#and then gaze out the door to see the jw there with their racks of pamphlets.

[deelovesbooks]

day in day out at work it truly is just me and the Jehovah's witnesses set up in the park across the street against the world

[itsworn]

427 Ford SOHC Powers a 1955 Chevy Convertible

A lifelong Ford enthusiast, Flip Cooper would gaze upon the iconic 427 SOHC engine on display in his Casper, Wyoming, office, often fuming over the injustice of seeing so many Chevy-powered FoMoCo vehicles at his favorite car shows or in the street rod magazines. One day this owner of numerous classic Mustangs and a 2005 Ford GT decided it was time for a payback.

Flip sheepishly admits that the Tri-Five family of Chevys are great-looking classic cars, but they sorely lack the thundering power image that an SOHC engine can provide. When he heard that a 1955 hardtop without an engine and tranny was buried inside a Chevy collector’s barn located only a couple miles from his house, he spent five hours clearing out the collected junk to get a good look. The hood was in one corner of the barn, and the trunklid in another. But, the old shoebox had all of its trim in place and revealed only moderate rust in the expected areas. Following a handshake, the car was loaded in a trailer and on its way to G3 Rods in Rapid City, South Dakota. Flip then commissioned automotive artist Eric Brockmeyer to sketch out his vision of a Ford-powered Chevy to inspire G3’s fabricators.

Providing a solid foundation is an Art Morrison IRS chassis that’s equipped with JRI coilovers and Wilwood 14-inch, six-piston brakes at all four corners. An ididit column leads to power rack-and-pinion steering. Rolling stock comprises Schott Accelerator wheels (18×8 front, 20×12 rear) wrapped with Pirelli tires (225/45R18 front, 325/35R20 rear). G3 painted the frame Storm Metallic and fabricated a 20-gallon custom stainless-steel fuel tank mounted in the rear.

G3 channeled the body over the frame to achieve the desired stance, necessitating slight modifications to a crossmember and some reinforcement to the frame. The most difficult chore of the project was shoehorning the mammoth SOHC motor into the engine bay.

“You don’t realize how big these engines really are,” G3 shop manager Tyler Nelson says, adding that the inner fenders, firewall, core support, and radiator cover all had to be modified or custom fabricated around the engine. Komes Racing Engines and Johnson Machine of Rapid City freshened up the engine, which sports a 6-71 supercharger, MSD ignition, and twin Holley Terminator TBI fuel-injection units. G3 fabricated the exhaust headers with 2-inch stainless steel tubing and built the polished 3-inch exhaust system that is slightly hushed with Flowmaster mufflers. Backing up the SOHC motor is a Ford C6 tranny that has been upgraded with a Phoenix 2,800-stall torque converter and shifted with a B&M Quick Silver stick.

With the engine in place, attention turned to the body. Even though it hadn’t seen daylight in 15 years, the body needed cancer treatment in a few areas and plenty of TLC on the rest of the skin. The first major surgery opened the hood to clear the supercharger and custom-fabricated air scoop/cleaner. Then some of the more subtle body mods like shaving the emblems and door handles, adding a custom grille, and tucking in the bumpers were finished.

“That’s when Flip decided he wanted a roadster for those warm Wyoming summers,” Nelson says. “So off came the top, and we shaped the sheetmetal to make it appear as if it were a factory roadster.”

To uphold the structural integrity of the body, the rocker areas were stiffened and reinforcements from the doorjambs around the rear seats were welded in place. The front pillars were reworked but the factory glass is retained. The Speedster-influenced bubbles behind the rear seats were fashioned out of steel. Nelson then squirted on the 2005 GT Blue RM paint from BASF. All the shiny pieces were sent to Ogden Chrome for a makeover. Dakota Digital provided LED rear taillights, and the headlights are from JW Speaker.

Adding more Blue Oval–theme elements to the car is a custom dash panel that is modeled off a 1957 Ford sedan. Dakota Digital makes the 1957 instrument panel that G3 hooked up to the American Autowire Highway 22 wiring harness. Before Dan Weber of Weber’s Custom Interiors in Alexandria, Minnesota, could stitch up the Hydes leather and suede interior trim, G3 installed Boom Mat sound proofing and the quad set of Corbeau seats.

Payback made its debut at the 2016 Detroit Autorama where it was a Painless Performance Products/STREET RODDER Top 100 choice. Looking back, Cooper says he would transform the hardtop into a true ragtop instead of a roadster.

“The weather in Wyoming is not very good most of the time,” he quips.

The post 427 Ford SOHC Powers a 1955 Chevy Convertible appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/427-ford-sohc-powers-1955-chevy-convertible/ via IFTTT