20 years after my dad sold his mint '55 Bel Air he is finally getting back into the game. We found a '55 Chevy 210 last week that we would like to get working on. Currently it’s running a 350 4 barrel with a Turbo 350 trans and drives pretty nicely. We’d like to go the LT1/LS1 fuel injected route with a 4 spd trans…as well as lower it, upgrade to disc brakes, get Bel Air trim, etc but don’t know yet where to find some info on swaps like these.
I’ve searched around a little bit but was hoping someone on here may know of some mail order places, restoration shops that sell parts for these cars, books, magazines, online web pages that may show some how-to articles for making a restomod out of this. Any help would be appreciated…thanks, Mike
I love modern power plants in classic cars.
There is a guy with a blue Chevelle around here powered by a fuel injected 502. I want that car more than anything.
Camarojoe- nice links, already found a new gas tank! …one of a few small things that needs to be replaced.
I’ll have to be patrolling the shows solo since he lives in Minnesota. Ideally this would be a father/son project, but since moving away from home a few years ago it’s difficult to get back to do much work a project liek this. My proposal is to bring it out here and spend a few solid months on it with some friends and deliver it back to him completed. His idea is to be on ‘Overhaulin’
I have a friend that is head porter at a shop called TPIS back in MN. They’re one of the more reputable shops that build LSx motors so I’m thinking that a motor can get built up through him. I’ve been seeing a lot of complete drivtrains from Vettes and Camaros with accesories, harness, computer, and trans going for $3-4k with little mileage on them…that would make things MUCH easier and a good starting point I’d think…
A few local shows to check out that have a decent supply of cars:
Cavalcade of Cars - March
World of Wheels - March
Performance World - Toronto - March
Tri-Five - July 2 WNYCarClubs.com Super Cruise - July 9
There are more, but off the top of my head, those are where you see a good selection of modified cars. We have a calendar of shows at our website: http://www.rodandpiston.com/shows.asp?
We’ll have more in early March listed.
Also search Popular Hot Rodding and Chevy High Performance websites for past builds and resto mods.
Mike, durring your searches see if you come accrost and older cars like your dad’s with c4 suspenssions in them. Being a full frame vehicle like the 1st gen Camaro’s (which I have seen this swap a few times) you’d be better off looking at vette underpinings than u would with a unit-body camaro. Remember, C4 = engine>bell housing>tranny>DS>rear end , C5 = engine>bellhousing>axle>transaxle. And I bet you could find a C4 supension farily cheap, then mount an LSx motor on top of it.
