04 Sep Spanner Works: 1956 Chevrolet 210s
A regular feature by senior workshop technician JP du Plessis outlining the activities of FMM’s workshop personnel who are responsible for repairing, renovating, refurbishing and restoring the museum’s large and varied collection of vehicles. This month, JP’s describes Michael van Graan freshening-up a bow tie…
During the mid-fifties, Chevrolet’s mid-range 210 series shared the shiny body-side trim with the range-topping Bel Air, making it difficult to distinguish between them to the untrained eye. It did not, however, include the gold-tone accents and ribbed aluminium body-side trim wedges. While some were fitted with Turbo-Fire V8 engines, most 210 cars were equipped with a base 235ci (3 851cc) six-cylinder Blue-Flame engine. One of the planned projects for the FMM workshop included one of these Chevrolet 210s, a chocolate-coloured 1956 sedan. Michael van Graan was tasked with managing the project.
Work started by checking if the car’s engine would at least turn over after spending many years of standing in storage. It started and ran for a good few minutes and all seemed well, so it was decided to go ahead and begin refurbishing all the auxiliaries. But first, a proper clean of the car’s chassis and engine bay ensured that the years of farm roads and oil and grease build-up was removed. Michael then replaced the fuel hoses and cleaned out the steel fuel line before removing the fuel tank to clean and coat inside. The generator, starter motor and radiator were all sent for repairs, as after running the car on the test run some noticeable wear and tear was evident. The carburettor was given a proper clean in the ultrasonic bath and then rebuilt with new gaskets and a renewal kit. The petrol pump was also given a rebuild, with a new Hypalon diaphragm to replace the original perished one inside. New sump and cam cover gaskets were also made up.
The brakes were inspected and found to be in need of reconditioning, so the hoses, shoes and brake cylinders were removed and sent for refurbishment. When trying to select gears, there was also an issue with too much play in the column shifter’s linkages, as well as some clearance issues with the exhaust on the other side of the engine. Michael wasted no time in fixing the free play in the linkages and re-routing the exhaust slightly by way of modifying the brackets. Some of the manifold bolts had also been broken at some point in the car’s life, and they were removed and replaced as well. A leaking water pump is never a good thing, and so it was duly replaced, along with a new fan belt to fit over the pulley. The clutch release bearing was also found to be rough and at its end, so that was also replaced.
After all outsourced repairs were received, all the rebuilt auxiliaries were reassembled to the car’s engine and then focus turned to some cosmetics. With the paint looking very good for its age, it was decided to keep it original, as FMM prefers. The gauges, wiper controls, steering wheel badge and lights were replaced by ones from a donor car, the body of which is badly damaged.
Once Michael was happy with the car’s assembly, he put some fuel in the freshly coated tank and went for a test drive. He returned a happy man, with the famous Chevy Six purring smoothly on his way back to storage.
For now…
