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Gotta Replace 2nd Gear in the 1953 Chevy Belair Custom

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 53 Chevy Repairs & Mechanical .

You may have noticed, I haven’t posted anything new in a while here on the ’53 Chevy Custom Belair blog. Well, that’s because in Florida, we have the best weather of the year between September and May, so I’ve been DRIVING her! This is the time of year that I try not to do any big projects on the car so I can enjoy driving the wheels off of her.

Well, fate had other plans in mind. A couple of weeks ago while taking a nice drive up Sunset Strip in Sunrise, Fl…she stalled out on me going about 35 mph. This hasn’t happened in years…and when it did in the past, I usually just threw in the clutch then popped it back, and she’d start right up. Eh, not so much this time. As I coasted to a near stop, I tried it again…but for some odd reason I threw it in second instead of first. And the car did NOT like that. I heard a clunk, and bye bye second gear.

I got the car home shifting from first to third with no problem, but I stripped out second. Just one of those things I guess.

NOS second gear for the 1953 Chevy manual transmission.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to find a replacement second gear on ebay for fifty bucks. Chevs of the 40’s supplied the gaskets and needle bearings needed to finish the job. I’m thinking maybe next week, when I have all the parts here, I’ll drop the transmission, put it on the bench, and start taking it apart.

3-Speed Manual Transmission Diagram, 1953 Chevy (from the original shop manual)

Just as lucky, was this video I found on YouTube from a really great guy who was nice enough to video the entire process of disassembling and assembling this type of Chevrolet transmission. He shows how to take the thing apart without using the special tools, that would cost hundreds of dollars, if you can find them.

I’ll post photos and progress as it goes. Wish me luck!

New Photos of the 1953 Chevy Custom Belair

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 1953 Chevy Stories .

With the body, top, and trim almost 100% complete now, I decided to take some photos in the bright South Florida sun. Still, photos can’t really capture the brilliance of the purple pearl when the sun hits it the right way.

53 Chevy Custom Belair in the Sun, March 2021, front driver side

Of course it doesn’t help that the sun was already behind the car from that angle. Here it is from the other side.

53 Chevy Custom Belair in the Sun, March 2021, front passenger side

And the backend, really showing off the fins of this crazy, wild custom 1953 Chevy Belair.

53 Chevy Custom Fins Exterior continental kit

Living in Spotlight Hell with the 53 Chevy

Posted on November 17, 2020 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 1953 Chevy Stories .

1953 Chevy Hot Rod Custom Belair "Stardust" with original S6 spotlight

I’ve always dug spotlights. I think the first time I noticed them was in an old movie, maybe Rebel Without a Cause, or something like that…there’s just something old-school cool about having an extra light (or two) on your non-police car when you need it.

When I was young I put spotlights on everything. In the 80s they were cheap, and I found probably a dozen over the years for $5 bucks or less. I put a spotlight on a dark green 1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, and someone asked me if it was an old army car for a general. I put dual 5″ spots on a 73 Caprice mild custom. I even put an S6 on my 1979 Lincoln Town Car. Most of them worked.

When I bought the Chevy in 1990, I had a cool 1950’s combo spotlight/sideview mirror, so I put that on her. It looked great, and worked too! That stayed on the car until the early 2000’s when I decided I wanted to go with dual spotlights.

Closeup of the spotlight/sideview mirror.

As usual, I decided to complicate my life and do something that was going to cost me more money than I ever imagined possible for something that seemed so simple. You see, the 1953 and 1954 Chevrolet was MADE for dual spotlights. There was already a hole on the inside metal door skin on each side for the spotlight to go through. Unity, the major spotlight manufacturer, still makes the specific through-the-door mounting bracket for these cars. The only thing that is missing from the equation is…the length of the spotlight needed.

In the early 2000’s, I searched ebay for a pair of nice, chrome spotlights, complete. I found two, identical, 1960s Unity S6 6″ spots. They were perfect…until I put them on the car. Oh, they looked great! But…

1953 Chevy with dual spotlights, around 2008.

Spotlight Hell! They were too long! I knew that spotlights came in different lengths, and I though the ones I got were going to be good…but they were too long. Which meant the driver’s side handle was about 1″ away from the steering wheel, and the passenger side handle protruded into the chest of the passenger, if the passenger happened to have a large chest (and all of mine do!)

It was a minor inconvenience but there was also the issue of them being a bit loose, and not always working. So before I painted the car in March, I decided to buy a brand new pair of good quality, great condition, 1950s S6’s to put on Stardust…and I was sure to buy the shorter ones.

They look great! And the work too! However…

Spotlight Hell! As nothing ever works the way it should, once I put the door panels back on I had a hell of a time trying to get the handles back. As it turns out, there is a THIRD size to these (and hell, probably more) not just long and short. The two I got this time were perfectly matched, 12″ long spotlights. About two inches too short to fit through the door and operate properly!

Tonight I spent about two hours trying to figure out how to make these work, before I realized resistance is futile. So, as of the time of this writing, I’ve bought one on ebay cheap (dented) that’s 14″, and I have a “make offer” on another one, no bulb, but 14″. The plan is to put the perfect spotlight housings and handles from the short ones on the 14″ rods. Here’s why this is hell, besides all the extra work: Early 2000’s, spent about $100 on multiple spotlights to put together two good ones, but they were too long. This year spent about $120 on two more, but they are too short. Going to spend at least another $100 to get the 14″ rods. After all this, I could have just bought new ones from Unity, exact replicas of the 1950s models, 18 years ago for $300 and it would have been done. Of course, then I wouldn’t have anything to write about.

New Door Striker So I Don’t Fall Out – 1953 Chevy

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 1953 Chevy Stories .

Since I bought my 1953 Chevy Belair in 1990, I always had issues with the front driver’s door not closing right. I must have re-adjusted the striker 100 times. It would loosen up and shift position, and sometimes the door would get stuck closed and I’d have to pry it open (nerve wracking!)

1953 Chevy at Tree Tops Park, 2015 — You can see in this photo from 2012 how the front door doesn’t close right, leaving a gap.

It got much worse over the last 15 years or so…once, the door popped open when I hit a bump. Not cool. I tried everything, except replacing the striker. Eventually I learned to live with it, just be careful.

You can see how bad the condition of this striker was

Last month I changed out the electric door poppers for new ones (the old ones were now more than 15 years old and giving me issues). While working on the driver’s door I noticed the striker looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. I guess the years of it going out of alignment did a job on it. So I decided to get a new one. I posted that I was looking for one on the Facebook 53/54 Chevy group, and in no time had several people offering. I got one in like new condition for $45, including the ride.

When I went to put the new one on, I got a big surprise…it had a backing plate. Mine…on the car…has no backing plate. So I’m thinking, what the hell??? Apparently, sometime between October of 1953 when the car was built, and April of 1990 when I bought it, for some reason someone removed the backing plate off the striker, or for some reason it never had one. I’m honestly not even sure if that’s the original or even correct striker that’s been on the 53 Chevy since I bought the car!

I took the old one off, put the new one on (took longer to find the right screwdriver than it did to install), lined it up and tightened it…and the door shut almost perfectly. I made one adjustment…and now it shuts flawlessly, the door popper works correctly, and the door is lined up exactly as it should be.

53 Chevy doors lined up — With the new striker, the doors line up almost perfectly now

Moral of the story…I should have replaced it 20 years ago.

Getting the ’53 Chevy Cleaned-Up and Waxed

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 1953 Chevy Stories .

Custom 1953 Chevy Belair all shined up, October, 2020

If you haven’t read any of the other pages on my ’53 Chevy website, you wouldn’t know that this car hasn’t had shiny paint since late 2000. That’s when I started stripping her down to do the custom work. Before that she was seafoam green and white, not factory colors for that year but very 1950’s looking. She was originally painted that color combo in 1991. By 2000 the paint was peeling and rust was popping through (products of Jersey Shore salt air and no garage).

Fast forward to January 2020. That’s when I started prepping her for the new paint job. You can read all about that journey here. And even though she still isn’t finished and isn’t perfect, she’s got a mirror shine now that rivals any multi-thousand dollar paint job…and I did it all myself, from bodywork to final detailing.

So now, as far as the body goes, I get to enjoy this beautiful, shiny car, and just have to do a light cleaner-wax coat now and then. Eventually, when the body, top, and interior are all truly done, I’ll strip off the wax and do a ceramic coat. But for now…just happy that she shines!

New Decade, New Paint Job, New Website

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Christopher Pinto Posted in 1953 Chevy Stories .

It’s September, 2020, and it’s been one hell of a crazy year. Lot of things happened this year, from Covid-19 to civil rights marches, corruption exposed and Mother Nature being a real Mutha.

As for me, I tried to make the best of a bad situation. I used the little extra time I had from not commuting 2 hours a day (working from home) to finally finish the bodywork and paint Stardust. 20 years of hard work culminated in two months of final straightening and prep, plus painting (and repainting) over the course of a couple of months. But the end result was certainly worth it. For the first time since the 1990s, Stardust is shiny and new!

1953 Chevy Belair Custom “Stardust”, Summer, 2020

With Stardust looking so great, I felt I owed it to her to rebuild her website to match her shiny new looks. After all, her old website was the first website I ever built back in 2012, with a very limited knowledge of HTML and reliance on youtube.

So I decided on a WP site, because they are so much easier to work with for someone like myself who can tear apart and put back together a car, but runs into brick walls when it comes to coding. So this is it…the new site, dedicated to my 30-year (so far) journey with this fantabulous car. Cheers!