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shua57
01-02-2013, 11:28 AM
A little bit about my car.
My 57. It's a simple little car, nothing special and started its life as a bondo filled paper weight. Now, I'm not a perfectionist by any means but I am no where near a fan of bondo. So, my baby was getting all new steel, no filler. Secondly, I like a little custom with my classic so some frame, suspension and drive train mods was in its future. Of course I wanted a complete custom interior and then slick out the paint. Here was the problem.....those ideas are very expensive. New plan, I'll just do the work myself. So I scronged, sold cars off and finally got funds to get to work and this is what I came up with:
1148
Here is the short and sweet breakdown of the mods:
Stock frame - pocket kit, custom shock support crossmember
Engine - 350 TBI set behind a PRC custom built radiator with dual spals
Trans - 2004R with B&M sports floor shift and custom cut hd driveshaft, finally found the right speedometer gears to get the speedometer to read right
Rearend - 8.8 Ford Explorer narrowed to 56.5"
Brakes - hydroboost brake setup, hand bent stainless steel brake lines front to back with AN fittings, custom made stainless steel braided teflon flex hoses, disc brake kit up front and stock 8.8 disc brakes in back.
Fuel - stainless steel fuel line from engine to the tank, tank is stainless steel exact repop of orginal, I custom built a frame to mount the gas tank to the frame and not the body and also fabricated a fuel pump mount in front of the tank
Electrical - ECM is mounted on the passenger side kicker panel, wiring harness is a EZ-wiring 18-21 kit, only thing stock electrically is the light sockets, custom stereo with 10" kickers, 6x9's in the window and 4" in the console
Interior - seats are out of a Chrysler Sebring, fronts are buckets with built in seatbelts and rear only needed a few mods to get to fit, console was built by me and I still need to fab the rear arm rest, IDIDIT tilt column and full set of Autometer sport comp gauges which required me to custom fab a few things, got a few fan switches and a overdrive light, got a long way to go on the interior, going to be putting in a fuel pressure gauge by my oil pressure gauge in the console.
Paint - I painted it, first full paint job so it is a little rough, fisheyed a little and apparently my garage lighting sucks but....it's a Metallic blue from restoration shop out in cali. Beautiful in the sun and changes colors in the shade. Insert area is a metallic titanum grey. I got 13 coats on it from the primer, filler primer, basecoat to the clear coat. It will be redone because I want to fix a few things.
Wheels - they a 18" Boss 304's front and back 9" wide, I think they are 250/45's...maybe

Well, theres other things in there but I have gotten tired of trying to remember them...:D
So, I have pictures for about every mod from ground up and don't mind to share so if you have a question and want to know how I did it just let me know (probably a pm would be easier) and I'll make a thread about it.
Finally, the car is going to get a make over one of these days and the body will come back apart as after I finished the paint I found the cowl panel to be warped and I'll be cutting it out and replacing it as well as modifying the body gaps and maybe get a Chevynut custom frame when I can afford it. It also needs new chrome. It's getting there.
I think that is about all for now.

The end
Josh

567chevys
01-02-2013, 08:30 PM
Hi Josh
Nice introduction !
Thanks for joining the site


Sid

smooth 56
01-03-2013, 11:20 AM
Hi Josh like the 57 welcome to the site.

shua57
01-03-2013, 12:07 PM
Thanks guys.
Josh

shua57
01-09-2013, 04:35 AM
Thought I would show you guys my gas tank install
1209wasn't hard to fab and now I can pull the body off with out dropping gas tank1210
Gas tank is the ss tank from Tanks Inc.
1211

shua57
01-09-2013, 04:44 AM
Here is where I was wiring and installing the motor. Still haven't fabbed the plenum, probably will be 3 or 4 inch ss tubing. I cleaned up all the wiring but it needs more.
Josh
12121213

shua57
01-09-2013, 04:49 AM
Here is my stock gauge cluster with Autometer Sport Comp gauges, custom fitted of course because they are not a direct bolt in. I love the look. The light that is on is where my SES light from the ECM is now located, oil warning light on the other side and then the outer 2 is the turn signals.
1214

shua57
01-09-2013, 04:56 AM
Here is a good shot showing my hydrobooster braking system and the 605 p.s. box install. The hydrobooster is from a 1 ton Chevy box truck with a 70's vette MC and I made the mounting bracket spacer out of 1/4 plate. A few more mods to get it to work with the stock pedal and that was all. Nice setup. The attached picture shows the original MC before changing it to the vette MC.
1216

carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)
01-09-2013, 09:11 AM
:-) hi josh, welcome, good to have you here. thaks for sharring and keep having fun with the 57. :cool: