However, I did get to work with my dad for a short time yesterday on his 1956 Chevy 210. He's been doing some pretty serious work to the car over the last few months, and yesterday we bled the brakes and took the maiden voyage - a short trip down a dirt road to his neighbor's house and back. There's no front seat in the car so we sat on cases of diesel oil and kept the speed to a minimum. Dad just wanted to see if the car would go, shift, and stop, which it did.
The car has a mild 454 and ran with a TH400 for the last 15 years. Recent projects included freshening up the motor with aluminum heads and a new carb, replacing the 3-speed tranny with a nice 700R4 that used to be in my '54, rebuilding the front suspension with coilovers and a totally rebuilt steering box, upgrading the front brakes to 12" discs, building a complete stainless exhaust with x-pipe, rewiring the whole car with a Rebel Wire kit, and swapping the 10-bolt out for an Explorer 8.8" with 3.73 gears, limited slip, and disc brakes. As far as the parts that don't make it go, he added Vintage Air A/C and Raingear wipers. I'm sure there are still bugs to get worked out but yesterday the car started right up, idled smooth, drove and shifted fine, and stopped reasonably well. The rear brakes don't seem to be working as well as they should and I'm thinking replacing the master cylinder and maybe even rear brake lines might be the next project.
Here's a picture of the hood compartment. Basically, working on and driving his car is (and always has been) my biggest motivation to get mine running well and looking good. He tells me it's a lot easier to manage when you're retired...
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