1955 Pontiac Progress

I also put some time into the '55 Pontiac this week. i finished up the drivers side header and finish welded the whole thing. I had eight solid hours of welding these tubes up, it's a lot of work. I finshed the cooling system on the car as well, the stock radiator was junk and not rebuildable so we had a custom one built based on a set of 1953 Chevy truck tanks. We also used a 1959 or 1960 Pontiac mechanical fan which has 6 blades and the original '55 shroud. It took a little figuring and a 3/8 spacer but it's all in there and nobody will ever know.

Except you.

My client also managed to dig up some bitchin' Dragmaster cheater slicks. I think these are reproductions, and they are super nice. They will really make the look of the car.

Finally, we decided to run a late model alternator for a few reasons, not the least of which is that it works a whole bunch better, for one. But since there is no such thing as a bracket to run a Mitsubishi alternator on a 1955 Pontiac I had to make one. Done and done!

It took an honest 8 hours to finish weld this whole header. Only one more to go.

It has to be cut apart, one tube at a time. Then each tube is welded, then each tube it tacked back in place. Then each tube gets welded to the flange. Then the collector gets welded up, inside and out.

I used a stock generator bracket to base my design on. The bracket is overbuilt from 3/8 cold rolled strap and attaches to two of the cylinder head bolts, just like factory.

It looks a little gay but it will work better than any generator could hope to.

1953 Chevy truck tanks, a custom 4 row core, original '55 Pontiac side brackets and shroud, and a '59 Pontiac six blade fan with a 3/8 spacer. It was just that easy.

Here's the cheater slicks Mike found. Super bitchin'