The Four Fifty Seven

[racerjohnson]

Well, we've all seen the grille, but I like this picture.
 
Today I got the turn signals to cancel themselves. Everything had fallen apart inside the column, so I had a pile of parts on the bottom of the column cover. I kinda had to guess how everything went back together and how everything worked. It helped that I had purchased a new spring and pawl kit, which I installed. See the picture of the column. The bumper on top is there, the one on bottom is missing. I ripped off a little chunk of shingle off the garage at my apartment and folded it in half, trimmed it, and stuck it in the two slots in the signal mechanism. The bottom one in the picture is not in yet. I adjusted the tangs on the steering wheel and, bam!, turn signals cancelled. Of course, I over adjusted the steel tangs on the steering wheel the first time so they clicked those little plastic pawls everytime i turned the wheel enough. Lame. I took the wheel off again and got it tweaked correctly eventually. Then it was time to set Stefans valve lash....a great day overall.
 
On a sad note, I was out driving the '57 and stopped at a gas station to check out the vacuum whistle i was hearing. I had just checked the vice grips that were helping secure the grille for now and heard one fall to the ground and forgot about it until now. Damn. Someone got a free vice grip.

[Serious]

Cool!

[racerjohnson]

Felt like a big night tonight. Finally dug into the instrument panel to replace the dash light bulbs, ran another wire from the coolant sensor to the gauge so I have a functioning coolant temp gauge now. I also have a functioning horn as of today for all you safety buffs out there. Quite a horn it is, sounds somewhere between a Model A horn and a dying cow. Replaced some of the "wrap the wire around the bolt" electrical fittings with real wiring eye fittings. All wiring repairs were even soldered splices and shrink tubing to boot.

Adjusted the shift indicator to make as much sense as possible when going from a powerglide (PNDLR) to a standard overdrive auto trans pattern. Perhaps I'll put one of those fancy updated shift indicator tags in the dash.

Getting the dash lights to work required cleaning and rebuilding the headlight switch. What a crazy spring loaded bomb those little contraptions are. All lights now work properly on the car except the oil pressure light. The light itself works (i grounded it out to test it), but there is no sender on the engine at this time, so that's coming.

Next? Windshield, pounding out the cowl dent, and windshield wipers. My neighbor came over and took my splashpan template. He's laser cutting one out and braking the flanges for me. What a guy!! Then I can wire some front signal lights so people will stop giving me funny looks (add that to the list of the only lights on the car that don't work properly).

[pinstriper40]

It's amazing how far this car has come.  It went from the Peter Beater to Peter's over-eager beaver eater... and by that I mean he's done a swell job.

[racerjohnson]

Thanks Joel, its been awhile I guess.

I had Beck's Customs install a new windshield and rubber, so gazing at the stars is much better now. The front seat was reinforced so it doesn't wobble as much and all holes in the floor have had patches welded in and seam sealed, including a patch on the rear wheelhouse that liked to spray the inside of my rear windows with water. I then installed carpet via Mac's Hardware store (love that place). At Mac's I also found some fancy front signal lights and mounted them behind the grille on the splash pan after driving a few months without signals in front. I don't get the bird waved at me as much now, coincidently.

If anybody can figure out how to install a new seat cover while the seat is still in the car, I'm all ears. Its welded in.

Still lovin' every minute I drive it. I'll eventually raise the car an inch or so, the poor ride quality is getting to me.

The heater takes the edge off on a 30 degree day, but I'm curious how thats going to work when its zero degrees out. I probably should bleed the cooling system as I'm suspecting there is air in the top heater hose. I applied rain-X anti-fog formula to the inside windows and yes, I'm now a believer. Its great stuff.

Its been determined that the camshaft I installed is probably a 350hp/350 like out of a 70 Camaro LT1. My favorite flat tappet SBC cam yet. Idles at 400rpm or less, snappy response, pulls strong to 5500rpm. GM knew what the hell they were doing.

[boristheblade]

Is it a bench?  Might be doable, but you'll spend a majority of time on your back, snipping and then hog ringing the new one on.  Won't be easy, but I'm guessing you can do it if you're determined.

[tracywiedrich]

Pete, I just put onena dem der cowboy style saddle blanket? type seat covers in da ol gray 56 and it fit really good...I think its actually for a full size piggup but it was really easy to put in without removing the seat. The side bolster things work really good to push the cover into on the sides and its got the fugly strings dat go down the backrest and get tied to the bottom seat cover part. 2 weeks later I bought a matching one for the rear seat at ALCO but that was a two piece and didnt really fit worth a shit...