I haven't been on the forum much in the last 5 weeks because of my slave-driving, tyrannical son Casey and his project. He and his wife are moving to New Zealand and he wanted to take his 51 Fleetline with him so they show up about 5 weeks ago with the empty hulk and informed me that WE would put the car all together in time for him to leave on the 13th of Feb with the car all done. :eek:
The only way to do it in such a short time frame was to use prefab parts so we got the engine mounts and tranny mount from Walton engineering. I had a rebuilt 350 engine to bolt in and a rebuilt 700R4. Add a new aluminum intake and Edelbrock carb. The biggest problem was the exhaust with the original steering box. I have every kind of smallblock chevy exhaust manifold made and none would fit so that necessitated a call to Sanderson Headers for their special headers which did the job. I had a 57 Chevy 3.55 rear laying around so we redrilled the pads and bolted it in with some homemade 3" drop lowering blocks. Luckily I also had a 57 Chevy driveshaft which was a bolt in. Installed a new gas tank and I made the new fuel and brake lines. Had the original radiator recored and it cools well. To save time he bought some expensive goodies from Lokar....shifter, kcikdown linkage, and throttle linkage. I never used their stuff before but I was really impressed with the engineering. Everything was included and it all worked without modifation.
I bought a 21 circuit wiring harness on ebay for about $130 and totally rewired the car for 12 volts with a fusebox, turn signals and new internal alternator. Casey stripped the body and put it in red oxide epoxy primer. We put in new glass on the sides with new fuzzies and new front and rear windshield rubber. Wide whitewall radials add to the look and he plans to lower the front after he gets it in NZ.
We were still working on it the morning that we had to leave for LA but it was running and driving good. We drove it on the trailer and left town about 4pm and got to LA about 11 that night. the next morning we discovered his new license plate had been stolen (Hey it IS LA afterall
). Hauled it down to the shipper, dropped it off and I headed for home. I've been resting eversince.
: 
:
Too bad I didn't have a rebuilt 348 ready to drop in but I don't think it would clear the steering box. Would probably need a subframe to work.
Now to get back to my own projects.
The only way to do it in such a short time frame was to use prefab parts so we got the engine mounts and tranny mount from Walton engineering. I had a rebuilt 350 engine to bolt in and a rebuilt 700R4. Add a new aluminum intake and Edelbrock carb. The biggest problem was the exhaust with the original steering box. I have every kind of smallblock chevy exhaust manifold made and none would fit so that necessitated a call to Sanderson Headers for their special headers which did the job. I had a 57 Chevy 3.55 rear laying around so we redrilled the pads and bolted it in with some homemade 3" drop lowering blocks. Luckily I also had a 57 Chevy driveshaft which was a bolt in. Installed a new gas tank and I made the new fuel and brake lines. Had the original radiator recored and it cools well. To save time he bought some expensive goodies from Lokar....shifter, kcikdown linkage, and throttle linkage. I never used their stuff before but I was really impressed with the engineering. Everything was included and it all worked without modifation.
I bought a 21 circuit wiring harness on ebay for about $130 and totally rewired the car for 12 volts with a fusebox, turn signals and new internal alternator. Casey stripped the body and put it in red oxide epoxy primer. We put in new glass on the sides with new fuzzies and new front and rear windshield rubber. Wide whitewall radials add to the look and he plans to lower the front after he gets it in NZ.
We were still working on it the morning that we had to leave for LA but it was running and driving good. We drove it on the trailer and left town about 4pm and got to LA about 11 that night. the next morning we discovered his new license plate had been stolen (Hey it IS LA afterall
). Hauled it down to the shipper, dropped it off and I headed for home. I've been resting eversince.: : Too bad I didn't have a rebuilt 348 ready to drop in but I don't think it would clear the steering box. Would probably need a subframe to work.
Now to get back to my own projects.
bang 
