1955 Chevrolet Bel Air More Door For A 16 Year Old

[Catbox]

Here is where he ended up with it today.

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[Catbox]

On Saturday @Maxwellvis and I went over to a buddies house to pick up a 8.5 10 bolt for the Bel Air.
Said buddy needed room in his shop and just made a free post on the bookface.
I claimed it only knowing it is a better 10 bolt than what is in the car.
Turns out the rearend is out of his '70 Camaro as he is putting in a Ford 9 inch.
It will need a full rebuild with a fresh limited slip, good axles, and better gears.

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[Vbb199]

Now following @Maxwellvis to watch progress. Keep it up!

I'll give him a follow too!!

 

[DoubleDingo]

I put in a 10 bolt like that one in my '56 in high school. It was a huge improvement over the stock 4.10.

 

[shiftpro]

In the early '80s my buddy (Star Auto, Grand Forks BC) converted his 4 door into a 2 door. But he had a unique twist, moving the back door and quarters forward. The car became a short wheelbase 2 door. Cute as heck. There was no room for a back seat. Tubbed the rear wheel wells, old school high comp 327, 4 speed. This car was eventually sold after Bernard got married (go figure). A jackass for Cali bought it, he slammed it and painted it purple with bubbly wave graphics. THEN, it was featured in Hot Rod magazine barely mentioning the guy who built it.

 

[Catbox]

People ask if he is going to change it up into a 2 door car.
He is ok with it being a four door car as it is still one that rarely gets seen out on the road today.

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It will be a feisty machine and built in a '60's kind of theme.

He is currently applying for a job at the local hot rod parts store.
So he will have access to a bunch of parts at a decent discount, as will I....

 

[Ilike55s]

Aw,,Shoot,,I just found this thread and hope it didn't get lost,,,As my handle states ,,,I LIKE 55 S and am currently working on my life's dream,,A rust free 55 2 door Hdtp with possibly the only set of working Lambo doors in the world!! Hoping to see a resurecting of your son's 55 project.

 

[OldBlueDually]

So what are your plans with the body? Man, that baby has some sweeeeet Patina!!!!

If this were my 55 (it isn't, so my opinion here means nothing!) I would leave that body the way it is, do up the interior & throw in that engine you got, get that baby mechanically sound and road safe and drive the hell out of it for a while until you do a full restore!

I read through the posts, but maybe I missed what your plans are?

Get a job at local hot rod parts store, heck yeah! I really hope he gets that job!!! Not only could he get some deals, but the amount of learning he is going to do and the knowledge he will gain is worth it's weight in gold! Especially when the Old School hot rodders stop in for parts, man talk about a wealth of knowledge those guys have.

There is a local Hot Rod shop in our tiny town too called "Minnesota Hot Rod Hardware", great place, great people that I have known since I was a teenager!

Hope the best for your son there for that job. You guts got a great project going here, love that Patina on it!!

 

[Ricko1966]

FOOKIN AWESOME!!!! Thanks for learning me on that cast number, gunna keep my eyes peeled in the scrap job!

283 injected heads aren't the ones you want it's 327 heads 461 or 461x with 2.02 valves and I wouldn't want those either, other than collectability or running a swp car.FWIW way too many people call any double hump head they have laying around fuelie heads, that's not even close to true. If you want to run old iron heads on anything 1968 or later you want 186 castings they have accessories holes and were the best of the double hump castings same as 461s but for lwp cars.Thats all just my opinion.

FOOKIN AWESOME!!!! Thanks for learning me on that cast number, gunna keep my eyes peeled in the scrap job!

 

[45tt]

It will be a feisty machine and built in a '60's kind of theme.

My sister was lucky enough to get a 60’s themed 55 Chevy 150 as her first car at 16 yrs old. She had the neatest car at the high school. There were a lot of guys in high school that were envious of it. She still has it, but it is in storage. It’s pictured here with some ford ranger style rims, but it originally had slotted rims on it. I can’t remember if it was a 265 or 327, but it was converted from a manual trans to an automatic on the floor.

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[Catbox]

The thread is not lost!

As of last week he has started his new job at the parts store!
That was a surprise as they had hired another person that was available full time.
He turned out to be a turd and they are going to let his ass go soon.

Currently the car sits in the driveway with its whole front taken off.

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Sheetmetal is all in backyard.
All the suspension has been removed from the chassis and he started cleaning the grime and stuff from the rails.
But he stopped as we need to buy a portable sand blaster to get into the hard to reach areas that the wire wheels don't get too. The soda blaster we picked up is not powerful enough for that task.

As for the body, he is going to keep the patina on the outside of it.
Fixing the rust through where it needs to be done, it will be made solid but keep the paint as much as possible.

Recently we picked up another good hood for it, because he may want to run a tunnel ram some day and it was $25. That gentleman also had a passion for the hot rods.
He happened to be rebuilding a '55 at the time and enjoyed that Max is so into cars.
This guy had ordered USA made floor pans for his car and had them shipped up here from California and that cost him $650 total.
He had since decided to order the full floor pan for his car and asked if we might know somebody that could use the floor pan halves that he already had.

Us.
We will need them.
How much you want for them?
$300 was the answer.
Sold.

So junior has the floor pans he needs as the passenger side of the car is missing.
Now he will need rockers and some floor braces to finish it all.
When he gets those, he will send it off to have a buddy of mine do it all at one time.
Buddy spent time doing high end restoration work and works like a humming bird on energy drinks. He has done amazing things to cars that were so not worthy.

We have also picked up a rearend out of a buddies '70 Camaro.
Sadly, it is only the 8.2 and not the 8.5...
But it will be just fine for moderate power levels that will be run early on for this car.
It was a the best price of free...

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[OldBlueDually]

VERY COOL!!! Hey, Free is my favorite "F" word Nothing wrong with that! Glad to hear he got that job too, that's great.

Ya know what would look cool in that car? Some vintage glass from back in the day, popular in gassers....not sure how it would actually work as a windshield however. My brother has a buddy who came across these when he bought his place, they were in the barn...

However, I do not know if this stuff is for a 55, or a Chevy for that matter....pretty cool though if he had a gasser project going on!

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[Ricko1966]

Catbox didn't want to quote your whole thread but 72 -74 nova or 72- I think 81Camaro would get you an 8.5 leaf spring rearend. And nice thing about 8.5 is all the b posi and decent gears in truck rearend swap.Way easier than finding good stuff for an 8.2 .Keep your eyes open I will too. And all off you I'm looking for an 8.5 for a 71/72 skylark.

 

[Catbox]

Yeah, we had hopes that it was the 8.5, but alas, the number stamped in the tube told us differently.

We went to the junk yard and found the one truck with a 8.6 disc brake rearend in it.
It was there for weeks.
When it turns out they had a sale on all rearends, they had just crushed that row in particular.

SONOFABICH!!!!!!!

Not a big deal though as we have the 8.2 for him, the stock '55 rearend, and I also have a Ford Explorer 8.8 rear in the back yard. I tend to hoard parts until I have what I need to make things work. So not all is lost as the Ford with a little work will be just fine behind most things we will put in front of it. Plus it shares loads of dimensional parts with the Chevy 12 bolt...

 

[Ricko1966]

Yeah, we had hopes that it was the 8.5, but alas, the number stamped in the tube told us differently.

We went to the junk yard and found the one truck with a 8.6 disc brake rearend in it.
It was there for weeks.
When it turns out they had a sale on all rearends, they had just crushed that row in particular.

SONOFABICH!!!!!!!

Not a big deal though as we have the 8.2 for him, the stock '55 rearend, and I also have a Ford Explorer 8.8 rear in the back yard. I tend to hoard parts until I have what I need to make things work. So not all is lost as the Ford with a little work will be just fine behind most things we will put in front of it. Plus it shares loads of dimensional parts with the Chevy 12 bolt...

B bodies had 8.5 also man I wouldn't think it would be to hard to put spring mounts on a B body rearend.IDK where instant center is on an explorer rearend so IDK if it's a good choice or not. And FWIW building your own frt or rear discs is child's play.Was trying to find pics of last ones I did but can't seem too.If you want the basics just ask I'll walk you through it.