Just bought my first HAMB friendly car! 1958 Chevy Bel Air!

Yes that is the plan! All new brakes all around

 

Very cool ,will be a fun project.There is alot of work to be done. The awsome video shows alot of the overall need for restoration.This is a great car for a first time project.Take it slow,don t over invest your money in it.your time spent is not counted as investment here for you will be learning a great deal.
The frabric on the seats may be able to be shampoed to origional luster and maybe an insertion of a layer of new foam will remove the saggyness from the benches.
Main thing have fun,to do that keep it drivable,once you get it going,large amounts of down time are a bummer.
I'll be following your daily progress.Texas has those big outdoor shows and swapmeets at Austin.How far are you from them?
It looks like you need a storage shed for all your goodies.

 

We got the motor to turn over, got the timing in an acceptable range, have spark, air and gas... well we got ALOT of gas, enough that the motor sucked down more than a gallon in a short period of time. So the carb came off and we have it now to rebuild. Stay Tuned!

 

Very cool, I have a soft spot for 58's. had a 4 door myself a few years back.

 

You got plenty of time to get that thing to lonestar. Get on it!

 

Careful! that wasted gasoline will go down in the crankcase and thin the oil, then the bearings will be laying in the pan. OUCH !Check the oil, smell it, feel it. Good Luck.

 

watched your video spark plugs are a mutha to change with all that factory ac stuff on the passenger side. That car has so much more personality than the vettes in the back ground.

 

great car 2 of my buddies had 58,s 4 drs one was custom the other stock with skirts both realy nice enjoy it

 

yeah we figured that about all the extra gas. thats why we soaked the spark plugs in acetone for a few hours and also let the engine dry out with the plugs out for a few days just to be sure.

Actually, I was thinking the exact same thing, but was surprised how easy they were, you get the 2,4 plugs from the front,and the 6 & 8 ones from the top. Took a little bit of contorting, but it can be done!

 

I love it! Get the air workin!

 

<font size="7">VIDEO UPDATE!!</font>
New Video
http://youtu.be/HkLNcF4ecVg

 

We are having trouble with the o ring on the oil filter blowing out. Here is the link to the thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=785292&page=2
I will post the solution that we find once it is done

 

Really cool car...I like the videos too! I always wanted a 58. Keep up the good work.

 

i am glad that you like the car. I love that someone took care of it before me.

On another note I have to buy a new fuel sending unit for the gas tank. Anyone know if I need the one with the 5/16 line or the one with the 3/8 line?

 

love your 58. i look forward to more updates

 

Nice Chevy!!! I like it, what a great find!

 

factory 2bbl cars have smaller 5/16 fuel lines and 4bbl have 3/8's in gm's usually. Most of the time I try to get a new sending unit on cars that sat a long time. Nothing more aggravating than breaking down because crap, rust is in your fuel line or fresh built carb.

I usually run 3/8 aluminum fuel line from summit or speedway and just duplicate the factory lines, the aluminum is easy to bend and will never rust

 

<font size="7">VIDEO UPDATE!!</font>
http://youtu.be/vE7bkNWzxV0

 

So I got the motor all put back together tonight. In order to drop the pan and replace the oil pump, you need to lift the engine three inches. In order to do that you need to unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust, and also disconnect some of the steering gear out of the way in order to get the jack underneath the crankshaft pulley. The other issue that we had was that in order to get one of the motor mount bolts out, we had to un-hook the fuel pump.
So after getting all of that put back together we got the motor to fire for a few seconds, and we didn't see the oil explosion that we had seen before. We know oil is pumping because it is running to the small temporary oil pressure gauge we have hooked up.

So the next steps are getting my new fuel tank and sending unit into the car, get my fan and fan shroud installed, and get the exhaust all hooked back up, then tune and figure out the timing.

After that, it'll be brakes and tires and see how the car drives and see what else breaks when we are doing that.

BUT it was kinda fun starting the car at 9pm at night with nothing hooked up to the exhaust manifolds. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to at least drive the car around for the first time in 30 years.

 

The smell of sweet success !! Grats I think you got it whooped ,Son. The rest is going to be easy.

 

Awesome!! Keep at it!!

 

I sure hope so.
Does anyone have any tips on how to get a stuck rear door open? If it was a c3 corvette it would have been open already, but I have never dealt with 50s chevy doors. Mechanisms in the door move, but seems like it stays locked...

 

Cool car! i built the exact same car for my uncle about 10 years ago, An original winnipeg car, canadian built, i i remember right, canadian production # for V8 4dr Hard tops was around 1000 cars, US production will be higher.
The car is stone stock except for 1 coil out of the front to lower it, Astro supremes with skinny whites, and lakes. its a 283 turboglide, speaker fader and a fathom interior, he still owns the car, one of my favourite builds.

Good luck with yours, looks fantastic. If i was you i would leave the disc brakes off, it will make the front wheels stick out too far, but thats just my opinion, we dont have freeways in manitoba!

 

Sounds good and looks better . Cool build.

 

beaumontguru, that is one good looking car! Mine will never be as shiny as yours, but hopefully one day itll be close!!

Oh, and by the way, we got the car to run on its own today!!

Videos to come!

 

Yay ! cool beans, grats on your success !!!!!!!!!

 

Nice --- a BelAir "sports sedan", the official name by Chevrolet! Plenty of hours of big smile driving ahead. Enjoy and Congrats! ~sololobo~

 

Nice car!

 

Very nice! Keep it up!

 

<font size="7">ANOTHER VIDEO UPDATE!!</font>
http://youtu.be/5oUeX-3f7Po

A very big update and day for the old 58 Chevy. In this video we finally got the engine to turn over without spilling its guts all over the driveway. After that we installed the new gas tank, sending unit, and got the engine to run on gas from the gas tank. We then installed the radiator fan and shroud, checked all the fluids and took it for a drive. The brakes worked but once we got off the incline of my driveway, the car would not move forward. A coupe quarts of ATF and we were off on the first drive since 1971!!!!