57 Plymouth Belvedere project

[BigBlockMopar]

After a 10 month 'journey', my own 'Miss Belvedere' finally arrived at it's new home yesterday.

... or, in other words... Another 3 years of work has arrived... ;D





After the car was dropped off, I put some fresh air in the tires and tried to push her inside.
But this was a no-go, especially being on my own here.
Miss Belvy was a bit reluctant and had her hind legs digged in a little so I had to resort to some MacGyvering and an electric towingcart to perusade her to go in.





After the docking procedure I digged in myself and started emptying most of the junk inside.
The garage cat also came in to have a look why at all junk was now blocking the shortest way to her fooddish... ;)





The rearseat and hard headliner where a goner, so was the dash-padding which had turned into a hard plastic.
Up till now I've only found one little 'serious' rusthole in the floor, so I guess that's positive news ;)













Nice detail on this '57 Plymouth is that the speedometer starts with '57'




During the next months I'll be dismantling the front of the car and will try to straigthen everything out again so it all will look 'decent' again...

A face only a mother could love... :D

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

neat project - stock rebuild or ????

[DanStokes]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

She's a beauty! I know you'll do her proud.

Dan

[BigBlockMopar]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

Buickguy, what's this word, 'Stock' you're referring about? ;)

The car supposedly has a 301ci motor, and I'm fairly sure I won't be the one hearing it run...
I'm thinking early/mid '60s Mopar drivetrain, which will solve a lot of technical 'issues' with these '50s cars.
For instance the car uses bolts to hold the wheels instead of studs and nuts, so a discbrake conversion will happen pretty surely. The current rearaxle has drums which have a long tapered mounting onto the axles, which makes them impossible to remove without the proper, serious puller.
The transmission will be replaced by a 727 bigblock transmission so I can easily put a 'regular' bigblock Mopar engine in front of it.
I have some ideas for an engine for this car floating around in my head at the moment, but this will mean some more modifications to the car will be needed. Not sure I want to go there yet.

[squirrel]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

BBM can olny build "stock" if it came with a 450 hp big block...and none of them did

It's a four door, hack it up as needed....they're just parts cars, after all

[JOES66FURY]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

dig it...some broken teeth and a busted up nose...some minor cosmetic sugery will make it better

[furyjim]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

a fellow 50s mopar fan! new to this site, a friend linked me your post here... anything you need 57-9 chrysler- msg me, i've had over 50 57-8 plymouths, am currently down to 9 or 10 at the moment... have desotos, dodges and chryslers as well as i see the 57/8 fin in the background as well.
here's a neat idea for the 4dr ht.... it was my 3rd conversion of this kind... almost question myself [why?] when i still have 5 rust free 2drht's awaiting the rotisserie!








and fast-forward about 2 weeks.........

[BigBlockMopar]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

Wow, sweet conversion there Jim.
Nice color aswell. Looks almost the same as my '65 Chrysler 300 convertible only mine is more blueish. Hard to capture the correct color on camera. Pics -> HERE
Parts are not that easy to come by where I'm at, but if I were to cut the roof of a car I would seriously think of turning it into a convertible. But I would only have the 'heart' to do something like that if the original roof were to be rusted badly.
I have, as a matter of fact, been looking for a usable top frame so I can do a convertible-conversion at some point in time. But with the current projects I've got lined up I need to get around 128 years old to get it all done I think... ;D

I have a couple of items missing on the Plymouth currently like a radio and some door and fender trim, so I might contact you soon about this.

[tiresmoke!]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

BBM, yet another cool project.......I'll be watching along here!

'57 Belvederes are just mean-looking cruisers(and I say that in a positive way)......furyjim, WELCOME to BangShift!

That blue Mope is an eye-catcher...what's under the hood? I'm imagining a Sono-Ram 413 or a dual-quad 392..... ;D

Smoke

[DanStokes]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

I hope you can keep the push buttons. To me, that's a big part of the cool factor on these. Many moons ago when I was but a whippersnapper, MOPAR race cars used a stand off thr trans tunnel (where a shifter would be) with the push button assembly mounted in it. Would that be cool or what?!! I haven't Googled for a pic of that but I remember seeing interior shots in HRM of the system.

Dan

[furyjim]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

all chrysler trans's up until 65 operate off a cable- the trick is to find the 65-only 727 from a full size chrysler or imperial- it is the only year with the slip yoke and cable shift- all 64 and down use the ball and trunion housing, making a custom shaft more expensive, and the power capacity is lessened....
the shift cable to use is 62-63 imperial when using an aluminum torqueflite [727 or 904] in any 56-59 mopar... the cable ends on the iron pf's and tf's are different, though all actuator ends are the same.
the diff on the cable 727s is that the also have a rear pump, so swapping a slip yoke output shaft and tailhousing from a later trans will not work...

[NASBackyard]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

Plymouth made a really nice looking 4 dr HT, did you even get rear seat springs?

[DanStokes]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

Gee, Furyjim - you really should learn something about these cars! All kidding aside, it's AMAZING how much knowledge there is on here.

Dan

[BigBlockMopar]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

Killed a large black spider who was still calling the car 'his' until yesterday. The bast@rd!
Managed to pull the front end off tonight.
I dunno what was wrong with the clowns who technically designed all the sheetmetal parts of these '57 Plymouth but jees what a bunch of morons by placing bolts and nuts everywhere and at the most stupid places, holding the radiatorframe on the car...! And then the asymmetrical usage of parts and brackets... wow.

Anyway, now it's time to get hammering I guess...




]

[furyjim]

Re: 57 Plymouth Belvedere project

all the bolts are easily accessible with a little contortionism... like for the 2 fender bolts facing the backside of the headlamp area- they even provide a little "box' to work in for the lower one...

here's an sample of my product- i do have 1 last 4dr set left- it was a custom order, but the individual is thinking of selling the project i hear...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170398403093