My First Car

When I started this blog, I promised to write about a variety of topics. My most recent articles have been about politics. So its time to write about my passion (after God, family, friends and country). And that passion is restoring my old car.

I still have my first car which I bought while in college. It’s a 1955 Bel Air 2-door sedan. The car brings back a lot of good memories. I dated my wife of 38 years in it. It made many trips to the “Dairy King” where all my friends hung out. We brought both daughters home from the hospital in it after they were born. I don’t plan on ever selling it.

It has been stolen twice. The first time was in 1970. It was recovered after a few months from a farmer’s field where it had been stripped of all the good parts. Since I didn’t have a place to work on it at the time, my brother graciously took custody of it and nursed it back to life and drove it while in high school. The second time it was stolen from a motel parking lot in 1973, and recovered the same day. I had been nervous about it, and had removed the rotor from the distributor the night before. It was recovered from a next-door service station where the perps had pushed it to have it repaired when they couldn’t get the engine started.

The car made its home in Texas in January, 1973 where it has provided many years of faithful service.

Other History

This car was the 49,877th 1955 built in Atlanta. Since around 50,000 '55's were built in Atlanta, it was built near the end of the 1955 production run. It is one of 168,313 1955, 2-door, Bel Air sedans built. It originally had a 6-cylinder engine and manual transmission. I purchased the car in the summer of 1964 at a used car dealership in Centre, Alabama for $175.00. When I got the car, the original 6-cylinder had been replaced with a 265 cu. in. V-8 engine. The 265 was replaced with an 0.060-over 327 in March, 1968 and it is still in the car today.

The car was originally Cashmere Blue and India Ivory. It has power nothing and no A/C. During the time that I have owned the car, I’ve had the body repainted three times, doing most of the preparation work two of those times. The first time it was painted dark blue, the second time gold and the third time copper-bronze.

This is the first picture I have of the car, taken in 1967 in Gadsden, AL, before its first paint job.

This is the way the car looked after it was painted in Huntsville, AL in 1970.

And these are the last pictures made of the car before I stripped the paint for the current restoration.

The Restoration

After the ravages of time, to both me and the car, I decided to do a full frame-off resto-mod, which I started in 1998 while still employed. Work and other distractions resulted in little progress for the first several years. OK, I’m slow. Having a full-time job, a near-fatal heart attack in 2005 and lumbar back surgery in 2007 didn’t help either. Now that I’m retired and reasonably healthy, I’m making progress on the car at a steady, faster, but still amazingly slow pace. So far, I’ve done all the work myself. Even though my career was electrical engineering and software development, I’ve been wrenching on cars all my life. I’ve learned welding and sheet metal work by trial and error and lots of reading, internet research and watching car restoration programs on TV.

In the restoration, I plan to preserve the classic beauty of the body. Other than a set of classic 15” American Racing original Torq-Thrusts with gray centers and machined rims with mid-60s style "wide-ovals" and GM Torch Red paint to replace the original Gypsy Red, the exterior will be bone stock in appearance. I don't want to significantly alter the form.

Function is a different matter. I plan to upgrade the drive train (400 HP & 5-speed manual) and suspension to afford a more enjoyable driving experience. I also plan to add A/C, power windows, a modern sound system. (I'm too old to drive a non-A/C car anymore!) The wheel/tire combination is obviously a trade-off of form over function. On the subject of what I won't do, there won't be a bit of aftermarket machined billet aluminum or aftermarket chrome on the car, as it would in my mind only detract from the period beauty of the car, would add nothing to the function of it, and would only take a bigger dent out of my pocket book. But that's just me. Do I disparage other builders who would build one differently? No. Do I care that someone would criticize me for not building a pure original or a pavement-pounding G-machine or not putting 20" wheels and skinny tires on it? No. And yes, I plan to drive it.

The following are progress photos.

My restoration philosophy is to have no schedule, continue working each step until I’m happy with it, and enjoy the journey.

Most of the last 10 inches of the trunk floor was rusted away, and replacing that with new patch panels took several calendar months.

I’ve also replaced both rocker panels and trial-fit all the body panels, adjusting gaps to factory specs or better. Body joints are leaded rather than filled with plastic filler. I’m mocking up everything before disassembling the car for front foot-well replacement and frame and undercarriage restoration.

I plan on doing the complete restoration myself, including the painting and upholstery. I’ve previously painted one car, my 1968 Corvette, in lacquer but I now have to learn the urethane base coat/clear coat technology. I figure there’s no process I can’t learn, and even if I waste some materials in the learning process, I’ll still come out ahead financially. The only thing I can’t do myself is put the frame on a frame machine and check it for straightness. I make pictures of the project after every day I work on it, and have hundreds of photos of the progress.

Here’s me, fabricating a new transmission tunnel to fit over the larger 5-speed transmission…

…and as it sits now, ready for primer.

In addition to the photos included here, many more photos with captions are posted on the following website:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?UV=52975782608_351804873307&mode=fromsite&collid=63831005107.550743362307.1221241541197&conn_speed=1

The car was featured in the November, 2008 Hot Rod Magazine, "Project Garage" section.

Next steps

1. Sand and prep the body
2. Apply PPG epoxy primer over entire body
3. Apply skim-coat within epoxy recoat window and block sand the entire car
4. Apply polyester primer and block again
5. Apply 2K primer
6. Mock up new side engine mounts, ididit steering column, new headers, power brake booster and master cylinder
7. Disassemble the entire car, putting body on a rotisserie
8. Replace the front floor pans with new re-pop panels
9. Prep and apply epoxy primer to interior, underside of body, inner fenders, undersides of hood and front fenders, and other misc. parts
10. Sand blast and paint frame, A-arms, rear axle housing, etc with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black
11. Install new Eaton posi in axle housing
12. Install power train into restored frame, including a crate 350 or 383 making 400 HP with an Edelbrock fuel injection system on top
13. Apply PPG urethane 2K in GM Torch Red and India Ivory to body, trunk lid, doors, etc.
14. Mount body and body panels to frame and block and machine buff and polish to a high luster
15. Install all new glass
16. Refinish all Bel Air stainless trim and install it on the body
17. Install new bumpers, emblems and other chrome parts
18. Install new wiring harness and all body electrical components
19. Install classic American Racing Torq-Thrusts and tires
20. Stitch up cloth seat covers and trim panel covers for interior and install them over new foam
21. Complete finish-out of the interior
22. Drive the wheels off it!!!

Plans

My vision for the car includes:

Exterior

Paint: PPG base coat/clear coat urethane system

Color: GM Torch Red and white

Trim: All new chrome on exterior; restore and polish all stainless trim

Wheels: 15x7 American Racing nostalgic 5-spoke wheels with gray spokes and machined rims

Performance

350 or 383 making at least 400 HP

Edelbrock Performer RPM Pro-Flo EFI system

Tremec 5-speed

Eaton posi upgrade with carbon-fiber clutches for original housing with 3.70 gears

Front disc brakes

670 power steering box

Sway bars front and rear

Convenience

In-dash A/C

Power windows

Ididit tilt steering column

Cloth seats

Remote hood release

Remote trunk release

Custom Autosound USA-5 AM/FM stereo with 10-disc CD changer and USB/MP3 player

Auto-darkening interior rear view mirror with outside temperature and compass readouts

Halogen headlights

Misc.

Anything else my wife will let me get away with!

This is a picture of another car, and is representative of the look I’m going for. I hope mine looks as good!

Completion goal

Actually I do have a completion goal, which is to finish it before I die!