This 1951 Chevrolet Deluxe Has Been Sitting For 44 Years! | Roadworthy Rescues

I just bought

this

7 year old car locally and it's

been

sitting

in a barn for 44

years

so I'm going to do the right thing and try to get it running and driving and then I'm going to drive it halfway across the state back to my shop looks like a Not a good idea, not that there are mountain ranges and stuff, but the plan is that I don't have one. I think we'll start by just walking around

this

thing, drink it a little bit, we'll see where to start and I've got some miles to put on, you know, so let's dig into this '50 Chevy, it may be your run-of-the-mill Tar Coupe, but if we can take it back to the shop, I can see turning it into a really fun Cruiser, it's a

1951

Chevrolet dele or Deluxe, depending on where you are from, I guess it has fancy vent curtains in here.

I think it was an option that you get directly from the catalog. You also have the front vent here, which is also a factory option, just Scoops wind. You know, right in your eyes, not good if you have allergies, although the side skirts are missing, so I think we can fix that by just heating the rear end and letting it fall to the ground to give the illusion or we can run a little poor. Chrome, you know, run the duct tape over here, I'm not sure, it still smells like a used knee pad and I floor veite.

Checker, yes that failed, there is a small hole in the floor, oh my goodness, all the ignition levers should be dipped and they are the correct ones. throttle stuck check great I've never had brakes stuck check oh we have a clutch or we're on our way so oh we have a window crank door opener there's a dead mouse or something there that's pretty close we're gonna close we're we're gonna close that okay , we've got some rocks, I mean, I don't know what else the guy needs, yeah, mhm, ground dobbers, we definitely have original AG going, that's good, we've got everything here, making fuel happening, starter generators on a lightning where lightning can with the hoses, most likely 216 or 26.5, they call them because it has a 3eed manual, there are three on the tree, the old latch mechanism, you know, we have a 12 volt battery here , that's a little worrying. a little spicy on the ignition system and all that on the starter motor so I'm going to jump right into the fuel make it happen here we have to make some fuel happen we have a barrel of course that will be a Sump. oh, that's great, the throttle is wide open, that seems fine, so the first thing a man is going to have to do is go ahead and cut this carburetor off.

I'm sure he'll need a rebuild anyway, at least get the link and everything. like this moving, then we could set up some kind of temporary fuel system, then we'll move on to, you know, can we get some flashes, some lightning on this thing? Okay, so fuel system, we have to make sure the mechanical fuel pump works on this. What I would really like to try to avoid is running a clicky clacky because we have a 6 volt system here, it looks like to do that we have to crank the engine so we can run the pump so I'm going to go check the oil first, make sure we have something here, yeah, there's some oil in it, oh wow, it's like a 30 weight, it actually has some viscosity to it, it doesn't contain gasoline, it doesn't contain water, antifreeze, none of that, so we can definitely tear it off. end up out of oil and maybe even run it hopefully for a while and we'll change it later.

We have to throw a battery in here, we will try to put in a correct one and this car also has anti theft, if you notice here, both cables are red, so if someone tries to steal it, they just burn it before they realize what is happening. I like that, yeah, here we go, old school Roder's little secret, run these 8 volt batteries here. I'll really get that starter only in Tokyo Drift mode, you know, really spinning. I'm just going to stretch out, jump, see if it turns, yes, the starters engage and retract, the motors spin, we're in great shape.

I can see the fuel line. It's broken right here, we're not going to use the original tank anyway, chances are after 44

years

sitting

it'll be completely full of rust and dirt and grime and whatever, so we'll just hook it up directly to that pump. With my fuel tank down here, I'm just going to quick prime it to 87 octane, it'll work, get it over there, go get me a clamp later and we're ready, yeah, throw this in here, turn the pump on for a second, we've got it. pressure in there now jumps again we should have fuel coming out of there like crazy there we go so we have a makeshift fuel system and our carburetor should be soaked in there to be rebuilt we'll break that thing down take all that After putting it back together everything What we need to do is give this thing a spark and it should shoot up a lot of corrosion at the points, which is to be expected.

We could take a file or an Emory cloth, some sandpaper, clean them up and clean up this wire connection. Looks good, this one suits him. I could make a new cable and then we'll be good spies, make Dippy and a curly C-tail Bop about 6 feet long. I can get those 6 feet, yeah, go in there, that's crooked. My back is hotter. That gar Brooks live and I'm not a kid, yes, well, yes, it is very important to separate spark engines for optimal performance and fuel economy. That one looks empty. I assume the ignition system was checked. I'm going to fill the carburetor bowl with fuel here, this is my chainsaw, mix up some 90's gasoline and some two-stroke oil.

Throw a little in here, yes, that's too much. Now we'll get this thing going and hopefully I'll hear it fire for the first time in 44 years yes, that sounds good no, it'll sit here idle. I can't believe it, but I think I did it. I'm looking directly at it. He's smoking well. Yes, that's amazing. It sounds absolutely incredible, he's smoking like crazy, that's to be expected. The rings have to show up, so it shows more than half the oil pressure, which on a 50's car would be like 15 lbs, which is completely normal somewhere out there and also shows that it's going on. loading now that we could. check that quick we'll put the digital meter on it 83 I think we're good this is how we have to turn it off ah the generator is going to make it work here we go I think we should pour some ice cube juice into this thing see if the water pump is it pumping see if the thermostat is doing thermostat things see if the head gasket is going to pop back into place after one or two heat cycles and if it stays cold then we can move on to knowing, does the clutch actually work? even if we can get it into gear, and if we can get it into gear, it will move back and force, then we'll move on to the last brakes, that will be a lot of fun, the brake pedal is stuck, it will.

Let's not go to the floor, we'll soak it and see if we can free it because removing that master cylinder is a real bear. I've done it 16.5 times. I gave up once, so let's see what we have there. Wow, for God's sake, okay? I'll put some juice in there and then see if it comes back. No, I won't think I'll have to remove this master cylinder. Wow, I took out one of the 47 bolts. You have a lens cap on that GoPro. I'm not saying I'm angry, I'm just disappointed with the progress. This is getting more complicated than Fergie's national anthem.

How is that possible? And that's a small victory. You know, that's all the guy needs. A really simple process. You know, like he was saying. Take your time, they will come out of there a piece of cake. Good morning and welcome to day two of the

1951

Chevrolet Deluxe. 8 million pounds of moisture rained all night and it's supposed to rain on and off all afternoon, so I'm thinking about what I'm going to do. What I'm going to do is take the wheels off the car and put S down and put some tires on last night. I think I'm going to cut them into this thing and actually try to drive this back to the shed for some cover.

I can work in, you know, 30 with snow blowing, but rain on a guy's back. I simply reduce my productivity. Today's plan is to continue working on the brakes on this thing. We installed the master cylinder last night, so I have to do it. Get all the brake wheel cylinders, shoes and hardware and I'm sure I'm going to cut some brake lines and that's all cool, this is what we're going for and you can see it here on the wheel cylinder, look that. it's just garbage coming out, that's all moisture corrosion, so this thing is going to be locked up and what they're supposed to do is push these shuttles out, which spreads the brake pads and that's what stops you, come on to go ahead and break. all this to get these wheel cylinders off, the hard part is the rubber line connects to the hard line here on the frame, getting those two to disconnect without twisting or breaking the steel line, you have to be surgical, it's okay here we go just rebuilding the back plate here now it's brand new since we ordered new rubber lines we can just cut this one off look how tight that line is there is no way the fluid would have flowed through that kind of having I have to do this little Wampus kitty because I don't want to risk turning the nut on that steel brake line like I was talking about before, so what we have to do is turn the wheel cylinder around this line, tighten it effectively while it is loose and then try to seat it in place, you can make a complete drum brake. set up just a couple of ice grips, there we go, one side, do three more to finish, all I'm going to do with these is just hit them with some brake cleaning, make sure they're nice and clean, inspect them again , hit them with a little. high PP grease Slide the drum back in and voila, you will hear that rain.

I'm so glad we moved here. I dodged it well. The small storm that was supposed to surround us turned into a class n hurricane. It's rain and the cats and kittens are gone. We went ahead and put all the wheel cylinders, shoes and brake hardware around the car, but of course all that work trying to save the hard lines on the frame was moot, yes they all broke on the master cylinder, so we ended up putting All the new hard lines on this thing are great too, everything is good. I don't know what I just ate so after getting the new master cylinder I quickly discovered that someone had

been

playing with the brakes and it became really apparent that this is probably the reason the vehicle was parked there were some pieces here of a later model Chevy and well I had to scramble to find the right accessories and hardware to make all of this work but it was finally bled we have four wheel brakes I think I'm ready well I think it's finally time to putting this 1951 Chevrolet Deluxe back on the road through a fuel tank and the sprue side of the deck here around the hose directly through the glove box which, by the way, turns on the glove box light.

I'll be diving in now that we're ready. I'm excited to drive this thing for real. The speedometer works. There is no way the oil pressure gauge is still working. We still have some pieces of oil. It's related to the load, where you're doing the thing, and the clutch. How good is it? It's at the top, this is my favorite part here, I just can't believe it, I think I made it, even though I'm looking straight at it, that whining sound I think is a speedometer doing a little work, it says 30 50 30 . 52 49 46 61 28 42 I don't know, I'm not an auctioneer, that's what I'm saying, the steering feels good.

I never really looked at anything. I just pretended everything was fine. You know, nice first cruise here. I didn't check. How much fuel did we have? I guess I can look here, about a gallon. Maybe.