Let's Get Rolling!



Front Suspension



I was working on the car the other day when a neighbor walked by and commented on my project car and the amount of work that it was obviously going to take.  He asked me what my goal was for completing it.  I told him that the 60-year anniversary of this car is in three years, and I’d like to have it done by then.  So that is now my new goal.  I have a lot to do in three years.

Outer Wheel Bearing

As I was putting together a strategy for restoring this car, I knew that it was critical to get the wheels to roll again.  I found some cheap used tires that would serve the purpose until the car was much further along and I was ready to buy new rims and white walls.  However, when I installed them, I realized that the tires would do no good unless the wheels turn.  So, I began work on the front wheels and suspension.  I can’t even think about taking the body off the frame until the frame rolls.  I wasn’t sure what was keeping the wheels from rolling, but I knew that was one of the first things that I had to find out.   I began disassembling the wheel by removing the wheel bearings.  Both the inner and the outer bearing will need to be replaced.  Thirty years of sitting is not good on bearings (or lots of other parts for that matter).



Wheel Drum



It didn’t take long to discover what was keeping the car from rolling.  This car has drum brakes.  When I tried to remove the drum, I found that the shoes inside the drum were pressed up against the inside of the drum and stuck so well that I didn’t know how I was going to get them off.  After several attempts at prying the drums off with no success, I stopped into a brake shop and asked them for advice.  They gave me some great tips, and that evening, I had one of the drums off.  The next day, the other drum came off. 

Brake Assembly

Besides the obvious brake shoes that had to be replaced, the wheel cylinders were completely shot.  When I cut the brake line leading to the wheel cylinder, I expected some brake fluid to run out.  It didn’t.  So, I squeezed the flexible brake line and something oozed out that looked like black toothpaste.  The entire braking system will need to be replaced, including the master cylinder.  Both the upper and lower ball joints on both front sides were damaged.  Fortunately, most of the parts on the 1955 Chevy are available through classic collector web sites and eBay.  Replacement parts were a primary concern when I was looking for a project car.  



Interior Rust



Every once in a while, I would take a break from the front end and work on other areas of the car.  The floor pan was in such bad shape, that I knew not much could be saved.  So, I removed the front seat and started taking out the bad floor pan.  At this point, there is not much left.  You can see the braces that connect to the frame and provide support on the underneath side of the floor.  These are so damaged by rust that they will all have to be replaced as well.  The braces are supposed to connect to the rocker panels on the sides to provide support the body, but rust has completely destroyed this connection, leaving nothing to support the pillars to which the doors are connected.  There is still more rusty floor panel to remove, but before I do that, I’m going to weld in some braces between the door frames to make sure that the roof doesn’t buckle when I lift the body off the frame.  Of course, before I do that, I need to remove the doors.  That is another challenge that I haven’t been able to successfully overcome yet.  The Philips-head screws holding the doors onto the body refuse to break loose.  But, like everything else on this project, I will have to get creative and keep working at it until the task is done. 



Trunk



I also cleaned out the last of the trash from the trunk.  The floor pan in this area is also not salvageable.  It will all have to be replaced.  I removed the plug from the gas tank to find that whatever gas was in it when the car was parked had all evaporated out.  Thank goodness.  Soon I will be removing the gas tank, the rear bumper and the tail light assemblies.  The rear window is the only glass that is not broken.

Yes, I have bitten off a big chunk to chew on.  Yes, I rolled the dice when I bought this car, and as it turns out, it is in worse shape that I had hoped for.  But, I am enjoying the process immensely and learning a lot along the way.

The Restoration Begins

The restoration is underway. 

I knew when I took on this project that it would take me a while to complete.  Between my limited time that I have to work on it and the financial resources that it will require, I estimate that this project is going to take me between two and four years to complete.  But I do what I can, and I enjoy it.

The exterior has quite a bit of surface rust, but structurally, the car is sound.  The frame has only surface rust, and is in excellent shape, except for some minor bending that was obviously a result from a mild collision on the front end.  With some applied heat and a hammer, I should be able to straighten that out.  The sheet metal has several places that will require patching, but for the most part, I'm happy with what I have to work with.

I began on two fronts: 1.) teardown of the engine compartment and 2.) cleanup of the interior and removal of parts (seats, etc.).



Exterior - 01/22/12 and 02/04/12

The interior was a mess, and I mean a mess.  I don't know the entire history of the car, but in the 30 years that it sat under that tree in Tennessee, someone had evidently used it as a place to throw partially full cans of oil, stain, varnish, and other items that shouldn't be thrown in a landfill.  I also found about two dozen mason jars that were filthy, but otherwise in good shape.

Back Seat - Can you see the mouse hole on the left?

I've heard stories of people doing restorations of old cars and finding treasures of old coins and other valuables.  My most valuable find (besides the mason jars) was a 1968 quarter.  Oh well. 


Battery split in half



Mouse nest

 The engine compartment had vines growing inside it.  The battery was split in half.  When I removed the valve cover, I discovered that mice had used the stuffing in the seats to build their nest.  I believe that may be the mouse hole in the back of the front seat in the picture above on the left.  I just hoped that the mice were not still there.  I'm glad I'm doing this phase in the winter because I'm convinced that in the summer this thing had snakes in it.

Yes, it's going to be a lot of work.  But, I feel like I'm off to a good start.  I'm documenting everything in pictures and video.  I am not going to rely on my memory to put this car back together.  I have developed a system for bagging, tagging, and documenting every bolt, bracket, and wire. 

There is another fun fact about this project that I am really looking forward to: I need more tools.

:-)

Getting the car into the garage

 

Here's where she landed.

Once I had the car at the apartment complex, all I had to do was get it off the trailer and into the garage.  Simple task, right?

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I had prepared for this moment by purchasing a 2-ton cable puller. I figured that would be enough for a 3500 pound vehicle.  I knew the car had flat tires; I had gotten that information from the seller before I left for Tennessee, but this car refused to roll at all.




Here's where she spent the night (same place).

 

After several futile attempts to pull the car off the trailer with the cable puller, I decided to use a heavy-duty chain and pull it off the trailer using our Ford Sport Trac.  Even in 4-wheel drive, it took everything that truck had to pull the car off the trailer.  The process of the car coming off the trailer produced noises that had the same effect as fingernails on a chalkboard, but it did finally come off.  However, given my space limitations in the apartment complex, and the angle that I had to pull, the car came to rest on the pavement on the wrong side of the red stripe which marked the fire lane.  It was getting dark, and the reality was setting in that the car was going to stay in that spot overnight.

I quickly got online and found some wheel dollies that I could place under each wheel and roll the car around. However, it was Sunday evening and most stores were closed.  At this point I knew I would be taking a personal day from work on Monday.  I had to get that car out of the fire lane before the city fined me, nevermind what the apartment management would say.

With the wheel dollies

Monday morning I was at the store when they opened. I grabbed two pair of wheel dollies and rushed back to the apartment.  After assembling the four wheel dollies and placing one under each wheel, I was ready to push the car into the garage.  Uh-uh. That car had other ideas. 

Now, it wasn't much of an incline into the garage, but it was most definitely there.  Funny, I had never noticed it before.  The only way this car was getting into the garage was by cranking the cable puller one...inch...at...a...time.



Finally in the garage

 The one inch concrete lip that was at the entrance of the garage gave me a whole new challenge with the casters on each of the four dollies, but by around 2:00pm the car was finally in the garage! 

Through all of this, one thought kept going through my mind.  It wasn't the possibility of being fined by the city.  It wasn't what the neighbors or the apt. management might do.  The one thought that kept returning to me throughout the day was this:   I'm just glad Julie wasn't there to watch me.

1955 Chevy Bel Air - the acquisition

When I decided to look for a project car to restore, I really wanted to keep the cost of acquiring the car to less than $2,000.  I knew any car in this price range would require a lot of work, but I was ambitious; ready to learn everything about building a car from the ground up.  I got my wish.

For a few weeks, I looked at several web sites for a restoration project.  A simple Google search found an abundance of online auction sites, and of course, there was always eBay.  I had even submitted a few bids – some of them ridiculously low – knowing that it was unrealistic for mine to be the winning bid.  I even put in a bid for a tractor in Arizona that was in great shape for being a mid-1930s model.  It ended up going for less than $600, but even before the auction had ended, I had decided that I would prefer to spend my time working on a car rather than a tractor.  And, since I don’t have a farm, it just made more sense.  I was still in for many challenges, however, living in a two-bedroom apartment. 

Then one day I saw a posting on eBay for a 1955 4-door Chevy Bel Air, with a Buy-it-now price of $1,200.  I didn’t pay it a lot of attention because there was only one picture, and it was poor quality.  From what I could tell in the picture, however, it did appear that all the major body components were intact, and the description listed it as having “everything original”, including the engine and the transmission.  I just glanced over the posting, but I included it in my “watch” list, just to see what it would eventually sell for. 

Later that day, it was bugging me.  What if this was the opportunity I had been waiting for?  Given the prices of some of the Tri-Five models (that’s the term collectors use for the 1955, 56, and 57 Chevy models), this one was definitely in my price range, and it was in Tennessee, and not Oregon or Vermont, or somewhere that was beyond practical reach.  Getting the car would be quite a trip from Frisco, Texas, but very do-able over a weekend.

 
I picked up the phone and called the number on the eBay posting.  I requested some more pictures and any additional information the seller could provide.  I found out that the car had belonged to an elderly lady who had parked the car under a tree sometime after her husband had passed away, and the car sat parked in the same spot for 30 years.  Sketchy on the details, but the few additional photographs that I saw the next day was enough to really make me seriously think about taking a chance on this one.  It was a 4-door model, and I really preferred the 2-door model, but I decided to roll the dice and make this car my project.

Loading the car onto my trailer

I left Frisco at 3:30am on Saturday, January 21^st in my Ford F-250 diesel truck with a rented U-Haul auto-transport trailer.  I arrived at the seller’s house in Manchester, TN at 3:45pm that afternoon; twelve hours on the road with only two stops to fuel up.  My excitement about seeing and getting the car had kept me awake.  The car was on a flatbed trailer, and it had four very flat tires.  The rubber on the tires was dry rotted and hardened, and it was clear that this car was simply NOT going to roll any time soon.  In the end, I backed up my rented U-Haul trailer to the back end of the flatbed trailer, and used a winch to slide the car off the flatbed onto my trailer.  It actually went fairly smooth.  The car was sitting on my trailer backwards, but I didn’t think that would be an issue, and as it turns out, it wasn’t.  The rain that had fallen earlier made it a bit easier to slide the car from one trailer to the other.  Soon, I was on my way headed west again.  By this time it was dark.  After another four hours on the road, I was ready for a break.  I stopped at a hotel in Memphis to catch a few hours of sleep before continuing my trip home. 




Made it home to Frisco, TX

I was back on the road again Sunday morning at 6:00am.  When I arrived at our apartment around two in the afternoon, my wife, Julie was…how can I say it?…less than excited…to see it.  My 14-year-old son, Sam, however, seemed curious, but unsure of what his dad had done.  I will admit, it was quite an eye sore with all the rust and broken-out windows.  But where they saw rust, I saw potential.  Where they saw problems, I saw opportunity.  I had to keep telling myself that, because when I would stand back and look at it, it was hard to imagine that this thing was not going to end up in a crusher.