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Elite Veteran
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Location: Wales, Wisconsin | After many years of mopar blood flowing through my veins from the 60 DeSoto I was brought home from the hospital in, to my 1970 road runner that I have owned for 26 years, I finally bought my own forward look car - a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan. I am looking to build a low cost cruiser and am not interested in a full blown restoration. The car is real solid and should be fun to build. I have been surfing and lurking on this site for about six months and finally joined up. My Avatar is a picture of the car as it was delivered to my house two weeks ago. Here is another picture of the car.
Edited by Steppinout 2009-09-23 9:17 PM
 (55 Plymouth 4 door.jpg)
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 55 Plymouth 4 door.jpg (7KB - 92 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 2612
Location: Parts Unknown | Welcome - When ya posting bigger pics !?!?  Seriously post all you can as you get it on the way back to the road  I love the "early" Plymouth's 
Edited by B/G 61 2009-09-23 9:21 PM
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Expert
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Location: Connecticut | Nice color combo ! Is it running/driving ? What engine does it have ? Options ? BTW, welcome to the site !
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Expert
Posts: 1508
Location: new york | Nice car look's like a V8, My grandfather hit a horse in 1955, he was from Italy , did not know how to drive but he walked into the Plymouth dealer and bought the same car of the showroom floor same colors ETC and had to call my dad to drive it home, He learned to drive on that car and was the only car he ever owned. When I was born i came home from the Hospital in that car, I remember in the late 60's He had it painted all black at Earl Schribe Than my uncle wrecked it in prospect park Driving home drunk! Thant car really spurs memories for me! HAPPY MOTORING! and good luck with it! Victor... |
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Expert
Posts: 2244
Location: Yorba Linda, Ca | Welcome. Nice plymouth, I remember seeing them on the Dodge/Plymouth dealer lots, back in 55. I usta get a "Kick" outta hearing them being started up, to keeps batteries charged, etc---Course the Dodges always started Better!! 
I have ya beat by a lil, I special ordered my Polara 500, 426 Wedge, when I was a 22 year old kid (Not sure if Neil was even in "3 corner Pants", back then). Still have it 45 years later!
I got my 2nd set of fins, about 5 years ago now, 59 Dodge Convertible.
Good luck with Yours!!
Gary |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Big pimpin' | Welcome to the site. Sweet ride BTW. Love the colors, no really I do... |
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Expert
Posts: 3967
Location: DFW, TX | That is a good looking sedan for sure! Great colors and a Belvedere to boot. What are some of its options? Good to have you here!
Danny |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 530
Location: Wake Forest, NC | Great looking car welcome. |
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Expert
Posts: 1590
Location: Scottsdale, AZ | Welcome John! Nice to see another single-headlight fan. Beautiful sedan you've got there. Post some more pics too. Looks like you're way ahead of me though. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Thanks for all the kind words. My car has a 259 with 3 on the tree that came with the car but had been removed from the car about 30 years ago. The engine is not seized but I am pretty sure I will be going with a late model 318 auto combo. I had a poly once before and never really liked it. I have had several LA 318 powered cars and am just more comfortable with those engines. Someday I would like to add a 383 to this car or perhaps to a 2 door FL car. One at a time for now.
The car spent most of its life in North Dakota so that is why the body is so clean. I will need to replace the drivers side rocker and patch a small hole at the bottom of each front fender. The color combo will stay as I absolutely love it. I have wanted a fifties mopar for about 20 years and can hardly contain my excitement to get started.
Thanks again, John |
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Expert
Posts: 2679
| Steppinout - 2009-09-23 9:15 PM
After many years of mopar blood flowing through my veins from the 60 DeSoto I was brought home from the hospital in, to my 1970 road runner that I have owned for 26 years, I finally bought my own forward look car - a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan. I am looking to build a low cost cruiser and am not interested in a full blown restoration. The car is real solid and should be fun to build. I have been surfing and lurking on this site for about six months and finally joined up. My Avatar is a picture of the car as it was delivered to my house two weeks ago. Here is another picture of the car.
Wow nice car! She looks great, I like the color combination. Nice tail lights on your ride! Yep get her going and enjoy the
cruise in's and just plain cruising her around. |
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Expert
Posts: 1480
Location: Australia | looks good just the way it is, keep the caps off also... what are you planning to do to it? adriana  |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | John, the late model automatic trans will probably involve a column shift, but more likely, a floor shift (with some
sort of console?)
Early Poly engines can be built up quite nicely, nowadays; I'd merely suggest the installation of a modern carburetor and
intake manifold, and a conversion to 12-volt electronic ignition to make the engine system bullet proof. A rebuilt generator
is very dependable---been using mine, since 1981, and had it rebuilt once, around 1983-ish.
You also could just put in an 8-volt battery, and see how everything works, initially, with the 8-volt system, and a rebuilt gennie.
Oh, yeah; twice-pipes are a 'given' !
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Expert
Posts: 1590
Location: Scottsdale, AZ | John, I'm with Neil, they're just finishing up my '56 315Dodge Poly and am going to put a late model A518 auto w/ o/d behind using a Hot Hemi Heads conversion set-up. I'm trying to find a 4bbl manifold, the engine's already almost all put together so I don't want to tear it apart again to regrind the cam. We're going to do some clean-up on the head-to-intake manifold and head-to-exhaust manifold areas for better flow, cold air and engine compartment insulation, nice set of custom exhaust headers, and so on. We figure we will pickup a few extra ponies and have a nice running car that sounds good as well. Of course it should get a little bit of tire churning. No race car, but cool nonetheless.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Thanks for all the suggestions and kind words. I plan on the later model engine so I won't have to rebuild the original ($$$). Most of the 318 auto combos I have found run well and are priced around 300-400 which is cheaper than any rebuild and works for my budget. I want an automatic and will be using a floor shift with a tall shifter. The wheels will stay black steel and I have already put chrome beauty rings on them. Next will be some chrome lug nuts and maybe spider caps. Twice pipes - definitely!!!! I probably will convert to 12 volt as well and may use the wiring harness from my engine donor car that I haven't bought yet. i am trying to be realistic and have set a time frame of getting her running and on the road within one year. I will keep you posted. Thanks again, John |
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Veteran
Posts: 272
Location: Missouri | Very nice Plymouth, John! Cool color combo too! Harold |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 329
Location: Claremore, Okla. | Looks good - I like it - no hub caps for me too. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Ok after thinking it over and doing quite a bit of reading I have decided to go with a 318 poly automatic in my car. I found one near to home and hope to be buying it this weekend.
Will i need to change the rear end in my car after doing the swap, the engine and tranny are from a 1963 Plymouth?
Here are some better pics of my car.
Edited by Steppinout 2009-11-05 8:57 PM
 (100_0272.jpg)
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100_0272.jpg (96KB - 93 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Can't seem to get more than one picture at a time.
 (100_0268.jpg)
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100_0268.jpg (70KB - 83 downloads)
100_0267.jpg (79KB - 86 downloads)
100_0266.jpg (458KB - 88 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Well I obviously figured out how to put more than one into a thread.
I think my Road Runner and the Belvedere kind of like each other !! |
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Veteran
Posts: 272
Location: Missouri | Really nice pics of your cool Mopars! Is that garage also yours?? I could get lost in that! Harold |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | The garage is actually part of a warehouse near my home that my neighbor and I went in on together to rent. It is so nice to finally have a place to put my stuff. |
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Expert
Posts: 1590
Location: Scottsdale, AZ | Yeah, John, I'd switch out the rear end. Then you don't have to mess with the tapered axles and the newer one will give you new e-brake cables that you can fashion to your e'brake handle. I'm going to go with this set up on our '56 Dodge with the A518 auto tranny. I think someone here did a thread on this with pics. I'm not sure which year and model exactly, I haven't researched it yet. Boy, nice garage you've got there, a lot better than me working in our driveway! lol Keep us posted on your progress. Jay
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Veteran
Posts: 204
Location: St. Louis, MO. USA | I would stick with a small block because you will have to cut & patch the frame for the oil pump/filter to fit a big block in it. It is not a problem if you have the resources to do it, just something to take into consideration! I don't know if this is true for 55 but the blue & white paint scheme is a Saint Louis, Missouri. only paint option for 56. It was called the Saint Louis Blues scheme to commemorate the music and high sales in the area. Even tho the cars were only available in St. Louis they seemed to migrate all over.
Edited by zephyr9900 2009-11-08 11:32 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Lotsa advise here--and, worth every penny, @ $0.02 per application.
John, if cost is a consideration to you (and, to whom is it NOT?) , my two-coppers is to KEEP that rear end on your car!
There is a nice-long thread around here, on removing the brake drums from the tapered axle.
Instead of incurring a whole-lotta time and MONEY in finding/overhauling/renovating/installing some late 60's rear axle,
for a small amount of money you can buy the Super-Duper-Nuke-Proof drum remover tool, and, following the thread's
messages, replace your car's axle's bearings and seals, and separate the outer brake drum-section from its inner hub-section
so that you NEVER have to use a drum puller, again, unless you somehow have to service the inner hub-stuff, again.
And, I'd still recommend overhauling the car's OEM engine; 318-parts are probably as pricey as the original engine's, and
even if they're more expensive, you can apply the money that you'll SAVE, by not bothering to replace the rear axle,
toward the cost of O/H'ing the OEM engine.
Problems solved.
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Expert
Posts: 1812
Location: Slidell La. | Welcome John , nice car you got there , everyones got advise , a lot of it is good , alot of it is personal preferance , from them .
Tappered axels suck , you can t get hardley any performance parts for the poly,(typo) none . Schummacer Services sells something
to convert a later model tranny to you pushbuttons . . Its your car build it like you want , and build the hell out of it too . Enjoy it . |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Yeah, Charlie, but, John's talking about installing a 318; not a 440.
The only performance part on a rear end is the 'pig', and there are the same ratios available for it, as for
any standard non-tapered axle.
Low ratios are over-rated, in my experience, with a 3.55:1 Sure Grip having been replaced with a maxo-mileage
2.76 that I cruise around in , now.
Besides, my car's engine has a 3/4 race (as they say) OEM-camshaft grind on it, so it sounds and idles like it's packing
some performance in it, which effect John can easily accomplish with his engine build.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 664
Location: Wales, Wisconsin | Thanks for all the advice. I am not sure what Narleycharlie meant about pushbuttons as my car was originally a 3 on the tree car. Maybe he meant the donor car my new engine is from. That being said I have made the deal for the 318 poly and automatic. The engine and trans have only 50k miles and run and operate like a champ. The guy is keeping all the pushbutton stuff for is new tranny and I plan on going to a floor mounted shifter for the automatic like lokar or gennie. I know it is not original but I am going for a mild hot rod traditional kid in high school 1962 look. The guy is even throwing in the one year old dual exauhst from the 63 Fury which should line up pretty close to my Belvedere. I am now looking for a b-body rear end to swap in. I really don't want to rebuild or tear apart too much as my ability to do so is limited. Most of the work I am doing is being done with the generous help of my neighbor. From what I have read and researched the 8 3/4 rear from the b-bodies fits well and only requires moving the spring perches. Time to go classified hunting and maybe if this strange warm weather holds out I'll hit some boneyards. Thanks guys and I will try to keep pics coming as progress moves forward.
John |
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Just joined with my 1955 Belvedere
