I never really believed that "barn finds" happened as frequently as they seem to...

Keep the rebuilt,original 6!!! I have a 6 cylinder in my 1965 f100 and love it.They run forever.

 

Oh, no doubt! Yeah, I've got another project going on simultaneously, so even if I wanted to I couldn't swap out the engine until the (OT)her car is done. That one gets priority since the 53 was an unplanned purchase anyway. But I've decided to keep the 235. This is going to be the "family" hot rod, so I have no reason to make it go fast. Right now, I'd just like to make it go at all...

Picked up the rebuilt starter this afternoon. Russel's on N. Tryon did a beautiful job, right down to cleaning and painting the housing. So now I've got a nice spare to put in when I pull the engine to detail it and the engine bay someday. Seems I'm having to shop at NAPA more and more, since they seem to have all the obscure shit right on the shelf. They were the only ones to have a coil, and hopefully I'll find that they have the condenser tomorrow morning as well. More on the progress tomorrow night.

 

IT'S ALIVE!!! Bwaaaahhh haaaa haaaaaa haaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (evil laugh...)

I picked up a new condenser this morning (which, by the way, I think is hilarious when you tell the guy behind the counter that you drive a 1953 Chevy, and you need a condenser, and he pulls up AC parts... duuuuh...) and cleaned the points, as was recommended. A little shot of ether, a turn of the key, and VROOOOOOOM! She roared back to life as though she ran just yesterday. I had to keep the ether going until the fuel pump was primed, and by that time I had drained the battery, so all in all she got a good solid 3 minutes of run-time. BETTER THAN NOTHING. And what a smooooooth running engine. No knocks, no odd noises at all.

Toward the end of the day I decided I had better find a source for a new water pump, since this one was doing about as good a job of holding back the coolant as a screen door would have. Nothing from NAPA until next week sometime, nothing at all from Advance (not even listed), nothing from Auto Zone... but O'Reilley's has one on its way for me from a warehouse in Atlanta via Greensboro, so I should see it sometime Saturday.

I also pulled the broken driver side window out, as well as the regulator, and I'll be burning the midnight oil tonight cleaning it up and cutting a TEMPORARY driver side window out of some .221 Lexan I picked up out at the Depot. It'll do the trick until I can come across another one made of glass that I can afford.

Next, I'll plumb in the fuel line and get rid of my temporary gas tank (hose dropped in a small gas can), check out the brakes, and start wiring the lights back up. Anyone have an extra passenger side headlight bucket?

 

Ill never forget my first barn find.I was looking for a 58 chevy pickup to beat around in .I found an ad in the paper that and old farmer had put in for a 58 with a v8.I figured he had dropped one in it at one time or another.so I called him and went and looked at it in Salisbury.When I got there he took me to a barn ,opened the doors and there it was a factory 1958 chevy shortbed fleetside with a factory 283,factory automatic,factory everything.He told me he had ordered it new in 1958 with every single bell and whisle you could get on it.he said he figured it was the only new truck he would evr own so he was going to have it the way he wanted it but it gets better.In 1959 you could order an accessory a/c set up on new 1959 trucks ,"if you were that crazy".Well this farmer took his truck back and had factory a/c put on it in 1959.I didnt even know you could get acon a truck in the fiftys till then.So you can guess I bought the truck for 1300.00,restored it and drove the piss out of it till I had to sell it to a collector in Texas.

 

Did you say "Rat Rod"?

 

dont listen to what others say about 4 doors. theyve obviously never taken one to a show or elsewhere to see the attention they gather. thats one awesome find and it's going to be really cool when its done. good luck with it.

also: we had a major problem with the points in our 50 plym. The car just didn't like running off of them and anything you bought at a parts store was made in china GARBAGE. W spent the 120 bucks on the Petronix kit, avoided the points, and the car runs great now; no problems. i'd highly recommend it

 

still a "barn find" even if it's a 4-door.. pretty clean looking too, have fun, and enjoy it, you could go so many ways on this one!

 

Wooo hoooo! Found a NOS window on eBay last night, 60 bucks shipped. I guess I can take the Lexan back! Now I just need to figure out how to reattach the track (that the window fits into) back to the regulator.

 

Thank you. This is all I have been saying. Sure, two doors are a bit more stylish, but who cares? I don't. I have a '60 Olds flat top (4dr htp) and my '55 sports extra doors for the kids to climb in and out of. I love them both!

Great looking car! If you're going to do the work to make it have a nice, long-lasting finish, why not make it shiny? J/W although I ran around with my '60 in satin for years.

 

Also, maybe youu can set up your signature line to say "Thank you sir, may I have another?" for all those still harping on the rat rod comment.

 

It's funny, I've found that MOST people prefer the two doors, but I was actually LOOKING for a four door. (I was actually looking for a 49-52, but hey, I couldn't pass this one up.) I've got an OT '66 2-door I'm working on, which will be my personal driver for the next few years until my son and I re-do it and it gets passed to him in 2025, and I wanted something that I could take the family out in and we could ALL have fun. I wanted it to be UNMISTAKABLY a family car that was still just as cool rodded. It's going to be fun. I love the four doors, and the ONLY thing I would do to them differently, if I was going to do ANYTHING different, would be suicide the rears. I just love the look of 'em when both front and rears are open. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Just a plain old 4-door for the time being, and I'm just fine with it.

 

Everything NOW is a barn find but where's the barn?

 

I wish more of 'em WERE in barns. Maybe then there would be more worth trying to get back on the road! Unfortunately, too many are out in the yard, along side "the barn", or hauled out back out of sight. I still think these cars ought to be deemed Protected National Treasures, and there should be an inspection and some criteria set to determine a cars "restorability" before they are allowed to be hauled off for scrap. Saaaaaaay, anything made before 1960? I've seen too many cars in salvage yards that were in better shape than many on the road! A 1948 Dodge, a 1948 Windsor, a 1959 Saratoga, and a handful of 1953-1956 Pontiacs come to mind. I don't want my son to have to restore a Prius someday...

 

Just got back from a local salvage yard that I knew to have a 53 Chevy 210 out it the weeds on the outskirts... Brought home a beautiful, crack-free gauge cluster (which I will refinish), a new windshield wiper (my driver side has lost the spring, so it just lays against the window), some nice interior door/window handles, and a much-needed passenger side headlight bucket (mine is missing the top slot that the trim ring clips into, as well as the bottom tab that the trim ring gets screwed into, due to rust).

She's coming together!

 

Nuff said.

 

As promised, O'Reilley's came through with a new water pump at around noon today! Got that installed, and while I was there I pulled the interior window frames off so I could sand and paint them tonight. Tomorrow she gets her new passenger side headlight bucket installed, and her trim ring put back on.

Pics tomorrow night! Progress may be slow, but ANY progress is still progress...

 

Well, I'm happy to report, she starts almost immediately upon twisting the key. Today she got new fuel lines and filter, the passenger side headlight bucket was replaced, so now she's got all her lights in place, and ready to rework the brakes tomorrow. Here's a few pics of my lead mechanic, Cheytan (3), posing with "his" new 53...

 

Spent the day chasing down the elusive 53-54/58 Chevy 235 timing advance vacuum module. No luck at any of the big 4 (Auto Zone, Advance, NAPA, O'Reilley's), so I found myself... where else? eBay. Bought a NOS for $18.00 and change and five bucks shipping. Guess I'll just have to wait for it to get here. I don't think she's going to make it to Autofair this time...

I've been kicking around some ideas about how I want it to sit, look, sound, etc. in the meantime. I've come up with a basic overall "finished" concept, and once everything is straight with the go-go and the woah-woah (engine and brakes), I think it'll come along pretty quickly.

I did swing by the salvage yard this morning, and they had just set a 94 Z28. Don't think for a minute that I didn't consider pulling the engine and transmission to go in the 53. Fortunately the rain snapped me back into reality and I left it there. MOST of it, anyway.

Hopefully it isn't raining its ass off tomorrow and I'll be able to make a little more headway on the engine/brakes. If it IS raining, well, I can't think of a better time to start wet-sanding...

 

What do y'all think about a set of "Vogue Tyre - Custom Built" on black reverse steelies with the OEM dog dish center cap..?

I think I've made MY mind up, now I just need to find the $$$!

 

So we had it up on jack stands this morning in order to finish up the brakes and play suggestive ping-pong concerning what to fill the aluminum lowering blocks with, and I decided I might as well crack out Mr. Sawzall and remove that pesky muffler that seemed to... muffle things. I'm not real bright, and I figured it would only take a few seconds, so I left it idling. No sooner than the muffler dropped off my decision was made. I would be running straight pipes. I tapped the accelerator a few times and carved my decision in stone. The little 235 sounds... mean!

More to come as progress is made..!

 

UPDATE (for anyone who gives a crap);
Car is still up on jack stands after reworking the brakes. Plumbed up the fuel tank and leak-tested it, all's good. Lopped off the muffler at the forward connection, so now I can test out a few different mufflers I have laying around. When I get the sound I'm looking for, I'll make it permanent. SO FAR, I'm kinda digging the straight pipe sound.

Thanks to a fellow H.A.M.B.er, Ironpeddler, I now have a set of the original steelies for this car. They're actually in REALLY nice shape, and I'll eventually have them blasted and powdercoated. For now, I just want to drive the car. I couldn't care less what it looks like, much less the wheels. I've got all four dog dish hub caps and beauty rings (they were in the trunk), so my round works are set. I'll probably pick up a set of salvage yard white walls off a Caddy or the likes and have a go at making my own fatties, as outlined in various threads on the H.A.M.B.

While the car was up in the air and solid, I figured it might be a good idea to de-rust as much of the underside as I could with the rudimentary tools I had at my disposal. I wire-wheeled as much as the wheel would reach, wiped clear the dust, a quick wipe-down, and then hit everything with "Rust Reformer". After that, a nice coat of rubberized undercoating. The shocks were looking rougher than rough, so I decided they might as well get replaced while I was under there.

In a moment of utter epiphany, I decided to cease trying to make my lowering block mistake work. Yeah, I've got about $80 into it, but where would it end? I found myself pondering crazy shit, like filling the blocks with epoxy. Or polyurethane. Or wood. Or the ground up bones of those who have pissed me off. Or whatever. I realized that I was investing WAAAAAAAAY too much time into salvaging my $80 screw up that it was detracting from the ultimate goal, getting to DRIVE THE DAMNED CAR. So off came the blocks. When the time is right, I'll just do what everyone suggested and get the kit from Gambino's. I've got other shit to worry about. Anyone looking for a pair of lift/lowering blocks and hardware for their classic... or pick-up truck?

Driver sde window has been replaced, though I'm going to have to replace it AGAIN in time. When I was trying to get the track lined up the window slipped down inside the door and hit something solid. It knocked a clamshell out of the bottom of the inside layer of glass. I couldn't do anything but laugh. With the window rolled up you can see the top 1/4" arched edge of the clamshell, but it really isn't that bad, and I'm not going to worry about it right now. It's still better than what WAS in there!

"Accidentally" won a chrome valve cover for 35 bucks on eBay, figuring I would get outbid and I didn't, so I guess I've got that coming. I'm not really a chrome guy. I prefer polished aluminum, but like I said, I won it accidentally, so I guess it's going on. Figure I'll replace the valve guide seals just for good measure while I'm in there anyway, so those are on the way too.

The battery didn't seem to want to take a charge, so I rebuilt the generator. Battery STILL wasn't taking a charge, so I walked it back across the street for a swap out. Turns out they don't sell many 6V batteries at Auto Zone (duh?) and when I bought mine it was the only one on the shelf, and probably HAD BEEN on the shelf for quite some time... like years. They gave me a brand new battery that actually hit the shelf to replace the one I bought, and now all is right with the charging system.

So that's my progress as of now. I'll be back on it tomorrow, and if all goes well I'll get to drive it home by the end of the week. Also been collecting a nice stash of spare parts along the way, such as a spare front and rear window, which will inevitably be needed when I chop the top SOMEDAY. Not going to happen in the near future, but at least if I ever get a wild hare up my ass I'll have the glass.

Anyone know where the contact switch that makes the tail lights light up when you hit the brake pedal is located? I still have no tail lights, and I believe I'll be tackling that tomorrow as well...

 

OK, tried to start the engine on the newly plumbed fuel line... nothing. Just for S&Gs I figured I would hose clamp the business end of an air wand connected to the compressor into the end of the line just before the fuel pump, remove the gas cap, and listen for bubbling. Barely heard a sound. So the problem had been identified. I ran a ling rigid piece of bailing wire the length of the fuel line and pulled it back out, then tried the air test again. NOW I was getting some bubbling in the tank. I added a can of SeaFoam to the tank and reconnected the line to the pump. Fired right up, and within twenty minutes the new glass filter was CAKED with varnish and crud. So, I removed the filter, hit it with some carb cleaner, and blew it out. While I had the line disconnected I figured I would do the air test again. NOW I was getting some bubbling in the tank. Reconnected everything and the DAMN THING WON'T START. I'm guessing that it just has to prime the line again, but that shouldn't take as much effort as I gave it to get it restarted. Opened up the fuel pump, diaphragm looked good, and just for good measure I put a thin coat of silicone RTV on the sealing surface of the top before I put it back together. I tried t start it again and still nothing. Gonna have to try it again tomorrow I guess...

Open to suggestions!

 

Needless to say, i love 53-54 chevs. Congrats and keep us posted!

 

It's funny, I was actually keeping my eyes open for a good deal on a '49-52, but I knew I wanted a more door. When I came upon the poor, tired, old '53 that day I decided I wasn't "just settling", I actually LIKED it more! The price was right, I had some extra cash in my pocket from a big sale that morning, and everything just sorta fell into place. The fact that it had a clear title was a BONUS! Now I just want to DRIVE it!!!

 

I don't post much but I have been enjoying your progress. I am going thru the exact same issues you are. My 54 sat for a few years and now I'm working thru it and can't wait to get it on the road. Your giving me some well needed motivation, keep up the good work.

 

Keep up the good work, four door are COOL.
Here is mine.

 

Thanks for the support, CW and Colin! I was starting to think nobody was even reading this thread. Nonetheless, I was updating it if for no other reason than to keep a running record of everything I had to do to get it rolling. I only HOPE my '53 looks HALF as nice as either of yours one day. I'm going the custom/hot rod route so the fam and I can have a little Saturday night fun once in a while, so it'll never be a show car. If I had the dough, it would be a good solid candidate for a full resto, but alas, I am just a poor boy "though my story's seldom told, I have squandered my resistance for a pocket full of mumbles, as were promises. All lies in jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest..." Sorry, broken into a Simon and Garfunkel moment there...

Thanks again! Hope y'all stick around, and PLEASE, feel free to throw in any comments, pointers, and suggestions!

 

OK, I'm curious... When you remove the fitting from the gas tank, is there anything that protrudes into the tank and, perhaps, curves downward? Here's why I ask... I put 5 gallons of fresh gas into the tank with the Seafoam. I also tightened down on the fuel line fitting, but noticed that the bung spun a little as well. I'm wondering if the car won't start now because I inverted the internals during tightening? The fuel line connects rather high on the tank, which didn't seem right to me even at the time, since you would be sucking air at a half tank.

This revelation actually came to me this morning while I was shooting some spray paint. Apparently the suction tube inside the can is bent over in the bottom, and it began hissing propellant with no paint, despite the fact that I could physically feel that there was still a little more paint in the can. I turned the nozzle about 90 degrees and was able to shoot the rest of the paint from the can. I'm wondering if the same thing might be going on inside my gas tank?

 

Not sure if these fit your motor,but Mercruiser had aluminum valve covers on thier 6 cyl Chev motors and would look good with black crinkle/and polished fins or all polished.

Example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...dvFKECuuKrN0LGmQH6nrw%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

Nice! Thanks for the tip! Now I just haver to find one that would fit a '53 235. That'll be the hard part. I think instead of black crinkle I might do bowtie orange crinkle with polished fins. Just to make it jump out a little more, y'know? Thanks again! I'll have to start lookin' now.