Belle Of The Barn

[Jaglavak]

Tell us a story, Unca 3acres?

Remember, lying is OK as long as you make it good.

:: flops down, cracks beer ::

[3acres]

Look! It's that flying car they've been promising us. Never mind those thingies that look like jackstands under the car. This here's a gen-u-wine 1955 Plymouth flying Belvedere. Actually, it's a piece of automotive art perched on a makeshift pedestal out in my garage. I always though '55 Plymouth 2-doors were pretty and I had the chance to buy this one, so I did. I saw some guy selling it online and emailed him. A phone call later, he was dragging it to my house from Iowa on a trailer. I was going to use it as yard art, but decided I couldn't stand to watch it melt into the ground (fairly common around here), so I dragged it into the garage last year. A friend of mine thinks we should install lowrider hydraulics and make a adult-sized grocery store ride out of it. Remember those? That's not going to happen unless he pays or I win the lottery!

[Uthrecht]

It's Belle the Love Bucket.

[Anacanapuna]

I think you can just buff out most of the scratches, she'll look good as new. May need a little Bondo around the right tailfin and some touchup over the headlights, but other'n that, she's a creampuff!

[3acres]

Originally Posted by Uthrecht

It's Belle the Love Bucket.

More like Belle, the Bride of Frankencar. I'm not sure how many cars donated parts to my Belvedere, but it's more than one for sure. It has the dashboard of a car with an automatic (the shifter of all 1955 Chrysler automatics sticks out of the dashboard), but it has the pedal assembly of a manual: the smaller brake pedal and a clutch pedal. But there's no clutch linkage and the trunk lid proudly proclaims the car has the Powerflite automatic. The front fenders appear to be from a different vehicle from the rest of the body, and I was told the front bumper and headlight surrounds were from other cars.

Originally Posted by Anacanapuna

I think you can just buff out most of the scratches, she'll look good as new. May need a little Bondo around the right tailfin and some touchup over the headlights, but other'n that, she's a creampuff!

I like your optimism! Maybe Belle the Bondo Babe, eh?

[Islander]

Shee-it, I remember those! They were born back in the day when you could tell the make and model of a car because they looked different. The Nash Rambler, the Ford Pinto, the lemon-sucking Studebaker....

[Jaglavak]

Killer! That was story #1. The peanut gallery recommends that the next story should feature revenooers and tommy guns.

Or you might talk about your plans to make a rat rod out of it by dropping in a twin turbo'd 440 backed up by an air shifted Lenco pumping into a straight cut Halibrand quick change rear end hung off a custom coil over 4 link. Naturally you'll need a full cage for that action.

[Uthrecht]

Awesome idea, Jag. That could make a pretty nice rat rod, or a lead sled.

[3acres]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

Killer! That was story #1. The peanut gallery recommends that the next story should feature revenooers and tommy guns.

Or you might talk about your plans to make a rat rod out of it by dropping in a twin turbo'd 440 backed up by an air shifted Lenco pumping into a straight cut Halibrand quick change rear end hung off a custom coil over 4 link. Naturally you'll need a full cage for that action.

Lencos, Halibrands, 440's...damn, you're a real free spender with my money! I bet I should get real magnesium racing wheels, too?

I do have a couple of turbochargers sitting on the shelves in the laundry room. But they'd be better suited for a smaller engine; something like that old 291 hemi V8 I have. Then we just adapt a Ford EEC-IV fuel injection management system (I have a Ford computer stashed somewhere in the laundry room, too) to the hemi using a boost-referenced fuel pressure regulator and we're good to go. An adapter plate from that guy up in the Northwest would let me hook a Torqueflite up to the old hemi. You're right that the old rear end has to go, but I'd lean towards something like a Dana 60 hung off some superstock asymmetrical leaf springs - if my measurements are accurate, it appears that the rear suspension from a '70 Road Runner or any other Mopar B-body would bolt right in.

I have to talk to the ladies down at the furniture and appliance store in town (they also have a little license bureau in the back of the store, near the recliners) and see what it would take to get a title before I do anything expensive. Plus, I've been looking around but haven't found anyone with a windshield to replace the cracked one. It would probably be cheaper to start with a nicer '55 Plymouth. I've been looking at online car ads again lately; there's no telling what I might end up doing!

[Anacanapuna]

Naw, now, you guys, what you do with a ton of automotive sweetness like a '55 Plymouth Belvedere is you cherry it out. Showroom new, top to bottom, hell you could even roll back the odometer to 9.5 and nobody'd know the difference. If you're a motorhead, restoration is where the craftsmanship is.

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by 3acres

.....something like that old 291 hemi V8 I have.

Ooooh, aaaaahhhh! I like this story.

My uncle found a good use for an old V8. He cleaned it up real good, crated it with just a frame of lumber, and put it in the living room under a sheet of glass. It's the world's coolest coffee table. The true purpose, of course, is to give his busybody sister a jab in the ribs. Drives her batshit every time she looks at it.

Originally Posted by 3acres

Lencos, Halibrands, 440's...damn, you're a real free spender with my money! I bet I should get real magnesium racing wheels, too?

Hey, at least I haven't lost my entire mind and started spending *my* money.
:: sigh ::
OK, if you must be so bloody minded. Go with a clean wrecking yard Ford 302 (narrower than a Chevy 350). Freshen up the rings / bearings / pistons. Put on the best flowing cast iron exhaust manifolds you can scrounge. Break out the welder and fab up tubing to and from the fenderwell turbo. Go with a draw through carb so you don't have to screw around with boost referencing. Strap it to the C-4 and 9 inch rear that you picked up as part of the package deal. Most importantly, and this is critical, do not fix up the body any more than absolutely required to get it road legal.

Originally Posted by 3acres

I do have a couple of turbochargers sitting on the shelves in the laundry room.

You may be interested in one of my little projects, then. I'm pretty sure I can strap an old turbo and an alternator to a parabolic solar heat collector for a simple way to convert photons to electrons. The trick is my simple hack to get a 20 to 1 speed reduction that will operate at 60,000 RPM. Coming soon to a brag brag thread near you.

Originally Posted by 3acres

....there's no telling what I might end up doing!

Likewise I'm sure ; )

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by Anacanapuna

If you're a motorhead, restoration is where the craftsmanship is.

Boo! Hisssss!
Don't you dare scrub off that priceless, irreplaceable patina!
Rat rods rule, restorations drool!!!

[3acres]

Originally Posted by Anacanapuna

If you're a motorhead, restoration is where the craftsmanship is.

On a friend's T-shirt: "Anyone can restore a classic car, it takes a real man to cut one up." But there are still plenty of them out there if you want to restore one. And don't worry, I don't have enough moolah to start with a pristine car, whether it's original or restored.

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

OK, if you must be so bloody minded. Go with a clean wrecking yard Ford 302 (narrower than a Chevy 350). Freshen up the rings / bearings / pistons. Put on the best flowing cast iron exhaust manifolds you can scrounge. Break out the welder and fab up tubing to and from the fenderwell turbo. Go with a draw through carb so you don't have to screw around with boost referencing. Strap it to the C-4 and 9 inch rear that you picked up as part of the package deal.

A Ford motor in my MOPAR?!?! You heathen! You're like my buddy: he put a Chevy smallblock (a ZZ4 crate engine) in his '38 Plymouth. I helped him do it, sure, but I gave him grief about it the whole time. Besides, an LA or Magnum small block would fit in the Plymouth; this one originally had one of the old A motors.

Most importantly, and this is critical, do not fix up the body any more than absolutely required to get it road legal.

I like this idea...all go, no show!

I have to admit, I haven't done anything for a few years: the market hasn't been treating my bank account very nicely, plus I've been wrestling with some health problems. But I still have hopes!

[Uthrecht]

Alternately, if you want to do restorations, hook up with a nearby museum or historic site that has automobiles on it. I bet you could talk your way into helping out.

I was just over at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park a couple of weeks ago, and the Edison garage had five antique cars in it from around 1900 to around 1934 or so, including three electric cars. Only the Ford Model T was running. If I lived closer, I might be tempted to try and volunteer myself.

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by Uthrecht

Alternately, if you want to do restorations, hook up with a nearby museum or historic site that has automobiles on it.

I dunno. You sneak in one little NOS system and they act like you kicked a puppy.