2Loose '55 Chevy Sport Coupe, 396 LT1, T56

[2Loose]

Back working on the body, pulled the front end out of storage...



Checking out the rust at the rear lower fender mounts, pretty bad...



Found bad rust and body putty on the left side sheet metal....



The right side mount is pretty bad too...



Dug through the scrap bin and fabbed these replacement pieces,
going with 3/8" standard threads....



And welded 'em in place....






More later....

[2Loose]

Set the fenders in place and checked out the fit....



Looks good to me, both sides. Pulled that front fender assembly back off, and getting it ready for paint. It still will need some shimming and adjustment up and down, and front to back, after everything is painted....

[2Loose]

Pulled it apart, took a whole buncha pix to help me with reassembly later on....
And loaded up the hood, trunk, and front fender parts to go find a paint shop...



Whole bunch of misc. front end pix here....

[2Loose]

Hauled that trailer load of body parts around to various
shops here on the island....
Looking for some metal cleaning, primer, and finish painting....

Everybody I talked to was too busy making good money off of
minor repairs on rental cars, and other "new" cars, that they were
not interested in doing the kind of work I wanted done....

Maui has become a huge tourist destination, and about
half the vehicles on the road these days are rental cars
driven by tourists, and the body/paint shops love to do
these kind of repairs, quick, easy, and they make good money....

So I found a sand blast guy who does classic car parts,
and am setting up to work with him to get these parts cleaned....

After that, priming and painting, not sure yet how that will go....

[2Loose]

So I pulled that front end apart,
tossed in the hood and trunk.....



Basically just want to get the inside stuff cleaned up....








So I found a mobile sand blast guy who does classic car parts,
and got set up to work with him to get these parts cleaned....








Now to get some primer on that bare metal....

[2Loose]

The shop where I've been working on my 55 hardtop is a community shop where several of us have projects going on, and we've decided to just shut it down until this virus problem is more under control. Luckily I have a variety of small projects in my home shop that are keeping me busy, but still, I miss being able to go over and work on my 55 HT !!!
I hope all of you are staying healthy and managing to keep busy and not going broke !!
Aloha,
Willy

[Alwhite00]

Great project and great documentation. Stay safe and hopefully this C-19 crap is over soon and we can get back to normal.

[2Loose]

The pandemic has certainly slowed things down around here.
I got back to work on this car today and started on the seats, as the rear seats need to be fitted to the "minitubs" I've installed, and the upholstery is rotten and has to be replaced.

The seats did not look too bad at first,


Then I started pulling them apart....


I need to ospho and then paint the springs, then reupholster them with new padding....

If you look close you can see there the springs hit the "minitubs"
and need to be modified....






More Pix Here....

[2Loose]

Stripped down the front seat, it was rotten inside also, so tossed all the soft stuff, wire brushed the springs to get them pretty clean, then hit them with Ospho and let that stuff work it's magic overnight....

The bottom portion:


The seat backs:


Some gray rust proofing paint:




MORE PIX HERE (scroll down)

[FlyDoc]

good to see you working on the 55, I don't think we ever met, I made a few trips to Maui, form Oahu when I lived there its been 5 years.
I had a '92 Camaro the I had put an LT1, T56, and a C-4 IRS. now here in TX, I doing a '70 Chevelle SS 454 for a girl on Oahu.

[NOT A TA]

Good to see you're still getting stuff done for the '55 even with the covid thing messing everything up.

[2Loose]

Working on the rear seat now....
Cleaned 'em up,
and soaked 'em with Ospho...

Will let 'em sit overnight, then pressure wash 'em,
dry 'em thoroughly, then paint 'em...

[2Loose]

After Ospho, sitting overnight, hosed 'em off,
letting 'em dry thoroughly, then will paint 'em....



More Pix Here

[2Loose]

Got the rear seat springs painted, Rustoleum Gray....



The back portion....


The bottom portion....


Now off to the upholstery shop....

[2Loose]

This is what I did in my '55 4dr gasser, "Patches"....












But I won have a "crotch strap" in the hardtop....
I'll be doing something very similar though....

[JMG-63]

Thanks for the rear seat spring pics. I've got to do the same mod on mine so I get to copy your work!

Jeff

[2Loose]

Ten years ago I did the same thing on my '55 4 dr gasser, pic posted here....
55 4DR PIX

[2Loose]

Switched over to working on the front clip...

As my buddy had sand blasted the inner surfaces and parts of the disassembled front clip, I decided to paint those parts with a high quality epoxy black paint....











Now time to assemble the front clip, using all ss fasteners:





Carefully aligned and bolted in the radiator and other front parts, again using all ss fasteners...








With the help of some friends, we carefully lifted it back onto the front end of the car...











Need to do some more work on the hood before I can put it back on....


The coronavirus pandemic has really slowed me down though, the next step probably will be to work on the wiring and try to get that all done, as much as I can.


More images HERE


and HERE