1960 Bel Air...Finned crew cab

[Impalarod]

Ok, been awhile so time for an update.
Got all the gunk cleaned to my satisfaction in the engine compartment. (that was a job) Primed and painted. Stuck with the factory deal of the firewall being body color, created a lot of extra work but worth it. Manual steering gear is off, ready for the 605 box. Next is to hang a/c condenser, install the steering gear, and bend some brake lines for the disc brakes. Slow go due to work and laziness.
otobucket.com/albums/v216/hotredimpala/2012-02-25_15-56-35_416.jpg[/IMG]

[Impalarod]

Boy, that thing looks HUGE! I know mine is the same size but this made me go out to the shop and look again. The 60 is not as flamboyant though. The color is right for it. The old colors to me look cool on these cars and even better if they are the lower trim level cars like the Bel Air and Biscayne. Thanks for posting it.

[Blazerteam]

Original colours is great..look at this 59!!.

[Impalarod]

Small stuff will slow you down. My heater box fresh air door problem is solved. Made a new door, welded it to a piece of threaded rod and made a better lever to connect to the cable than the one that came from the factory. The origional lasted 50+ years so I guess it will now outlast me.

The box is blasted and primed ready for paint.

Still working on firewall. Boring I know, but when you leave for work at 7am and get home around 6pm it doesn't leave a lot of time during the week to make much happen. Working with all of the little pieces I have removed.

[Impalarod]

Yeah Scott, I don' t think I have ever seen an X or H pipe on a X frame car. The system I have has the mufflers moved back from the stock position under the front floorboard to under the rear seat in front of the axle. The tailpipes turn down and toward the 1/4 panel just inside the rear valence. Kind of some fancy / crazy pipe bending. The exhaust on the car now exits straight out the back, like you see on so many big cars. I call it truck exhaust.

As far a progress, or lack of, I was not satisfied with the firewall so I have been "cleaning up" a few spots that I know will eat at me if I just pass them by and start spraying paint. I removed the heater box under the hood to paint and also because the air door inside the box was stuck. This door alows outside air from the cowl to flow inside the car. Bad news is that the door just fell apart. I guess I will have to find another box now. Weather forcast for the weekend is calling for 72 degrees so I hope to make something happen (sorry bout that to the guys up north).
Don

[Scott Liggett]

H pipes are hard to do on X frame cars, but try to get one in there. Headers and 2 1/2 will definitely pick up power over the stock setup.

[1badmonkey]

i would do the flowmasters too, and agree: an H and long pipes will help the drone a ton...

[JOES66FURY]

turquois with white scallops...hmmm, customy.

I have 2.5" pipes, headers and flowmasters on my Fury, sounds great and due to (i believe) the lenght and h pipe the drone is hardly there.

cant wait to see more.

[Impalarod]

Kind of agree with both of you. I have Flowmasters on both of my cars. The Camaro sounds awesome, the Impala has too much "payback" when accelerating. Both have 2 1/2 pipe but the Impala of course has longer pipes. As for the droan, I also agree, I managed to make it liveable with lots of fatmat on both cars. Think I would like to go for the deep not too loud way on this car. Never used Hookers, Magnaflow etc. My son put Magnaflows on his Mustang and it made a huge differance over the Flowmasters.

[mrocketscience]

Well, I like the sound of the Flowmasters and headers, so that's the way I'd go with it....

[milner351]

I tend to be more conservative with exhaust, I much prefer warlock, magnaflow, hooker, "turbo" mufflers over any kind of flomaster variant, the flomaster drone gives me a headache quickly.

[Impalarod]

Are you asking if the 2 or 2 1/4 inch diameter pipe is too small to run with your proposed engine combination?
or
Are you asking if the 40 series flowmasters will be too loud for the theme of this car?

More the loud and theme of the car issue, the engine is going to be basicly stock with a bit of a lumpy idle, most likely will not need larger pipe. Thinking the diameter and length of the pipe may sound strange...but don't want it to sound like a Oldsmobile station wagon either. So i'm pondering

[milner351]

Are you asking if the 2 or 2 1/4 inch diameter pipe is too small to run with your proposed engine combination?
or
Are you asking if the 40 series flowmasters will be too loud for the theme of this car?

[Impalarod]

Well 51 years of dirt, grime, and grease are history and a little primer sprayed. Plan to shoot the firewall body color after some sanding and maybe another coat of primer. Again, not going for show stuff, just like it neat under the hood.
Have been gathering parts. I have a 605 box and adapter bracket that I removed from my 63 when I changed it over to a CPP box. I got a short water pump power steering pump, pulleys, and brackets from a friend for $40. Ordered the rag joint from CPP off of Ebay at 20% off..$45. Got the trunk floor panels (3 pieces) from a guy in Detroit selling on Ebay, $228. to the door and rear floor pans from the same guy $120 to the door.
Now to see if anyone is reading this...
I have a new pair of Hedman headers and a new dual exhaust with 40 series Flowmasters that I removed from a 59 Impala. The car now has ram horns on it with a very solid dual system with stock mufflers. The Flowmaster system was bent by a local exhaust shop and is only 2 - 2 1/4 inch pipe. Do I leave the stock system on or use the header combo that I have had 4 years? It is a driver, and I like a rumbling exhaust, but I am concerned about the pipe size. Don't want it to sound like a log truck with straight pipes...

[Impalarod]

I've been sick with the flue for the holidays and you're kicking tail on this thing.

I'm really liking the original color idea - I feel the same way about my falcon. Great that you already had the engine - I agree on the shiney - nice - but not for this car - if you have a more vintage looking choice on hand, I'd agree 100 % to go with the older looking stuff.

Are the rallyes gray centers with chrome trim rings?

I say no to the flake and stripes, keep the paint as it was originally, just new, the flakes and stripes are already over done like flat black... but that's just me.

Hope you feel better soon! I am not that quick, had help getting the engine and trans out. Yep, turquoise is made for this car. Kinda going for the "granny-rod" look. the rallies are silver with the trim rings and disc brake caps. The 295/50 tires are needed on the back to keep it from looking like a parade float.