My first car at 16 years was a 1955 Chevrolet Belair 2 Door Hardtop. It
was the Gypsy Red/India Ivory two-tone
with a 265 cu.in V8 and a 3-spped on the
column. That was a very nice car, but being a foolish teenager, I made
some changes to the car I would not be
happy with today.
My second 1955 Chevrolet
Belair 2 Door Sedan was Harvest Gold/India Ivory. I bought it in 1974 without
engine and
transmission and found a nice 265 cu.in. V8
block, built the engine and coupled it with a 4-Speed transmission. This
was a very nice car with absolutely no rust
anywhere. See photos below.
We sold that car in
1979 because I could not afford to finish it the way I wanted. It needed
paint and interior and
then of course were the most
expensive main projects. So for over 25 years, I would always talk about getting
another one. Occasionally, I
would get the bug to have another one, but only found ones that were basket
cases and
it was very discouraging. I
would let it go and another few years would go by and I would start the process
again.
Finally, I started searching again in
2005 and finally found my perfect restoration project. I purchased this 1955
Chevrolet 210 2 Door Sedan. As
seen below, this is what sold me on the car. It is complete and pretty
original.
Everything works including the radio.
It ran okay, but the brakes were not good.
I spent a fair amount of time on the car with rebuilding the carburetor, new
spark plugs and points. I worked on the
brakes to make them acceptable and
made some changes to the interior. The photos below are from 2006.
Fast forward to 2010
and this is the year to get after the restoration project. I have been
gathering parts over
the last 4 years or so and this year
will be the time to complete a frame off restoration. The plan is to strip
everything down and rebuild it as a
1970s era retro hot rod like I always wanted since I was a kid. The interior
and exterior will be Regal
Turquoise/India Ivory. This will be updated as it progresses...stay tuned.
June 5, 2010 - The project has begun! We worked on it all day and removed
the engine, transmission, driveline,
exhaust system and radiator/radiator brace.
We have been cleaning and bagging parts as we go so everything is
ready for re-install when it is time. As an
example, the fifth photo is all of the throttle components from the gas
pedal to the rod to the carburetor.
All of the parts cleaned up nice and are in excellent condition. Of course, the
throttle arm and carburetor rod will be
changed out to V-8 compatible parts.
June 13, 2010 -
Continuing on to remove the grill, splash pan, park lights, headlights, fenders
and inner fenders.
is going to require some new parts here for
sure. The fourth photos shows the headlight buckets and they are
beyond repair so replacements are in order.
Because of that, the rust also is bad in the fenders in the headlight
area so it will require some patch panels.
The park lights are also beyond reasonable repair and will be replaced.
June 20, 2010
- Continuing on to remove the passenger door. I removed everything including
window mechanisms,
door handle, trim, etc. I will now rebuild and refurbish the wing
window assembly laying on the front seat.
June 26, 2010 - Here I am at it again. The poor old car it looking pretty
pitiful at the moment. I have both
doors and all the dash and
heater removed. I like the restoring and refurbishing as I go as I can bag
and box
everything as I go as you see
in the last photo in this segment. Tomorrow I will remove the rest of the
interior
and deliver the
doors and new fenders to the
body shop - Stockton Street Machines. The original front fenders
are in too bad of condition and would require too many hours
and patch panels to make them serviceable so I found
a different set from a fellow
55 enthusiast.
July 2, 2010 - Today, I removed the steering wheel assembly, seats, carpet, rear
side panels, headliner and all
interior trim. The floor pans are
excellent and will not require any work to prepare for paint except one small
area
near the driver seat rear
bracket. As
suspected, there is rusted out sections in the wheel wells as
seen in photo 2
and 3. It is not as bad as I suspected. The 4th photo in this series is the heater assembled and ready to
go back in
the car. And
an update...today (July 5th) I finished my car hauler so it is now ready to haul the car around
during
various stages of the project. I picked up a Carson trailer that
needed a little work and a new wood deck. It
looks
pretty good now.
July 10-11, 2010 - This weekend was very productive. Now the only thing
left is remove the gas tank. The car is
pretty much done as the rear is
now stripped out including the taillight assemblies, bumper, trunk lid, etc. I
also cleaned
the front of the frame so it
will be easier to remove the steering box and front end pieces after we remove
the body
from the frame. The last
photo was taken through the trunk for some visual effects. I should be
taking it to the body
shop on Sunday, July 18 to
remove the body and bring home the frame for disassembly. The wing window
assemblies have
been stripped and cleaned.
New rubber seals are installed. Once the new glass comes in, it will be
time to reassemble
as good as new.
July 17, 2010 - The gas tank is removed, parking brake assembly removed and the
car (what's left) loaded on my newly
refinished trailer and
ready for the trip to the body shop on Sunday to separate the body from the
frame. Then I can
take the frame home and
disassemble it. I feel like a proud papa taking my baby in to have it
renewed. Update: We
did not have the manpower
to remove the body, but did remove the remainder of the stainless trim.
July 22, 2010 -This just in from the body shop (Stockton Street Machines) and
the body and frame have parted ways
until another time in the
near future. The frame is ready to come home for disassembly and complete
restoration to
include powder coating
the frame and upper and lower A-arms in satin black.
July 27, 2010 -Today the chrome pieces and stainless steel trim was dropped of
to Custom Chrome and Bumper to be
treated to a better than original show
quality finish. We also added on the front guard rail on the car hauler to
prevent
the car from rolling too far forward on the
deck. As seen in the tow photos above, the frame is home to be dismantled.
It looks really good. It has some
surface rust, but will clean up nicely with some sand blasting. Time to
get going...