New member building a 56 Belair
 

Hi, I joined this site a few weeks ago and have been looking at all of the projects that everyone is building on here. Lots of great cars. I have been building my 56 Chevy Belair for the past couple years and so far the time I thought it would take to build it and the budget have both doubled, but Im real happy with how the car is turning out. I have a great builder I found close to where I live building the car. Here's some of what we are doing on the car. The engine is a 383 stroker built by John Beck Pro machine and Gene Jones Vintage Hot Rod in Chico Ca. The motor turned out really nice. Im using the original frame with a Jim Meyers Racing four link and Heidt's A arms with QA-1 shocks and four wheel disk brakes. Here's some of the other parts we are using.
2 1/2'' exhaust, Magnaflow muffler, Stan's Tri-Y headers, Billet Specialties Tru Track pulley system, Be Cool Radiator, Currie 9" rearend, Inland empire aluminum drive line, vintage air, floor mounted brake, 700R4 trans from Bowtie Overdrive. This is just a quick overview of the build. Im hoping the car will be done in the next four or five months. Just In time for summer.
Great website!

Nice! We built my dad a '56 'vert a few year back, pics are on my FQuick page.

Keep the progress pics coming!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"
www.FQuick.com/ProTouring442

Welcome to the site!:lateral:

Sounds like a great project! 56 is my favorite of the tri-5s. Keep us posted and welcome!

Cool, welcome aboard. :thumbsup:

Welcome. Glad to some more shoeboxes here...:thumbsup:

Tell me about the rear 4 link. I am thinking of running meyer's fron IFS set up....

Sounds like a cool car! Man, I miss my 56, it was a post car, and the first car I ever put my hands on to mod. Bought it when I was 18, sold it at 21. (I was in Jr. College and couldn't afford it.) Keep us posted! And if you need help with wheels, give me a call....

welcome! Nice project

Im real happy with the 4 link form Jim Meyers. Everything fits great. All the welds look good. The mounts for the coil over shocks fit into pre existing holes in the frame. It came with QA-1 adustable shocks which is what I wanted to match my front coil overs I got with my a-arm from Heidts. The only thing I got extra was the sway bar. Jim said it wasn't needed for a street driven car but I still wanted it. Everything fit and welded in real nice. I will add a pic from there site.

how easy/hard was the installation?

i personally did not like jim meyer's set-up , because the crossmember sits to low , in turn makes it hard to get the car low without having the crossmember on the ground first . also the rear is even worse than the front . if you are not woried about having the car on the ground , i believe this will drive and ride great .

i prefer airride tech. rear 4 bar set up , you can sit the car on the ground and keep more ground clearance .

i also have used a scott's front clip in a 55 ,better but it still had some problems you can get easily fixed .

fatmans , also makes a front clip . i have a real good friend who has one under a 55 it looks ok so far .

another 55 sedan we used drop spindles , power rack, tubular controll arms , and sway bars . it drove the best of all but was ugly because it still had the stock clip .

i aslo have a 57 with stock arms , sway bars , cool ride bags , and a 600
power box it drives real good also

hope this helps .

The installation was not hard at all. Everything was made to fit a 56 chevy frame with no cutting. Just follow the instructions measure and weld. The crossmember does hang a little below the frame so if you want the car on the ground I would probably use a different setup, but for what Im doing this setup will work fine.

Welcome, I'm like Bill Howell, how can you not love all these cars. Super cool project. :thumbsup:

R.P.

On my dad's car we welded in the front sub from a '79 Trans Am. Also, I think RBs (or something like that) makes a front sub that uses G-body or F-body parts. It's also a weld in. We looked at it, but felt that it dropped the front too much.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"
www.FQuick.com/ProTouring442

Welcome! Tri5's are cool:thumbsup: It's a lot of fun to get those big old boxes around a corner.:D

Welcome aboard!! Nice to see more tri-fives coming aboard. I'm kinda partial to them. Good luck on the project and keep us updated.:thumbsup:

Brent

Thanks, There are some amazing cars on this site. I wasn't sure if I should put mine on here or not.

Thanks, I was at Sacramento Autorama this weekend and was checking out one of your tri-5 chassis. My next car Im definetly going with that chassi. I like how mine is coming out but its still a 50 year old frame.

Thanks Brent, I found a link to this site while I was looking at your site. I did a search for tri-5 chevys and found your site. The 57 you built is to cool and I can't wait to see the 55. Im still trying to decide what tire and wheel size to put on the car. 17-18 or 18-20. I like the 18-20 but worry about bending wheels if I hit something. Any suggestions would be great.

We have had everything from 17,18,19,20, and 22in wheels and have never had a problem with a bent wheel.

You might want to check your ride hieght options with a 20 on the rear and the meyer rear clip