01 Mar 11 08:17, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
    RW>> Not to mention me, when I weighed 35lbs more than I do now. The   
    RW>> Texas flag has been repainted since those pics were taken. And I   
    RW>> haven't had the Z28 out of the garage all winter.   
      
    RN> I keep thinking, for some reason, that the Del Ray was a station   
    RN> wagon.   
      
   Not in 55-57. It was a wagon in 58, but that was dropped and renamed   
   Biscayne and Bel Air.   
      
    RN> Silly really, because I've been around Chevys all my life and   
    RN> my first new one was a '57 Bel Air.  That was a sweet car, especially   
    RN> after I upgraded the stock 283 to a 'Vette 283.  We then tried to cut   
    RN> corners by collapsing the hydraulic lifters, which was a flop of an   
    RN> idea and I ended up putting solids.   
      
   I'd hate to think of the position your rockers were in after you did that   
   lifter thing. Was the rocker even on the tip of the valve stem?   
      
    RN> Manifold was an Edelbrock 2-pot with altered Rochester 2-bbl   
    RN> carburetors and progressive linkage.   
      
   You mean it had 3 dueces. Was working on a 66 GTO this morning with the   
   same setup. This one came into the shop for a re-seal, but it had a lot of   
   other problems that needed to be addressed first. The valve stems were   
   mushroomed over from the rockers beating on them. We didn't realize it at   
   the time, but the cam was going flat. All of the valves, rockers, push   
   rods were replaced. When it went out the door, the owner called me from   
   a friendly shop up the road and it had begun to make rocker noise again. I   
   had him tow it back after listening to it and then replaced the cam and   
   lifters. When we fired it up today it sounded rightous.   
      
    RN> We also used a burr drill bit to smooth out the rough interior of the   
    RN> exhaust manifolds.  That was the hardest part.   
      
   Shoulda done like I did for my first 55, by some Hedman headers. NOT!   
   After brazing up the cracks three times, I went to those 57 ram exhaust   
   manifolds and sold the headers that Hedman sent me as a replacement for   
   their junk headers. Learning my lesson from that episode, on the 56 I used   
   91-98 Chevy truck headers. They're shorter and have a ball outlet. The   
   reason the Hedmans cracked was because the header has to be so long to get   
   past the rear engine mounts. I removed those and their brackets on the   
   frame in the 56. The only thing I wish I had done differently was to   
   replace those feeble front mounts with side mounts, like Chevy did in 58.   
      
    RN> Engle 3/4 race camshaft, Mallory dual point distributor started that   
    RN> engine so fast, you'd swear all you had to do was look at the   
    RN> ignition key and the engine would start.   
      
   I had a 72 Chevy pickup like that.   
      
    RN>   Logy below 40 MPH, but after that, no one could stay with me.  I   
    RN> don't recall what rear end ratio was in it,   
      
   Probably a 3.42:1...that's what the 55-57 rear end I have in the shed says   
   it is. There's a 71 Camaro or Nova rear end under the 56 and I want to   
   rebuild this one and put it under there. The 56 has 3.08:1 in it and the   
   OD makes its cruise speed at 75mph, a bit too fast for me.   
      
    RN> but we didn't fool with that and instead concentrated on the engine.   
    RN> 137 MPH clocked speed and took a mile to stop.  Later on, I installed   
    RN> dual exhaust.   
      
   If they had made 57 brakes like those on my Z28, you could have stopped in   
   198 feet.   
      
    RN> I think I have the 35 lbs you lost.  (-:  I have to get back to 219   
    RN> or so or I'll regret it if I don't.  At my height it isn't too   
    RN> noticeable.   
      
   I notice the lighter weight in my joints and muscles. I don't get as tired   
   as I used to.   
      
                   R\%/itt   
      
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