Zoomin

It's amazing how much I can agonize over choosing a color. One of the hardest parts of a build, I think.

C-1 Generation 2

Here's a short video of one of our area car cruises at about the 55 second mark you can see what a close friends 67 Chevelle 396SS looks like in mountain green. I think I was parked next him in my 62 but you can hardly see it.

MrPbody

After responding to a local CL add, most of yesterday morning was spent digging through piles of trim and various other 59 Chevy parts at the guys house. I did pick up a pretty nice trunk lid to replace the rusty one on the car, and a couple pieces of side trim to replace my one mangled piece on the right quarter. most of the other parts he had were in good condition, but mine just happened to be better. he has a beautiful white 59 Impala BBC in his garage, so I expect the really nice parts are already on his car
Then much of the afternoon was spent helping a buddy of mine pick up a couple engines for his newly acquired 66 442, so I didn't get much done on my own car today. I did have a nice pile of boxes on my porch when I got home however. my disk brake kit arrived. I took a look at it, and I think I got the bargain of the year here. this is a very nice kit. you may want to bookmark this one Zoomin:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350464389576...84.m1423.l2649




Cool vid C1G2. the best part for me was at ~ the 2 min mark. that light brown 55 could be my first real hot rod build from back in 67-68. I had a dual quad cross ram on mine, but virtually everything else was "my old 55". …… I gota clone that car some day ;-)
As to colors, I'm not quite there yet, but the closest I've seen that really peaked my interest is still the ~2000 Nissan green like on this gorgeous 37 Ford. even it isn't perfect for my 59, but maybe a bit of gold ghost pearl would perk it up a bit more




cleaning day today…. ugggg... I better get after it.



Russ

Zoomin

Man, that's one huckuva deal. Thanks for the scoop.

62Jeff

May I suggest 2009 Aston Martin California Sage Green?

steveale

I found the thread

That original color looks a lot like "mossport green".

I think a wet black color would look sweet on that car with some chrome rims

Kerrmudgeon

Hey Russ, found the link and will be keeping an eye on your hijinks! Just wait until you find out how much smaller they're making parking lots and spaces when you try to maneuver that land yacht around!

I bought a cherry 76 Coupe De Ville a few years ago, and found that out pretty quick.

MrPbody

You may. now that's getting pretty darn close to what I have in mind. thanks!
[note to self. make note to self]

I did conceder Black Steveale, but (one of) the trouble with black is that the chrome and trim has to also be dead perfect, and I don't do anything that perfect. black does look really nice on these cars, when fully done, however.

Kerrmudgeon. please note the size of my shop. it has shrunk considerably over the winter. must be the moisture. I didn't have any problems driving or parking the 59 (I put 20-30 miles on it before work began), as I'm used to my 4x4 club cab Dodge truck, but the garage work space is creating a new challenge for sure.

MrPbody

I don't recall for sure who it was (perhaps Snake1?) who mentioned a wile back that he refurbishes parts as he takes them off the car, then stores them all until reassembly time. this really made sense to me, so that's what I'm attempting to do on this car. today I pulled off the steering, spindles/drums, steering box, etc and started refurbing the parts I'll need to re-use. the drum brakes will go away in favor of the disk brake kit, but I'll do the spindles tomorrow and do a trial fit, then get those parts all packed away. the stock steering box will go away, so no need to clean that, but I'll do a test fit on the new 500 CCP box also.
I'll need to pick up new a-arm bushings and lower ball joints, but everything else in the suspension and steering looks good to go.

MrPbody

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the car the past few days. I have gotten a few suspension parts cleaned up and painted however:


… and was able to test fit the new disk brake parts etc. it's all looking really good so far, and I'm looking forward to doing a first test fit of the engine/trans after a coupe more days of frame and firewall preparation. I spent a couple hours today rebuilding the a arms, removing some unneeded brackets from the frame, and wire brushing off some scat:


I'm really liking this new method of refreshing parts as they get removed. it certainly seems to make the drudgery of gunk cleanup go quicker….. probably just due to being able to see progress along the way. I don't know what took me so long to try this…… just a slow learner I guess.

Zoomin

Small stacks of parts seems easier than a big pile. Good idea.

TDW

Subscribed.

Looking good Russ.

This one's "real steel" so I guess there'll be no fiberglassin'!

HAGO!

MrPbody

Ha ha. yup..., except for a brief infatuation with a Corvair, it's been about 10 years since I've redone an all steel car. there was the bucket T, 2 vettes and a dozen Fieros. I'm starting to miss the fumes and itch already (not).
I was hacking up black for a wile after the frame cleanup yesterday however, so my lungs still hate me anyway.

dmaxx3500

cool car,looks real clean on the fire wall,how is it underneath?

MrPbody

given that it's 55 years old, I'd say it's amazingly solid and clean.



the few areas where there is rust are in very random areas. floors and cross braces are very solid etc.

MrPbody

Today was mostly spent scraping, wire brushing and de-greasing the nose of the frame. I need to get the suspension back on the car, and rolling, before I can test fit the engine/trans, as I use a hoist in the rafters, and roll the car under the raised engine (hey… you do whatever works in my world). the grease was finally defeated and the frame painted, so I can now get the suspension reassembled.
At this point I just had to take advantage of a very nice sunny day, so I took my bucket T out for a spin. I'm not sure which gets more waves and thumbs up, the Vette or the bucket, so I have to alternate driving both to further the study program .
I did receive a bit of unplanned excitement when leaving my buddies hot rod shop however, when I succumbed to his taunting for driving like an old man. A high HP T bucket requires a great deal of restraint if you value your health, and I got a reminder of that today when the throttle stuck wide open. I hit second at about 7grand, before it grenaded, and then found the presents of mind to shut off the ignition before going into orbit. as I pulled off onto a side street I restarted it again and all was well so I slowly returned to my buddies shop for an inspection of the linkage, and to clean my shorts. turns out that the gas pedal can stick behind a carpet edge when put to the mat, so that will certainly need to be remedied very soon.
Soooooo, once back home where it's safe, I was able to get some of the suspension back on the 59, and tomorrow I should have a roller again. we're forecast to have some weather coming in again tomorrow, so I expect to stay safely in the garage for the day.

Zoomin

Glad you're OK! It's pretty interesting to see how the brakes are nigh unto useless during moments like that.

Cold tires on cold asphalt can also create some puckering moments too.

I'm anxious to see how the engine fits. Have you already figured out which oil pan to use?

MrPbody

Boy you got that right about lack of brakes. of course the first instinct is to hit the brakes, but within a split second one realizes how obviously useless that plan is. I'm happy that I was able to safely shut the engine down, as my ignition switch is in front of the seat and requires reaching down blind to get to it. makes a nice clean dash, but maybe not the best idea in hindsight.

I plan to use the Camaro LS1 oil pan. according to other similar cars I've seen, it may take a bit of gentile massaging of the crossmember to get the engine down as low as possible for driveshaft/u-joint alignment, but no biggie. [knocks on wood].

MrPbody

A productive day today. It began by packing the wheel bearings and installing the rotors, which led me to the first and only modification I've had to do to any of the "upgrade" parts. the wear indicator on the pads hit the caliper mounting bracket, so it got clipped off. no biggie.


The rest of the suspension re-assembly went smoothly, including the addition of the new 1" Addco sway bar, and the new CPP 500 power steering box


I got the car back on it's wheels around 4:00 today, but after a snack I went back out and hung the engine/trans in position to see what obstacles I'll be facing. I don't see anything that won't be easily overcome, and nothing I didn't expect to see. The crossmember does need a very slight "adjustment" in the area of the passenger side front corner of the pan. about a 3/4" divot should do the trick nicely to give plenty of wiggle room.
everything else actually fits into place almost like the car was made for this engine. the low mount alternator clears everything, including the new PS box. the S-10 swap headers work great on this car. the PB booster clears the coil pack by 1/2" or so. I think I'll end up creating a small (~1"?) bump in the trans tunnel for shifter box clearance. this will allow the trans to sit a tad higher for better driveshaft/u joint alignment. I actually picked up a set of 6 way power bucket seats from another 02 Camaro today, so any mods to the tunnel area will be available.

Zoomin

Russ, what did you use for engine mounts?

It will also be interesting to see how those seats mount as the rear footwell extends pretty far forward.

What brand headers?

Thx!