Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair( FINALLY FINISHED)
 

Well after not finding a roundtuit for the last 10 years I finally got around to rebuilding the wifes 56 Belair.
She first got it in 1986 and put 186,000 miles on it and it was just plain wore out.
Sent it off to my friends body shop that did my 71 4x4 last summer.
She is going to get new door skins, rocker panels, and head light brows.
All of the dents and dings pounded out and a new flat black paint job.
My doings will be new engine, trans, disk brakes front and rear, new 9 inch rear end, and power steering.
Here are a couple of before pictures.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Looks pretty good "before" anxious to see some during and after !

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Really nice start whats the plans for the interior

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Got started on the metal work this weekend. Ground down the top of the fenders to find out how bad the rust was over the head lights was.
Then test fitted the replacement caps.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

The front seat is a pair of bucket seat out of a sedan delivery and a stock back seat. Both are basic taxi cab as she will be hauling dogs around in it.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Well got some more work done since the last time.
Replaced the trunk lock skin as someone punched the old lock and pushed in the panel around the lock, found some rust around the right hand side of the rear window that I didn't know was there, started to remove twenty coats of rattle can that was sprayed on for the last twenty years, and getting ready to pull the engine and transmission.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Nice! That should earn an apple pie and ice cream.
That's a dream car from my day.
Great Job.
Cayoterun

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

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Lookin' good!! The wifey will be proud of you.

I went over to the salvage yard the other day looking around and found the front door window frames, quarter window glass and taillight lenses for a '56 that someone had just hauled out there... Good timing.:)

LockDoc

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Well things came to a sreeching halt today. My friend who is doing the body work injuried his knee. It is swollen up to the size of a large watermelon.
I offered my wheel chair to him so he could sit out in the shop to guide me in repairing the body but he is in too much pain.
Oh well the car has been sitting for 10 years, a couple more weeks won't make much differance. Getting my friends health back is more important anyway.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

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Man, that's a bummer... Send him our best for a quick recovery... Tell him we are having picture withdrawl symtoms.:) J/K

LockDoc

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Well got back to work on the ol' gal and found more rust. Removed the head light buckets and found the inner panel also gone.
We did get the bottoms of the fenders trimmed to fit the patch panels.
Then we got the doors up on the work bench and started to scrape the old gunk from the bottom of the doors and found the inner door panels at the bottom also rusted out.
Looks like more welding in my future.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Got some welding done this week and some more tearing apart.
The fenders got more welding done on them with the fender caps now in place. Still have the head light inner panels to be welded.
The door skins are now off and now getting ready to replace the inner door bottoms.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

This is the regular Sunday report of what has been done in the last week.
1. Got the inner door panels welded in place.
2. Got the outer door panels tacked in place and the doors hung for fitting.
3. The rust hole we found between the trunk lid and the rear window is now gone with a new piece of metal welding in.
4. All of the dents in the roof from kids doing jumping jacks on the roof are now gone.
In other words lots of work done.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

It has been a busy two weeks since the last post.
Finished smoothing out the roof, fixed the dents under the tail lights, smoothed out the front splash pan, started replacing the rocker panels and test fitted the front fender.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Wow, you're really moving now. Even though it had issues, that's still a really clean car!

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

cAR IS REALLY COMING ALONG! i AM CURRENTLY HELPING A FRIEND FGET HIS 56 TOGETHER FOR HIS DAUGHTER'S WEDDING IN 1.5 WEEKS, WHEW, TIME IS RUNNING OUT. SORRY FOR THE CAPS, DID NOT REALIZE.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Went on a two week vacation in Sept. Came back to 4 weeks of work. Go figure.
Well back on track. Pulled the engine and cleaned the frame.
Finished welding in new rockers.
Sand blasted the inner fenders and welded up all unused holes.
New crate engine came in and got it painted.
Next week paint the frame, put in new power steering box and tilt column.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

That car is super clean compared to my neighbor's 56 2 door post Bel Air. It's been jumped only good parts left on the body shell is the roof and the firewall but someone danced on the roof like yours.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Looking great Dennis. I can hardly wait to see it when it comes home. I really love the tear drop scoop on the hood. Id like to have one of those on my panel.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

At least ours was repairable. It was fun going to shows on hot sunny days and start pounding on the roof to get the dents out.:lol:

My wife likes the hood. I don't know how it would look like on a truck. You ought to photo shop it to see.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Are you going to get it painted a satin pink?

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

So I was granted permission to see the '56, but Oldiron forgot to bring his camera so I let him use mine. ;)
Nick and I went over to get the old engine for Nicks 71 4x4. I hope it will work for him.
Thanks Nick for posting these pictures for me.
Starting the final fit of the fenders and the engine compartment is primed for it coat of gloss black and the frame of chassis black.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Looking good. Do you suppose you can bring it to XXX next summer?

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

Looks like you are doing a great job, I have a 55 and I just love tri5's.

Re: Rebuilding my wife's 56 Belair
 

What's goin' on with this thing? Is it done, and Mrs. oldiron tearin' a$$ around town now?