Bringing Dad's Classic Chevy Back to Life: 1957 Bel Air Story

our customer has a little backstory to this 1957 Chevy belir here are the details how this car came to be at Iron Horse Garage in 1957 my dad was just a young man when he went to visit his cousins he was immediately Smitten by their brand new 1957 Chevy belir he told his cousins that if they ever decided to sell it he would be interested in buying it 9 years later in November 1965 my dad got a call from his cousin his cousin said that they were looking to buy a brand new car and were going to sell the 1957 Chevy Bell Air he offered to sell it to my dad for the same price the dealer was offering which was $450 my parents lived paycheck to paycheck at the time and didn't have any extra money but my dad was determined to buy the car he sold his belove 1960 Triumph Bonville motorcycle to get the cash he needed my dad drove the 1957 Chevy Bair for many years he took us on road trips to the beach and to school it was our family car and it holds a special place in our hearts so here we have a 1957 Chevy Bair everything original still on [Music] it everything still on it original inside and out except for the interior this thing is a beauty going to be yanking the motor out radiator this thing is beautiful this car also has both original flippers on the doors The Flipper does is when you open it it flips that up spring loaded and when you close it it flips back back down works both drivers and passenger side pretty [Music] cool don't forget about the original okay it looks like the last time this thing was registered was 1990 so it's been sitting preserving itself for quite a [Music] while and here is a toilet paper roll filter is that aftermarket these are some cool R hose clamps they've got the flippers on them all all four of them oh cool so there original uh I don't know if they're GM stuff but it's possible definitely old school right on [Music] [Music] good Lord have mercy [Music] sh can I give you hand me that half inch [Music] [Applause] small 57 was the first year they made a car that anybody had made 57 shiby was the first one that matched horsepower with cubic Ines so this you could have got a 57 black widow they called it uhhuh and you could have got that car with 283 h for with a four speed and fuel injection and everybody always til up till then thought you couldn't match horsepower with the cubic inches that's [Music] [Music] cool [Music] right above the headlight is the fresh air [Music] intake air comes through the fender into the car to just vent under the [Music] dash [Music] St [Music] [Music] [Music] so I get to these two bolts I got a hunch when I pick this motor up these are going to want to hang up so I want just get them right out of the way [Music] smart all right every bolt is out and this engine is ready to come [Music] out [Music] [Music] we're falling a little bit [Music] [Music] short there's now a 1/8 F we got to write [Music] [Music] [Music] that [Music] [Music] oh [Music] and that ladies and gentlemen is How You Yank A motor from a 57 Chevy [Music] Bair it's almost pure water pure water coming out of the block yeah oh isn't the how do it it's been set in an Idaho One winner it's junk oh should we just throw away the motor or how does it look I don't know see see where the water supposed to run through or the an a freeze I should say freeze plug I got popped out yeah see this one's missing it's got a rubber aftermarket action the [Music] leaked [Music] [Music] [Music] you got the original gaskets from 1957 around the timing chain cover that looks Factory so that's in 1957 they use the Flathead screws yep these are the lifters they've been riding on that cam so long that they're bottoms of them are mushrooms oh just going to take a pull her out of there have you done this before uh a bunch of times all right all these are mushroomed out so we need to use a polar get them all the way out it's all mushroomed out on this right here yeah not real real bad just enough to make it a pain in the butt to get out no as long as they have that dish shape to them in the middle like a bowl they've been running on the cam right so that's a good one [Music] yep [Music] they'd literally spin so hard to had so many RPM these would come loose and just go right through the radiator and down the road or through somebody's window or cuz there wasn't enough bolts there was no bolt holding it on no bolt holding yeah this is just pressed on that's a pressed fit they thought that would be fine GM thought they could just press this on there and it would stay cuz it's pressed you know well mid 327 years they drilled that and tapped it with a 7/16th bolt that held this on with a big old washer gotcha right in place smart move yeah yeah they were it was a bad deal they were turning stuff up big [Music] time is something I've never seen in my life with the clip on it actually got to where they just put a plastic piece there like I say early on I think they were more concerned with uh where the wheed points were Overkill yeah something they were doing for oil deflection or something it's just a where' that go it went right on the crank behind the harmonic balancer so you can see is this is this Cam Bearing here is you're only limited by the amount of space you have for a cam bearing so if you lay a straight edge across that cam Lo to cam Lo that's how high you can go with it so they were so they first thing they did was later on put bigger cam bearings in it so it could go a bigger cam lobe and then the separation was a a big deal too the lob separation between the higher you went the more separation the faster you you know ni you could turn you could turn the motor RP [Music] wise this time to bust out the handy dandy super clean [Music] here [Music] [Applause] [Music] shout out to super clean and a big thank [Applause] [Music] you always a mess make a nice long pan that catches it all [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's the old [Music] the oil pickup screen lots of froy oil [Music] inside they don't make these [Music] anymore that's how the drive Rod stays hooked to the pump got on the keeper don't see that on me but today's small [Music] shies I didn't even actually know that shev we ever done that went that small with a rod bll now they're 38 with 38 fine less rods being thrown that way I would think be stronger yeah cool that Rod so we don't mix the Pistons up we don't mix the Caps up pay close attention and label it that cardboard is for this side that cardboards for this side and I'm going to keep them in order organization see Rings [Music] yep we can clean those up and kind of tell what's going on to [Music] you make sure you put them in the same way you took them out or else what help happen Stony a catastrophic failure right back in the same place the same way they came [Music] off [Music] do is just clean all these up and put the cap back on it so when machine shop gets it they can do what they please you actually can line hone these and do all that you know get them right again but there's a reason for it now everything's kept the same send this baby off to the machine shop and make sure there's no cracks or what do they do no cracks and clean it up bore it new Pistons they'll send it back to us to assemble [Music] it okay so the blocks we got that board yep um we'll check the decks as soon as we get all the the measurements on that it's been reconed on the line hone so that's all straight cool um stock bolts and then we we'll work the deck there cool okay Pistons cast Pistons 30 overs yeah they're all good we we'll get those the right weight when we're on our balance those are silver light silverites yeah dir overs mm cool and he's already made as far as the compression we've got the numbers in there to work on that with your CC okay we go back to the rods rods reconditioned new ARP bolts sized pin fit and then we then we'll work the uh balance we get the balance number get bway going do a finin balance do least amount of drilling as we have to do to get that nice and then it's and then I'm going to go over to the crankshaft it's been reconditioned ground 1010 oil Hol stered drilled and tapped for harmonic balance right on cool okay all right well I appreciate it thanks for thanks for going through all that so here we have some poppy patina what that stuff does is it seals the surface rust and prevents further deterioration it also enriches the colors and provides a UV protection to prevent further color fading we're starting to polish up the Chrome on the 57 pull a little bit of the uh dents and stuff out of the body and then we're going to Scuff the entire body up with scotchbrite pads and then we'll use our poppies patina clear system over the original [Music] paint boy that looks good [Music] [Applause] huh I like it rather have that one no you wouldn't no no you wouldn't that's a Ford ain't it that's a Ford and it's a pain in it's noing good that one has issue or it's just not the motor no not the motor it's just that from what you put on from there oh okay it had a do not ever build a 289 with a a holly sniper don't work oh really no that one don't work and there's one at the dino shop that don't work we're finding out those Holly snip snipers don't tend to work period perfect yeah yeah and then so then they bring a Ed Brock fuel injection system cor pack and everything yeah bolto and the manifold don't line up can't bolt a manifold on it and these are all getting made into the 347 or whatever it is that one's a that one's 289 oh it's going in a 64 Mustang out to Guam it's going to Guam wow I didn't even know they were allowed to drive Mustangs in Guam I guess it's I don't know I guess if you're rich enough there there's a Chevrolet 383 oh and what's it going in a race car looks like a circle track motor Street Impala oh really do you guys like the angle plugs or are they more of a pain and no the they're actually doesn't matter the put the headers on as far as like running wise do they they're better they're better okay yeah but you got to have the right exhaust in order to be able to access them huh correct well I think we can load her up chain a little bit so you guys uh did you prime the oil already like the pump you did where to go so it's got five quarts of oil in it and everything it's got five quarts of oil in it it's got oil to every rocker how long should it run on those five you think before we change it no about 400 miles okay and then put breaking oil in it again or no high zinc oil just high zinc okay yeah now I've got a lot of old uh Kindle um a lot of the old paper oil cans that are still nice is that good oil to use that might be the paper oil cans yes all clear full matter of fact I got about 2,000 cans what wait uh 30 straight 30 a lot of straight 30 that'll work some 1030 that'll work and some 1040 if it's yeah and it should be green in color yep it is yep and it's got a different smell than this oil it's definitely from the 70ish 7s on into the 80s I got some Quakers hit upstairs in the metal cans oh really take the take the oil M and turn them upside down for a couple days so get the get them mixed up yeah here's information on starting it and breaking it in okay that page there and I highlighted it okay okay do exactly like that don't let the B don't let it idle what I like to do is I like to start the engine get it up to 2,000 RPM mhm Let It Go for 5 minutes then raise it up couple hundred okay just keep a good eye on the temperature gauge so right you don't get and then and then um uh uh after five minutes lower it a little bit like for example go up to 2500 and then come down to 22 and then go up to 27 what that what that's doing is the lifters are spinning and it changes the rate of spin to help them break in oh okay and how long does it how long a process is that they 20 minutes i' like to see half hour oh really and for some reason if you got to shut the motor off you know idle it down and click it because if you don't idle it down it's going to want to run backwards so idle it down and shut it off and then do whatever you got to do say after 10 minutes you found a radiator o leaking right you know and then start it and get it right back up and go back to the Breakin process right but you don't have to start over you you only got another 15 20 minutes okay and then leave that oil in it for 400 500 miles and then change it yeah that that oil not only helps it uh made to the cam shaft it's going to help the ring SE okay then after that you want to get it out of it and get a detergent oil into it okay so get 500 get 400 miles on it before winter and put a different oil with some detergent to protect it over the winter okay I mean you know if you get 350 DP you know it doesn't have to be on the number okay you know cuz these people that own this car you know I don't know what kind of mileage they're going to put on it but they need to out of the gate they need to do what they're supposed to do and then they can let it set for a while yeah and then when you're putting the other engine oil in like your your Kindle cuz it because it's got some detergent additives in it y it'll kind of help stop it from rusting inside over the winter okay I even got some old stuff that's cardboard that's Chevron RPM nondetergent yeah you don't want to run that really okay that non detergent would be good for Breakin oh okay because of the amount of zinc and stuff that's in it the additives right and there's no there's no detergent in it to wash away the zinc that's why you don't want to run detergent okay and right now it's on top dead center on the firing stroke yep okay ready it distributor close it should pop off and be able to get it cool right we're going and this is loose because you're going to have to put a fmer in it oh yeah y yeah perfect that look like a piece of tank now you want everything else oh yeah that's we do have more to get huh there motor mounts cool all right they're painted wasn't able to put them on the way it was bolted up on on there oh okay I forgot to show you on the front of the motor yeah that one bolt where those go in uhhuh it's marked up front with some green tape and a piece of yellow tape yeah that bolt that goes in that hole will need sealant on it oh okay that's into the water jacket no it goes into the uh oil pump uh fuel pump push rod hole oil if you don't do that okay and then this one right here also it goes into the manifold so just a little bit of sealant on that all righty cool that's good to know for sure I didn't put that the front of the intake just cuz it's oh yeah it out better get a new on all the old parts and stuff okay this is a all your leftover parts that you brought by your leftover gaskets exhaust gaskets oh I know so there's all that for you cool all resurfaced and ready to roll and this is the fly that was actually on Factory cool right on see that that looks good see where we take a little weight out balance it oh nice all the balancer actually balanced more than it was from the factory huh yeah we go down to half a gram so Chevy back then they went standard half a pound now the fun part of putting everything back together we already got the transmission flywheel starter put on going to start putting on the gaskets with some gasket maker to make a nice seal and then we're going to spray paint all of the outer Parts Orange black just kind of match the [Music] [Music] engine and here we're installing the exhaust manifolds and just make sure not to overtighten the bolts as this can damage the manifold or the cylinder head here we're chasing threads so this thread chaser just kind of cleans up any rust or debris from the threads making it easier for the bolts to go in dipstick tube is cleaned up and installed so we used the kryon fusion all-in-one paint and primer black gloss looks great r on [Music] zero and then my distributor needs to point to the number one PL we got the original fan from 1957 so we're just cleaning it up and making it a black [Music] gloss got the fuel pump installed and getting the gas line put on make sure the distributor is in the correct [Music] direction not much room room to work but we got the dust cover [Music] installed engine mounts are on and we're just about ready to get this bad boy put in here's carburetor had a few issues we got it rebuilt ready to go make sure you have the correct firing order when installing the plug wires this is the original generator from 19 1957 uh we did test it surprisingly it still [Music] works now we're just getting those last few bolts tightened up we're going to take some measurements in the engine bay and make sure that we can get this engine put in and ready to go for the customer all right we got all the necessary components installed on the engine and it's ready to be set into the engine bay and set onto the mounts hard to believe that this is the same engine that we just pulled out it looks [Music] amazing with a little bit of time and patience and a few quarters thrown in the swear jar we got her installed impact oh those are 58 think they yeah you got a 58 I got a 58 boxing or I mean open end I should [Music] say one of the final steps is getting the drive line put in we got the engine in now we're just getting some gaskets for the exhaust we'll button her up get it going the customer wanted to keep the car as original as possible but the cost to recore the old radiator was not in the budget at this time so for the time being we installed the aftermarket four core aluminum radiator to keep this Beast cool size does matter so make sure your radiator hoses the proper [Music] length it ain't got no gas in [Music] it she's thirsty this is a fine engine in here and this car is going to run like a dream we're done we use a 50/50 diluted antifreeze for a proper mix and make sure all wires are properly connected here's the Moment of Truth hopefully it [Music] fires hold on I I'll pump it [Music] hold huh been forever since I heard that oh I bet since 1990 was it the radiator is getting a little hot so we had to shut the engine down it's not very [Music] hot8 what happened you look a little wet I am just when I stopped filming the top radiator hose blew off due to an airb in the radiator that we didn't get bled out pop goes to weasel this is the crucial part in the process the engine has to stay right around 2,000 RPM so we can get the cam broke in for about 20 minutes using a heat gun we are keeping a close eye on the temperature as we breaking the cam [Music] shaft BL it idle so we finished our 20 minute Breakin procedure we gave it a little bit more probably 28 minutes just to make sure we had the cam broke in and now we're back down to an idle letting the engine run checking for anything that could be going on makeing sure she's running testing the generator to see if it works so the generator works we just had one wire that we didn't have connected a few times [Music] the Breakin process is finished go ahead and shut her down [Music] oh [Music] just a couple of fine details and we're going to take it for a test [Music] dve [Music] we're just taking her for a little spin around the block making sure there's no major issues before the customer comes to pick it up they're going to go ahead and throw it on a trailer take it to California and surprise their dad with his old car [Music] [Music] here we are woohoo woohoo good time we need to go on 66 what do you think Mom like nice yeah what do you think Daddy nice I think I'll take it back now that's a good one you guys can't have it after all they misunderstood I just let them use no gift [Music] bags [Music]

Channel: Iron Horse Garage

Views: 103,739

Keywords: 1957 chevy bel air, Tri-5, 283 engine rebuild, 1957 Chevy Bel Air engine rebuild, Chevy small block engine rebuild, Chevy V8 engine rebuild, Classic car engine rebuild, Engine rebuild, Small block engine, Chevy, Bel Air, chevy 210, chevy 150, patina paint, poppys patina, restoration, barn car, pistons, piston rings, crankshaft, camshaft, heads, intake, carburetor, aluminum radiator, bored and honed, moffitt & bratton automotive machine, super clean team, superclean, super clean

Id: v-ZlIfu7qZI

Length: 37min 38sec (2258 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2023