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Classic Cars 54 Chevy Bel Air hartop
36 messages, Last post on Aug 16, 2009 at 6:20 PM
You are in the Classic Cars Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
Thank you all for the opinions and suggestions...I appreciate all of your insights on the subject. I don't know why the top of the page says " What is this discussion about? Chevrolet, Classic Car, Coupe" <---I don't know why it says coupe there...I clearly put sedan. Knowing its a four door..Where this project goes will be entirely to my friend, being that the Bel Air is his car. Since my buddy and I are only 20 and 22 we have never seen the Bel Air in its original state during its "out the factory" time period , So I would scratch the stock classic thought and fabricate a more rod/moded car thats would reflect our time era and passions. but that's just my thought. I'm just here for the ride..Gaining knowledge is all I can ask for..Thank you all ...
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Replying to: ogre_bear (Sep 07, 2007 1:42 pm) |
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Thanks for the switch Mr shift. "In the heading of his post it said hardtop and later, he said it was a sedan so I don't know. " - There such thing as a four door hardtop right? I haven't seen the car in a couple of months so the picture of the car is kinda blurry in my head..Could I be wrong? 
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Replying to: ogre_bear (Sep 07, 2007 8:27 pm) |
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And I should know the answer but does anyone know if Chevy built any 1955 4 door hardtops? I am thinking they didn't start these until 1956 but now I'm questioning myself. At a car show, I recently saw a REAL oddball 1956 Chevy. It was a 4 door hardtop 210 series! Now, those were extremely rare! It was nice to see despite the fact it had the worst color combo they offered that year. Remember the two tone yellow and greens that were actually pretty popular that year. To make it even worse, they just HAD to add fender skirts and a hokey continental kit. Those are two options I just despise on ANY old car yet people seem to think they are nifty additions. To make ths Chevy even more unusual, it was a six cylinder with a three speed. Actually a VERY nice and very unusual old Chevy! |
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Replying to: isellhondas (Sep 08, 2007 8:45 am) |
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Replying to: isellhondas (Sep 08, 2007 8:45 am) Oldsmobile and Buick fielded the first 4-door hardtops in mid-1955, on the B-body, which would be the Olds 88/98 and Buick Special/Century. The Buick Super/Roadmaster, being on the larger C-body shared with Cadillac, wouldn't get that style until 1956. I've actually seen illustrations of a 1952 DeSoto 4-door hardtop, but it was never offered for sale to the public. I dunno if any prototypes were built, or if it was just an illustration. IIRC, it just looked like a 2-door hardtop with 4 doors, so it didn't have a special roof or anything. I think most people nowadays don't really know what a "hardtop" is. They just think hard top versus convertible. I remember years ago, right after I totaled my '69 Dart GT, I found a '76 Delta 88 4-door in the classifieds. This was back before the internet, so there were no pictures. I called about it and asked the lady if it was a hardtop (they offered both a pillared sedan and a hardtop with that generation). The lady just replied "No, it has a vinyl roof". At that point, I didn't even bother to try explaining the difference to her. Also never saw the car, because I had my eye on this local '68 Dart that I saw for sale, the day after I totaled my '69. And ultimately, that was what I ended up with. Oh, and I absolutely HATE those add-on continental tire kits and skirts! I know that color combo too, the yellow/green. So was it green with a yellow contrast, or vice versa? Neither one is particularly taseful in my book, but I'd prefer the green body. Somehow though, I could actually picture that combo working on a '54 Chevy. Probably because it would just have a contrasting roof, and at most, just a tiny sliver on the rear quarter, versus the more radical two-toning they did in later years. |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Sep 08, 2007 10:56 am) I could be dreaming or it could have been something someone very creative put together? I'm glad I'm not the only one who despises Continental Kits and skirts. As far as I'm concern, these just hokey up the looks of a car. I guess in some parts of the country, these wer popular? Certainly NOT in So. California!
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Replying to: isellhondas (Sep 08, 2007 1:26 pm) I've always wondered where that continental kit trend started, anyway? Those cars certainly didn't leave the factory that way! Same with fender skirts. I dunno how popular this trend was, but there used to be a kit you could get for a 1957 Chevy or Ford to convert it to a quad headlight setup. I saw it in an old 1958 Popular Mechanics that my granddad had. The ad said "Make your car look identical to the new 1958 models!" Umm, not hardly! The end result looked sort of like those 1958 Packards and Studebakers that had the hastily contrived quad headlight setups. I'm hoping that quad headlight conversion fad died pretty quickly.
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Quad headlights were available on some Chrysler cars in the states that permitted them. Of course, in 1958, everyone had them.
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