Anyone who knew me in High School or has listened be blab on and on recently knows that I have a love for classic cars and my own 1950 Chevy Styleline. It was my first car and daily driver that I rebuilt in high school. Like many with classic cars, I’ve torn it apart a couple of times to make it better so here is the background and recent history of the project.
When I was 14/15 years old, I knew I wanted a car that no one else had. I did not want to be like anyone else so my father and I went searching for “barn finds”. I didn’t necessarily have a style in mind but a budget of only $1,500 bucks. We eventually found this beautiful ’50 Chevy stuck about a foot deep into the mud behind an old body shop. We got in touch with the owner and learned that the car was a parts car for another ’50s era rebuild but it was in a relatively good shape and came from Arkansas!
We took the beaut home and naturally did the unsafest thing, plugged in directly into a 6V. (Yes, original 6V system). Quickly the wiring harness started to smoke :/ This car was all original including straight inline 6 cylinder 216 CI and driveline with a torque tube rear end.
My father and I got the car running with the 216 CI and switched everything to a 12V system. We had to re-wire the entire car but it was running! First trip around the neighborhood block, I’m driving this three on the tree stick shift (first time stick shift) and my dad says to go ahead and put some gas to it! Let’s see what this baby can do…… Immediately smoke starts billowing out of the engine and that engine was cooked. The 216 was notorious for terrible oil circulation and it’s not like this thing sat for decades without love.
This forces us to upgrade the driveline to a 235 CI and driveshaft/rear end (1960s technology, now we’re talking). I think we used the same transmission for a little while since it bolted on but and we moved the shifting to a floor shift since the gearbox on the original would just get stuck all the time. The floor shift wasn’t much better. I can recall driving to high school with my floor boards wide open and the linkage getting stuck so I’d stick my hand down and wiggle everything until we found gear. What a wild time.
A neighbor down the road had old 50s era cars and gave us an old rear end out of a Chevy Blazer to try. We needed a transmission so with some research we found that it was common to get an adapter plate and use a T5 Transmission. With the luck of Facebook Marketplace, we found someone selling an old S10 truck without a title for parts for $150! We picked up the truck hoping that it had the right transmission and just our luck it did! We bought the truck, ripped it’s transmission and sold the parts for $150! That’s what we call a deal.
The upgraded transmission, driveshaft, rear end, and motor was the perfect car to drive in high school. After graduation, I need a commuter vehicle for college so it became the perfect time do what everyone does, take it all a part and make it better again! The goal was upgrade suspension, wiring, electronics, engine (to a 350 CI), etc. We took it a part and started welding a Mustang II front end suspension and then college and life hits so the car sat in garages for years!
This brings us to where we are now. January of 2024 and my wife’s lease was going to be up in March. Naturally, I’m determined to make this my daily driver again.
It had been so long since I even touched the car, I had no idea what parts were what, where I was with the car and what my next steps would be. That Chevy 350 CI I was upgrading too had never even ran. I bought it from a random guy on Marketplace 7 or 8 years ago and never saw it run.
Below is outline of the progress and lots of pictures. I should definitely outline in detail the joy (or torture) but for the sake of time, I’ll have to come back and revisit.
