57 Chevy Restoration

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Mabel has left the building (under her own power)

On March 20, 2019 Mabel roared to life. (Spring Equinox) All systems go! Test on the blocks of engine tranny and running gear. 20 minutes of 2000 rpm to break in the cam. The following day, after topping off the transmission, off the blocks she came and down the road she went. Maiden voyage of 14.6 miles. All round town, up and down a couple good hills. Stopped at the gas station and topped her off with some good ethanol free gas.

She went back out for another twenty miles of break in. Took her home where she got a bath. Lights, turn signals, radio, gas gauge, temp gauge, speedometer, odometer, horn, you name it, it's working. This car glides straight down the road beautifully. The ride is smooth and quiet. It's got good rumble from the tailpipes but not obnoxious.

It felt really good to take her for a spin! She turned a few heads. Got a ways to go, but to have it running is a milestone a long time in coming.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Have a seat

I don't think the back seat in this car ever saw much use. The upholstery is in great shape. Just needed to be cleaned up. The seat bottom flips forward and the back folds down for a very large flat deck. It's about the size of a queen bed. The wheel wells got insulated then carpeted and all the back end garnish molding has been installed. I picked up some nice rubber mat and glued it to the new plywood deck, and trimmed out the inside of the tailgate too. The spare tire cavity under the deck was also insulated and carpeted.

Friday, February 15, 2019

Wiring

Have a good start on wiring. All new kit specific for this car from American Autowire. New fuse panel is in and wiring going back to dome light, gas gauge, and tail lights laid in place. Under dash looks like a jungle but there is a method in the madness. This can never had a radio, but it's going to have one now. I have a classic reproduction that fits right in the dash and am putting in four speakers. Should have good tunes. Even thought the radio looks old school it has modern bells and whistles.

There was no Radio antenna, but it has one now. OEM reproduction. Extends quite tall as original radio type was AM only which needs a long antenna,

More WIRING

Tail Light

Gas Gauge

Modern Fuse Panel

Interior trim out

Putting the insides back in. Glass is mostly in. Rubber floor mats are in. Mats are over sound proofing and thick pad in strategic locations like foot wells and hump. Rubber mat is original flooring for cars of this era that did not opt for carpet. This was a 3 piece set of some good tough stuff. Carpet may be added over the top of it at a later time if desired.

Fiberboard panels were backed with the same foil backed insulation and fitted up to the doors. Doors, latches, windows, locks all in good order. Upholstery can be added later. Fitted up lots of metal trim around windows. Installed rear view mirror. Still trying to figure out where some of the pieces go??

I bought a 5ft square of 1/2" baltic plywood and used the old pieces as a pattern for the back deck. These got rubber mat glued on and installed. I was even able to salvage the old jacking instruction sheet from the spare tire cover.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Seats and seat belts

I've added to the power plant horse power to make it go faster, and installed disk brakes to make it stop faster, I think is wise to keep the inhabitants of the front seat from face planting into the hard steel dash in the event of a rapid deceleration. 3 point hitch seat belts are in order. And it appears after market custom belts are available. Ordered up a set and did some welding for attachment points. Well worth the price of admission. Fit seat in and out several times to get this set up right.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Firewall

Building up both sides of the firewall has been challenging. There is lots of stuff on both sides. The inside sheet metal was covered top to bottom with Thermo-tec heat and sound barrier. Also on the inside a new OEM Firewall pad was installed. Multiple pieces of ducting, sheetmetal, defroster, air vent, heater, dampers, and controls were installed and made operational. Screws and fasteners of all sorts were poked, pushed, pounded, threaded and cornholed into place from both sides. The octopus cable controls assembly was installed, as were multiple speed fan resisters, and thermo sensing temperature device for the heater. The heater core was installed from the engine side.

There was one screw from hell that cam from the engine side that gave us fits. In order to install this screw, which goes in from the engine side to hold the defrost damper and distributor ducting on the inner firewall, I needed to uninstall the distributor cap and rotor. Once installed we realized the ducting was installed prematurely and the heater box compartment ducting needed to go in first. So the distributor and rotor was removed once again to assemble this jigsaw puzzle in the correct order.

A full day is planned for tomorrow, pegging the heater core into place, sealing things up, installing the heater blower fan, seals, screws, diffusers, and whatnot to complete this portion of the project..

Attached are a few shots of todays work, more to follow.

Got some work done on the firewall. The heater core came in and out again. Some padding and a couple extra screws to keep things from rattling. Got the Heater Blower installed and hooked up. Lots of finishing touches with cables and mechanicals up under the dash. This has to be tidy before wiring goes in. I nicknamed the Deluxe heater assembly the "Octopus" It's tentacles reach far and wide. It's a very ingenious mechanical ventilation and heater contraption, Brand new concept on a 57

Analog control, nothing digital here, well maybe the two speed fan control with associated resisters.

Passenger vent, Draws in for heat or blows outside air in