i bought the car earlier this year. i want to drive it this year! i also want it to be a carson top car. got the car cause i bought the motor (flathead V8) off the guy and the car looked like it was going nowhere. thought i would give the car a second chance at life.

day it arrived:





i had aquired a 283 SBC off a 61 Nomad with supposed 84K original miles. i seen the motor run in the Nomad and it was quite not smoking or knocking. so my plans are to clean up the motor, find some valve covers that dont say Chevrolet on them and take care of some essential. plan to not use the power steering or the a/c, keeping it generator though.

SBC 283:



some parts i will use some i wont:



well, progress wont be fast cause i cant afford to take too much time off from work, but i will squeeze in a few hours every night i can till i see my vision come true.

the ball started rolling on this project! getting it into the shop turned out to be quite a feat on its own. 4 dollies and pulling it with my shop truck then a couple hands to push it up the ramp. once in, the body was immediately removed. the frame was being built for air bag but i dont want to spend the extra cash to go that route, so a couple coil springs were put up front and for now a leaf spring and s-10 rear end hung out back. i know the rear end is about 2" too short but with the 1" spacer / bolt pattern change i will be just fine. i will also be doing a basic 2-link system to get the back even lower and put coils back there too. the frame was already notched by the previous owner.




being that the floors were so hacked up already, i decided to remove them all together and start fresh. i know rockers inner and outer will need work so this will allow me to better repair them.



also figured that while i was redoing all the floors front to back i should channel the body. i dont want to loose too much cabin space so i only pinch channeled it. front firewall remains in stock height, while trunk body mounts are raised about 3" maybe 4". so i can have more "suspension" and a nice rake tail-dragger of course.



crappy pic, but the front frame area has been cleaned up and sprayed in black, the body is sitting where i want it on the frame and its a roller now!



this week's forecast shows there will be some new rocker work early in the week, with some scattered floor pan work towards the end of the week going into the weekend.

i want custom tail-lights, didnt want to delete the wind split on the body, so remembered my 51 Buick lights were still on the shelf. ill use them horizontal as opposed to factory vertical and ill French them cause the headlights will get Frenched too.

first things first is the frame template, used 2 round pipes welded to the table, then heat and wrapped some 5/16 solid round bar...



welded the joint and blended, now i can work them onto the back of the car...

Un shoebox! Me gusta....!

ive been focused on the rear of the car. over the weekend and some late nights, i got both taillights grafted in, shaved the trunk lid and molded the rear splash pan to the body.









here you can compare the 51 Buick lights Frenched in vs the stock lights...

today wrapped up the rear modifications by removing the factory fender seam...







then moved up front to work on the firewall...





tomorrow ill blend the welds on the firewall and possibly take a short break, but then again maybe not.

Joder! buen trabajo en esos faros!
Me gustaria estar ahí trabajando contigo

gracias Carlos. me ace farta una mano! trabajo solo todo los dias tio! pero no qrueo que suportas el calor que ace! puta madrea

today the firewall was blended and primered and the dash too got filled blended and primered...



here you can see the stock holes on the dash, lots of knobs and in the center a radio...



i dont have the original radio nor will i pony up to get one or a delete plate, i opt to just smooth it out along with key hole, vent knob, interior light knob and a few other knobs and holes that looked a bit random...



barely visible but to the left of the speedo only 3 holes remain... from left to right... push button start... headlight knob... key hole. there will be no wipers or hazards or any of that, i still might fill the push button start and leave only key and headlights and yes i am aware that the key is on the left, just like a 59 Ford Fairlane...

rear of the car is almost finished! the last thing i will need to do other than body work and final adjustments is the license plate mount. want to put it on the bumper with a guard frame, so ill be looking for something from a Kaiser or front 50 Chevy frame guard...

keeping things "affordable" simple bumper blades cost less to re-chrome than those with bumper guards, so i opt to shave the bumpers smooth even of the bolts:



brackets have been welded to the back side and bolt holes filled and smoothed:



taillights are installed, bumper too it has 4" clearance i think that will be fine:



bumper required a couple plate extentions because the body is 4" lower than stock so that would put the bumper exiting just under the trunk:

Esta Guapisimo

,,,,,,,,,,,,,buen curro te as pegao .......yea

que es "curro"

Curro = work

so last night my pal wanted some therapy, how better to clear your mind than by working on that car you cant wait to see going down the road...

plans were to simply finish the driver rocker panel, the outside skin was already welded in. so only the inner rocker needed to be installed. being that the roof will come completely off we thought it would be wise to beef up the inner rocker. how about some 4" x 1/4" x 6'??? 4" hieght was perfect from top to bottom of rocker and the 6' length put us from front body mount to rear wheel well. this should help keep the body from sagging when it looses some roof structure. off this plate i will later fab 6 body mounts to the frame, 3 on each side. that plus the 2 on the firewall and 4 in the trunk should keep this thing firmly planted.

we test fit the doors for gabs and fit so everything will line up nice





needless to say, the driver side was just not enough for one night. the passenger side got outer and inner rockers installed! so that means floor work can commence this weekend?

fabricated 6 body mounts from 3/16" steel off the 1/4" inner rockers to the factory chassis extensions. sorry for the crappy pic but you get the idea a flat plate for the mount and a triangle for strength. mounts are fabbed "solid" so that later rubber insulators will installed in between for vibrations.



then the front floor work began using 2 sheets of 10' x 4' 18 gauge steel.





maybe today or weeknights the notch and trunk will be completed, the driveshaft tunnel will happen once the motor/trans are in place.

work continues on the shoebox.

Sunday wrapped up some welding on the 2 floor pan halfs and made the notch flooring. its again 18 gauge with some bead rolling and all that is left is to add 3 bends and set it in place...



today i got my transmission, its a rebuilt Corvette 700r4. same deal i got in the Buick basically, only this 700 will be keeping my 283 SBC happy on the highway when overdrive kicks in and i cruise 70+ mph...



motor and trans set in place. this is for mock up purposes only. the motor will come back out this weekend to get freshened up, this will allow me to finish the trans hump and tunnel...

so the mailman arrived yesterday and i could not help but get right to it...

first i had to trim a little off the top bar:



then the inside of the bullet required torching off a bracket and opening it up for exhaust exit. 1 bullet was dented on the tip even though the plan was to run exhaust out of them already:



so after a lot of profile grinding the 50's Kaiser rear gaurd looks right at home on my 50 Shoebox. the bullets will get fully welded to the top bar and blended. the exhaust too will be welded flush to the bullet cut out and the exhaust pipe connection will happen behind the bumper for a cleaner exit:

segimos!

more progress made this weekend.

the floor work is shaping up nicely. worked on the transmission cover and tunnel. hand formed 18 gauge sheet-metal using only wood blocks, a hammer and an oxygen tank...



used one of my oxygen tanks to form the tunnel and hand hammered the 2 lips:



so the front part is about done. going to move to the trunk next.



also worked on the Kaiser guard.

welded the bullets to the top bar:



blended the welds:



cut a piece of for better flow (i think):



here you can see that now the vertical bar has matching front and rear angle so it looks more uniform in profile:



got a 6" long 3" outside diameter thick wall pipe, trimmed the bullets to weld it up:



cut the bumper using a torch to allow the new pipes to slip in:



hard to see here, but the pipes are welded and blended to the Kaiser bullets for a smooth finish. later exhaust pipes will simply slip into the large pipes about 1" so they are not visible:

Joder! ya se puede ver como quedará esa parte trasera.
Fin de semana bien aprovechado

bueno Carlos, ya llega otro fin de semana. vamos a empesar lo bien...

today i was able to wrap up the floor work upto the notch. the notch sheet-metal is ready to go as soon as i put a few bends in it.

in the mean time took the original Rochester off the '61 283 and tore it down to be rebuilt. also got a 3 duece set-up that i might use, but not sure on that yet.



while doing my daily research (basically looking at the pics of the shoebox Paul Bragg worked on) noticed a b-pillar lower brace, so i improvised and made my own. knowing that when the roof comes off there would be tons of work to do, figured the roof should come off tonight.



tomorrow and sunday plan to chop the front windshield, think 4" will suffice, and going to cut out the rear package tray so that i can move it forward. this will elongate the trunk and give the profile the appearance of a real convertible.

That sounds so easy when said like that. Sigue asi TD.

Saturday progress...

tapped out 4" to be removed from A-pillar:



with the a-pillars complete, decided to shave the wipers and washer hole, along with a bolt that was in the center of the top firewall. blended the welds a bit too:



cut out the rear package tray. moved it forward 6" then another inch for a total of 7. after analyzing countless profile pics of Carson / Gaylord top shoeboxes i think this will put the new roof where it needs to be: