Hmmmmmm. . . . That reminds me of a house in Wakefield in the 80s and 90s. He had two 57 convertibles in the garage and a sedan in the yard. "Go away kid, I'm going to restore them". I need to swing by there soon
You definitely should! Things are sort of in limbo on the "Frozen '57". We were forced out of our residence by an "act of nature" (or negligence) in our haste we found another house with major issues which we also had to leave for the health and safety of my family. Tough decisions had to be made with limited options (housing market, pandemic etc.) which left me paying for 3 different storage locations and a much smaller residence an hours drive up the valley. The car is sitting in a storage field awaiting the installation of the front and rear windshield gaskets. I go out and start her every so often and think about the times we could've had....
I am sorry to hear of your misfortunes. But hang in there. I have had my Ford pickup for 20 years. Being half a country away, no shop, not liking my then current job, wanting to move back to my home state, etc, I didnt do anything but look at it when I was in the same zip code for a visit. Got a good job in my home state, built my shop, and now am getting to finally turn wrenches on it. Though a 52, it is not HAMB friendly as it is going to be a stock restoration. In short version, hang in there and God Bless.
I keep thinking about that 283 4spd.....what year was the eng.? anything special about it? which trans.? and what sort of condition do you think they're in now? what would you want for them? I guess the border is a problem right now but the car still has the pedals in it... it would be a bit like putting one of these barn-find Hot Rods back together...except no patina to save and no barn! lol.... *edit: @samurai mike ?
Forest fires, deadlines and commitments! I may just attempt to put the windshields in by myself...no one can commit to travelling out to help me with the pandemic raging on....
Hey @samurai mike do you think you could try to pin down a year that you sold the car? or last time you saw it running? maybe some friends/family can recollect? it would be nice to know how long she sat abandoned for... - Thanks Hey @57chevymadman @chevy57dude @wheeldog57 what did you guys do for putting the rad support at the correct height? I don't really know what to base it on? the fan outlet seems to line up with the heater inlet already but the support is sitting on the frame right now...I know there are supposed to be rubber insulators and spacers but how high/what thickness? - thanks
Too cool! I hope to be doing this exact same thing with my project in the next month or so. Congrats on that "First" drive!
The radiator support ties the fenders together, and lands on the frame at one point under the rad. I put a mount on each side of the support and landed a rubber bushing on top of the 2x4 box frame to caŕy the load.
i can't pin down the exact year, but as far as i know i was the last one to drive it. like i said mid to late 80's. maybe someone can zoom in on the license plate? here's a few more photos
Yeah!...you can hear my 5 yr. old screaming in the background...guess she thought I was going to go ripping through the fence or something ha ha ha! It's been in storage almost 4 yrs. due to unforseen circumstances...I was literally 2-3 days worth of work away from test driving it when I had to put it away so it's a milestone for sure...good luck with your cars first drive! Thanks 57dude! you run a straight axle and straight frame rails so you've got mounts on both ends, I have the stock bracket off the front of the crossmember w mount in the center of the support...so did you just hoist the front clip up until the fenders looked straight to determine how many spacers/bushings to use? Thanks for the new pics @samurai mike! That is awesome history!...HEY GUYS IN CASE NO ONE NOTICED....This car once belonged to fellow HAMBer @samurai mike!!! 35+ years ago it was a cherry hot rod!!! Traded off for a coupe, eventually GUTTED and LEFT FOR DEAD a completely stripped shell on a bent frame, then found sitting and rotting in another country and resurrected piece by mother lovin' piece.... just like Christine Thanks!
That's cool!...I have an old fuzzy stripper blanket that was left in my car by a "friend" I "gave a ride to" a long long time ago...I've held on to it for just such a purpose (probably door panels) never washed it so it might be self adhesive
^Ewww. Yes, I hung the fenders on the car. Then built the new lower support from square tubing. Welded it together when everything lined up.
You will know you have the right amount of shims when you have an even gap top to bottom at the fender to door
@Nailhead A-V8, way cool man!! Good for you getting this going amidst hardships and set backs. As for the radiator support, I hung my fenders and lined them up the best I could with the front of the doors. I also lined up the fender and door trim- straight line. Then put the support on, this'll give you an approximate height.
Thanks! since I have everything loosely bolted together there's too much weight...i'll go get my engine hoist I lent a buddy down the valley to lift it into position Thanks! I was missing every single nut bolt screw and shim when I got it... so after loosely bolting everything together I found the lower fenders too close at the bottom...when trying to bolt them in the correct place the bottoms were bowing out...now i'll lift the support from up top to get the spacers in...I can see there will be lots of shimming and backing and forthing to get everything lined up correctly! Thanks! I didn't get rad/support/inner fenders with the car...at first I found a hacked up V8 support but couldn't find a V8 rad anywhere... then I found a leaky 6cyl. rad (thought soldering was easy) and managed to get a 6cyl support, when I swapped hoods the new one had the 6cyl gusset (didn't know they were different) so I got lucky there...then when I dropped the later engine in I realised I would've had to change the entire front of the engine just to fit the V8 rad in!! without changing a thing the fan landed right close to the 6 rad and with a water neck I had lying around I could use the shortened upper hose from the donor van...later I got lucky on a redone stock 6 (manual) rad that someone added a 3 core to... the trans cooler sits right in the support snug as a bug...so it all fell into place really Perfect thanks for the pic! a good visual is worth a thousand blurry stickman drawings in the manual
My '57 had orange fur door panel inserts, attached with pins over the old upholstery when I first got it, it had been owned by some high schoolers I believe in the late 70's. Must have been the cool thing to do at the time. Mine also sat in my buddy's driveway for 12 years before getting it's first 20 foot drive about 3 years ago. It's always a thrill, but especially so after a long wait.
Ha ha yeah I'm going for a late '60's early '70's vibe...I already have shag carpeting on the package tray There are so many nit picky little things still to do I really needed this milestone to keep going...
Well it is not without some sadness that I write the last post of this particular thread...there are a lot of legitimate excuses but in the end the bottom line is I was doing something I could no longer afford. In fact I only got as far as I did on sheer tenacity. I started with nothing but a stripped shell and bent frame that others had rode hard and put up wet...there wasn't a nut bolt or screw left on it...and no they didn't come in bags! I had to find every part and piece the hard way...along the journey we had a baby and lost our home to 2 floods. The car went into storage and sat and sat and sat...finally things turned around and I found a space to bring it and finish those last few things to finally test drive it! I was over the moon excited, then a strange thing happened...yep she sat and sat and sat waiting for $, time, enthusiasm...I guess those years off killed the buzz...and I had gotten to a point where all the free labor, scrounging though coffee cans and refurbishing parts others wouldn't look at was done and now the rest was all money money money...yep coulda cruised it around in rat condition for the summer but in fall no one is buying...so the executive decision was made. On a high note the buyer was head over heels in love, actually gave me over my asking price (to hold it for a couple weeks) and threw in a mini van I'm fixing up for the family. I actually got a large percentage of what I figgered I had into it...it sold for more than a complete rolling unrestored barn find '32 B Tudor that was for sale at the same time (not bragging..people want to know what the market is doing)...Oh I only got to keep $500. and guess what I did with it? You'll see.... - Cheers Nailhead
The Jalopy Journal
