The Road to Restoration, Part 2

With my trip to Texas in April, I delivered most of the car parts I had collected within the past 3 years (please see the below posts) to my parents house, with the intention of handing everything over to the body man that Dad had found, who was willing to work on the car, and start the restoration process. However, the gentleman in question developed health problems, and is now unable to do the body work required for this restoration/customization.

As luck would have it, at the time when I was visiting my parents, the annual antique auto show, held in Snyder, Texas was being held. So dad and I made a trip to Snyder to check out the cars, and talk to the owners of cars which had been restored, to see if they could make any recommendations of body shops who do restoration/customization work. We did talk to a few folks, some who knew of a shop in either Abilene or Lubbock who could do the work, but they did not provide any direct references.

However, there were representatives from a hot rod shop from Lubbock, who were at the Snyder antique auto show, who had brought in a 18 wheel trailer, with cars they had restored and customized. Dad and I immediately started the conversation with both representatives (one does the interior work, the other does exterior work). Since dad and I had driven Blackie to this event, we asked the body expert to walk over with us to the parking lot where Blackie was sitting, and give it a look, to get feedback on what he thought could be done, and I bounced some ideas off of him to get a good feel about his level of interest in this project. I did inform him that I have two cars, and Red does have the better lower body. He did seem interested in taking a look at both cars to see which would work best as the basis for the restoration.

Dad and I have both been in contact with this hot rod shop in Lubbock, and they are willing to do the work, so a HUGE hurdle has been overcome with this chance meeting in Snyder. Dad is scheduled to drive Blackie to Lubbock, and the hot rod shop is scheduled to start dismantling Blackie sometime after that.

Red, on the other hand......

Dad had also found an engine rebuilder in Snyder, who's had experience building, and rebuilding race car engines. Again, while I was in Texas, dad and I had lunch with the engine guy, and discussed what I wanted in the engine rebuild (electronic fuel injections, performance parts, etc) in order to acheive 450-550 horsepower. He said he could do it, and it wouldn't be a problem. We agreed on a plan of action, and dad had Red towed to the engine guy's house for a total engine rebuild. The plan was for the engine to be taken out of Red, and the rebuilder would work on it in his shop, and then Red's body would then be towed to Lubbock to the hot rod shop.

However, as of this posting, the engine has yet to be pulled from Red. Red is still sitting in the engine guy's driveway, waiting for the engine to be pulled. Red was towed to the engine guys place 3 weeks ago. I am not especially happy that it has taken nearly a month to have an engine pulled; but for now, I will deal with the situation as best as I can, and give him a few more days in order to pull it and start work on the engine.

Related to the drive train, dad and I also located a transmission shop in Lubbock, who is willing to rebuild the transmission to handle that kind of horsepower. I was hoping to upgrade the transmission to an over-drive set up, but after the transmission shop looked at Blackies current transmission set up, the transmission bell housing is not configured to accept an over-drive unit, and the suspension torsion bars are located in a position that prohibits any add on equipment to the transmission for over-drive. So I am stuck with a 3-speed automatic, but at least it will be built to handle the additional horsepower. Not the best set up, but at least it will run as it should when the accelerator is punched.

To handle the horsepower conversion to the rear wheels, I have found an outlet who sells the Sure Grip differential, so I will have the differential rebuilt with a Sure Grip differential installed. Then all I would need are new bearings installed on each back wheel to again handle the power transfered from the engine.

There is much work to be done, but aside from the engine rebuild issues, things are beginning to fall into place. I am very excited in finding a reputable shop who can restore and customize the Imperial.

As of now, I will not release any information regarding the hot rod shop, or the engine rebuilder, until the car is complete, and I am satisfied with the restoration. If anything goes seriously wrong with either the engine rebuilder, or the hot rod shop, I will post that information as well.

Sorry that I do not have any pictures at this time, but I have been promised by both the hot rod shop, and the engine rebuileder that they will forward me photos of their progress on this project, and I will post those photos here for you to see.

Now that this project is moving forward, the postings to this blog should be more frequent.

Thanks for your patience, and Happy Motoring!