1954 Chevrolet Bel Air

[Catbox]

Since I could never afford the 1955 I had always wanted, I started looking at the earlier cars.
I fell in love with the '54 in the four door model.
I just like the lines better on them.

After some years of lust and drooling we had a few bucks due to a settlement.
She got a nice diamond ring and I got the car I wanted.

I found it on Craigslist a few miles from the house.
It was owned by a swell feller name Juan that ran a auto repair business out of a gas station.
I went up and visited him for a while and he seemed nice and knew his stuff.

Here is the car when I originally went to see it.

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[Catbox]

The car was driven by Juan and a buddy from Portland Oregon to Tijuana Mexico to have the interior done.
I was sold.
The paint was really nice to look at and the interior was all done.

Those were the two big hurdles I have never been able to get over.
Mechanical stuff can be done over time.
The car ran and drove just fine, so I was not overly concerned about the minor things wrong with it.

Some of you crafty viewers may have noticed this box on the seat as well.
Yup.
Juan had installed hydraulics into the car.

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Here it is in my driveway with the car all the way down.

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And now it is all the way up.
Never mind the lame wheels, Juan kept the wires that were on it and threw these on in their place.

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[Catbox]

So I mentioned the paint looking nice....


That didn't last long and the top coat was just crap.
The car sits outside and the top coat started failing right off the bat.
Within a year it was now dusty rose / brownish.

I became pissed at the car and just pushed it off to the side.
I had many other things to deal with and the car was pretty low on my list of priorities.

It got shuffled around a bit and never really driven.
I did take my wife to the movies in it one time.
It is weird to have people all just turning and looking at you just because you are driving an old car.

You can also see the better wheels I put on to it.
Much better to look at.

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[Catbox]

One day Juan's buddy Tony needed a better Powerglide for his '53.
I just so happened to have one on hand and Tony had a set of rear leaf springs that I wanted.

Turns out the Juan hacked the hydraulics into the car.
He was raising the rear of the car by the body, not with a chassis bridge like you are supposed to.
So I was going to yank the whole system.
The rear leafs on the car only had the one main leaf installed.
Enter Tony and our deal.

Juan would do all the work if he could keep the hydros that got pulled out.
So we made it all happen.

Here is the car on all 100% stock suspension again.

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[Catbox]

That didn't last long at all.
I had Juan cut 1-1/2 coils off the front springs to lower it back down from the stratosphere.
This is how it sat with just the front lowered down.

I like the raked look, this was a bit too much.

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[Catbox]

I ordered a set of 3 inch lowering blocks from Chev's of the 40's and waited.

Once they came in I tackled the install of them and a new set of shocks.

Now, these seem to hang down too low for me.
But yet again, the car has not left my property for years.
So it can sit on them just fine.

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[Catbox]

Now we are back to where we started, just static.

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[Shorty81]

NICE CAR !! Jmo, I like the stock stance the best.

 

[Catbox]

I have always liked them lowered down to where mine sits.
Low and slow.

Slow is definitely what it is.
As far as I have been told this is the stock engine that the car came with.
Somewhere along in its life, it was changed from a manual to a powerglide.

I am not sure what gears it has in the rearend, but it tops out at 55-60 mph on the freeway.
Not a speed demon.
That tiny little single barrel carb is crappy at best.

I was pleased to see it had a split manifold to dual exhaust.
It sounds great, just gutless.

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[CoggedBelt75]

The car was driven by Juan and a buddy from Portland Oregon to Tijuana Mexico to have the interior done.]

Hmmm, wonder if anything may have been left behind

Nice story and nice ride!

 

[bucket]

I actually kind of like how the paint looks now. At least in the pictures, it has the appearance of a decades old paint job.

 

[Catbox]

I actually kind of like how the paint looks now. At least in the pictures, it has the appearance of a decades old paint job.

Just wait, it gets better/worse....
So it has just been pushed to the side of the house, waiting its turn for resurrection.
In that time the topcoat has turned to complete crap.
BUT...
The actual color coat is still intact under the topcoat, so we will have to so some serious scrubbing on it to make it shine again.

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Since I had Max put my wheels on his car.
My car has been sitting on his wheels and tires, not a good look in my eyes.
Mostly because they are old, gross, and not the right color.

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[CoggedBelt75]

Good things come to those who wait.

 

[Catbox]

All my friends seem to keep an eye out for stuff that will fit my junk, no matter which car it is.
A buddy was at the local Pick-N-Pull a few weeks ago and saw these.
He sent me a photo and since I had to go there anyway I looked them over.

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What he neglected to tell me was that they are 14 inch wheels, but that's ok.
They were marked at $200 and after looking them over and verifying the size, I went to the counter man and asked if they could do any better on the price?
He just asked what I wanted to pay, so I said $150 and he agreed.
Then I put down my $20 coupon and left with them out the door for $130 total.
Just the center caps are $25-$30 each, so I think I did pretty well.

They are period correct wheels and that size works for my car currently.
Since I still have the drum brakes all around they fit just fine.

I got them home and they were pretty grimy and crusty.
I did a ****** clean up on them and they actually don't look all that bad.
Most of the flaking chrome is to the inside of the wheel and when on the car, nobody really will notice anyway.

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[Catbox]

Here is how one looks just pushed up against Max's car.

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And then I had the boy put them onto my car.
Proper hot rod look now.
Poor thing just needs some love now as it is plenty crusty looking....

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