Just to put to rest some fears about my '55 rear fender spears..............

[PlainBrownR2]

Rumor had it, after I had purchased my spears at Menomonie, I went out and flipped them. I did not.




I had searched far and wide for a used set of those two trim pieces for quite a few years. Now that I had them, I could now cover the clips and bolts that are usually displayed back there. It wasn't hard to install them, just hook one side of the trim to the underside of the clip, pull them to the other side of clip, press down and snap into place. They look great, so to Jeff H., I say thanks muchly! And I hope that whatever we paid for them, covered some of the cost with the adventure on the fuel pump of your truck.

[StudeRich]

Nice '53-'54ised '55, that will make a great driver or better.

[PlainBrownR2]

Thanks! Much of what I did to the outside wasn't really a whole lot. It's still a '55 Commander hardtop all around, but with some old hotrod modifications thrown in. The mounting holes for the butterknife trim were filled. The bumpers in the front and back had the bumper bolts welded, shaved, ground down, and painted. The brightwork around the head and taillights were also painted, and the hood is an all fiberglass piece, with a cowl induction scoop molded in, and NACA scoops added in for the air filters. The gas door is not much more than a plate at this point, and as it has a fuel cell now, the filler has been "moved" so to speak. Of course I don't have to go into detail as to what's going on under the hood, that's in a story of itself!

[Studedude]

Nice ride... we need more pics!

What does a set of those spears go for today?

[PlainBrownR2]

Thanks! I have quite a few photos on my port injection tech thread over on the tech forum. I probably should post some recent shots from the front. As far as price of the spears these days, I couldn't say. They were well less than a hundred though. I was just looking for some reasonable ones that would cover the bolts and clips back there. I didn't want anything of show quality, as this is still a ratrod, so these filled that role quite nicely!

[Milaca]

I like the continental kit that you have on your 1964 Commander coupe, but I think the wheels' bolt pattern is too large....

[JimK]

I like the continental kit that you have on your 1964 Commander coupe, but I think the wheels' bolt pattern is too large....

Looks to me like he's thinking of doing the donk thing with the Commander. Never seen it done with tractor tires, though.

[PlainBrownR2]

Yeah, that tractor style tire continental kit just doesn't quite fit the trunk does it?
Seriously though, you don't what you're missing when you need to change one of those out on an 8N when their tires go flat or dryot. They're not like an automobile tire in any way, shape, form, or weight, so it was dismounted and rolled(seriously, ROLLED) off to a safe place where it wouldn't be in the way. Once the Daytona gets to where I want it to be, it will have to be rolled somewhere else, as the Commander needs to be moved to a place next to the Daytona for dismantling.

Anyway, I guess I could put a few more pictures from the past few weeks, so here we go.............

After the engine was rebuilt a couple months back, the hood was finished and installed.........


I installed door and dome courtesy lights. The lights came from a grab bag of GM parts that I had bought at South Bend a couple years ago. They are the modern dome and courtesy lights, with the courtesy lights having that little red reflector in the end........





I wanted to give my filters some more ventilation, so I cut some holes in my fiberglass hood and put NACA style ducts in either place. They are mounted where the filters are at, and are plumbed so they let fresh air into the filters.



Last week, while trying to address an issue with the wipers, I blew one of the fuses to the Megasquirt ECU. It didn't exactly blow, more like disconnected itself, because it looked good, but didn't show that it burned through like a regular glass fuse blows through. The glass fuse protects the Megasquirt unit from burning up, so it was good that it blew, but didn't make me happy because I had to trace the open circuit to find it. Anyway, In the process of doing that, I decided to move the main and fuel pump relays out to the transmission hump, or where I could see them. I also replaced the fuse, and the car was working again after that............



Interiorwise, currently this is what the car looks like now...........

[warrlaw1]

I like it. Keep another 55 HT on the road! Thanks.

[Noxnabaker]

Well howdy!
Cool to actually see something of yours again, I can't get into the racing forum at all anymore so this came like sunshine to me!

[PlainBrownR2]

Well howdy!
Cool to actually see something of yours again, I can't get into the racing forum at all anymore so this came like sunshine to me!

Yeah, I'm still messing around with it! It started out as one of our part's cars for one of our other '55 Commander HT's here. The good pieces were stripped off of it in 2009, and I've been playing around with the remains since then. I have had it running the past few years, but this year, the fun was halted when the 289's crank and crank bearings became damaged, and needed to be replaced. That resulted in a 3 month long process of pulling the engine, tearing it down, replacing the crank, main, and connecting rod bearings with NOS parts, and putting it back together again. I got it together with a few weeks to spare before IDYSD, so I did the hood, lighting, and a few other small things. The car itself, because it was destined to be a parts car, does not have a title, registration, or a license. I have all of the old documentation to get that done, it's just not been done yet. So for the time being, this is what y'all get to see until that point. Click on the thumbnail to see the movie.



I do have a few others around here. The '64 Commander is mine, the '63 Daytona is mine, and the '50 2R5 is also mine. I use the pickup around the yard, and the '63 Daytona and the '64 Commander are being worked on to make one good car out of two, namely the '64 Commander is going to donate all of its R2 parts and anything else to the Daytona once I get the body finished.