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56 Chevy Upgrade Project Welcome, as we proceed with some much needed upgrades to this 56 Chevy wagon. It's a daily driver so we will be installing a 1995 Chevy truck 350 with an automatic transmission, a disc brake/ dropped spindle kit, new wiring, upgraded cooling and ignition, and some cosmetics. We are working on this on the weekends only, so every few weeks we plan to add some photos as the job progresses.
Background: The current power runs great but is just not as powerful as we want, especially on the freeways. It is the original 235 - 6 cylinder with a column 3 speed w/overdrive. It has the original stock drum brakes with a single master cylinder. From direct experience, we discovered that any leak in this brake system can spell disaster on the road. We recently lost the brakes on a hill and blew through 2 red lights, horn blasting, before slowing down with the parking brake! A power disc brake kit was ordered from Total Cost Involved the following day! So here goes....
We brought the car back inside and removed the brakes and control arms. We are replacing the bushings and ball joints along with the brakes. At this time we also removed the drive shaft, exhaust, all transmission linkage, and anything else connected to the engine/ transmission that might bind or get in the way of removing of them.
A good portion of the time is spent doing glamour jobs like cleaning off 45 years of rust, scale, and grease! It has to be done so we can repaint everything before the new motor is installed. We will be filling and smoothing the firewall while everything is out of the way.
We found three layers of paint had accumulated over the years, so some aircraft paint remover was brushed on to the firewall to begin lifting the layers. After allowing drying time, we used putty knives, sandpaper, and grinders to remove the stubborn spots. This was followed by another thorough washing and degreasing with a high pressure washer.
After cleaning, we primed parts of the frame and discovered a few welds that showed hairline cracks as well as some non-factory welds due to a previous collision repair. These were repaired as needed.
We followed up by painting the frame. We replaced the upper and lower ball joints on the A-Arms, then reinstalled the A-Arms, springs, steering linkage, a Danchuk 605 power steering conversion box, and TCI 2" dropped spindles. Tom also shortened the steering column and created custom linkage for the automatic shifting. Back to Top To Rebuild Pg 2 To Rebuild Pg 3
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Our
first step is to remove the front bumper, battery, hood, disconnect all wiring
and hoses, and drain and remove the radiator.
Next,
we began removing the fender fasteners to the body to allow removal of the front
end sheet metal in one piece. Since there are only a few bolts on the body and
two below the core support, this goes fairly quickly. Three people can easily
lift it off. 
Of
course, this revealed all kinds of gunk that has been accumulating for 45
years! Before tackling the engine removal, a general degreasing with a high
pressure hose got rid of the worse of it. 
