5/02
This is a section of my website that I've dedicated to my hobby. I purchased this car on EBay (yes, that is correct EBay) back in May of 2002. It is a 1956 Chevy 210. The car was originally out of Texas and I found it in Utah. The original pictures are exactly how the car was when I bought it. It was used as a weekend car at the drag strip. I began the task of making it streetable (somewhat). The first order of business was to replace the slicks with DOT tires, put some mufflers on it, and replace the 5 gallon fuel cell with a 16 gallon cell. The next part of the project was to replace the rack & pinion steering with the stock steering. The rack was nice but the car would just not turn too good on the street. The car was ready to roll by the first of July. I had a lot of fun cruising it around locally for most of the summer but the race fuel was getting very expensive to dump in just to cruise around.One of the not so funny events in the beginning was that when the exhaust was first done it was just a pair of flow masters that ended in front of the rear axle with the ends turned down. It was VERY LOUD but we did not want to restrict the exhaust too much. (Actually after about 2 hours of driving your brains felt like scrambled eggs from the noise.) Well the First time I could get my wife to finally go out for a blast in the car we decided we wanted to go get some Ice cream at a local Ice Cream shop. I spent the whole day cleaning & waxing the car only to pull into the parking lot and realize that it was blue stone. You had to see the dust cloud It made! (I don't know what was worse the embarrassment or the dust all over the entire car). There was quite a few people outside enjoying their Ice Cream until I came along. The side pipes were installed by the next day. Now I love pulling in to the parking lots or driving though town setting off the car alarms :)
I attended a few local car shows and swap meets with my wife & 2 sons. We really enjoyed the shows and met allot of new friends to cruise with. In September I was invited to go to the Good Guys East Coast Nationals in Rhinebeck, N.Y. with a customer of mine whose boat I worked on. (Turns out he had a '33 Ford Coupe in the garage and he is a member of the Long Island Street Rod Association). I took the wife & my boys to the show for the weekend and had a great time. (I will actually be going there every year from now on.) There was so many custom cars, I could not believe it! I also went to Fall Carlisle to find some parts for the car. I found that you can basically go bankrupt at Carlisle. They had every part I could imagine. If they did not have, they could get it. I bought all the front & rear lights, housings, emblems and the complete set of side moldings. While we were in PA. for the show we went down to Gettysburg to visit some family and go to the Apple Harvest Festival. Well it turned out that they had there own car show. So we brought the Chevy and had another nice day at a show. I then made the decision to do two things, first, make the car run on pump gas, and second, GO FASTER. Well it seemed that the only obvious solution was to supercharge it. So we took the car off the road in late November .
With the decision of going to the new motor there was a number of things that had to be addressed first. The ignition system was completely replaced and upgraded (no need for a delay box anymore), the rear suspension was changed to QA1 coil overs, the front suspension was replaced with 2" drop spindles, tubular control arms, and coil overs. The old centerlines were retired and replaced with Convo Pro's (I think this really woke up the cars look). The fuel system was completely replaced. The Brake system was completely replaced with new lines, master cylinder and wilwood four piston disc brakes in all four corners. I figured since I went this far I might as well rip out the wiring harness and replace it (I still don't know what I was thinking that night :)!) I made a new custom switch panel and gauge cluster for the new Autometers. Then I found out that the radiator would be not even close to keep a healthy Small block cool so it too was replaced with a new cross flow set up with Dual fans. After removing the old small block I thought for a few days about building a big block Then I came to the conclusion that everyone's building big blocks and spraying them with nitrous. I figured let's see what we could do with a blown small block. (When I cruised with the hood on everyone expected to see a big block under there, many were surprised to find out it was only a little 355 small block.) So it's early Spring now and I'm just about done with the car. I'm just waiting for the motor to be completed. I am in the process of putting together the new powerglide transmission and the converter should be done soon. The cruising season is coming fast & I'm getting very anxious to get it done.
I will be updating this part of my site when I get the time. I have started to put together links & info on other peoples cars, friends I've met, and companies that have helped me tremendously to continue enjoying my hobby. Please feel free to contact me with info, links, questions or comments!
8/8/03
Well its now early August and most of the bugs have been worked out. We attended the Super Chevy Show down in Maple Grove on 7/18. I only stayed for Friday. The track was mobbed and the show was not too busy. We had just happened to be passing through Pa. at the end of vacation and wanted to check it out. It will be a definite event for next year.
I should have the latest pictures up soon. I'm in the process of replacing the entire fuel system with a Magnaflow setup. This thing wants fuel! The old system just will not cut it for the NOS. I've also been going nuts trying to get the chassis & 4 link adjusted. (Just can't seem to keep the tires planted). Oh & I learned a lesson: Uncoated headers + leaking valve covers & breathers = FIRE! (I took care of this pretty quick, what a mess those extinguishers leave!!!)
10/21/03
It is late October now and the car shows and cruise nights are slowing down. I can finally get some pictures up soon. It took a while to get most of the car dialed in just right. (I'm convinced that it will NEVER be just right) I finally found a competent carb guy to get my set up tuned correctly. Put on a new set of Hoosier Quick Time Pro tires. I then decided to change the rear gear ratio from 5.13 to a set of 4.10's. The car is now a docile driver with a bit more cruising range and a deadly bite. It took a while to tune the NOS set up. Only took about 2 or 3 sets of plugs, some burned electrodes, lots of fuel, two bottle refills, and 2 or 3 jet changes to get it right. My need for speed has been fulfilled (For now). Hey it's not a big cubic inch rat motor but it's plenty enough fun for now. I'm probably out of my mind but I ordered a few pulleys to up the boost a bit.
The Car Shows have been quite fun. We went to Bald Hill in Farmingville a few times. Everyone complemented the hood. I actually had the car judged for the first time at the lions club show in early October there and it took first place in full modified. I was stunned! The weather has not been too good for the last few weeks but there are one or two more shows we would like to attend. There is a local cruise night on Thursdays in Wading River that has about 30-50 cars each week. It keeps attracting more and more cars as people hear about it. Next year we plan on taking it to the drag strip. I'm getting the car inspected and certified over the winter. The winter plans are to do a custom set of headers and 3 1/2" mandrel bent exhaust and an 8-71 Blower Shop blower and competition intake. The hilborn fuel injection is still on the shopping list but I don't think Santa is going to be that kind to me this year.
So the latest mission has been to get a wheels up picture on the street. I've got the camera and a gallon of VHT. I just have not had the right opportunity yet. Hoping to get a picture up soon................
2/21/04
When is the big thaw? With the winter almost gone (hopefully), I can started with some of the new additions for this spring. New for this year is a Mooneyham 8-71 8MM drive supercharger and a set of big tube headers & custom exhaust. I've also hooked up with a very experienced guy to help build a custom multi stage NOS system. I'm Hoping to have some good times out on the street this year. I will be posting some more pictures of the work being done soon.