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 Post subject: Evan's 53 Chevy Build
PostPosted: April 5, 2016, 11:02 pm 
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Location: Colorado
Hi all. I've been around a while, mostly playing on Solidworks and dreaming. This project is happening for a few reasons:

1. A 1953 Chevrolet 150 Business Coupe showed up on craigslist one night. I was not previously looking for this type of car, but I saw it and loved the proportions.

2. My dad is a longtime GM guy and has a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air. His knowledge of this platform will be a huge help.

3. My self-designed cars that can be found in my other threads scare my wife. She is much more supportive of me starting with a "real" car.

So on to the 53. It is all original, sat in a field for several decades (more than I've been alive in fact) but has a heck of a lot of heart. With a little help the 235 straight six runs well and it drives. I drove it on nice days for about a month. Long enough to discover a few things:

1. The 235 is a pretty weak engine. Good torque, but it can't keep up with modern traffic.

2. The main seals, front and rear, leak bad. I have to run it a quart low on oil and it still drips. If I fill it to the line, it will drain out on the ground overnight.

3. It vapor locks. Luckily I had a can of gas in the trunk. Poured gas down the carb, got it running, juiced up the idle, and hurried home.

4. Most recently, the clutch fork inside the bellhousing broke ( I think, not confirmed), leaving me clutchless on the side of the road. This required a tow.

5. The 3-on-the-tree novelty wears off and you are left with a un-syncronyzed tranny that can't be hurried, which is unfortunate when you need to hurry.

6. The car has a wonderful charm. I maintain that this was from an era when American cars had the best interiors in the world. They are simply beautiful.

Here are some pictures:
Attachment:
IMG_1927.JPG

Yes that is the original brown lacquer paint; cracked and badly damaged. Not much rust, just on the floor boards in front of the seats.
Attachment:
IMG_1932.JPG

Attachment:
V__2EBD.jpg


So now I've got some work to do. I could go many ways, and part of me wants to restore this car. That part is immediately swayed by the persistent smell of gas, and the many shortcomings that you have to deal with when driving a car this old. I have instead chosen to modify it, somewhat drastically. It will have a new heart and soul, covered with the same beautiful and as close to original looking wrapping. After daily craigslist searching, I found a great donor vehicle at a steal-of-a-deal price:

Attachment:
WP_20160404_11_42_19_Pro.jpg

Attachment:
WP_20160404_11_42_31_Pro.jpg


This wonderful L98 powered C4 corvette has a front suspension that is entirely attached to a removable crossmember. The rear suspension and differential are a similar deal. If you're not familiar with this, you can check out google and find images like these:

Image
Image

Beautiful all aluminum suspension! I think this will be a great way to get fully independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, disk brakes, and a limited slip rear end all in one go!

Thats it for now. I'm hoping this build log will keep me moving, even when things are slow going.

EDIT: I wanted to add the present my wife made me:
Attachment:
Cropped-53 Ads.jpg

These are clips from the original advertisements for the 1953s. I think my modifications will improve upon those numbers a little :twisted:


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PostPosted: April 5, 2016, 11:21 pm 
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Looks like you're off to a GREAT start! Agree that there's no reason to put in all the work that a restoration entails, and then saddle yourself with nearly eighty year old technology. Have fun with your project!

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PostPosted: April 6, 2016, 5:24 am 
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Location: East Lansing, MI
Have you seen the "Derelict" series by Icon? Their '52 Chevy is one of my favourites. Swap the frames, or add the C4 drivetrain to the ordinal frame. Channel it, by cutting out the floor, lowering the body a touch, then welding it back together. Compound and buff the paint. Swap the C4 wheels for some plain steelies and reuse the C4 tires. Easy. Should be able to get it done in a couple of weekends!
Being in Michigan I look upon cars from Colorado with envy. Several years ago my f-in-law bought a '52 coupe out of Colorado. We never sheared 1 bolt, nor did we take a torch to anything. Hand wire brushed all the nuts and bolts and a couple of cans of PB Blast.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
Cheers,
Stewart.


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PostPosted: April 6, 2016, 9:54 am 
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
It sounds like you have yourself a very interesting project. So, you've bought the Corvette donor already? That red one looks so good. Is that it?

I have a weakness for the 53-54 Chevys. I had a high school friend who had a 54. It was quite something in it's day. It had Frenched headlights, custom tubular grille, reversed Rambler tail lights at the back and all the door and trunk hardware was "shaved" as we used to say back then and replaced with electrics. The best part was the Jimmy 6 (GMC truck, 270 Cu. In. ?) that was really built up. There was a local garage that built those engines for the track and he had them modify it heavily. It had dual pipes that sounded like a Mexican school bus (those with experience south of the border will know that sound), which was just what we wanted back then. :mrgreen:

Good luck with your project. It should be interesting.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


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PostPosted: April 6, 2016, 11:09 am 
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I've had my eye on a '51 BelAir sitting out in a neighbors pasture. Keep telling myself "Michael, you don't need another project"! :BH:

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PostPosted: April 6, 2016, 2:56 pm 
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As much as I hate to go with the crowd, I have to give this two big thumbs up. I would like to do the same thing, but had in mind dropping the body onto a late model Crown vic police-spec chassis/driveline, but yours is better.


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PostPosted: April 7, 2016, 10:45 am 
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Love it!!

Seems this little 53 has been waiting for you :wink: .. What a fun, dare I say practical car once you mold it to your vision..

You've come to the right place to post this up.. There's a ton of knowledge among the helpful and generous members here, and here in the non traditional builds section, pretty much anything goes..

Please post frequently with lots of pics.. Good luck!

**I've never met your wife, but I can tell already I'd like her :lol:

:cheers:


--ccrunner

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PostPosted: April 7, 2016, 11:59 am 
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Location: Colorado
Limeykid wrote:
Have you seen the "Derelict" series by Icon? .......

...... Easy. Should be able to get it done in a couple of weekends!

.......Being in Michigan I look upon cars from Colorado with envy. Several years ago my f-in-law bought a '52 coupe out of Colorado. We never sheared 1 bolt, nor did we take a torch to anything. Hand wire brushed all the nuts and bolts and a couple of cans of PB Blast.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
Cheers,
Stewart.


No I haven't seen that. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for th epointer, Stewart. Easy, yeah, it'll be easy. I just need to repeat that daily! I think our generally dry weather here keeps things from getting as bad as they do most places. Not as good as say Arizona though. But then you trade off rust for bad sun damage to everything soft.

Lonnie-S wrote:
It sounds like you have yourself a very interesting project. So, you've bought the Corvette donor already? That red one looks so good. Is that it
Cheers,


Yep, that's it. It's been well cared for mechanically and the paint outside is in good shape. The interior has a well used look to it. I'm not sure why he was selling so low, but I figured most issues it might have won't bother me because I'm dismantling it and using a lot of stuff that either appears to work well or is reasonably easy to fix. It's a good drivetrain. It gets some flak because it only has 250hp and runs out of breath up top but the meaty down low 350lbs of torque mean it pulls seemlessly, even in the ultra deep 6th gear (0.50) with the 3.08 (I think) rear. I think it will suit the 53 wonderfully. Seems like a bit more of a cruiser where you glide around on the torque wave.

ngpmike wrote:
I've had my eye on a '51 BelAir sitting out in a neighbors pasture. Keep telling myself "Michael, you don't need another project"! :BH:

The bel-airs are nice, but I really like the proportions of the business coupe. It just looks right to me.

I also like the more restrained chrome package. I think I'm going to enamel paint it a deep navy blue (like the dash) below the beltline and then do everything above the beltline in an off white. Put big off-white dots on the doors with the number 53 in black in the center. Should look a little like an old time race car.

kreb wrote:
As much as I hate to go with the crowd, I have to give this two big thumbs up. I would like to do the same thing, but had in mind dropping the body onto a late model Crown vic police-spec chassis/driveline, but yours is better.


I'm so happy this vette showed up. I was considering a 1/2 ton truck like a sierra or silverado as a donor before this came along. Much happier with this as a donor. It'll be awesome!

ccrunner wrote:
Love it!!

Seems this little 53 has been waiting for you :wink: .. What a fun, dare I say practical car once you mold it to your vision..

You've come to the right place to post this up.. There's a ton of knowledge among the helpful and generous members here, and here in the non traditional builds section, pretty much anything goes..

Please post frequently with lots of pics.. Good luck!

**I've never met your wife, but I can tell already I'd like her :lol:

:cheers:
--ccrunner


I've been watching both your n600 and your volvo build carefully. I love them both. My wife will appreciate the shout out. She keeps saying, "You need to post more pictures of the ads, no one has commented on it yet" She's teasing of course!


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PostPosted: April 8, 2016, 10:31 am 
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Hmmmm... A 53 Chevy bizness coupe... With Corvette running gear and engine...
You, Sir, are a Nut Job. Welcome home! :mrgreen:

I'll be following this one. The wife is right, more pictures! That way Bubba can follow along too...

:cheers:
JD

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PostPosted: April 10, 2016, 9:46 pm 
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Location: Colorado
I'm gonna be following this one for sure! Whereabouts in Colorado are you? I'm in the Boulder area, and my projects are a few miles north of there.

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PostPosted: April 10, 2016, 10:13 pm 
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esp42089 wrote:
Put big off-white dots on the doors with the number 53 in black in the center. Should look a little like an old time race car.
You mean something like this?

Attachment:
Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 9.11.52 PM.png


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PostPosted: April 10, 2016, 10:48 pm 
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Location: Colorado
ThunderHeide wrote:
I'm gonna be following this one for sure! Whereabouts in Colorado are you? I'm in the Boulder area, and my projects are a few miles north of there.

I'm in Longmont, so really not far at all! We should meet up sometime.

BHRmotorsport wrote:
esp42089 wrote:
Put big off-white dots on the doors with the number 53 in black in the center. Should look a little like an old time race car.
You mean something like this?

Attachment:
Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 9.11.52 PM.png


Yep. Just like that. I think it would make for a pretty neat look. I'm thinking of a blue like the one on this pickup:

Attachment:
NAvy Blue Truck.jpg


I need to round up the pictures my buddies took this weekend to post up. In short, the 235 and transmission are removed and the 53 is sitting like a high-boy now without the giant iron boat anchor in the front.


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PostPosted: April 10, 2016, 11:04 pm 
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Location: Colorado
Almost as if by telepathy, some of the pictures show up in my email as I hit submit on the last post. Sadly, once we got started, we didn't stop to take pictures until the end.

Enjoy!

Attachment:
235andTrans-out.jpg

You can see the new dizzy and fuel pump I installed to get it running better. Luckily, I don't have too much money into this engine, so scrapping it wasn't a hard choice.
Attachment:
235hanging.jpg

Attachment:
EngineBayEmpty.jpg


Pretty filthy job, but if a positive thing can be said about a car with leaks is that bolts soaked in oil come free easily. Hardest thing to remove out of everything was the bumper. Those 4 bolts were rusted together badly. Everything else seemed to work it's way loose without too much trouble.

It will likely be next weekend before more meaningful progress is made, but we'll see; a present is scheduled to arrive this week and I'll post up some pictures when it does.


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PostPosted: April 10, 2016, 11:22 pm 
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Location: Colorado
Limeykid wrote:
Have you seen the "Derelict" series by Icon? Their '52 Chevy is one of my favourites. Swap the frames, or add the C4 drivetrain to the ordinal frame. Channel it, by cutting out the floor, lowering the body a touch, then welding it back together. Compound and buff the paint. Swap the C4 wheels for some plain steelies and reuse the C4 tires. Easy. Should be able to get it done in a couple of weekends!
Being in Michigan I look upon cars from Colorado with envy. Several years ago my f-in-law bought a '52 coupe out of Colorado. We never sheared 1 bolt, nor did we take a torch to anything. Hand wire brushed all the nuts and bolts and a couple of cans of PB Blast.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
Cheers,
Stewart.


Stewart, I looked up the Derelict 52. It looks awesome and captures a lot of the spirit I hop my 53 will have. Here is a picture of it for everyone:
Attachment:
icon-derelict-chevvy.jpg


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PostPosted: April 11, 2016, 6:43 am 
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Posts: 316
Location: East Lansing, MI
Hoped you would like it!
Hit the body with compound and a buffer. Use the drive train from the vette. Use vette tyres on readily available big diameter steel wheels. Stick a fork in it, it's done,
Oh, one last thing. Drive the snot out of it, don't stress over paint chips and cart rash, have fun. YOU own IT, not the other way round.
Hereby endeth the sermon!
Cheers,
Stewart.


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