1955 Chevrolet Bel Air PROJECT
Jason's love affair with 1955 Chevys began when he purchased his first Bel Air - a '55 sedan - as a 16 year old on chippy's apprentice wages. Every penny was scrimped and saved to buy bits and pieces for the Bel Air, which was a deep maroon in colour and cost more than his weekly wage to fill up!
Fast forward to 1994, and Jason spotted a '55 Bel Air at the Chevy Nationals in Canberra. This one was a coupe, stripped, in primer, and perched on the back of a trailer surrounded by boxes of parts. With no engine and no guarantee everything else was there, it didn't look promising, but the shell appeared solid and the 'For Sale' sign hanging on the body was all the motivation Jason needed. The '55 sedan got sold and the coupe came home!
Over the following three years, Jason rebuilt the '55 coupe to a high standard, and finished the project just in time to use the Bel Air to bring his first child, a baby girl, home from hospital. Underneath the turquoise green body sat a 305 TPI SB V8, with Centre Line billet wheels covering disc brakes all round. The inside was modernised with a Dakota Digital dash and new upholstery. The Bel Air was good enough to make the Top 20 at Summernats 11 in 1998, but Jason wasn't really satisfied with its handling and what he described as its "lack of mod cons", so he started stripping the car back to bare metal in 2000.
Everything that was surplus to Jason's new vision for the coupe was sold - engine, diff, wheels, dash, interior - leaving the shell and a few bare essentials as the starting point for Bel Air "version 2.0". It would take a further six years for Jason to bring his ideas for the restyled Bel Air to fruition. A few hurdles along the way slowed him down, including building the family home, moving interstate, living in a tin shed for twelve months after the move, having his second daughter, and building another family home.
Implementing the vision of a thoroughly modernised '55 Bel Air started with a commitment to make it rattle and squeak-free. To achieve this, Jason lifted the body off the chassis, then replaced 50 percent of the chassis in order to work it in with a Corvette front sub-frame at the nose end. At the tail end, similar modifications were made in order to handle the driveshaft and serious horsepower (street legal of course!) planned for the back end.
The 'Vette's dimensions proved to be a good match to the original chassis, but plenty of hours were still required to ensure the build would be right from the bottom up. An X-shaped cross member was put in the centre, which the exhaust and tailshaft would later run through. Suspension components out of a 1987 C4 Corvette were fitted to both the front and rear, with IRS at the back end and coilovers at all 4 points. The end result: a 50 year old Chev that drives like a new car.
With the chassis sorted, the body was next. To accommodate the modern engine, the firewall was cut out, and the entire floorpan was removed to lower the ride and get the stance Jason was looking for. A flat sheet floorpan was made from scratch to suit the modern interior. To achieve the rigidity required and to prevent the typical body movement you would get from a stock '55, the shell was welded to the chassis (after bracing appropriately). This not only kept the vehicle rigid, but also meant the undercarriage was not compromised with exhaust or fuel tanks hanging past the sills - everything would be tucked away to keep the undercarriage smooth and flat.
Continuing the smooth, modern look of the undercarriage, the door handles were replaced with push button techno items, the bonnet emblem was removed and smoothed, unsightly wires hidden away and replaced with door pins, and easy-access panels installed for fuses, battery, etc. Plenty more fabrication went into the engine bay beyond the firewall mods. The tilt-and-slide, forward-hinged bonnet from the first build was retained, as Jason believes it makes for a neater, better fit than the traditional rear-hinged bonnet. While you may think the extra bracing and chassis work would add weight, Jason assures us the finished article is actually lighter than the original.
The Bel Air's heart was replaced with a new 5.7 litre LS1 V8 crate engine. Jason then custom made the engine covers and air intake. The auto transmission selected to match the engine was a modern Holden unit. The whole interior came courtesy of GMH, too. A VX Commodore provided the seats, dash, steering wheel and centre console. Jason said the combination of classic GM exterior and modern GMH interior causes more than a few double takes when punters give his car a closer look!
The seats have been re-trimmed in leather, as has the steering wheel. A bowtie emblem on the boss bridges the gap between the exterior and interior, while stereo volume controls on the wheel add to the high-spec feel. While leather covered the top surfaces, matching suede was used for the lower sections of the transmission tunnel, seats, door cards, etc., as well as on the floors. The boot area has been re-trimmed in the same leather/suede combination.
Six years after he started, with a lot of hard work, fabrication, frustration, elation and satisfaction, Jason's second rebuild was complete. Like his '55 sedan from a decade earlier, Jason's '55 coupe also debuted at Summernats (21 - 2008), and featured as a top 20 car. Since then, the Bel Air has been driven sparingly, with only 1500km covered since the project was completed, including a trip to Wintersun in 2010.
Looking at this car, the pictures don't really do it justice. The finished result is one of the best we've seen. The black and white two-tone paint is striking, and makes a refreshing change from the bright colours more often seen on Tri-Five Chevys. While he's justifiably proud of all the work he's put into this rebuild, Jason says one of the best things about it is that the LS1 is E10 compatible. Thanks to that and some MAFless tuning, Jason estimated he gets about 7.7lt/100km, so it's affordable to run - even on an apprentice's wage!
