Cale's 55

[Derek69SS]

Figured I'd share here another project we're working on...

When he was 10 years old (Fall of 2018), I helped my oldest son Cale buy a '55 Chevy 210 2-door sedan basket-case project car. It was originally Neptune Green with turquoise interior, 6cyl 3spd. It's a pretty solid car, but has a few rusty areas.

I have a '55 210 2-door sedan also, so my extra parts would go a long way toward making this one complete.

[Derek69SS]

A couple years passed before we started working on it. At age 12, I taught him how to weld, patching the fender eyebrows and antenna hole on his fenders.

[Derek69SS]

Over the winter of 2021-2022 we started on rust repair on the body. Passenger side needed a full rocker panel, and a patch on the lower quarter panel.

[Derek69SS]

Summer race season we don't do much on this car. Back to work on it in November 2022. He cleaned up his welds, and tacked any pinholes the grinding revealed. He then stripped a door, sandblasted the jambs and the rust-pits hiding behind the side trim, and I primed it for him while he was at Driver's Training class.

We wanted to get the sandblasting done on the shell before winter really set in. That uncovered a few more areas that need patching. We got the whole car in epoxy primer, and I shot the jambs with high-build 2K, then started body work at the dash and firewall so we can get paint on those, and start some assembly work as well... having some part look "finished" is always a good motivator for the rest of it.

[Derek69SS]

Spring of 2023 we bought this chassis that had all been rebuilt with new bushings, disc brakes, power-steering, new brake lines, sway bar, and a freshened up rear end, from a guy who turned his '56 Chevy into a gasser.

This should save a lot of time, money, and effort to make his car roadworthy.

[Derek69SS]

Spring Break 2023, Cale had a week off school, so he asked Grandpa (a retired body-man who apparently works cheap for his grandkids) if he could come help work on his '55. Grandpa stayed with us for 3 days.

(Monday) Day 1, the center of the dash is painted.

[Derek69SS]

(Tuesday) Day 2 of spring break, firewall into the jambs painted before noon.

[Derek69SS]

(Wednesday) Day 3 of spring break, the dash is fully painted. That was pretty much the end of body work for the winter of 2022-2023, but this being done meant Cale could start some assembly work over the summer.

[Derek69SS]

In order to get Cale's new chassis indoors without taking up any more space, a quick frame swap was in order. With the body in-place, he can figure out where to place the engine and trans mounts, and maybe get an engine out of the way too.

[Derek69SS]

During race season, I knew we wouldn't get much done on it, so we stored it for the summer and finally moved it back into the shop around the beginning of December 2023.

Cale got a bit too aggressive sandblasting some deep pits behind where the emblem goes on the hood, and blew holes in some thin spots, so we cut out the area and made a patch. He also cut a hole for a hood scoop, and used some of that metal to shave the hood-bird... he went a little too fast welding, and warped the hood quite a bit. We're going to need to do quite a bit of hammer and dolly work on it, but it will turn out fine. I made a lot of these same mistakes when I was his age.

The last of the rust issues on the body that we're going to address is the panel between the trunk and bumper. He made the patches, and then I hammered on them for a while to make them fit better.