1958 Chevy Delray

[Chirus]

I have been following many of the builds on here and it has provided me with many ideas, motivation and information.
I am currently building my ride and and hope that it will provide others with the same.

Car was bought in 2017 as a running all original car, all stock car.
I went through the brakes cooling and fuel systems and my son and i went on our first Power Tour.
7000 miles in a 60 year old car, no power steering , no power brakes, no a/c, 3 on the tree. 4 wheel drum brakes.
The humidity just about killed us. We had a blast!


By the time we got back to Arizona I had a clear idea of how the car would be built.

[Chirus]

So tear down began.

Stock 283

[Chirus]

Engine and trans all went to another hotrodder building a 1954 Chevy sedan.


All stripped and ready for sand blasting.



It is great being single. Fastest way to get this to the back yard was trough the middle of the house. I used Coal Slag to blast with to avoid any issues with silica. cheapest place to buy it was Tractor Supply, ran through a window screen and was able to use it a a few times.



Took a couple of days with a harbor freight sand blaster.

[Chirus]

Began the work to strengthened the frame. Re-welded all factory welds. found a great article on Hotrod.com on X-frames.



Cut the rear spring perches, shock mount and body mount. This will require that (2) body mounts be relocated to on top of the frame.



Plated over and weak spots.



Added braces to the rear of the frame. Got the Ideas from the low ride community. if anyone knows how to keep a frame from twisting they do. The (2) body mounts shown outside the last welded in brace were removed. they are moved inward to on top of the frame. the mounts were reused to replace the rear spring perches i cut off to add the mini tubs.

[thumper877]

Cool build make sure u put vintage air on the list for the next power tour

[Chirus]

Took some time to complete the welding and grinding to make it all pretty.

Please forgive my frame stands. they say they can hold 400 lbs so my thinking is 2 = 800 pounds.

frame is actually really light I can pick it up by myself and carry it.

Bottom coat of POR15



POR15 Top Coat




Time to build the suspension.

[Alwhite00]

Looks good.

Did a 59 impala years ago. Only had a single point trailing arm on the top link. I’ve never seen the double link like yours.

[Chirus]

Suspension is a mix of what i believe is the best from several manufacturers. So here we go.

CPP Drop 2" Spindles
CPP power steering gearbox
Global West Upper and Lower Control Arms
ridetech Front and rear Swaybars
Viking Dual Adj/ Coil over shocks



Old swaybar was about as bid as my ring finger, this ridetech one is massive.


Globalwest control arms big improvement over the stamped steel originals.

Everything bolted up to factory holes. Only issue was where the lower ball joint bolts, hit the lower controls arms on lock to lock. The threaded portion are too long, a quick trim with the grinder fixed the issue.

On to the rear..

[Chirus]

The rear end received lots of love as i intend to abuse the heck out of it.

Quick Performance 9"
3.73 Eaton TrueTrac Locker, 35 spline axles, Nodular 3rd member, Billet 1350 yoke

These guys are great to work with. In building this car most do not understand what an X-Frame car is, let alone when you are trying to build one for performance. They worked with me to ensure the the Global West 3 link spider would mount to the housing.
The staff at Quick Performance got everything right the first time. cant say enough good things about them.

[Chirus]

The 3 link with 2 connecting points is unique to the 1958. they made improvements in the following years to the frame and suspension. As you can see my frame had no cross braces in the frame. in 59 they added braces between the frame above the yoke. then went to a 4 link in later years.



The global west Piece is very stout.



The spider on the back of differential has a hiem joint so there will be no binding and the trailing arms are massive. The upper arm works like a control arm to control lateral movement.

I have a little issue with the sway bar mounts as there are designed for a factory rearend and the beefed up 9" extends out on the tubes. I will modify the mounts later to sit flat on the housing. you know how it goes trim to fit paint to match.

[Alwhite00]

That GW stuff looks really nice.

[Motown 454]

It looks nice, that should be a lot stiffer.

[IMPALAMAN1]

killer!

[Peanut1959]

Cool project...and a 4-door to boot! Subscribed!

[Chirus]

I spent a lot of time debating what to use when it came to the power plant. I poured over every bit of information I could find on what would be needed to keep a beast of an engine alive. I decided on an LY6 base with an LSA supercharger. Here I have to give a shout out to “This is your boy Terry here in the garage shop” https://www.youtube.com/user/coverman66. After watching his videos and buildup of the same engine combo and the power numbers he achieved I knew I was on the right track. There were a few additions I wanted to do for long term survival.

The engine build:
LY6 Block – BTR oil squinters, stated with Katech but could not get the LS9 style to fit in the block. So I went back to the Brian Tooley Racing style. If you are unfamiliar with oil squinters they spray oil on the bottom of the piston to cool and control detonation.

823 Heads – these are the LS3 style large port design and come with the Iconel exhaust valves. Titanium retainers, LS6 valve spring. Rocker Arm Trunnion upgraded. Drilled heads to accept Nitrous Works 4 corner steam vent lines.

Crank, Rods, Pistons – Texas Speed fully forged rotating assembly. Pistons dished -13.7.

Cam - VVT Deleted, Texas Speed GM LS9 Camshaft: 211/230, .558"/.552", 122.5 CL, LS7 Lifters

Other items – ARP Head and Main Studs, LS9 head gaskets, Melling Oil Pump, Holley 302 pan and baffle.

[Chirus]

Transmission - Tremec T-56
Bell housing - Quicktime
Clutch - McLeod Twin Disk


Had a few issues with the Quicktime bell housing hitting hitting the Drivers side header.


Due to the contact the header would not bolt flat to the head. So i removed the bell housing and had the machine shop cut it flush with the block. came out real clean and looks like it came from the factory like that. it did not remove any attaching holes.


Passenger side fit perfectly with equal clearance between the frame and the block.

[Chirus]

Time to focus on the body. I had replaced the floor pans last year prior to the 2018 Power Tour.
With the body off the frame i decided to mini tub. it had a factory spacing outer to inner of 12" exactly.
I decided to move the inner to just over 3". Took sometime to work up the courage to make that first cut.
The 3" plus cut will put the body mount seen in the photo right above and centered on the frame. so i will remove the mount off the frame and drill the frame to accept the mount.

This cut was the hardest. but once i started ohh hell i am not afraid to cut now.

I flanged and punched the filler panel. then formed it by wrapping it around a tree in the front yard. Just happens to be the right size.
The panels when welded up they came out nice.


I will upload some welded up pics later.

[Chirus]

After the Mini Tub was welded in place i needed to reestablish the support/bracing.

[Chirus]

I did not take may pictures on the repair of the outer rear fenders. i had to replace all of the lower outer and and all of the inner fender structure. they do not make and replacement panels for the inner stuff. so all that was fabbed out of 16ga sheet. let me tell you it does not like to form or bend. i also want to keep all of the patina that i can so the cut to the outer panels were made as close to the rusted metal as i could. learned a lot on the DS and made some adjustment for the PS of the car.

[ryeguy2006a]

Very clever with the Mini-tub! You are doing a great job, keep it up!!