I have been working on this build for a few years but the world transpired against me for a bit and drastically slowed down my progress. Now I am back at building a 1957 Chevy into both a street/strip terror as well as a family hauler. The impetus for the project happened with a brand new second child, turning 40 years old and finally realizing that the days of fully utilizing my Model T were over except when going on solo rides. A friend was parting out a 47-54 Chevy truck and I was gifted a straight axle so my search was focused on something with four doors to make car seat maneuvering as easy as possible, a roof to keep out the Oregon rain and something fast enough to run at the summer Wednesday night drags at PIR.
My grandfather is probably the most influential person in my life so when he was turning 40 he already had three kids and could have been pondering the same things in life. He was probably worse off as far as being able to support a hot rod habit but it would have been 1964. So the whole project is around the premise of "what would Warren have done?" He would have gotten the cheapest or free car from someone he knew and then pulled the largest running motor out of anything he could find and then with some North Dakota farmer ingenuity, made it all work. He later would set up a 1956 Bel Air for my uncle with a 394 and matching big rear end out of the family 1962 Olds once it was parked, so again more precedence.
Not being a Chevy guy I stumbled onto a 1957 that was missing its drivetrain but seemed like a great start for a very low price as it was a little bit of a drive out of Portland. It was fairly straight with not too much rust so I scooped it up.
The car had been driven hard and likely off road. Plus I had that straight axle so first step was chop off the front frame and fab up some 2x4 for a front clip.
Next up was Wheels and Tires. Craigslist and FB Marketplace as well as Ebay resulted in crusty chromed steelies and Cragar S/S narrow front wheels.
Now I am getting excited about this thing! About this time after rolling the front end back and forth a hundred times I am noticing it is pretty crooked and bent and still needs a full brake kit. Again FB comes to the rescue with a 1950 Ford F1 axle with a full speedway brake kit installed. The center chunk was missing from the Tri Five rear so I was already planning on a 9". Again Ford guy so all the wheels I have are Ford bolt pattern.
Started working on the front stub for the frame rails and made them the same width as the spring packs on the Ford I beam. I bought two different front springs (four packs) just in case I needed the longer or shorter springs.
Is the thread title a hint as to the future power train??? I am hoping for a 430, just to rankle the purists.
Next up is power plant. I was hoping to find something cheap, as powerful as possible, late 50s to early 60s, something atypical as well as something my grandpa would potentially use. What I ended up with was a motor pulled for an LS swap though it had been running and drive and only needed a new water pump. For the princely sum of $200 I had a 1962 Lincoln 430 and auto transmission. Gobs of torque and not your typical engine swap. While searching local junkyards I came across a 1958 Edsel with an E475 410 ci engine that I got to dress up the MEL engine as an earlier generation. The '58 was a 340 hp and 475 ft lb of torque motor so I am hoping with the better intake, Big Block Chevy fenderwell headers, better holley 4 barrel, pertronix distributor that I can be close to 350 hp and 450 of torque. Also this gave the name of MEL-icious Intent due to the Mercury Edsel Lincoln engine family.
With the '57 Chevy and the '58 Edesl I also have acquired some gauges for under the dash and a floor shifter for the transmission. I also bought an Eelco gas pedal and scored an Edelbrock 6x2 Intake for a potential future induction system. I was looking for MEL parts and also accumulated almost enough to build two more complete motors. I had heard it was possible to adapt FE manual transmissions to MEL blocks but unfortunately it puts the starter in the wrong spot as well as the crank not being drilled out for a pilot bearing. My plan is to not give this first motor any mercy so I can have another one built up to make more power once I get used to this package.
After way too much moving the engine, measuring, leveling, moving, measuring, up/down, etc. I said to hell with it and just welded in engine mounts to move forward. I modified the chevy mid mounts that held the saddle of the transmission and now use them to mount the engine. I then made my own transmission mount to hold the big Lincoln 3 speed. Another chunk of 2x4 tube spans between the front spring hangers. I have been luck to have a fellow HAMBer (1971BB427) helping with his knowledge and set up the suspension with the swing shackles at the rear.
I believe this man is making race car noises! Love the build! Love a sport sedan! And the Fomoco powertrain is super cool. Go, man, go!!
Awesome! The early MEL's ('58 to '61) use the same bellhousing pattern as all FE's, so the starter location is the same as the FE as well. Keep up the good work.
Next up is the fact that the MEL engine is front sump pickup for the oil pan and that will cause all sorts of problems but given that the MEL and FE share so many parts I bought a canton rear sump 4x4 oil pick up tube for a 390 and it bolts right in. With that haul of MEL parts came two extra oil pans that at the time I didnt realize were not for these engines. As far as I can tell, the are for 460 fords. So some slicing and dicing is in order to make a one off rear sump pan.
I have been talking to Slover Machine out of California about adapter plates to run 460 BBF intake. With how the engine is sitting I would like to run a Ford Tunnel Ram with a 6-71 or 8-71 blower on top poking through the hood similar to the Tunnel Cram that David Freiburger built on Motortrend.
In case anyone doesn't think MEL engines were historically used for racing, here is some bad ass stuff I have found.
I'm always Talking about how proud I was of Ed Roth for using a 406 in his 55 Chevy. Now I'm proud of you too.
Like I said the time frame is about 1964 but I also know my grandpa would have continually upgraded things over the years. I looked at Hot Rod Drag week gasser rules, SEGA rules and 1962-64 drag racing rules and am trying to follow them as closely as possible. It will have towel city cheater slicks and likely coker firestone 6.40x15 front runners. I hope to run a top loader 4 speed someday as well but want to get it on the road as fast as possible. I have header flanges coming from Ed in Minnesota that will be welded up to the Speedway fenderwell headers. A scratch and dent power gen alternator will be going on the engine as well shortly.
I was hoping some guys would see how cool it could be with a FoMoCo powerplant. Thanks guys for not flaming me yet!!!
A 1965 F100 radiator came as a package deal with the rear end and fits perfectly between the new front frame rails so I will trim back the splash pan and build a mount for that as well. I got an F100 steering box in that deal as well but it is too long. I ordered two more early 60s Ford boxes and sent back the shorter of the two. I think the one I kept is for a '63 Galaxie and has a nice flat vertical mounting location. As of now other than the body, 3/4 of the frame and rear springs are all that remains as Chevrolet. Everything else is Ford.
Is it possible to shorten the manual trans input shaft, and use a large o.d. pilot bearing where the torque converter registers? This is gonna be a neat build, and I also like the 4 door hardtop.
My two concessions for safety and current technology will be front disc brakes (yes precedent for that back in the 60s but no need to start any arguments) and I am going to try to hide a prius electric power steering under the dash out of any sight. I may add AC depending on how things go but that will be down the road.
Should also mention it is a Sport Sedan, came with silver vinyl with black and silver cloth seats but I may step away from all that black. Is onyx black with black wheels. It has a pedal and column shift that is absent as well as a butchered trans tunnel that someone used a gas axe on.
Here is some interior inspiration. Also I have scrounged up six 1965 Mustang bucket seats that will pick the best four to be for all four passengers. Thinking about making the interior turquoise in color as the Mustangs, 57 Chevys and Edsels all shared a similar color palette.
In the pile of engine parts I received a short block with this tag on it that looks to be NOS from 1962 and never ran.
The Jalopy Journal
