My First Street Rod

Jeff washing the GRUNGE off of the transmission. It must have been an inch thick.

My First Street Rod

by Jeff Smith

Hello again! The last time we talked I had pretty much taken the whole truck apart besides the cab. (It was left on the frame) We took the truck apart outside, beside the garage. Once we were finished, we had the help of Al and Karen Gingles move it to the inside of the garage were it would be further worked on. We could really see how tall the truck stands. It was hewmungus!
Now the search was on to find some sort of a drive train for it. We were planning on going with a 350ci engine and a TH350 tranny with a 10 bolt rear end. (Eventually changing it to a Ford 9 inch) Well here it is, a 1976 rusta, opps I mean Nova. Here it is awaiting a new life for my truck.

This meant we had to look for a Camaro or a Nova of some kind. We had a neighbor that had owned a 1976 Nova four door since brand new. He had kept the thing in great running condition, but you could see right through the body! So we made him a long deal on it and brought it home to strip down. We wanted it for the engine, rear end, steering column (with no shifter), transmission, drive shaft, and a few little tid bits. We started to strip the thing at 10:00am and we finished at 7:00pm that same night. After-words when the car was down to nothing, we called a scraper to haul the body and front fenders away. The next day we came back out to see where we stand in this whole ordeal and what to do next. The next thing we did was take the transmission completely off the engine and clean it. Well that was a job and a half. For any of you who haven’t seen what a transmission out of a car like this looks like, it’s dirty!!! I scraped the gunk until it was barely there, then I just kept soaking it in Varsol until it was all gone. Now that it is clean we will glass bead it to make it look really cherry! Hope you enjoyed, so until next time...

You see how the air cleaner and surrounding pieces are a different color than the rest of the engine? That’s red paint, nice touch eh!

There it is, all fresh and cleaned waiting to be glass beaded and put into the truck.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

Back to Foothills Kruizin August '00 Index
Back to Foothills Kruizin February '00 Index
Back to the Foothills Kruizin Home Page
Back to the Members Home Page
Back to the Foothills Street Rod Association Home Page

Hello again! The last time we talked I had pretty much taken the whole truck apart besides the cab. (It was left on the frame) We took the truck apart outside, beside the garage. Once we were finished, we had the help of Al and Karen Gingles move it to the inside of the garage were it would be further worked on. We could really see how tall the truck stands. It was hewmungus! Now the search was on to find some sort of a drive train for it. We were planning on going with a 350ci engine and a TH350 tranny with a 10 bolt rear end. (Eventually changing it to a Ford 9 inch)	Well here it is, a 1976 rusta, opps I mean Nova. Here it is awaiting a new life for my truck.
This meant we had to look for a Camaro or a Nova of some kind. We had a neighbor that had owned a 1976 Nova four door since brand new. He had kept the thing in great running condition, but you could see right through the body! So we made him a long deal on it and brought it home to strip down. We wanted it for the engine, rear end, steering column (with no shifter), transmission, drive shaft, and a few little tid bits. We started to strip the thing at 10:00am and we finished at 7:00pm that same night. After-words when the car was down to nothing, we called a scraper to haul the body and front fenders away. The next day we came back out to see where we stand in this whole ordeal and what to do next. The next thing we did was take the transmission completely off the engine and clean it. Well that was a job and a half. For any of you who haven’t seen what a transmission out of a car like this looks like, it’s dirty!!! I scraped the gunk until it was barely there, then I just kept soaking it in Varsol until it was all gone. Now that it is clean we will glass bead it to make it look really cherry! Hope you enjoyed, so until next time...
You see how the air cleaner and surrounding pieces are a different color than the rest of the engine? That’s red paint, nice touch eh!
There it is, all fresh and cleaned waiting to be glass beaded and put into the truck.