My stuff

Since I am so far away, and the powers that be have been nice enough to grant me a chance to become a Scrounger, I should try to give you a thread on my cars.

The first is my 55 chevy.( sorry no pics. from when I got it a computer crash and they were all gone )

When I bougt the car it had a 305/3speed and alot of problems, but the price was right. To tell the truth, as soon as he opened the garage door I knew I was gona buy it. The drive home was exciting, the brakes got worse as I drove, and the 305 started to leave a nice fog behind it. When I got it home and started to mess around with it, I found that the pittman arm was hitting the exhaust, the bolts holding the trans to the crossmember had fallen out, and the brake lights didn't work. (could have been the fact that the wires were all cut under the back seat.)

The plan was to pull the engine and trans., clean and paint the firewall, fix the brakes, drop in a .030 over 350 with a 350 tans., fix the wiring, and drive the wheels off of it. (should of stuck with that plan)

Got the drivetrain pulled and the firewall all painted up, ran all new wires from the fuse block, and hung a dual master cyl. and proportioning valve for the brakes. The trans, crossmember was a hacked together piece of junk, so I whipped up a new on from 1x2 tubing and some 10ga sheet. Everything was looking great! Ya right.

While under the car, I noticed that two of the body mount bolts were gone, turns out they were snaped off. Also noticed that the rubber body pucks were mostly rotted away. No problem, just pull the rest of the bolts, jack up the body and put in new rubber. Ended up with all but three mount bolts breaking, what to do now?

Pulled the dog house, and lifted the body onto a couple of boards sitting on 55 gallon drums, (yes I know very unsafe ) and rolled the frame out of the way. Drilled out all the bodymount bolts and retapped the holes. Since the frame was out I decided I might as well clean and paint it clean and paint it. (while wire wheeling the frame, I got to meet several nice officers thanks to my neighbor) You just can't do a good jobe with all that supension in the way now can you? Hey while its apart might as well rebuild the front end, and add disk brakes. Ya now the front and rear springs are kinda weak, lets put in some new ones, and might as fabn up some pockets to move the rear springs into the frame.

Frame looks great! Wow now the rusty tank looks like crap better clean and detail that, really should wire brush and under coat those floorboards, and clean up that rearend.


What honey you found a house you want across town and we need to move? Oh ok.


Settled in new house, and more nice officers and the city inspector (you gotta love neighbors) City says no working on cars in your garage. What? (one cop told me as long as nobody complains it isn't a problem, but some one complained) So had to find someplace to work on it. Found one, but it's 45min. away, but again the price is right.
Body back on frame, engine and trans. in dog house on, lets rock. About five miles into its maiden voyage the supposedly rebilt trans. lets loose, I get it back to the shop, lock the door and walk away for a while. A year goes by, than another, and another, other projects come along.

The wifes 56 T-bird 390 auto. Needs the rear end rebuilt, new rear springs, new tank and fuel lines, rebuild the carb, bigger radiator, and all new brakes. Get it going and mamas happy.


My 77 Bronco mud truck. Wasn't a whole lot to do to this one, moved the gass tank up, padded the rollbar, and put in a mini spool.

anniversery
Then the supprise of my life, my 10th anniversary present from my wife. 47 Ford, 88 S10 front clip with 2" spindles, 350/350 and 90 caprice rear end. (the rear fenders are 2" wider than stock.)

Rebuilt the front suppention, new pads and rotors, and added a Caddy air cleaner.

The whole time the poor 55 just sits there being ignored. was talking to a friend at a carshow and he ask about the 55. Told him about the trans., and he said he had an old saganaw I was welcome to. Not the best of transmissions, but what do you want for free.

Then I get a chance to take an adult ed. body shop class, and need something to work on.So out of the dust comes the old 55, pull the motor and trans out so I can detail the motor, and hook up the new trans. (plus I had cut the pivit off the frame for the Z bar)





After all that, I got the Gasser bug, pulled out the new 2" spindles, g body rotors and calliper, and new stock springs. In went the stock spindles with new rotors and calipers ,409 Impala springs, and balljoint spacers.




Some stuff I made for the old girl.





The seats i'm gona run.


Still have to build a cage, and I picked up a 9" read for her. But again shes on hold, because she's up north and I'm here in Florida. Gona get her as soon as possable, really want to get her on the road and play.

Very cool thread Chris! I feel for you with the people around you calling on you for no other reason than just being jerks. I loved it when the EPA was called on me Lucky we were from the same hick town down in Ky so we got to be buddy buddy before it went south.
I was laughing to myself when I seen the picture of the frame. That looks like my garage. I have to stop work for a day and clean so I can move around. I joke about it saying in my garage I have to walk outside to just get a deep breath. lol

Keep that wife. Anyone that gives presents like that are keepers!

RebStew wrote:Very cool thread Chris! I feel for you with the people around you calling on you for no other reason than just being jerks.

Keep that wife. Anyone that gives presents like that are keepers!

Every time I hear someone complain about the neighbors it makes me more glad I don't have any close.

I think I'm lucky my wife doesn't complain too much about my shop time.

Chris
Very nice....I will forever have a spot for 55 chevy. My father had 13 of them when I was younger. Post, Hard top, nomad. I spent some time wet sanding a few. The pics. of your 55 brings back a lot of good memories. For the record ANY wife that would buy you a 47 ford for your anniversary....Well.... If i was a single man. I would ask if she has any sisters! lol Good luck on getting the 55 down here if you need a hand just give a shout.
Mike

Chris…if you want I could put some miles on that old ’55 for you while it’s up here. Better a car be driven than just sit around. When I first started high school one of the seniors had a ’55 two door post that was really quick, no front bumper, primered dog house, two fours and a Muncie 4-spd (word always was that the transmission was hot). He worked at the Texaco station and dated the neighbor girl. She was pretty, the car was quick, so he was someone to look up to at that time. Then, just after I graduated high school and started working at the Sohio station, one of the guys there traded his old Corvette for a ’55 Nomad. Most thought he was crazy but I loved that car too. It ended up being a D/Gas car soon after that. My daughter and I could probably deliver that thing to Disney World for ya. It couldn’t take too much gas since its all downhill from here. Love that old Bronco and I saw the T-Bird when it was all tore apart up at Norbert’s. That old orange Ford looks familiar too. Did ya have that when you were up here?

Thanks for sharing Chris! I love the 55. My Dad had a few at one time and I remember wrenching on them almost every night for a year. Which at that time, I began to hate it! But now, it's something I would love to have and it's gave me the bug to get another one.