1955 Chevrolet Bel Air More Door For A 16 Year Old

[Catbox]

Yesterday we finally went and picked this up for his car.
Hopefully it will relight the fire for him to get stuff done on his car again.
Not a monster firebreather, but a fully rebuilt and running set up for his car.
It is a 307 / turbo 400 from a 1968 truck that was LS swapped.
Engine has maybe 1500 miles on it since rebuild.
When it was rebuilt, the old owner had a better than stock cam put into it.

Max has already swapped on his aluminum M/T valve covers.
The other planned changes will be to install one of the Edelbrock Performer aluminum intakes we have for it and a little 600 CFM Holley carb for it. He is committed to keeping the oil fill tube on the new intake as well and plans to have it machined to accept the tube.
It has a set of new Rams Horns exhaust manifolds with it that were Cerakoted for protection, but they are a pickle to use on the car chassis, so he will probably end up with a new set of headers for it as well.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Now to get him to sand blast the chassis and paint it before the rains come back in full effect...

 

[Catbox]

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

I must have missed this one.

His plan for the car is to leave the Aqua alone and to have the roof dents fixed.
Fix the rust in the car and have the new blended as best we can with the old and sand it all smooth-ish.
Then have the roof repainted in a pearl white and have the whole car then clear coated to preserve the look.

He likes the "Actual patina" look that it has.
We are not big fans of the fake patina look.

He drives my '73 VW bug now and people at the parts store are always asking him if he is going to paint it.
His answer is that it took my dad 15 years of daily driving to make the paint look like that, it is just fine.

 

[idahovette]

@Catbox ,Don't remember if you said you were converting to side engine mounts? If you do and go with a transmission crossmember, you can trim the old trans mounts off of the frame and give yourself more room for the exhaust so it doesn't hang down quite so far. They come off really easy........ just my opinion, worked on my Nomad

 

[Catbox]

@Catbox ,Don't remember if you said you were converting to side engine mounts? If you do and go with a transmission crossmember, you can trim the old trans mounts off of the frame and give yourself more room for the exhaust so it doesn't hang down quite so far. They come off really easy........ just my opinion, worked on my Nomad

Yes sir.
It is getting the side mount kit as well as new crossmember.
Those old trans mounts are going to be cut out for sure.

I bought him a whole kit for Christmas last year, he has since found a chassis bracing kit that has a crossmember already built in to it. So maybe I will swipe his unused crossmember and use it on my '54 when it gets its V8 and 4L80 transmission.

 

[Rusty Nail]

Fake patina.... /smh

I wish I had a 307 crankshaft.

 

[idahovette]

@Rusty Nail , 307 and 327 cranks are both 3.25 stroke? Ya want a big one or a little one? I may have either....(journal)

 

[Rusty Nail]

Been after a big one. I think 68-73 is what im after Sir.
Yep, 3.25" stroke will be the foundation of a new engine I wanna build.
I wanna build a 40 year old 327 and smoke some fancy vortex with it.
Prolly have to lie and say its just a 350 cuz nobody would believe me anyways.

 

[idahovette]

It would definitely be a runner, have to be a 3 pedal car to take advantage of the rpm range!!

 

[Catbox]

Been after a big one. I think 68-73 is what im after Sir.
Yep, 3.25" stroke will be the foundation of a new engine I wanna build.
I wanna build a 40 year old 327 and smoke some fancy vortex with it.
Prolly have to lie and say its just a 350 cuz nobody would believe me anyways.

You can always buy a new forged crank too.
They still make them in that size as seen here...

You must be registered for see images attach

I am sure that Eagle makes them as well.

 

[Catbox]

Didn't take him long to change the valve covers, much better than sitting in the house playing video games.
He also split the engine and transmission as he has a 1995 Z/28 4L60 that will be going into his car.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Notice if you will, the age of the vehicles in my driveway...

 

[Rusty Nail]

Y U NO LT1?

 

[Catbox]

Because I got a most excellent deal for him on this set of goods.

$1000 for an engine that was fully re-machined and assembled with quality goods and a turbo 400 transmission with a shift kit.

It cost my rich buddy more than that just for the engine work.
Plus it came with the new starter, alternator, coated rams horn manifolds, and Pertronix billet distributor.

Seems like an easy peasy deal to me.

 

[Ricko1966]

Did you ever get it running?

 

[Rusty Nail]

Pix?

 

[84GMCSierra]

I'm a fan of 4 doors. Love the car and it's great to see you and youe son with a great project. I love the original battery. If I had one of those, I'd figure out a way to gut it, and use it as a small storage box in the car. Best of luck to you both, and I'm sure I speak for a lot of us, keep the pics coming