Lurker goes public..

[Crafty]

as I've been reading RRT for a while but never posted much I thought I'd show you what I'm upto...

the car is a 1955 Olds 98 holiday sedan, it was found by a friend in Amarillo about 4 years ago, sat in a yard just outside of town, $150 bought it and I shipped it home... it then waited for a garage, near got scrapped ( long story.. ) but finally made it into my garage when i bought the house about 3 years ago.

I guess some have already skipped ahead and looked at the photos, yeah, I'm afraid no rocket engine, although I did get it with the car its only real use is a boat anchor as there is valvetrain damage, the valves are rusted into the heads and the pistons into the bores, which themselves are pretty badly corroded, and everything that bolted on is missing... So SBC it is.. ( Im sure some don't like me now already! ) the chevy is 030 over, world products heads, flat top pistons and will have a edelbrock cam/carb combo.. it came out of a early 80s blazer that was being scrapped locally.

The front suspension is based on MII just 2" oversize, we fabricated the whole front end bar the arms/spindles. Now this is done we will add the rear bags to the stock rearend ( de-leafed ) and sort out the firewall and braking system.
This is my first car, I couldn't even weld when I started this, a friend has done most of the tricky stuff, I did the prep, he welded it. I've learnt stacks of stuff and I'm sure theres more to come..

anyway.. pics..

//www.crafty.f2s.com/asitwasfound.htm - as found
//www.crafty.f2s.com/pics.htm - front clip
//www.crafty.f2s.com/pics2.htm - engine & trans in...

[enjenjo]

Lookin' good so far!!! Welcome to the light.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

kool.....
some folks are more public than others.

[47wood]

Welcome to the RRT.  You've got a lotta nice work invested in the Olds.  Look forward to seeing reports of you progress.  

[58 Yeoman]

Lookin' good. You're a lot farther along than I. I finally got the body set back onto the chassis today, but will have to cut the trans hump to fit over the th400.  Then, back off to do the underside.

A friend of mine has a 55 or 56 Olds, 4dr sedan. He bought it a couple years ago from the son of the second owner, I believe. He had said something about the car getting hit by something, and GM replaced the whole body. I'll have to check with him to get the story. He repainted it, and I think rechromed a few parts. The rest is still original.

Way back in the 90's when I had the engine rebuilt for the Yeoman, I had a pair of 1.94 heads that had been sitting around for years. The machinist had to beat the valves out of the heads, but everything turned out okay.

BTW, welcome to the light of day.

[dvanecek]

How much is you top chopped?  Was it hard to slant the b pillars and keep the roll down rear windows?  I'm planning a chop on my '50 chev beginning of next year and want to keep the rear roll down windows.  I've also thought about a hardtop style chop also but there is something about those forward slanted b pillars.

Thnx
Dave

[58 Yeoman]

Hell, Dave, I wish I could chop the top on the Poncho; it's stock.  A friend of mine wanted to chop the top (he saw it done in a magazine), but in the 'California' style, where you just chop the front, and basically leave the rear stock with a little lean over.  I don't really care for that style chop, and it would be a major job to do a fastback.  Good luck on yours.

[dvanecek]

I saw the forward slanted posts and was confused.   Are your rear window guides angled?

Dave

[58 Yeoman]

I haven't looked at them in over a year, but I would guess that they are slanted.

[dvanecek]

I would like to make it a hardtop when I chop it but if I cann't I might try to slant the pillars I definitely do not want to put sealed glass like a lot of people do.

Dave