As of June 2019 we will have a new email: you can contact us at billsrestorations1@gmail.com

It’s roaming around the streets of St. Petersburg !  We delivered  this gorgeous custom creation to the owners so you’ll be seeing it on the road and at car shows.  Check out the photos in our latest web page.http://www.billsautorestoration.com/custom-1957-chevy-belair-on-the-road/

Restored 1957 Chevy Belair

OK, this is a little embarrassing….. We’ve commented before that we don’t update our website as often as we should.  We get so wrapped up in the actual car building that we tend to forget about sharing this adventure with others.  Back in May 2017 we did a post showing a “new” 1957 Chevy 210 project.  That’s the last you heard about it.  I guess some updates would have been nice considering that the car is almost finished now…

We left off with some pictures of the floors and rockers being replaced.

After all the steel work was finished we removed the body, installed it on the  rotisserie and really took it to the next level.

57 Chevy body and chassis

57 Chevy body on the rotisserie

The chassis was completely stripped down and rebuilt.  This included a rack and pinion steering system, all new suspension,  a lowering kit and four wheel disc brakes. Here are some shots with the body back on the chassis and the car going back together.

The drive train is a 385 hp small block mated to a custom built 700R4 transmission.  We went with an aftermarket fuel injection system and supplied it with an in-tank pump system.  We left the original rear axle in the car but upgraded it with a posi unit.  We also installed a custom AC  system and upgraded to a programmable  electric cooling fan.

At present the car runs and drives, and is mostly assembled.  Here’s a teaser shot from a month ago so you can see the color.  The paint on this car is incredible.  The silver is difficult to look at in full sunlight.

We’ll make a point of doing another update on this beautiful car soon.  It has about half the trim on it right now and the combination of the chrome on silver is pretty amazing.   We carried the gray metallic from the roof down to the dash and wrapped it around the interior trim.  We hope the owner has a big trophy case…..

Vintage trucks of all makes are incredibly popular and a lot of fun to own.  They do tend to lose some of their charm when you actually have to drive them and maneuver in places like parking lots with the stock steering system.   The original steering can be very difficult, if not impossible to turn with the truck stationary.  This problem is exaggerated if you’ve installed wider tires.  The original steering designs also had a fair bit of free play in them which can make the trucks a real handful in traffic at higher speeds.   Many people are of the belief that the only way to solve this problem is to transplant an entire, modern front end into the truck.  Granted this does solve all the problems and provide great handling but it’s expensive and takes away from the originality.

I was dealing with the classic steering issues on my 1951 Ford Panel truck and began looking for solutions.  I wanted to keep the original front end and steering column on the truck but have precise, power steering.  I came across a kit being sold by Performance OnLine that looked like a perfect solution.  I’ll jump ahead here and tell you that it was !  They sell a custom made power rack and pinion kit that bolts to the stock straight axles using custom machined clamps.  You have to supply your own power steering  pump and lines.  This was not a problem for me.  My truck has a 351 Cleveland with all the factory accessories  on it.  I had been running the steering pump with a by-pass hose.

I won’t bore you with a step by step installation story.  You can go to their web site and download the instructions.  You have to remove the old steering box, tie rods, drag link assembly and modify the spindles a little.

With all the old stuff out of the way, the rack literally takes five minutes to install.

In my case I had to work around some front disc brake brackets to get the new arms on the spindles.  Those are 1970’s Dodge van brakes installed on the original spindles by a creative previous owner.

If you have an updated column in your truck this conversion is very easy.  I wanted to keep my stock column and steering wheel so there was a bit more work involved.  You have to cut the shaft off the old steering box and modify the end of the column to support the shaft.  Have no fear !  POL also sells a “column saver kit” with all the goodies to  make this conversion.  I wouldn’t call this an ameture level project but anyone with reasonable wrenching skills could pull it off.

After doing the mechanical parts I had some custom hoses made up and was on my way.  You could probably find off the shelf hoses and some adapters to connect your system.  For me it was faster and easier just to give the specs to my local Goodyear hose shop.

The end result is absolutely amazing.  There is zero slop in the steering and the rack is actually a quick-ratio model.  I have sports car steering in my old Panel Truck !  Driving and maneuvering in tight parking lots is effortless now.  I  don’t need that giant steering wheel any more but I’m keeping it to preserve the look of the truck.  If you’re thinking about a steering upgrade it’s well worth investigating the POL kits.

Late last year a customer brought in his newly purchased 1972 Bronco.  Over all, it was a nice looking truck that made it to the shop under its own power.  It had some dated items on it and the drive-train needed some attention but many people would have been content to just drive it the way it was.  Our customer however had bigger plans in mind.  Andy’s vision was to take the truck to the next level in terms of safety, reliability and appearance.  We wish we could take credit for all the upgrade ideas but most of that came from Andy.  We just had the fun of executing his plan.

There is an impressive list of upgrades on the truck.  We started with a power front disc break conversion and rear brake rebuild.  This also included new hubs.

We serviced both axles, transmission, transfer case and did some engine repairs.  To tighten up the steering we replaced the steering box and installed a new tilt column.  The old leaky PS pump was replaced along with the hoses. The fuel tanks had suffered the wrath of ethanol fuels/moisture and were replaced along with all of the hoses and sending units.

Next we installed a Classic Air AC system and upgraded the engine fan to an electric system with programmable controller.  Here’s the engine compartment before and after.  And yes, power brake boosters for early Bronco’s are strange looking.

Andy had ideas for a major dash upgrade.  Here are before and after pictures.  As bought, the dash had  diamond plate covering and some tempermental  gauges and switches.   We stripped everything down to the bare factory dash and built it back up from there using Andy’s vision.  We rebuilt the gauge cluster and installed an original factory style radio with modern features.

The build continued with rust repair (a standard operation on old Broncos…) body and paint work, custom lighting, new upholstery, door panels and custom console, a new soft top and nerf bars.  All work was performed by our shop.  Here are some shots of the final product.  Needless to say, this truck gets lots of attention everywhere it goes.