1955 Chevy Belair

Here is an excellent example of “Not Doing it Right Once”. These customers came to us from South Haven, Mississippi. They searched for a professional restoration shop for their classic car that was supposed to be a tribute car to their late father. It still will be the second time around. The 1955 Chevy Belair was delivered to us to just align the body panels and to get the car running better and to finish the inside. At first glance the car looked good. After a few minutes of close examination bad spots were noticed. Not only was the fit up poor on doors and other moving body parts but there were bubbles in the paint. From our experience we learned that body preparation is everything in a top quality paint job.

First thing in order was that 265 V-8 did not run well and transmission did not work. Both of these items were rebuilt by other so called pros. The transmission had to be rebuilt has there were bad and missing parts in the old Powerglide. Once that was complete the engine barely ran and then the carburetor had to be rebuilt even though it was already done. With these items complete and some fine tuning the old car was a driver. Upon trying to fit the body panels the true shoddy workmanship came out. The trunk had to be cut down the side for a better fit. When grinding back the paint it was discovered the “other guys” used body filler and primer over rust. The trunk was stripped to reveal all the rust.

We went this far with rust repairs and body make over that the owners wanted to put the car on a rotisserie. This was good has even more problem areas arose. These have been smoothed out and fire wall repainted and the body is now again mated to the chassis.

The car was painted on the the chassis and all other problems were re-worked that were left over from first restorer. The car was sent home for final assembly.