The Seven Day Challenge

One of my good clients buys and sells old cars as a business. I do all of his mechanical and fabrication work, and some of the cars he drags in are less than creampuffs. Most old cars have been touched by so many people over the years that you can never know exactly what you're getting into until you actually start digging in. The last car he brough me was a real ball buster, a 1958 Volvo with issue after issue. It was extra frustrating.

So when he told me about a 1955 Pontiac he bought, I took a look at the car before I brought it in. Thankfully, this one is a largely untouched, low mile car that for some reason had the motor taken out and then it sat. My client bought it with the motor out and brought it to me. So I issued a personal challenge to turn the car into a running, driving 1955 Pontiac two door sedan in 7 days. I will have to do the brakes, the fuel system, reseal the hydramatic transmission, put the motor back together, build an exhaust system and get it running in that time. Once on the lift we also discovered a broken leaf spring, and he decided he wanted to swap the camshaft for something more agessive, plus add a bitchin' three deuce intake setup.

Overall, the car is quite nice and a true survivor. Think I can do it? Let's find out. I booked another job with a good client to come in next Tuesday, so I hope I don't disappoint him!

There's a lot of trim missing of the front, but he does have the bumpers.

The car is quite clean, with original paint on a no hit body. There's no rust anywhere.

Original interior, never molested. The dash was never cut for that bitchin Tandy stereo!

The motor was taken out at some point, the story was that it leaked oil. I hope it doesn't have any terminal issues!