This is the first car I bought. I started looking when I was 11 years old. Watched the ads and saved my money. Dad took me to look at several but everything in my price range was bad rust wise. Ohio is really hard on cars. When I was 13 I found this one for $750.00. It had been side swiped in front of the guys house and the driver never stopped. owner had no insurance so decided to sell it.
Album by Kevin Foust. 1 - 46 of 46 Total. 3646 Visits.
1 My pride and joy. 2 door hardtop and the color I wanted. The only new car my Dad ever bought was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible with a dual 4 barrel V8 from the factory. The 270 HP version with a close ratio 3 speed on the column. It was their only car and when we came along they decided to sell as Mom had a hard time with the tall first gear.
2 Chrome and stainless were all there and it was basically like a 70's hot rod. Crager wheels and they had put a 327 Chevy with a floor shifted 4 speed. Bucket seats and fur in the back window. LOL
3 Dad assessing the damage in the front. The hood had a thunderbolt style hood scoop on it.
4 The passenger side front bumper needed replaced and some trim. You can see the door pillar was messed up too.
5 Ouch! Dad said he'd work on it and I would help. He did most of it as I was a typical kid.
6 Rust wise it was good and I was on a budget so we decided to use what we had. I did buy another hood as I didn't like the scoop. They had used about a 100 rivets to hold it on.
7 He got the fender back out and I was working odd jobs and spending money to buy all the parts I needed, The UPS man was a regular visitor. LOL
8 We got the door pillar and door back close too.
9 Lots of hammer and dolly work along with some pushing with a port a power.
10 Starting some priming and sanding.
11 Looks a lot better and I was still gathering parts up. All pre internet so things took a lot longer and more phone work.
12 I decided to save my money and have it painted at a shop.
13 I wanted to put the grill back to stock as well. Fender turned out really well.
14 I gutted the interior to take it to the shop. They agreed to straighten it out the rest of the way and repaint the outside, door jambs and trunk.
15 I actually drove it to the shop sitting and this is when it came back.
16 This was 1983 and for what I paid for the work, they did a good job. I then started to put some things back on.
17 I got to this point and time was very limited as I was working so much overtime. Still was gathering parts when I could afford them but didn't work on it.
18 I started a new job in 1994 and was "only" working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and couldn't believe all the free time I had. LOL I decided to finish the car. I then decided to paint the firewall, frame and redo the front end.
19 Slowly getting everything back but at least I had all the parts needed.
20 I had the dash painted and had a bad experience with the shop. It was this that made me decide that from then on, I would do my own work.
21 The motor had one bad cylinder so it was rebored and rebuilt. Got it installed along with the trans and rest of the suspension. I was working in an unheated barn.
22 Piece by piece it went back together. Learning as I went and looking at manuals on what went where.
23 Added headers and mild cam. I just want a cruiser.
24 I added front disc brakes and a vacuum booster.
