Projects 57 Belvedere 4 Door Gone Mad

^^^^^
Tenacious A .... How about calling them "Converted Rods"?

 

WOW now this is some cool shit man.You took a stupid looking car and made a awesome Kustom rod.I like weard radical rides.Ed Roth would love this one.Good going,hope you post pictures when done.

 

On to the front crossmember so we can get this thing rolling. Wanted to have something other than just the common round tube suicide crossmember. So I took a couple of pieces of 2 x 4 tubing to basically made a piece of 2 x 8 tubing. Bent a piece of 1" x 1/8" flat steel into a curve I liked and marked the metal.


Tacked it together and trimmed the top off of it.



Tacked a piece of 2" wide flat steel to the top, heated it with a torch and matched the curve.



Welded the top up, grind the welds, cut the curve on the bottom side to match the top and slipped it in between the frame rails for a quick look. The spring perch is just sitting on there to see how it will look. Will wait and weld it on last.





So to match the curve for the 2" wide flat I needed to weld to the bottom side I clamped a piece of flat to one side on the top of the crossmember and heated it with a torch and simply bent it to match.



Saturday morning my buddy Rob, who has been a huge help on this project, drove up to spend a day utilizing his superior welding and grinding skills. He welded up the bottom of the crossmember and did all the final trimming to fit the crossmembet to the frame rails. Once he had the fit right on the money he welded it all up and ground it smooth. So the final result is a curved 2 x 3 rectangular front crossmember.

 

On to mounting the front end. Going to be using Ford tie rod ends on the hairpins so I ordered some round 7 degee taper mounts from Speedwaymotors. I wanted to put these into a piece of round tubing and make a sleeve to weld into the frame in order to flushmount the tie rod ends against the frame. The sleeve of course allows access to put a locknut on the tie rod end while retaining strength in the frame. I couldnt find the correct size tubing at my local metal supply and after some thought I remembered I had some 1 5/8" roll cage tubing laying around. Sure enough it was the correct inner diameter for the round tapered mounts.



Easy enough from here, cut a couple of lengths of tubing, hand them off to Rob and he welded them up and ground them smooth.




Time to put the holesaw to the frame rails.



Rob welds them in.



Here they are, ground smooth and waiting for the frontend to be bolted on. You can see how easy it will be to acess the nut on the tie rod end. Since I wont be able to put a cotter pin in I'll put some good lock nuts on instead.



Then we centered the front spring mount, welding it up and bolted the frontend on. Yes you do see rod ends on the hairpins right now only. I didnt have the correct size tap to redrill and tap for the tie rods. Gotta pick up a tap next week and do this.



Installed the spindles and then hit a snag with the hubs I was going to use. Long story short we did get some hubs on it finally and at least made it a roller.

 

The rear wheels / tires will not be completely exposed on this. There will be about 2" - 3" of thread up under the car. The tires for the rear havent came in yet and will be taller and wider than what you see in these pictures. The tires and wheels in the pictures and just for moving it around right now. Anyway, we went ahead and cut the rear fenders out just enough to put these on and will make the final cuts for the larger tires later.

But it can be rolled in and out of the shop now anyway. I am feeling like this is a good milestone on this project!!







Rob and I had to sit in it and make engine sounds for awhile.......

 

cool!!!

 

that thing is gonna be wicked..nice work

 

Damn, that thing is gonna be a kick in the ass! Great vision, and work.

 

How did I miss this thread? Very cool, I will definately follow. Should we expect to see this at the Round Up next year?

 

that is super cool

 

I expect you will see it at Roundup, probably not completely finished but close enough to bring it.

 

Oh hell yes. Kick fucki# ass. Rock on!

 

Awesome

 

Hey Racrdad, PLEASE consider the engine from the donor car, or something like it...something as unique as this deserves it! PLEASE, no small block shivvies!!

 

This thing needs something more off the wall than a SBC. A hemi of some sort would be ideal but please not a SBC. I am a chevy guy & I love small blocks but this car cries out for something unique.

 

LOVE the fact you tucking some of the tire inside,,very nice touch

 

This is just soooooo cool! Are cutting the bumpers down to fit int he back? If not, I wanna buy em from you. Gotta subscribe to this thread.

 

Hot damm. This thing is going to be something else. I'm a big 50's Mopar fan but this is so cool. I know you have that SBC but I gotta go along with the Hemi thing. That would just be the ducks nuts. Keep those pics coming !!

 

Where have I been? Man, this is sooooo cool! I know one of the first cars I'm looking for at the Roundup!

 

What he said - or a poly! Poly 318s are tough and are not that hard to locate!

 

I was really REALLY enjoying this build untill I saw the SBC

 

Cool build, 57 plymouth 4 door was my first car. I'd like to see a poly or hemi or something too, but I'd suggest you use your money to finish the car with whatever motor you can afford for now, a motor can be changed anytime when funds allow, just get the car done. I'll dig it no matter what motor you run.

 

I'm a dyed in the wool GM guy and love the boring SBC's, BUT, even i would try and use a Mopar mill in that...something from that era even if it wasn't a HEMI..
VERY nice job BTW...That thing is REALLY cool!

Tony

 

You hit the nail on the head! All about the $$$! Believe me when I tell you if $ wasn't an issue, there would be a Hemi in it!!! Maybe someday, however we are taking donations if anyone has a running hemi to donate I will change the mounts out!!! I know he is working hard on trying to make the SBC stand out from the rest but I can't let the cat out of the bag yet!
Just look at all the grey hairs he is getting from working on this car!


Thanks Doug for letting me pitch in on such a cool project!

 

You could do something trick instead of traditional steering wheel and column do like a set up out of a small airplane, that'll have them scratching their heads. "Chevy makes it but whose gonna shake it??" everybody wants to know!

 

Very cool project with some unreal insight you have for a build, I Love it. I would have a MOpaR mill in it of some kind though, even a Poly head.

Michael

 

Awesome idea love it

 

I do not disagree with any of you about something more unique than a sbc. I wanted to use the poly motor out of the donor car but somebody pulled the plugs who knows how many years ago and its just a big ole boat anchor now. This is actually a budget build so unless I come across something different that is really a deal I am sticking with the sbc. If I had a hemi budget right now it would get one for sure and if Obama fixes the economy any more I might end up with a Fred Flintstone powerplant.

At least my carbon footprint would be smaller.......