I wasn't planning on buying anything right now, but this just came up at a fairly good price. I still had just enough cash left from selling my '41 pickup, so..... It was owned by a parent at my kids school - he is into restorer/original stuff but some personal circumstances meant he had to thin down. He said it was a '47 but grill/badge appear to be '48 (we seem to have gotten half-year, mixed up models here in South Africa) The car is pretty much original (except for 12V and radials). As much as I would love to dive in and start making changes, the plan is to resist that urge and keep it on the road. I will be lowering as much as I can with cut coils/lowering the spring cup on the A-arms and lowering blocks/de-arched springs out back. As long as the engine is running ok I will leave that alone - except maybe for split manifolds. If I pick up any major issues I will probably go the route of a later six with open drive as I can find them fairly easily, rather than trying to resurrect the 216. If that happens I will look at a rear notch and getting it to sit even lower.. Gears are a little hard to get but I think that may be in the linkage - will need to scratch a bit. I can get a (free) spare gearbox if there is a bigger issue. There are a bunch of small things to attend to - vent window cranks don't work, some gap alignment, and finding the missing trim etc Longer term I would love to chop it, get it a little lower and change the colour - but hopefully I can resist that for a couple of years and just enjoy having a solid driver for a change....
Nice car, data plate will ID YOM, prefix would be 46, 47 or 48 and then 1007 suffix. RHD Fisher body?
I love mine. Those 216s don't like a lot high rpm. Is the shifting issue related to the vacuum shift? Anyway you snagged a really nice car.
Thanks guys - Took my boys out for Father's Day breakfast yesterday and a little drive. Runs great! I wasn't aware of the vacuum shift (not sure if it has) but I found this thread http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/stiff-shifting-48-chevy-fleetmaster-need-help.472968/ . Will check it out later today. And start making a list of all the little items that need attention. Mgtstumpy - Yes it has the Fisher tag on the seat.