Project 53 Bel Air

[tterbo]

This will be a fun ride when you are finished. I'm almost ready to fire up my 50 Fleetline (same chassis)I will be following your build.

I just read your whole build and it made me want to go out in my shop right now and work on mine some more. That stance is what I am after. I thought I was the only one crazy enough to try this. Looking forward to seeing yours on the road soon by the looks of it.

[tterbo]

Yes sir! This is going to be fun to watch...great choice for a Pro-Touring ride

Thanks! You just don't see many 50's Pro Touring cars which is good because I wanted something different. I think a lot of people assume they are just too heavy and the suspensions are just too antiquated but they are surprisingly light. And suspensions can be upgraded!

[Wraith]

I've been spending too much time on the HAMB, love this build encompasses both styles.

[tterbo]

I got to spend some more time on the rear cradle over the weekend and knocked out a good portion of it. The majority of it is made from 2" x 2" square tubing and 3/16" plate. The first obstacle I had to tackle was figuring out a way to remove the differential in case it needs servicing. I didn't want to "capture" it in the cradle. Since the lower A-arm mounts are narrower than the differential it can't be dropped out the bottom. There were also problems that prevented rear accessibility. In the end I had to design it so the differential could be serviced from the top side once the cradle is lowered out of the car. This was a little difficult because the upper mounting "ears" on the differential are so wide. Luckily there was just enough room between the upper A-arm mounting points to allow the differential to be pulled up between them.

Another obstacle I had to figure out with putting an IRS in this car was how to remove a rear wheel/tire. With the car sitting so low and such a low fender opening already, there would literally be no way to remove a rear wheel even with the suspension at full droop. The solution I came up with is a large "hinge" type cradle mounting system. The entire cradle will be bolted to the frame (that I have not built yet) by four 5/8" bolts in the rear and hinged at the front with two 3/4" bearings. The frame mounting bolts will be accessible through the trunk floor. So, by loosening up the 4 bolts and lifting the rear of the car, the entire rear cradle with suspension will drop down far enough to allow wheel removal (in theory anyway). What I won't know is just how much it will have to drop to get the wheel out of the wheelwell. Unfortunately, until it is all built and tested, I can only estimate. And things like exhaust, driveshaft, etc, could present a problem that I just won't know until later.

Another feature I plan to implement into the rear cradle is cantilevered coil-overs. Since the car will be so low it will be next to impossible to adjust shock dampening or adjust ride height without jacking the car up and down. I want trunk accessibility and the best way to do that is by cantilevering the coil-overs so they can be mounted on top of the cradle and accessed through a trunk panel. This is something else I will have to figure out later once I start building the frame and doing sheet metal work.

Once I got the cradle tacked together I relocated it to my frame jig. I centered and tacked it to the jig at my desired ride height then assembled the suspension. You can also see the beginnings of a sway bar bolted to the back of the cradle. I am not really happy with the sway bar though and will probably redesign it to more closely resemble the factory bar so I can use the OE-type end links. But that's a project for another day....

[Peanut1959]

I love '50s pro touring builds. Subscribed!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Dang. You're making me what to send my wheels off to have widened right now.

[tterbo]

I love '50s pro touring builds. Subscribed!

Me too! And there are not enough of them...

- - - Updated - - -

Dang. You're making me what to send my wheels off to have widened right now.

You won't be disappointed. Since I had mine done, 2 of my friends did the same thing after seeing how well they came out.

[srcracing]

I just read your whole build and it made me want to go out in my shop right now and work on mine some more. That stance is what I am after. I thought I was the only one crazy enough to try this. Looking forward to seeing yours on the road soon by the looks of it.

Measured my ride height. At the bottom of the pinch weld in front of rear tire 6.5" and at the bottom of the front fender, behind the tire 5.5" I will go lower when I install the C5 front suspension, but with the stock LCA, I had to notch the A arm for the wheel to make a good turn, since the front wheels are so wide. (9.5") The lower I go, the more it hits, reducing the turning radius.

I love the IRS you are doing for the rear, and YES, getting the rear wheels is a trick, even with my Truck Arms, have to lift car up fairly high and drop the rear axle.... Still worth doing!!!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Cool with a capital C!

[tterbo]

Measured my ride height. At the bottom of the pinch weld in front of rear tire 6.5" and at the bottom of the front fender, behind the tire 5.5" I will go lower when I install the C5 front suspension, but with the stock LCA, I had to notch the A arm for the wheel to make a good turn, since the front wheels are so wide. (9.5") The lower I go, the more it hits, reducing the turning radius.

I love the IRS you are doing for the rear, and YES, getting the rear wheels is a trick, even with my Truck Arms, have to lift car up fairly high and drop the rear axle.... Still worth doing!!!

Thanks for the info. That is really good to know. I like how your car sits and if you have 6.5"/5.5" now then I am thinking I may not have to go all the way down to 4" rocker height to get "the look". Haha.

[tterbo]

Cool with a capital C!

Thanks! I noticed in your sig that you guys do concept renderings also. How much do they typically run?

[tterbo]

Now that I have somewhat of a rear frame I want to get a feel for where the frame rails will need to be so. The next step is to cut out the floor and set the body down over the rear subframe. As you can tell by the pictures this car has a really nice floorpan until you get out close to the rockers. The wheelwells and trunk pan are rust free.



I centered the frame jig under the car and plumb bobbed the wheel openings then lowered the car until I met my first obstacle. This is as low as I could get before the spare tire well was touching the subframe. Time to start cutting.


No turning back now. I want to keep as much as the floor intact as possible so I only cut what was necessary to begin lowering the body over the subframe.

[tterbo]

The next few hours involved lifting the body multiple times, cutting a little more metal out each time, up, down, up, down, up, down. But in the end I was able to get the car down over the tires and subframe without intruding into the rear seat area. This was truly inspirational to finally see the car sitting down over the wheels/tires like this. The car is still sitting about 1.5"-2" higher than my final ride height but "that look" I was after is there.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Thanks! I noticed in your sig that you guys do concept renderings also. How much do they typically run?

I sent a PM with a little more info. Each rendering is on a case by case bid once I get all the details. It depends mostly on how much time I invest, designing body mods, playing with paint colors and so forth and then doing the final rendition usually runs around $550-650. If you know exactly what you want and just need to see it on paper, that may save you a bit on the price. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or give me a call @ 435-628-4300 and we can chat about your specific needs. Here's a link to some of my past work on our website. On the samples at the bottom if you click on the icons it'll bring up the slide show. - Click Here

Thanks for askin', I do a lot of Camaros, doing a rendering of your car would be a blast and nice change of pace!

[tterbo]

I sent a PM with a little more info. Each rendering is on a case by case bid once I get all the details. It depends mostly on how much time I invest, designing body mods, playing with paint colors and so forth and then doing the final rendition usually runs around $550-650. If you know exactly what you want and just need to see it on paper, that may save you a bit on the price. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or give me a call @ 435-628-4300 and we can chat about your specific needs. Here's a link to some of my past work on our website. On the samples at the bottom if you click on the icons it'll bring up the slide show. - Click Here

Thanks for askin', I do a lot of Camaros, doing a rendering of your car would be a blast and nice change of pace!

Awesome news, thanks for the info. Maybe when I get further along and have a better idea of how I want everything I will get in touch.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Sounds great, I look forward to it! Keep the pics coming!

[digitalsolo]

This is super cool, what a great build.

[tterbo]

Asking for opinions. I have an LSA blower with a large heat exchanger that I could run instead of the turbo. I got it for a really good deal 3 years ago and it's just been sitting there next to the turbo. I know a few people with second gen CTS-V's and they basically just upgrade exhaust, pulley and tune to make 600 rear wheel hp. And that's through an automatic, I will be using a manual so it would be even higher. I am considering going this route because of the flat power curve vs. the "peaky" power of the turbo. My main concern is the blower generating heat on a road course. I think either would make the power easily and I don't really need more than 500-550 rwhp anyway, just considering options. And I am nowhere close to having to decide but wondered what everyone else thinks?

[wfo guy]

My personal preference would be to keep the LSA blower. I like the personality that roots style supercharges have. The turbo might have more peak power but it will be with different sound effects.

[srcracing]

Asking for opinions. I have an LSA blower with a large heat exchanger that I could run instead of the turbo. I got it for a really good deal 3 years ago and it's just been sitting there next to the turbo. I know a few people with second gen CTS-V's and they basically just upgrade exhaust, pulley and tune to make 600 rear wheel hp. And that's through an automatic, I will be using a manual so it would be even higher. I am considering going this route because of the flat power curve vs. the "peaky" power of the turbo. My main concern is the blower generating heat on a road course. I think either would make the power easily and I don't really need more than 500-550 rwhp anyway, just considering options. And I am nowhere close to having to decide but wondered what everyone else thinks?

I would go supercharged. I think the power curve of the supercharger will be much more suited to corner exit on a road course or autoX. The charge tempratures will be a concern though. Just have to get/make a heat exchanger as large as possible, plus a large compressor turning slower is, better than turning a small compressor at a higher overdrive.