by removing the rocker arms. See if they close all the way with the rocker arms removed. Gently push on the valve stems with a wooden handle to see if they open freely. Patience and gentleness required.
The very first thing I would have done, if you haven't already, is to show her some love and clean her up. It would be nicer to work on her once she is clean and pretty looking. She sure looks to be in nice shape. I think next I would pull the valve cover and tap on all the rocker arms with a soft rubber mallet to see if they move and the valves aren't stuck. I know these Chevy sixes are almost indestructible and will run again with the right prep. I'm thinking your 53 with a standard shift should be a 216. I'm pretty sure the powerglide in 53 was the 235. Go one step at a time and there is no doubt it will run again. Oh and get your hands on the shop manual for these cars. It is easily found and is a great help when reviving and repairing your car.
Love your car, love your enthusiasm but especially love how you let that cool little dog ride shotgun on his pillow. A lot of good suggestions so far I think being a rookie you should go in carefully you don’t want to tear a car apart more than you can put it back together. With that said there isn’t anything you and your dad can’t fix on this old girl with some good manuals and asking for help on this site. I totally agree with 52Hardtop I would clean her up - it would just feel good. And then I would clean up and organize my work area - you are going to need a organized tidy work area to tackle this car. Also make sure you have at least 1 maybe 2 decent sized fire extinguishers handy when you start fooling around.
About turning the engine with a breaker bar: IIRC my engine has a crank pulley from a '53, and again IIRC, a 3/4" square head fits reasonably well in the pulley.
Fill your pump oiler with Marvel & give each cylinder 10 shots. Let it soak in for a day, then get the front end up in the air on stands. Pull the flywheel cover & use your pinch bar on the flywheel to get it turning. Nothing in the valve train will cause a Chevy 6 rotating ass'y to seize. If a valve seizes, the engine still turns & it bends the pushrod. No '53 pass. cars had a 216 unless the rumor is true that some 150s were so powered. The 3000 series trucks were 216s.
Well, dusting off this old thread of mine again. Two children later I'm ready to take another stab at getting this car on the road. My dad is on board too but still has little mobility. Note that I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm doing this with Youtube and a prayer, lol. I was able to free up the engine after soaking the cylinders in MMO. Spent the next while with ignition issues. Ended up getting a new coil, condensor, and points. Now have spark to the plugs. Here's where things went downhill. We attempted to start the car a few times with a new 6 volt battery. The engine almost caught once but then no luck. I pulled the valve cover and found a bunch of bent pushrods (see pics). I counted at least 5 that are quite bent and need replacing. A few others have a couple inches of vertical play and I have no idea what that means. Are they broken? Will I screw something up if I pull the bent ones out? I've started soaking the valve spring/guide with penetrating oil to hopefully free up the valves. Next up I plan to pull off the rocker assembly to give me more working area in there and squirt in some MMO. If I'm able to get the valves to move I plan on replacing the pushrods and trying things again. If not, who knows. I'm in Canada and so far I've not been able to souce any pushrods for the 1953 235 (manual) engine. Nothing local, nothing national, and nothing through Rock Auto. Do any of you know anywhere to get them? I called one place and he thinks he can get some shipped from the US, but it will be around $15 per pushrod and $60 for shipping. I plan to replace all twelve of the pushrods while I'm in there, but definitely wasn't anticipating that to cost upwards of $200 by the time they get here. Do you recommend replacing all the pushrods or only the bent ones? I've never done pushrods before (I'm a total rookie at all of this), but do they just slide in once you remove the rocker assembly or is there more to it? Anything else that I'm missing? My Dad is looking at the bent rods as being more catastrophic. Should I give freeing up the valves and replacing the pushrods another try, or am I just going to make matters worse if maybe the valves hit the pistons or something bigger happened? Thanks for any insight!
PM me. I have a set I will send you. I think you have more problems though. Might want to get a 54 or newer 235 and rebuild it.
Thanks Fastcar1953! PM Sent. I'm really hoping that we can make this engine work. I know that it ran as of 10 years ago and it hasn't moved at all in the 10 years since. My fingers are crossed that it is just very sticky/stuck valves, but any other ideas that I should start thinking of?
I know this is an old thread and summit/summit_pg hasn't been on in awhile, but I'm curious if there are any updates?
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