1956 Chevy 210 Handyman Wagon

[astroracer]

Brought this home tonight.
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It's a nice start. The chrome is great, the interior is nice and actually smells nice. Needs rockers and floor pans, rear wheel wells and there is some rust in the passenger door. Not good but nothing I need to worry about right now. There are some issues with the front suspension. Clunking and rattling and the lug nuts wont stay tight... (had it roll backed home).
The engine is a 350 (haven't verified that yet). Runs good, has a QJ on a stock intake, HEI, headers and Flow Masters from what I can tell. 350TH trans with a big cooler in front of the radiator.
Billet pulley brackets, Vintage Air that works, Digital dash cluster, B&M Star Shifter and a nicely covered bench seat with grey door panels.
Issues are: Have to prime the carb so it will start. The suspension problem and a funky park neutral switch that is jury rigged down on the trans...
I had a '56 150 two door sedan that I never got running and had to sell so this is kind of a dream car for me. I traded the '02 Collector Edition TA for it.. Sounds like a raw deal for me but I had very little money into the TA and even with the work that needs to be done to this one I came out well ahead...
Mark

[epeterson]

Looks very cool!

[SS PUNISHER]

I'd take that over the TA all day!!

[astroracer]

Thanks a ton guys! Appreciate the kudos! Like I said in my first post this car is a dream come true and trading the CETA for it was no brainer... That car was fun and fast but this one got me three thumbs up before I had driven it a mile. THAT is kool...


I figured out the suspension issue today. It boils down to a WHEEL issue more then suspension though.
The wheels just don't work. They have slotted lug holes and are NOT hub centric. That means there was NOTHING centering the rims to the hub. They were slopping up and done on the lugs as they were rolling...
This is what I found when I pulled the left front wheel off:
1) Three lug nuts with mostly stripped threads.
2) Two broken studs..
3) ALL of the studs were loose in the rotor! The wheel had been knocking around enough that the lug studs had worn their respect lug holes to an egg shape! ALL of them!
4) The spindle nut was loose by almost a full turn.


I pulled the caliper, removed the rotor and knocked the lug studs out with some very light taps from a ball peen. Not a BIG ball peen either.
I took the rotor to my local CARQUEST to figure out what I needed.
We matched up to a 1969 Camaro or 70 to 73 Nova (X body). I ordered two...
A set of R-2 and R-6 bearings.
Brake pads for a '69 Camaro.
The rotors will be here tomorrow.
Now I need wheels and tires! I want to stick with the Torque Thrust look... What do you guys think? 15's? Or go 17 or 18?
Thanks for looking!
Mark

[astroracer]

I talked to Lawson's Carb Service in Flint today also. Monday I will pull the Quadra jet off and drop it off to them Tuesday after work. I expected a bad accelerator pump and that was their best guess also. I decoded the carb and is a '69 QJ off a truck with a manual trans. The carb is pretty grungy and I'll let them do a rebuild on it. I expect the motor will be the one the carb has lived on since it was born but I'll have to pull the block numbers first.
We'll have this beast up and running in no time...

[72BBSwinger]

That is a score! I have a friend with the same car except its a 2 door panel. It has " Special Delivery" painted on the sides, cool as hell...

[astroracer]

That is a score! I have a friend with the same car except its a 2 door panel. It has " Special Delivery" painted on the sides, cool as hell...

Thank you! Yes, I did very well on this deal. Getting the wheel issue sorted out is a HUGE relief and the car will be drivable this weekend. I have a set of Prime 5 star mags in the shop that will fit, are lug centric and will get it on the road until I figure out what wheels I actually want.
I have an email out to American Racing to see if they can do anything for me on a set of TT II's. I think I will go 17 and 18 for a bit of a wheel rake. The bigger rims will look great on the car.
Once it's mobile again I'll get BadAst off the hoist so I can go thru the rear brakes and get the suspension cleaned up and painted.
The car is dropped 2" in the front so I may look at a 1 or 2" block in the rear. I'll have to do some photo shopping though before I go that route.

[astroracer]

Took the car on her maiden voyage tonight! She did very well! It has some lighting issues but those just may be bad bulbs. The engine ran great, the air blew cold and the wheels stayed on!
I had a set of old 5 star mags I ran on my '89 Pickup. They bolted right up and are lug centric so no more wobbly rims!!!
While I was swapping out the rear rims I saw this!
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A 12 bolt! and it is a posi!
Whoever built this car threw some coin at it. I found a link to a FOR SALE ad in California for THIS car. There was a pic attached that was dated from 2004. The car also has no front bumper. The gravel pan had been trimmed and rolled and this is what's on the front of this car under the bumper. The digital cluster rolled 60K tonight on our way to Durand...
The car with my old truck wheels on it. The wheels are dual bolt pattern 4.75/5.00.
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Not real pretty but they will do the job till I get some new shiny ones!
Mark

[astroracer]

The last 4 months have been pretty much dedicated to working on the wagon. After doing a complete rewire of the starting and charging systems, N/S and B/U switches, tail, head and parking lights I thought I had everything taken care of. Wiring wise I did. Other things...not so much.
I haven't been posting much because I haven't been on the boards. Counting today the wagon has been out to a friends repair shop for three weeks. What started out as simple steering box swap turned into a major renovation! While doing the box swap we did the oil, trans, rear end fluid change stuff and decided to adjust the rockers to get rid of a lifter tick on the passenger side... Nope, not gonna do it.. Cam had a flat lobe... VERY flat! Needless to say that opened up a can of worms that we are just beginning to get closed.

The same day we found out about the bad cam I had ordered a fuel injection set up from Performance Fuel Injection. So, along with the the new cam, lifters, timing chain, intake, water pump, harmonic balancer, belts, hoses, radiator and A/C condenser brackets, I installed new supply and return lines, O2 Sensor, fuel pump and pre-filter, wiring, ECM, distributor, coil and TBI unit.... Whew...

We got the car fired up this past Saturday evening. Still have a few tweaks to make in the ECM to correct a rich exhaust and low idle but it is running again and I hope to head over to Kalamazoo Friday afternoon for the NSRA Nats. AFTER a front end alignment sometime this week.

Mark