History Waiting for a Train - 1963 Belair

Maybe I will explain later...but right now, I'm waiting.

 

Jimmie Rodgers is "The" man........My Dad sang me all those songs when I was a kid..and he yodeled too

 

Hell, I thought we might hear Chill Wills:
"Like desperados, waitin' for a train..."

 

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that.

 

Rogers is exactly what I thought of when I saw the title. For once, I'm glad the thread turned out to be what I thought it was!

 

Although I really am waiting on a train...tonight, I was waiting on a truck. She's headed "a thousand miles away from home".

 

Oh man...I hate to see her go Chuck. I have had one of your pictures from your build thread as my wallpaper on my computer at work. Where is she headed to? - Did a HAMBer buy her?

 

Good stuff, thanks

 

Did you sell it to make room for your next project???

Something like this? Very traditional.

 

Do de oh de do ohhh!

 

I remember Boxcar Willie

 

Willys?

 

My sedan is headed to Cali and I am headed across the tracks. The new garage(s) have 2.5 times the square footage and the house is quite nice too. I haven't decided what to build next, but there's multiple parking spots for it. Moving in 1 month...looking for a project.

 

Found this car and drove it to my new home. I absolutely love full fendered 30's cars, and I will own an A coupe someday (it's good to have dreams). But, I also really like 60's
Chevy's. I made a deal with this car when I found it. I said to it, "make the 150 mile drive home, and I will undo all the insanely horrible mechanical work the last idiot did to you." Once I had her securely up on jacks, a few tears of antifreeze hit my new garage floor. Then, I promptly yanked the radiator.

 

Although the car needs a few things corrected, it is overall, real nice. Born a 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree...It's now a small journal 327, 4spd, P case (posi). Interior and exterior will remain very stock. In fact, it appears to be about 75% original paint.

 

I like the cut of that jib....
These early 60's post cars have been on my radar for some time. And a small block/stick is my preference. Looks like you found a real nice one, congrats.

 

Boy, that is one nice looking '63.

 

Congrats... That will be a fun project! Late 80's I had a '61 flattop before they were cool, and wouldn't mind finding a 61-64 2dr post or 62-64 Chevy II post.

 

Chuck, that's a good looking car. What's the plan? - early '60's factory racer look?

 

409 in front of that 4 speed?

 

Great sleeper. 409 is cool, but almost passe' in one of those cars anymore. 327 is the way to go.

 

OK now I officially feel old. I really liked that old song when I was a little kid and I guess I still do.

 

Man, we share the same taste for cars; I'd extend the love for full fendered cars from mid 30's to end of 40's and Chevrolet best years were 1960 to -64. Congratulations for the score, your '63 is a beauty - have fun!

"Waiting for a train" has been my favorite for a long time, here's another good version of it;

 

We had a train show up at our cruise last month....

 

(side comment, but...)Looks like you got your all red tail lights now.

 

That "side comment" works for me too. Some previous owner put Impala tail light lenses on this car. I have already switched them back to the proper Belair tail lights. There was also the front portion of an Impala 4 speed console just laying on the floor over the shifter. That has been sold and I own the basic round rubber boot and ring that is supposed to be there. A 409 would be awesome, but the 327 really runs good. As this is not a true "build thread", and more of a "hey guys, check this car out" thread - I appreciate all the comments. I will post some photo's and details of some really, really bad mechanical work that involves steering and brakes at a later time. I'm super busy with the recent move, but this car will be ready come spring. Speaking of spring, the rears got swapped out last night. Low and slow is a no no.

 

Several months ago in a previous thread I mentioned that I could not get the right brake light to work. I rewired the tail lights, brake lights and turn signals and still couldn't get it to work. While doing that I painted the backup lights red so I could try to have one brake light and one tail light on each side but that didn't work either. Someone said that it may be the turn signal switch in the steering column so I'm going to take it apart over the winter and see if that's the problem. If so I'll probably rewire the rear lights and try to remove the red paint from the backup light lenses so it looks original. I never drive the car at night and obviously don't need backup lights but I would prefer to keep it as original as possible. BTW, is this what the turn signal switch looks like? The part number is TW-78C. Thanks....

 

No wonder they put a disc brake kit on the front - I don't think the rears even worked. The brake line plumbing gets worse up front - nothing says quality like loop 'd' loo's and couplings. I'm lucky I made it home.

 

Back to the Belair. Here's some rules I try to follow when working on brakes...
1.) when putting in new lines, it's best to take the old lines out.
2.) the new lines should not touch the steering shaft, or the headers, or the oil pan.
3.) if you are replacing over half of the system, you should probably just replace all of it.
4.) flare by flare couplings, although not ideal, are ok in my book. However, joining non-flared straight tubing with compression couplings is only acceptable if you are trying to cross the finish line of the baja 1000.
The last guy who worked on this car scares me. The car is much happier in my garage. It's finally sleeping through the night again.