 My pride and joy. 2 door hardtop and the color I wanted. The only new car my Dad ever bought was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible with a dual 4 barrel V8 from the factory. The 270 HP version with a close ratio 3 speed on the column. It was their only car and when we came along they decided to sell as Mom had a hard time with the tall first gear.
|  Chrome and stainless were all there and it was basically like a 70's hot rod. Crager wheels and they had put a 327 Chevy with a floor shifted 4 speed. Bucket seats and fur in the back window. LOL
|  Dad assessing the damage in the front. The hood had a thunderbolt style hood scoop on it.
|  The passenger side front bumper needed replaced and some trim. You can see the door pillar was messed up too.
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 Ouch! Dad said he'd work on it and I would help. He did most of it as I was a typical kid.
|  Rust wise it was good and I was on a budget so we decided to use what we had. I did buy another hood as I didn't like the scoop. They had used about a 100 rivets to hold it on.
|  He got the fender back out and I was working odd jobs and spending money to buy all the parts I needed, The UPS man was a regular visitor. LOL
|  We got the door pillar and door back close too.
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 Lots of hammer and dolly work along with some pushing with a port a power.
|  Starting some priming and sanding.
|  Looks a lot better and I was still gathering parts up. All pre internet so things took a lot longer and more phone work.
|  I decided to save my money and have it painted at a shop.
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 I wanted to put the grill back to stock as well. Fender turned out really well.
|  I gutted the interior to take it to the shop. They agreed to straighten it out the rest of the way and repaint the outside, door jambs and trunk.
|  I actually drove it to the shop sitting and this is when it came back.
|  This was 1983 and for what I paid for the work, they did a good job. I then started to put some things back on.
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 I got to this point and time was very limited as I was working so much overtime. Still was gathering parts when I could afford them but didn't work on it.
|  I started a new job in 1994 and was "only" working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and couldn't believe all the free time I had. LOL I decided to finish the car. I then decided to paint the firewall, frame and redo the front end.
|  Slowly getting everything back but at least I had all the parts needed.
|  I had the dash painted and had a bad experience with the shop. It was this that made me decide that from then on, I would do my own work.
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 The motor had one bad cylinder so it was rebored and rebuilt. Got it installed along with the trans and rest of the suspension. I was working in an unheated barn.
|  Piece by piece it went back together. Learning as I went and looking at manuals on what went where.
|  Added headers and mild cam. I just want a cruiser.
|  I added front disc brakes and a vacuum booster.
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 I finished it in the Summer of 1995.
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