Projects My new 53 chevy 4dr daily driver!

Ok so heres some pictures.

You can see the the front manifold goes straight down like the rear. The fentons I remember seeing angle back.

Another question. Whats the large black cylinder? Vacuum can? Sure would like to see that disappear! That emergency brake lever is a monster! Look how much room it takes up for my dual exhaust! And right below that is my pitman arm swinging front to back. I wonder how guys get dual in here without losing alot of this stuff. Id like to clean it up a bit in here.

Anyways, heres the intakes and a strange valve cover. Not sure what its off of. Any guesses?

 

I did some research and talked to different people before i decided on the Fenton for my '56 and the consensus was tube headers didn't sound right. And just my opinion, but tube headers just don't look right on those old stovebolts. I used the Fenton with dual 18" glass packs, 2" pipe and pencil tips. It sounds great and has a really great back rap.

That black canister should be the oil filter.

 

Nice

See many of those when I go to Cuba.

Enjoy

 

on my 235 i had the manifold split and the second outlet was put towards the back of the manifold. i didnt have any clearance issues. as for the glasspacks......i would go with the straight pipes. if you are wanting the "rap" thats the best way to go.

 

Nice score on the parts!!!
I dig the valve cover, if it fits...
Fins baby, fins. Perfect for that sharp intake.
Are there any carbs in that box?

Ive never head anyone say a good thing about the tube headers. Go with a custom split, fentons or other vintage brand, or a factory dual.

Problem with the split exhaust you have is that it wont provide any heat to the intake, which really does make things run better, especially in colder climates.

Id sell em, along with the fenton intake... If you dont like the valve cover, sell it to me.
Put the cash towards headers and carbs.

The black canister is your oil filter, which was an option back then.....
As long as its the original motor, you should be able to plug the holes and remove the filter.

 

An oil filter was an option? First time Ive ever heard that one! Maybe I can just relocate it to the passenger side firewall or something.

As far as heat to the intake, they make a kit, or you can do it yourself. Just make a solid plate thatll bolt to the bottom of your intake and then drill a hole and weld on a nut for threads. Next get threaded elbow and run a piece of copper tubing to the header. They all have a threaded hole on the sides.

no carbs in the box, and the one valve cover seems to be off some big block motor, mopar?

 

well, I just finished up the dual split exhaust. Went with tube steel headers and Im VERY pleased with the quality and the sound. Had to do alot of relocating and fabbing of stuff. Took alot of pics and Im thinking of doing a tech write up on it.

Ive done other odds and ends and drove it around a bit. The exhaust note has a rap to it if I get on it, other than that, its mellow and I LOVE it!

There will be pics soon, but gotta go to work now!

 

UPDATE!! Pics and a VIDEO CLIP!

I drove it to DMV to get a VIN inspection, registration, tags and plates! I found out that there is a leak in the radiator at the top, so Ill need to fix that before I can start my summer time driving.

So heres some pics of what I did to get the steel tube headers and full length exhaust in. Im sure this is a yawner for most, but it may help someone, who knows.

Since last time Ive installed a new trunk key lock, had keys made for the doors, installed seat belts front and rear, replaced broken parts in doors and linkages, installed exhaust, blue dots, new WWW tires, steel wheels and spider caps, fabbed up hood props, got vacuum wipers to work and other little stuff. Basically Im just havin a ball!!

Next on the list is 12 volt conversion, 2-3" drop and floor mounted shifter.

 

heres the rest of the exhaust job and retractable seatbelts

 

Heres the video clip of the exhaust. steel tube headers, 235, 1-1/2" pipe with 20" glasspacks.


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heres pics of the new shoes, hood props and inside shots

 

Very nice! Can't wait to see it cruising.

 

thanks man!

Just took the radiator to the shop today to get sealed up. Im gonna weld up a rear license plate holder tonight, as well as weld on my tail pipe extentions

 

Like the exhaust note!

What glass packs are did you use? I am also curious what those seat belts are out of.

 

Thanks!!
The glasspacks are "Red Hots" basically a cherry bomb rip off. They look identical inside to a cherry bomb.
The belts are out of a 68 monte carlo I think. I bought them at a swapmeet. You can find all kinds of retractable belts at a junk yard.

 

That car is rad. i need to see that one for sure.

That valve cover looks to be a big block chevy valve cover. prolly a cal custom piece. Have been wanting a pair for some time now.

Way cool driver and it sounds perfect.

Eric

 

well, I havent posted many updates cause recently, like I said, I popped the radiator. After that was repaired, I broke my starter. Instead of replacing it with all 6volt stuff, I did a 12volt conversion.
Right after that, my tranny started slippin and puked a TON of tranny fluid all over the garage floor.
So..... Ive driven it an acummilation of around a half hour since Ive owned it.
Im in the middle of trying to decide which direction to go with my tranny and what to use/repair/swap.
laa de daa

 

Hope you get it sorted out soon. That car is too cool to sit in the garage.

 

thx man, I appreciate that! Im working on figuring out the tranny problems right now.

 

Looking good.....nice car. Hope you get the tranny thing solved soon.

Did you get, in the boxes of treasures, the front fender chrome and the
rocker panel chrome?

 

Looks good man, I dig the hell out of my 54 mordor

 

Im down with the 4 doors! Nice car!

 

47plym: I did get the front wheelwell chrome chunks, but the bolts had all been broke off the backs, but one. No front fender or rocker chrome, but thats the fun stuff to find at meets once its a runner.

UPDATE!!


Check it out man, post # 53!! too cool! haha

I decided to convert it to a 3 speed, floor shift. I bought everything I needed from a guy I found on craigslist for $250

After looking it all over at home, I found out the gearbox case was cracked, the clutch disc was cracked, the 3 speed master cylinder was frozen, the pressure plate fingers were warped and the 2nd gear on the main shaft was missing 13 teeth!!!!!! WTF?!

I felt a bit ripped off by this other guy and called him up to tell him about it. He said he would throw me a perfect 2nd gear plus a whole new 3 speed for 25 bucks. Stupidly, I agreed, but the gears arent made anymore so I felt I needed to.

The gear was nice, but when I got the 3 speed home, I realized that the secondary shaft was BROKEN and the whole shaft just flopped around in there. Subsequently, the other gears were wore out bad.

So I remembered a local shop here close to my house that deals in 38-54 chevy stuff. The name of the place is 'Old Car Parts'. The owner is named Joe and a hell of a nice guy, and very knowledgable. Their number is 503-771-9416. They dont have a website cause theyre oldschool, but they do alot of business and have ass piles of NOS.

Anyways, they hooked me up with everything I needed to get the job done right. I fabbed up my own support for my shifter, (which is stout as hell Im pleased to say) and fabbed up my own beefy adjustable linkage. Welded up a cool shift arm out of two different arms and stuck on a transparent green metallic flake ball on top.

So I clean all my parts, gearbox and bellhousing nicey nice and paint it all blue. (I have WAY too much blue spray paint. You know what I mean when you see a killer sale on spray paint! ) Install it all and go for my first test drive.

Heres the rest of the story and pictures on that:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=508283

So tomorrow, Ill post more pics and the final review of the swap. Maybe even a video

The first video in this thread was when it was a powerglide and starting under 6 volts. Listen to it moan to life! haha! Now its like BOOM with the 12 volts! Im pretty excited with my progress!

Thanks for reading the novel!

 

So heres an update! Since the last video on here, Ive converted from 6 to 12 volt, rebuilt the radiator, converted from powerglide to 3 speed on the floor, replaced ignition and added a tach. Check out the sounds now with the manual shift!! Cooool!

 

heres the first run with the new split pipes that was posted a while ago. Its kinda interesting to listen to the different sounds in the pipes. Even though the pipes werent changed between these vids, the current one sounds louder and more raaapy. Maybe I need to change points or swap to pertronix.
Anyways, enjoy the flip flop

 

Nice. So its back on the road?

 

thx space! pretty much. need to figure out gas gauge prob, turn sig prob, install pertronix and a handful of other stuff, but its getting closer and closer!

 

UPDATE! So I got the gas gauge/turn signal failure worked out. Turns out the voltage reducer I put on the back of the gas gauge shorted out. When I tightened it down, the ground wire insulation got pinched by the nut. And the turn signals get their power from the back of the gas gauge. So replaced the reducer and the gas gauge works again, but still no signals!
I installed pertronix and it all works like a champ!
I also adjusted my rockers and noticed I had a pretty bad bent pushrod. Replaced that while I was in there.
I replaced my stock horns with an old AAOOGAHH horn!
I fabbed up a 12v wiper motor to work, replacing the vacuum motor.
I im in the process of installing functional lakes pipes and messing with side molding ideas.
Im installing a heater/defrost from a '47. Completely rewired the fan motor and will have a 2 speed motor on 12v.
Picked up a new gas tank and will soon pull the old one and weld up the trunk floor before installing the new one.
Ill post another video of the 53 runnin on open lake pipes when theyre all finished soon.
Havin lots of fun!

 

Very nice.

 

Life is way too short,drive what you like daily is a blast.I get people everyday smiling and giving me thumbs up while driving my old custom. Yea its nothing like a new car with all the fancy comfort stuff but it is what I like.I get people saying are you nuts driving that thing in the winter snow? YUP I guess I am so what, if it gets screwed up I fix it. I say to them I don't have a car payment every month,do you? LOL. Monster you have a cool car,enjoy!