Look what came through my shop!

[olroy2044]

This beautiful, stock "55 Chevy came though my shop just a couple days ago:







Stock 265 CID Powerpack engine--factory 4bbl carb, 3-speed O/D transmission and dual exhausts


The only defect I saw was this slight oil leak


A little history on this car: The owner is a retired USN Vet. He had this car shipped to all his overseas posts, and it has been driven (literally) all over the world. He had it serviced once in Ethiopia. I have seen it several times in local parades. I did not ask him if it had been restored, but I find it hard to believe that it has not. It is unmodified, (with the exception of switching the electrical system to 12 volts for reliability) however the engine has been rebuilt to stock specifications.

My young techs were afraid to drive it because of the column shift, so it was up to us old-timers to move it. ;D

Enjoy Roy


PS Now y'all know where the oil in my Kodak came from!

[Randy]

I didn't know you had a shop Roy. That's a beautiful car. I knew a guy that would only drive a 1956 Chevy, that's all he's owned since 1956. He has a barn full of replacement parts.

[olroy2044]

I don't actually own it, Randy. It is an appendage to a large retail chain. But since I have total responsibility for its operations, it feels like I own it-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Or maybe it owns me!!!!! Roy

[nikonbob]

Boy, you don't see them in that condition everyday and more or less stock to boot. Pretty simple looking under the hood compared to what you get these days. Never would have guessed that there are people who would find a three on the tree mystifying.

Bob

[Deleted]

I had a friend who had a '51 Ford with a column shift. He was left-handed so he flopped the lever over to the left side of the column--which made it work exactly opposite of a regular shift. He didn't seem to have a problem with it. My '56 Ford had a column shift--which I preferred. If you had a floor shift your date couldn't sit as close!

W.

[PeterW]

Roy wrote:

My young techs were afraid to drive it because of the column shift, so it was up to us old-timers to move it.

Like Bob, I was at first surprised that anyone working in an auto service and repair shop didn't know how to handle a column gear shift. But then ...

It's quite a few years since column gear shifts went out of fashion - too many linkage joints to develop wear and make gear changing a lucky dip.

But before we get too old-soldier smug, how many here could handle a "crash" box (no synchromesh and double-declutching on both up and down changes), let alone a quadrant change with only false neutrals between the gears?

Or how about a Wilson pre-selector box with a small quadrant control on the steering column and a gear-change pedal in place of a clutch?

Or, come to that, how about the Model T's multiple pedal change?

After a type of gearchange is discontinued it doesn't take many years for it to become unfamiliar, and then forgotten in all except name ... unless, of course, you're an ancient old-car freak like me, fortunate enough to have driven examples of all of them. ;D

PeterW

[olroy2044]

But before we get too old-soldier smug, how many here could handle a "crash" box

I learned to drive in an old Ford pick-up with a compound low "crunch" box, and campaigned a drag car with a "three on the tree!"

Most of my techs were born after the demise of column shifters!

[barbarian]

That is my first car, right down to the two-tone color scheme and the 265 with four-barrel.

Amazing. I loved that car.