JEThomas60

Bredlo, thats a really slick looking ride. I hope to soon have my Chieftain looking as nice as yours. Have fun with it.

Hey guys, Update: I pulled the oil pan on the 53. I found about a 1/2" of sludge in the bottom of the pan. Also the screen on the oil pickup tube was about 90% plugged. All is cleaned now and back together. I will try to start it soon.

Pontiac1953, That's a huge mess under the hood. All I found under the hood that wasn't supposed to be there were several mud dauber nests. If you look at the trunk picture on my 53 you will notice a long snake skin stretched across the trunk and down into the spare tire well. Fortunately I've not found the owner of the skin. There were several more pieces of snake skin found in the car. The motor turns freely but I don't think the brakes work. I will find out this week. The pedal was like stepping on a rock and then a friend pushed hard on the pedal and it went to the floor and stayed there. Might need a master cylinder now. No brake fluid came out anywhere. I'll just keep plugging along on it. Just having a good time working on it. Larry Schramm, That's good advice on the brakes. I will get the brakes working before I try to move the car. Your right that its probably to most important system on the car.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the comments and advice. I was probably getting a little excited and overly ambitious with this project. JP75, I did check out your 53. Looks like you got sidelined by an MG. It appears you were well on your way with the 53 though. I would love to see the finished product. Unimogjohn, thank you for your advice and for sharing your experience. This particular car has a straight 8 with a 3 speed transmission. While I was digging around under the hood I bumped one of the heater lines with my elbow. The small piece of heater hose under the car snapped in half and it lost all the antifreeze in the shop. This made me realize just how brittle everything might be on this car. I will drop the pan first and clean out any sludge. The motor does turn by hand so that's a start. I have a battery ordered for it. But I will take your advice after getting it to run and stop safely I will drive it around a while then probably do a few things when the weather gets warmer.

Thanks for the comments. I am now looking for some place to have all the chrome (and there is a bunch of it) reconditioned and plated. Very soon the body will come off the car and I will have the frame media blasted. Then I can start from the bottom and work my way up with new brakes, brake and fuel lines etc... This is my first time actually restoring a vehicle so I may have my work cut out for me. I have been doing a boat load of research so far. Any suggestions from experienced restorers will be very much appreciated.

We got this car in southwestern Missouri. It used to sit in a field and then was towed to a barn stall. Of course it had been visited by mice which attracted the attention of a few snakes as evidenced by several snake skin sheds we found in the car. Still in remarkable condition for being 63 years old. Now the fun begins...