Well, thankfully, Harbor Fright Tools was open on New Year's day. We went down early, I purchased a 2 ton hoist, and after assembling it in the driveway, I unloaded the engine and stashed it between the car and the overhead door for the time being.
The rest of January was pretty much typical of what I'd expect from what is traditionally the worst month of the year- it's cold, there's not much going on, it's gray, depressing, and hard to motivate. I made a small cart to support the engine and transmnission, and put in on wheels so I could roll it around.
I did score these taillight bezels from a '58 Biscayne. Not sure if I'll use them or not, but I bought them right, and can get my cash back if I don't.
I also hung my new shop signs that I got from Christmas from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. My Mother-in-law had a '51 Chevy way back in the day, and her's was even the same color that mine originally was. (Fathom Green) She loves old cars, and I can't wait to take her for a ride in mine this year!
If you look to the left of the door, you'll notice an Oregon license plate from 1951. I started last fall on collecting a 1951 plate from all 48 states. Remember that Alaska and Hawaii were 8 years away from being states in 1951
On the car itself, I struggled with the brakes a bit. I'd reassembled everything last month, but hadn't yet bled them out. I tried numerous times to gravity bleed them, but for some reason was never able to get any flow. That and the aforementioned January blues kept me from getting much on the car actually accomplished.
February brought more cold, and an ice storm that blocked the garage door shut for several days. But, as the month wound down, things started to wind back up.
51 Chick and 51 Kid ordered me a cool aluminum shop sign for Christmas, but when it was shipped, it had the wrong design at the bottom. When she called to get it corrected, they told her to keep the wrong one. I thought even the wrong one was pretty cool, so I went ahead and hung it up in the shop, along with the new shop stereo that they got me for Valentine's day.
When the replacement sign got here, it was also incorrect! It was the same as the first one! So, I get to keep TWO wrong ones and still get the right one.
I decided to skip the gravity bleeding, and enlisted 51 Chick's help to do it the long way. The first time she pumped up the brakes, I heard the squirt and saw the drip that explained why I couldn't get a good gravity bleed- I'd forgotten to tighten one of the lines to the master cylinder! Once that was fixed, we got the brakes working great in fairly short order. The next day, I fired the car up, and pulled it out of the garage for the first time since before the front suspension came apart.
While the car was outside, I sprayed down the steering linkage with degreaser, since that's the next step. I also rolled out and hosed down the 235 and 3 speed. While the degreaser soaked, I did some cleaning and reorganizing in the shop.
The reorganizing turned out to be VERY timely. 51 Chick asked me that night what did we need for the car that she could be looking for. I told her "old steel wheels, and a driveshaft and rear axle from a 55, 56, or 57 Chevy (these axles are all the same, and will essentially form a matched set with the engine and transmission).
4 days later, she once again showed me why she earns the name "the seeker." Thursday night at work, I get a text from her. She's found a guy who has 15 steel wheels from 49-53 Chevys, and two rear axles from 57 Chevys. The next day, 51 kid and I went to Mooresville, and came back loaded
The wheels are already sandblasted, and the axle has new brakes and bearings. When I got it home, I did a bit more digging on the axle, and found that it has 3.36:1 gears. PERFECT for what I want to do with the car. This gear will make for nice, easy highway cruising!
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