1949 Chevrolet Progress

Last week I made some good progress on the '49 Chevy Convertible.

I was able to fit a new radiator with a 4 row high efficency core, there's even enough room for a 16" puller fan! I also finished up the front end assembly and finished up the dash wiring and assembly. Then I made some transmission cooler lines and tidied up the exhaust. Here's the highlights.

There was not enough room in front of the pulley to mount a proper radiator. There was a support bar and the splash pan came up too close to the core.

I started by marking the splash pan and making cuts starting with the hole saw cuts in the corners to make a nice, factory cut. I also removed the cross bar.

I fitted the radiator and also leaned the mounting brackets back from the stock position. I marked the side brackets and shipped the radiator back to the builder to have them soldered in their new location.

Here it is all finished, painted and bolted together.

Now there's a ton of room to mount a good puller fan and we are also running a modern radiator with a 4 row core.

I bent up these transmission cooler lines from 5/16 steel line.

The dash is all together now, all the wiring underdash is terminated and secured, and the switches are also in place and wired.

With the headlights all assembled and wired, and the grill installed, it's starting to look like a 1949 Chevrolet that you might be able to drive down the road!