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1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
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$29,500.00
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| Exterior Color: Maroon and White |
| Interior Color: Maroon and Gray | |
| Body Style: 2 Door Sport Coupe Hardtop |
| Car Class: COLLECTOR | |
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1955 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 Door Sport Coupe Hardtop, This is an older restoration with recent upgrades. You can call it a “resto-mod' if you like., There is nothing more fun than driving this car down by the beach on a Summer day., It doesn't belong in a museum or on the racetrack., It's meant to be driven., Strangers point and wave when they see it, then come over and tell you what a cool car you have., There's more detailed inofrmation and photos at 55, Overview,, You want the quick version? This is an older restoration with recent upgrades., The “Older Restoration' parts of it: New exterior 2 tone paint, Clean and paint frame and underside, Replace rusted out floorpans, New custom upholstery on front and rear seat, side panels, New carpeting, New headliner, Replace original engine, Replace original transmission,, The “Recent Upgrades' part of it: LoJack with Early Warning system, New Global West Tubular A arms, New front KYB shocks, New front springs, New front disk brakes, New front Hellwig 1 1/8″ sway bar, New 500 Series Power Steering Box, New pulleys for power steering, Moved radiator, New Ididit tilt steering column, New reduced diameter, reproduction steering wheel, New aftermarket front bucket seats, New seat belts with retractable shoulder harnesses, New Dakota Digital VHX instrument panel, New instrument panel dimmer switch, New instrument panel shift position sensor, New rear Springs, bushings, and Shackles, New, modern windshield wiper motor with intermittent switch, New Autosound USA-230 Stereo Radio, Here's more detail., General Condition, This is a “better than average' driver, not a show car. It looks good at 20 feet, at 10, and at 5 feet., You can't drive this anywhere without kids pointing at it and someone saying how cool it is., I bought from the guy who owned it for 20 plus years and did the most of the work on it., He cleaned up the frame and painted it, so it's in pretty good condition. There's a bit of surface rust in some places, but the frame looks good., He's replaced the floor pans that had previously rusted out. He's cleaned up and repaired all of the rust a while ago. The only rust you'll find now is on the surface in a few places., He worked on the paint and interior. The upholstery is all new and I'd call it “custom' only because it doesn't match the pattern that came from the factory. There's a new rug and new headliner., The paint is clean, but older. There is a scratch on the left front fender., He put the later model engine into it, with a T350 transmission., It's in pretty good condition, but it's not perfect., I put $15,000 into it after I bought it., Recent Upgrades - Theft Protection,, The very first thing that I did to it after I bought it was to get a LoJack installed., Along with the basic LoJack package, I got what they call the “Early Warning System'., That senses when the car is being moved. It can send out a text, an email, and call your cell phone., There's a key fob that goes with it. If the key fob is within 20 feet when it moves, it doesn't send the messages. My fob happens to be on the keychain, so I can drive it., If I'm inside a restaurant or in my house watching TV when it moves, then I get the text, email, and phone call immediately, so I can go running down the street, screaming and waving my hands over my head…I mean…, so that I can call the police immediately and have a better chance of recovery., I figure the LoJack is the best insurance I can buy., Recent Upgrades - Safety,, My wife didn't want me to drive it until it had seat belts. Not just the normal lap belts, but shoulder belts as well., (These are under “safety' because if I didn't put them in, I wouldn't be safe from my wife.), That could be a problem with no door post and a bench front seat. We installed bucket seats instead of the normal bench seat. The front bench comes with the car. It matches the back seat, with the gray and maroon. It's in storage now., We had retractable shoulder belts put in with the seat belts. The top mount is right under the rear window. It's not quite as convenient as if they were mounted higher, but they work fine., Recent Upgrades - Front Suspension,, When I bought it, the thing handled like a drunk pig at Marde Gras, so I had the front suspension professionally rebuilt., We started with new Global West G PLus Tubular A Arms. These have improved geometry over the stock arms. They also have an integrated sway bar mount and Del-A-Lum bushings., We installed new shocks and new springs under the front end., We added power steering, with a new 500 series power steering box and a new power steering pump, which needed another pulley, which moved the fan forward, which meant that the radiator had to be moved in front of the bulkhead., All of the steering linkage was modified or replaced to work with the new power steering system., A new steering column from Ididit was painted to match and installed. This one tilts, has an integrated shifter, turn signals, and emergency flashers., On top of that, since we didn't need the leverage of the enormous stock steering wheel because of the power steering, we installed a “reduced size' reproduction of the original Bel Air steering wheel. 15″ instead of 17″ diameter. Can't tell the difference from looking at it, but the comfort in driving is really noticeable., For the final touch, a Hellwig 1 1/8″ front sway bar was installed. This made all of the difference in the world in the handling., I won't say it handles like a go kart, but it does handle like what you would expect from a modern day car. It's as good as my wife's Lexus., While we were into the front end, we discovered the old disk brake conversion was falling apart, so a completely new disk brake kit was installed. The power brake system was previously installed and worked great, now it had actual brakes to work with., Recent Upgrades - Digital Instrument Panel,, Most of the original instruments didn't work. I wanted a new replacement for the whole thing, but the aftermarket stuff I had seen looked horrible., Dakota Digital has one that looks like it's off the bridge of the Enterprise. Horrible in a classic 55 Chevy!, Then they came out with some new styles. We chose the latest version that's 100 igital, but looks like it came from the factory. It's a good blend of modern features and classic style., It's run by a separate computer in a box. They call it the “VHX system'., Plug in a sensor and it sends off the correct signal to the instruments. It needed to be calibrated after installation, but it works wonderfully. It's got 2 digital readouts that can tell you more than you'll ever want to know., I can't even remember all of the features that it has. 0-60 time, top speed, top RPM, 1/4 mile time, all since the last reset. It tells you what gear you are in, if you're about to run out of gas, and 2 odometers., It also has the normal, illuminated, dial gauges for MPH, RPM, Gas, Oil, Temperature, and Volts on a normal looking instrument panel., There are 2 small push buttons in the glove compartment that control the whole thing., There's a dimmer switch that will adjust the illumination when the lights are on. The rotary dimmer switch is in the dash with the label of “Lighter'., Since I don't smoke, I figured you can make the instruments dimmer or “Lighter'., Click here to go to Dakota Digital for more info on it. It's the Silver and Blue one. Yes, we got extra sensors and options., Recent Upgrades - Rear Springs,, The original rear springs were shot, so we put in new ones, with new shackles and bushings. I can see the top half of the cars behind me now and it doesn't lay over on it's side when you accelerate., More Details, Really. Go check out the web page. More photos and details., Click here: 55, $29,500 obo
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