Construction Topics > Fab shop-under construction pics

56 Chevy Bomber Class, 1966

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Maineboy:
My best friend and I built this race car in the spring of 1966. It had been his street car, a 56 Chevy 150 with the old 235 and 3 on the tree. We drove around in it one Sat night then got up next morning and gutted it. We made one appearance at the track in it's original color, then got it painted the next week. This photo was taken on a Sunday morning in late May 1966, just before towing the few miles to the track. My buddy and I were both 17 when we built it, I turned 18 just a couple weeks before this pic.
56chevy1 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


I got the model of the 56 Chevy Del Rey a couple months back. Had a very rainy day so had a chance to clean off my bench and box up the 57 Ford project for the moment. Got out the body and floor pan and started looking and thinking. Then got out my saw and knife and started cutting. Used my Zona saw some and used a sheetrock utility knife. I find I can hold that knife in my hand and control it better than an Exacto knife. Got the right front fender cut to match the full sized car and got the chrome removed as far back as the trailing edge of the door. Got that fender cut out and made it a whole lot neater than it was on the original one we built.
[DSCF0003 (5) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


Took one of the interior side panel and looked at that a bit trying to figure how much work it would be to remove the armrests, window cranks and interior upholstery from that. Looked like a lot of boring work.
DSCF0002 (4) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


Then I had an inspiration. Those panels are flat on the other side, and both side panels are straight with the same cutouts to line up with the dash and the rear of the interior section. So I had the idea to switch them from side to side so they would be inside out with the flat side of each panel facing the interior. Then saw there was a  lip cast on the bottom of each that allowed them to index on the edge of the floor pan. 5 mins worth of work with my sprue cutters took those little flanges off and voila! Now I have to take just a bit of body filler and fill in those 3 holes and I have smooth inner body panels, as easy as pie. Already got some body filler in the holes, will likely need a skim coat.
DSCF0001 (7) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


Got the motor nearly assembled enough for basic paint. Thinking of working on the floor pan shortly. Will update with photos as I go along although be patient as this is my busy part of the year and only get rainy days like this one to work on it.

MB

David Bogard:
Nice job on that front fender cut. And yes, turning the interior door panels around backwards saves a lot of time. There's going to be a lot of good bar work on this one!

Maineboy:
The "piping up" (local term for it at that time) was quite crude by modern standards, or any era standards. This car was never rolled so that never was tested. Looking at the photos last night I see that pesky vent window has to go. Much easier than taking out the real one, those things were a pain to remove and repair. Pondering on the firewall in the rear between body and trunk where fuel tank was. Rear seat cushions are molded into the interior pan. Will require some surgery for sure. It is fun to get going on it. I am just figuring out mostly one thing at a time and will see where it all goes.

Hankering to get this one done relatively quickly as I have a modified I want badly to get going on when I can. Got wheels and tires and body. Gathering up small parts as I can. Promises to be extremely challenging for me. I kinda like that.

MB

Dirtman:
Maineboy, you just about wrote my story. Myself and another guy (older than you two),  decided to go racing in 1966. He had a '56 Chevy, 265, 3on a tree, soooo, 19 days later we were on the track. Never won a race with that car, but had a boat load of fun. Was able to go on racing for a few years after that. Looking forward to seeing this on done!

Rett

Maineboy:
We had a vast learning curve I can tell you. We didn't know enough to lock the rear end in the beginning. The engine would cut out in the turns. We thought it was flooding. Asked several well known racers how to fix it and they all just smiled and said you would have to figure it out. When going into a corner, and leaning the centrifugal force would make gas run into the right side of the float bowl and starve the left bank cylinders. Solution was to cut off the floats on the right side of the 4 bbl carb. Ran like a clock after that. All we had was street gears in the rear, 4:11's were the best we had. Think not having low enough axle gears hurt us. But like you say we had an awful lot of fun without spending a lot of $$$. We did spend a lot of sweat equity but have no regrets. Marriage and children ended my career. Have always loved it since though.

MB

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