I never did give a timeline of the work, I had the car delivered mid October, so that was the start of all this... Mostly had the frame stuff done in November, waited on parts and did the floor during Christmas vacation for a week. It's been a lot of work so far, in a relatively short time frame considering I have no idea what I'm doing and no help. Making a couple of channels under the quarter windows. This one had a plate over it for wiring or something, so held some dirt and moisture and rotted. The drivers side was great, as well as the kick panel/lower firewall area. The rockers and lower quarter are planned to be replaced in a bit, so those aren't a concern right now. Everything cleaned, hammer/dollied and primed with weld through primer. This show the rear lap joint for the trunk that I replaced as well Not much has felt as good as getting cleaned up after all that mess. I bolted the floor down with the new bushings and washers. Cleaned, punched and primed the floor at all lap joints and weld areas.
I supported the body again, removed rotisserie and rolled the frame back under, with the floor bolted on. Then I jacked up the frame and stuck it on jack stands. I used a load divider and ran chains down to some random holes by the front body mounts. This allowed me to level and lower the body down evenly and slowly. Floor back in place. I sheet metal screwed the front lip and supports where the alignment was perfect. Then used a jack to get the trans hump aligned as it was off by quite a bit. Ended up pretty deadly. I messed around a lot to get the rear height correct. Or close and just used sheet metal screws and clamps to hold it in place until I could get the trunk brace on, and make sure the height matches. So moment of truth, sticking the doors back on and making sure the gaps were ok. I was a bit nervous as the doors weren't bolted in when I got it, and I actually never had checked the gaps. Turned out pretty bang on for an old car. Small victories, I didn't spread, or twist or wreck the body lol.
Incase you want to go with an old 40 look, 39 thru 48 Merc bodies will bolt right on that Chevy Chassis. My Merc I built in the 80's on a 55 Chevy chassis.
The previous owner had already cut out the spare tire holder, after drilling some spot welds the lap joint was just too rusty to do anything with so I cut it out and butt welded a patch in place. I used a little heavier 16 gauge and didn't bother putting any beads in there as my bead roller sucks big time.
Here are the bad points of the car basically. When I bought it, it was presented as pretty solid, I looked it over and knew it required rockers, lower quarters, flares, etc and a bunch of basic body work. When I cleaned up and checked closer I found the tail lights had some serious fiberglass and filler work as well, along with a few small fiberglass patches here and there. I wasn't, and still not completely sure how solid this old girl is or isn't. Truth is, the price was decent so I'm happy with it either way. It was low enough and had so many extra parts that it was worth the gamble. Really I just wanted to do a floor patch, not touch the roof, pillars, firewall, doors, then I could stomach if I had to do full quarters or something major. Like I mentioned the floor could have been patched, but this looks and is sooo much better of a solution. The roof looks solid, I've sanded down and the original "shoreline beige" is just under the black and looks untouched. The pillars are solid as can be, I think the firewall is good. The passanger door for sure is full of filler, the tail pan was garbage as are the area below the tail lights. Hopefully when I strip the drivers door its a bit more unmolested, as it looks clean from the inside. I've talked to some guys about blasting they said its not worth it and to sand most off. Blast hard to reach areas. I have no one local and would have to travel 2 or 300 miles to one. But I'll get more into that as I go, still haven't done much on the body work side of things. I'd like to paint it myself as I have never did a real paint job before.. But anyway, back to work.. Skim coat of filler on this one... Crazy how the fiberglass stuck so well to the metal, I wondered if that was some aluminum screwed in or something when it was that shiny lol. The aftermath of the trunk and tail pan removal. It was all brazed, glued, fiberglassed and bondoed on.
It was basically just the end of the trunk that needed patch so I elected to cut just before the bend. The lap joints on the edges are brittle. So for this section to start with I just made small patches while it was accessible. I currently don't have a shrinker/stretcher, but do have one on order to make these flange areas for the sides on the inner quarters and trunk edges. Lots of work. I decided not to do a whole trunk floor, basically due to cost. The freight/duty/exhange/taxes on the $600 usd floor I bought made the whole thing cost around $1400 canadian. Which isn't terrible, because the canadian retailer wanted $1500 plus freight for one anyway. Plus the tubs will be widened, or new ones made if I have the skills somehow develop.. so that take care of a big portion of the new flanges. Both sides needed repair.. Picking the final position was a bit tough, to line up the trunk brace and frame holes and beads nothing wanted to jive. Finally got it with a bunch of tweaking. Then left the patch in one piece, sheet metal screwed it together and cut on a 45 degree angle all the way across to keep gaps tight. Every bead needed substantial reworking to get correct With patience they turned out ok, even if no one will see them again lol. Here is the side patch and another hole I still have to tackle by the tubs. I used a big wire wheel to remove the rust and undercoating? blobs. Worked pretty well to clean everything all up. I did hammer out the indent for the spare tire to match the flat patch for the spare tire. The trunk itself is pretty decent now, One patch to make to the left there, where its a little thin. Gonna recycle one of the floor panels I think to fix that area. With this finished I could bolt down the trunk and finish tack welding the accessible spot welds for the floor, so it is now kind of welded in place, and the flanges all matched up pretty well. In this last picture, you can see the 4x4 I used across the trunk, (probably a tree joke in there somewhere).. I cut the ends to the shape of the inner trunk and used the engine hoist to lift and lower until the brace/bushing/tailpan was on the same plane as the original trunk. The sides are currently just clamped in place, I'd like to the make the new flanges first for accessibility before welding in, also would like to fit the tailpan which has been on order since october.. The trunk alignment looks pretty good with it clamped currently. I also have new metal for around the tail lights, just not sure if it will cover all the damaged areas. I haven't started those repairs yet. So much work left to do.. Sometimes it looks like there isn't much left and this thing will be ready for paint, next min feels like I'm at the bottom of the mountain lol.
I'm kind of jumping all over the place now, I received an order of parts so trying to get some of those on currently. But everything is always so dependent on everything else. I got these "show" quality rockers on sale and they are really nice. So I thought I'd try to put them on, it kind of has spiraled a bit... well you'll see. Wood screws, bondo and fiberglass over top of the rotted metal. Crazy eh? Look at the fiberglass in the middle there.. I'm pretty happy to give this old girl the love she really deserves. One million spot welds in the front..
Warning take your children out of the room for this next part, not for the faint of heart, or weak stomaches... When fitting the rocker, I wanted to ensure the door gaps were correct. I had the door adjusted pretty well early for this passenger side. I knew there was some filler so I wanted to make sure my rocker was set at the right depth on the bottom. I figured I'd sand of near the door to make sure my panels are flush each other, without filler. Peek-a-boo Originally started sanding with a DA, then just took a stripping wheel to the whole thing, trying to stay off the metal. That's a good solid 1/2" of filler and junk there.... Trim holes were pounded in and fiberglassed over. Lower flares and rust "repair" was thin sheets wood screwed and glassed over. Pulling the "patch" off lol. Look at that shiny metal, crazy. Fully stripped and I felt better, its actually really decent. Tap out the trim holes and work them a bit, lower quarter and it'll be solid. Crazy to go through as much work as that just to get blend you crappy patch panel. That is the way it was done back then in a lot of these places I guess.. The door on the other hand, I knew something was up with it, from the inside I could feel a ridge on the bottom. Not sure whats the plan for that, a skin, a new door, a used door? I don't know yet. I haven't stripped it but a few areas I dug in, its bad. It looks so original and unsuspecting from the outside.. Rocker fits good though. I haven't welded it in yet, gonna wait for my door decision, and the quarter panel to be patched, and make sure all the gaps fit perfectly.
Originally the last owner had planned on a stock box with cross steer. I really couldn't see how I'd fit the drag link so I went with a borgerson 525 box. I used a bought a flat bendable arm, and a G body arm that had a dropped that looked like it'd work. Turned out to fit perfect. To get the height right I drilled it out from tapered to straight and used a heim joint instead of a tie rod. I was worried about fitting it under the damper/crank pulley and oil pan, but the clearance ended up perfect with a heim joint. Flat chevy steering arm facing forward to hook to. The tie rod also had chevy arms on the bottom, but behind the axle. I think this is the last thing I needed to weld to the frame, other than frame horns once I get the hood flip figured out. Then its stripping down, blasting and painting. Can't wait..
Kudos to you for all the work to save another one, but even more kudos for taking the time to write up such well detailed updates! Gotta56forme/Scott
Thanks! Trying my best. I'm treating it kind of like a blog for the build. I forget things and how far I've come so its nice to have a collection somewhere of all the work. I still look back on my model a build thread, and wish I had a little more detail in some areas.
I also just finished building a removable frame around the engine. The plan is heater & a/c lines (if we get to that point) will run down them on the RH side, wiring on the LH. The front will be the rad support. Its wide and has nothing much going on there so it will hold a decent sized rad. I'm also planning on running my hood tilt linkages off the bars. It will bolt on the front once the frame horns are finalized, and the rear bolts into the original hood hinge area. It would be cool to match it to a roll cage inside, but don't think I'd do one since it'll be a daily drive with a often used back seat. This is also pretty light duty stuff 1.75 .095. Its all that's available locally for tubing, and at that still cost an arm and a leg, you'd think it was chromoly.But will work fine for what I'm doing.
This is what I'm working on right now, bracing the hood. I wanted some small tubing, the smallest locally is this 1"x 16 gauge. Actually worked pretty well, it is light but still strong enough. I've been at this for a good week, evenings and weekend. It's tough, fitting, bending, fitting, bending, tweaking to get hood to fit right. The hood is from unlimited products, its pretty alright, but really flimsy. Since it will see lots of miles I wanted to over do the bracing, instead of under doing. The lower valance or chin was pretty floppy, so I bent some tubing gently to match the curves. I also picked up a 1" die for my bender to make nice bends. Trying to get tight to the hood as possible. Kind of a mistake as the hood sits with a different shape on the car, so I can't get the tubing as close as I wanted on the front once in place.. live and learn. At this point I didn't have my steering parts so the engine and everything was still in place to make sure the drag link cleared. Multiple random curves. Its nice though this stuff bends like butter, so I just threw the bender in my rotisserie and can bend longer pieces without hitting a wall or something in the garage. Once the steering stuff arrive I could remove the engine and front axle and work unencumbered. I kind of like the look of not having a grille in the front, so I added a bar across the top opening which will serve as a grab handle to pull the hood forward. I have a stock grill but I think either no grille, or maybe dimple dies but I do like this setup for opening the hood, it just feels right.
Really nice work Fry, it's looking great. I just can't believe you're gonna run that LS lump instead of a classic small block, or even a nice rat motor. That car deserves something better. All that work going into it, only to run that OT engine. It's a shame. There's still time to reconsider....
I struggled a bit to the the hood sides to line up with the door. Working alone with only two hands is tough. I came up with this cane looking thing, which is bent to the same shape as the inner edge of the door. It is welded to the firewall, where the seams meet in the factory location and serves as a support when the hood is closed. I built catches that will glue to the hood, so when it rotates closed it will guide in these "canes" and keep the hood in perfect alignment. I think I'll make that my locking location as well to keep the hood closed without having exterior hood pins or latches. Should work.. This is the part of the hood that is frusturating. This is as close as I can get the alignment. If you notice the cowl is too low but the door height is ok. It could be a little higher, but then you look at the bottom and its already too short. The passenger side sucks, but the drivers side is perfect. I don't want to cut and try to glue the hood back together, so I think I will call it good enough since it fits everywhere else so well. I'll probably try adding some fiberglass to the bottom to get it to look ok. The bends match well. This door has a lot of filler in the bottom 1/3. But it fits so well door gap wise in the frame and curves. So hopefully once its stripped I can save it easily enough. On the drivers side this door appears to be pretty solid, still have to strip it but from inside looks unmolested. It kind of fits crappy though for the door gaps. The curves are ok, this is as close as I can get this side. This is how the "canes" side, it was temporarily held with some scrap while fitting. Once its all together I'll get some better pictures of the setup. I think it might work out just fine. You can see the hood on this side fits the cowl exactly, the door height perfectly, and the bottom lines up with the rocker perfectly as well. Funny that it is so short on the other side.
haha, I know right. I would be saying the same thing if I saw that on someone elses build. But in the end they are all just air pumps, I'm ok with getting shit for running one, it works for my application. Street cred and having the right motor hiding under my hood is great and all, but I'm paying the bills and having to drive it.. building a big block blown terror that gets 6 mpg just isn't in the cards for this build, at least not right now. Maybe after I've had my fun touring around with the kids and they are too cool to hang with me, then I'll finally have that blown big block gasser I've always wanted. But right now its time for something different.. something that has 500 horses at the wheel with just a camshaft, that costs 1/4 of what a big block would cost and can still get 18mpg. I had to look hard at my wants and needs and this fell into my lap at the right time (or wrong time lol). It marks all the boxes and for a road trip car, if something happens to break it is easier to find one than a bbc nowadays. Just time to try something different, the model A has a fun 327, been there and done that.. have the bills to prove it twice.. haha. So this car was a BBC or this, and a decent big block is fucking crazy expensive, this whole setup, complete for a 6.2 all aluminum, stock 400 horse engine with low miles was literally a fifth of what a big block would cost as the same starting point, and to get the same horsepower is the same cost ratio. I wasn't going to say what engine I was running originally and hide it in the photos.. but figured it would just disappoint people later down the road, so may as well get it out in the open and upfront. I'm happy with the choice, I would say I don't need to justify it but I think that is what I just ended up doing... haha. Feel free to start a gofundme for big block power and then I'll change it over. lol. I am trying to keep the focus of the thread on the actual car itself, as that part is on topic for the most part, so I'll leave out any more talk to said engine lol. Thanks.
When reviewing your sections on the previous persons body work, fiberglass, bondo, sheet metal screws, ect ect, you have to remember that the 55, 56, and 57 Chevys were and are the most hot rodded cars around. They have gone through many hands and many parts over the years.
Yeah for sure, this one did have the same owner since the early 80s. From what he said his uncle did the body work and paint back then. Back in the day that was the way it was done, at least talking to some old timers. Not much was welded, fiberglass was the "in thing" and filler was used to sculpt. There also weren't patch panels even if you did weld. As much as its a hack job, it did hold its own for 30 years, so what can I say lol. Also, I'm no body man either, so we will see how much my work ends of being considered a hack job to the next guy
I see big blocks advertised all the time, often for less than a small block. I saw a used 454 just the other day for less than a grand, don't recall where I saw it, probably Craigslist. Even a mild/stock 454 with good compression would easily net you the same power range as the LS, and better torque (which is what you need on the street anyway). Throw some dress up valve covers on it, intake & exhaust, there you go. Not a huge investment. Considering what you're doing with the rest of the car, it's not out of line.
Just an example. I realize this one is not close to you and shipping probably isn't practical, but I would assume there are similar deals near you. These things came in about a bazillion trucks and motor homes. https://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/pts/d/alpine-89-chevy-454-engine/7258676364.html Here's an intake and carb for it: https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/pts/d/san-diego-chevy-bbc-edelbrock/7265227385.html
Hello Fry, you are doing a fine job! If you have the patience and skill to do all of this metal fabrication I am sure you will get through the body work phase with equal success. I will be watching.
There's a 409 in the classifieds here, if that "GoFun4Me" works out. Always dig your work. Carry on !!! https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1963-409-bob-vrbancic-motor.1208894/
Just now catching back up on your progress. Man, you are doing nice work! Gotta love finding stuff like you did in the quarter panel... I found similar stuff working on a good friends 55 hardtop about 25 years ago.
SoCal and Saskatchewan are worlds apart my friend. lol. I live in a province with about a million people that has a land area 1.5x California, which has 40 million people lol. My town is 300 kms from the nearest city, a city with a population of 200k. Apples to oranges, not the same opportunities up here. Trust me, I have debated this with myself and over analyzed it like crazy, just not in the budget. Honest numbers... I'm $1500 for 400 hp and I can run today, that would buy me a 454 that is a core. If I got a few deals, I could maybe hit 400 hp for 8 grand with that 454. Heck I don't even want to say what I have into my 327... for a measly 350 hp. lol
OK, I'm not going to rag on you about it, just doing my duty to try to talk sense. The rest of the project is looking great, keep up the good work.
it’s all good, everyone needs to get some sense talked into them every now and then. I actually saw that article and a whole bunch more builds when I was pricing big blocks. But honestly, even that build if I wanted new pistons, bearings, top end, machine labour/assembly I’d be over 10 Canadian. Just the top end kit at a modest 3500, will turn into 5000 Canadian by the time it gets here. trust me it sucks. I do get it though. Bob bleed once said “anything you have to justify to be on your car shouldn’t be on there” For the record...I do agree, it is just wrong to have a straight axle 55 with an LS. I nicknamed it Blasphony has a play on finniegans 55 and having the wrong engine lol
Have enjoyed the thread so far thanks. Especially like the documentation of the tunk patch as its something im going to need doing in the future Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The Jalopy Journal
