VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 My 1951 Deluxe Sedan Restoration Journal...

Might be a good time to flush out the block. When I removed the petcock on the rear of mine water would not flow even after prodding with a wire and I never had a heating problem.

I really don't want to mess with the engine much. It has so few miles on it, and was recently overhauled (2009). The top end was done, with new rings as well. I'm going to clean out the pan, flush out the coolant in the block, hit it with cleaner again, and paint it. You can see behind the pushrod cover that it looks brand new!

Today Jane, Abby & I took the fenders from the '52 down to Kerry. He texted last night and told me the ones on the car had "a bit of filler". I also took the front floor pan for a repair on the driver side. We got there and found that Kerry has been busy! The frame was waiting in the yard for the sand blaster to show up. He arrived as we were leaving.

The car has been stripped down even further than I planned to last fall!






The "bit of filler" turned out to be the rear wheel openings built out about half an inch with the stuff!

It is a 1952 engine? Replaced at one time or another?

Dad picked up the engine back in the early seventies. A former VCCA member, Lou Gehrig (Not the ball player!) was an automotive teacher in a high school shop class. The engine was donated by GM Oshawa to the school when it was new, and was never installed in a car. The spot for the serial # that is to match the firewall data tag on the car is blank! When the school upgraded to V-8's, Lou was offered the engines. He used to do a lot of babbitt work for fellow members. Dad bought it from Lou, with zero miles on it. It went into the car, and I would guess it has about 25 000 miles on it now. Dad may have a better estimate! It was last apart for new valve seats, and rings in 2009. It had been blowing a bit of blue smoke so Dad decided to have it looked at before he sent it to me. Some of the pistons had rings missing that the last class had installed wrong! I hope Lou failed them! I don't know where the original block went. It's not in my convertible. I imagine it would be pretty worn out anyway. Dad used to drive from where he taught in Port Parry to Alma (about 110 miles) to date my mother. Young men are known to put undo stress on their vehicles when given a time for picking up their date!

I don't want to change it out for a '51 block just because it has been so reliable over the years, and I really don't think I could find one as "new" and smooth running as this one. It has never let us down..

Kerry has the trunk lid ready for paint. He took some Bondo out that was used to fill some dents, and then popped the dents out properly.

Another area of concern was the floor. There is a patch behind the front seat, and Kerry found a problem when he went to remove the body from the frame. He thought he had all of the bolts undone, but it seemed to be hanging up on one. You bet… the bolt head was welded under the patch. He had to cut it open to get the bolt out.


The driver side front is going to be replaced too. Pin holes are starting to show up that you can see when a light is under it.

I had a great day today! It all started with a small surprise from the parts stash. Yesterday I was getting parts ready to wash up for painting. My strategy is to compare the parts I have taken off of the '51 with the parts that are on the '50… and use the best looking part if a switch is possible. The valve cover on the '51 looks like someone tried to hammer the vents closed on the top of it at some point. The one on the '50 looked good so I made a switch. It was a good idea because the gasket on the '50 came off in about 5 dried out pieces! On a whim, I decided to look at the rusty one that I've had in the parts stash.





I had the pressure washer out, so I decided to give it a quick blast. It turns out that what I thought was rust was just a really thick coat of under oil!



It makes me think it may be the original one to the car, as my Grandpa had given the whole car a really thick coat of it ...and then some more of it… when he worked at the dealership! The coating came off to reveal a new looking cover!



I finished pressure washing the block and other covers as well, then shot them with a can of degreaser to clean them up. Now I've got to switch the hammered one off of the convertible with the one that was on it originally, as the parts bin one is going on the '51! Did you follow all of that??!!

The great thing about my valve cover merry-go-round is that the '50 is also going to have a freshly painted cover. I painted up the block and all of the covers. I set up a small tent/paint booth and took my time doing each part. The paint sets up pretty quick, so I was able to keep the dust off of them by taking 15 minute breaks between each part. Everything got two coats, including the block and the extra valve cover. I used two cans of paint, and wish I had a third to do a final coat after I get it all back together. I may pick one up in Sept. when we are in the USA.

Looks really good. Whose paint are you using?

Pretty sure I got it at the Filling Station. It went on really smooth and dried nice too. The valve cover on my convertible is now the nicest part on the car!

Looks familiar, and looking good!

There should be no paint between the flywheel housing and the engine and between the flywheel housing and the transmission. Can throw-off the alignment between those units.
NOte that the installed valve cover has lines pressed in (left side) between the main rienforcing ribs. I wonder what that is all about....a Canadian thing?

I figured the paint thing, Gene. I'm going to take the overspray off tomorrow with some solvent. As for the ribs, it must be a Canadian thing. I have a couple of them here...

Looks great!!

Off topic here Dale and for that I apologize.

Small world, looking at your comment and seeing Novelty, I worked at Junction Auto for several years, back in the 80's.

I went and checked my valve cover collection. I guess it's a Canadian thing. I have two of the Canadian ones, and an American one. It makes sense because the convertible is American built, and all of the other cars and parts cars around here have been Canadian built.

Its looking great. I'll be embarrassed to show you my car after you complete yours!

It feels like Christmas today!!

First we went to the chrome shop and picked up the chrome. They did a beautiful job on it! Unwrapping each piece was like another surprise each time! My chubby little orange buddy, Lenny, helped me. He seemed less impressed then I was! Jazz played in the boxes!



It was over to Kerry's to pick up the frame. He had it blasted and painted, and it came out beautiful! I've never been the guy with the shiny undercarriage!

He even blasted and primed my junkyard rims!

I'm still applying the elbow grease to the engine. Here's where I'm at now…





It looks darker in person… I did use the correct darker grey.

No real updates on the car today… but I did a little more work on it's room! I bought the dealership banner from a member on Chevytalk, and have been working out a plan to display it since last January. The red case came from the scratch & dent section at Ikea.

Neat display. I guess I better get moving on Debbie's car before you beat me done...

Brewster was so excited about something he found out yesterday that he forgot to tell you all. We checked out serial numbers and verified that the engine currently in the convertible is definitely the original engine out of the '51. He has the original bill of sale that my uncle received with the car that has the engine number recorded.

Now he has the dilemma of deciding to swap the engines of the two cars so that the '51 will be a numbers-matching original. He thinks the engine currently in the '51 is a better running motor. I think since it is apart now, he should go all the way and switch the engines while it is easy to do.

What do you folks out there think? Or mebbe he should just hoist up the engine out of the convertible and slide a '41 Chev under it and lower it back down, eh?

I agree. It would be great to have a numbers-matching car.