Projects My new 53 chevy 4dr daily driver!

Monster, I missed this one... congrats on the great find. I had my heart set on picking up a '51 Fleetline a few years back but the deal fell through. It was the same color green under the grey primer. I'm always happy for those who get the cool deals on the cool cars.

 

She looks like it was garaged kept! Nice find

 

So today I drove it outside my nieghborhood, but still kept it in residential streets with some nice long stretches. Drove around for a while and all is good. No leaks!
Only compaint, its too quiet! Those dual glasspacks take all the rap out of the pipes. So tonight I fabbed up a section of straight pipe. Im so happy that I put in exhaust flanges and gaskets at three points in my exhaust. It makes for fun exhaust swaps to find the perfect sound.
So now... RA_A_A_A_A_A_APPPPPP! Its really cool, cause its smooth and mellow while driving and at idle. But any decel moments, theres a nice loud rap! And when I downshift from 3rd to 2nd.. oh jesus! hahahaa! Ill take a video just like the first two to compair them all. This one takes the cake as far as how vulgar the rap is!
More to come...

 

Well today I took it on a longer run and Im VERY pleased to say that it kept the 45 psi oil pressure the whole time, and kept one mark below the halfway point on temp the whole drive, even in traffic.
I drove it down to the engine rebuilders who put the motor together and turned in my warranty. Three years coverage starts today! YAY!
I also told him about a little ping issue I was having when starting out in gears and under load. He said to recheck the timing. So right when I got home I checked it out. It was WAY off! I had to adjust it like 3 times before I saw the dot! I cant believe it ran as decent as it did with it that far out.
So now the exhaust flows out an even jet of exhaust, no more "poof poof".
Im just very very pleased and excited to actaully start driving my car finally! Ive already put 44 miles on the new motor!

 

You gonna be at billetproof?
Hope to get a good look at all your hard work.

 

Cool video! This might sound strange, but I love the sound the doors make when you shut them. That's one of my favorite things about old cars.

The engine bay looks really good, too! Nice work.

 

kimb82: Ill be at billetproof for sure, but the 53 wont. Too early for a 2 hour 65 mph run. Im breaking this motor nice and slow and easy and spoiling it with plenty of oil changes early.

sinister: I love the sound of old doors shutting as well. Has a great solid sound unlike the thin doors of today.

Heres a couple shots of it out on the street under its own power again!

 

Before I could drive we had a 53 belair just like that!! Dad bought it in 1980 for $50.00 and it was a nice original with 50,000 miles on it. It sat outside for 1 winter and next summer we found out the previous owner had put straight water in it to get it running. Broke the block of coarse.... So Dad dropped a 327 in it with a turbo 350 and a nova rear end. My older brother and sister both drove it to school, and hated it because it was a 4dr I was looking forward to driving it, but my sister put it in the ditch one morning on an icey road and caved the passenger side in with 3 brand new pressure treated fence posts. Dad stripped it and sold it for parts. I always got a kick out of waiting for the radio to warm up

Nice car!! Brings back many memories.

 

UPDATE WITH RIDE-ALONG VIDEO!



ok... hang on.. have to remember how to post youtube stuff..lol been a while

 

Sweet ride, glad to hear she's doing good!

Check out the July '53 Popular Mechanics magazine, it has a great road test article on the '53 BelAir 4dr sedan. Even has a lot of owner reviews of the car.

 

Ok now weve got it!!

 

Thanks for the lead!!! Youve just given me yet another mag to search for at the shows when snottin through the stacks!

 

Sweet!

 

So Im finally doing some fun body work to the car. Filling in moulding holes, repairing rust and I frenched my headlights. Its still a work in progress obviously, but in th mean time I painted white primer over the areas and worked in some flames and pinstripes. Ill post some pics soon

 

Great choice, and great looking too!
Good for you.
Cheers...................

 

Man...I hate filling holes! Specially since all mine are rust! Doing great Monster, keep at it!

 

Just found this! Awesome! subscribed

 

Very cool!

 

So, update, I have filled almost all of the drivers side and trunk, moving onto the passenger side next.

Had to have my car towed twice this month!!

Turned out it was my fuel pump. Totally broke a chuck off of the diaphram washer in the vacuum side of the pump. It was full of oil and made my car sputter and die as if it wasnt getting fuel or running out of gas. I put on a brand new one and its running good again.

Took it to an old school tune up mechanic that works on the old girls and he tweeked the timing slightly, tuned my carb up, checked out my distributor and checked oil and fuel pressure.

Now its so dialed in, I can bark the tires when I take off. That has NEVER happened with this car, so Im feeling real good!

Pics of body work to come later!

 

Update:
So its been a while since I updated, but Ive been doing a lot in the garage!

I bought some old looking fabric and covered my seats. Its more to just preserve the original untorn wool fabric seats from my greasy jeans. Got it all for under 20 bucks!

Ive been messing with the exhaust (AGAIN!) on my seemingly unending search for that perfect sound. I have some pretty cool ideas for this next attempt. I may do a tech thread on that when I get to it.

Also, the pictures of the flame job I did to protect the raw steel from the french job was nagging me. They just didnt look right, even if it was only a temporary deal. The cars top and belair strip and my sidewalls are all an antique cream color and the flames were bright primer white. The new plans are to do simple scallops in antique cream.

Im still working on body work, replacing rusted areas with patch panels and welding in trim holes.

Ive been driving it almost daily to work lately! Its really driving good, even in this cold weather. I still havent hooked up the heater, so no defrost. Put on Fog-X on all the windows and it works awesome!!

Ill post pics soon!

 

You ever find a T5 for that?

 

I havent looked for one yet just cause its more than just a trans swap. Ill have to get an adapter, driveline, rearend and fab up some kind of clutch mount.
Ill tell ya though, Im liking the idea more and more each time I drive it! haahaa!

Did you do the conversion?

 

UPDATE!

Been a while since Ive done an update, but Ive been doing alot of stuff to the car.

Ive covered the seats with cool old fabric, cut out the floorboards, and converted to a dual resevoir master cylinder upgrade. Ive also begun reworking my first attempt at frenching the headlights. Also, Im designing and fabbing up my own internal design "muffler" and having it exit out the lake pipes, but tying in at the back, just before the turn out, rather than run the full length. I get the exhaust and sound coming out the tips, but the pipe length is not hot.

Heres some pics of the brakes and floor. Ill post more of interior and french job and exhaust when I get time. Im usually out in the garage and not on this computer. Isnt that how its suppose to be? haha!

 

Neat, glad to see it moving forward. To answer your question, I have not located the right T5 yet.

 

Good to see more progress!

 

El Cab, I went to the local u-pull-it about a month ago and there were so many s-10s and blazers I could of picked my favorite color. I sat in every one and rowed through the gears. Learned alot from that. Some have wear, like sliding out of gears or really hard to get in gear. There were at least 5 that were solid in each gear and seemed tight. They said any manual in the yard, $150. I may be able to find one for less, but I sure like to be able to shop around, as it were. Im always looking tho. Once I find a sweet deal (and have the money at that same moment) Ill be doing the swap for sure!! Im looking forward to that overdrive....

 

Nice car, Love the build and they must have made a million dark green 53/54s.

MrC.

 

During my floorboard install, I redid my headlight frenching. Check out the NEW french job!

These first two shots show the first french attempt. You can easily see the headlight bezel here, which looks pretty retard-o. I think this final crack at it looks way more smooth.

 

The best bodywork makes it look like it was there all along, I think you nailed it.