1957 Chevy Bel Air
Dallas
FEATURED TRI FIVE CHEVY
Tommy Miller
1957 Chevy Bel Air
Dallas
My ’57 Bel Air was built on Thursday, November 29, 1956 in Kansas City,
Missouri. It was sold at the Davis-Child dealership in Emporia Kansas. I am
unsure how it found its way to Texas, but I am glad it did. It entered my life
in September of 2016 when I saw it at the Decatur Swap Meet. A week later it
was mine and I drove it home from Decatur to Dallas and shortly after to my
Cedar Creek Lake home where I worked on it on weekends and during weeks I had
off from work.
It was an original car and was pretty worn out. I decided to restore it in
original appearance. The floor pans were in good condition but some floor pan
braces needed replacement. I raised the body off the frame to replace them and
that's when I decided to do a full restoration. The 283 engine and powerglide
are original to the car. The engine was rebuilt in the middle 80's and I left it
alone as found. It's punched to 292 cubic inches and with its almost 4" bore and
3"stroke, mild cam, double hump heads with 2.02 intake valves, Edelbrock
Streetmaster aluminum intake and four barrel carburetor it pulls well and I
like it! The engine builder was an engineer and he said he put a lot of thought
into building this engine. I took the car completely apart replacing all rubber
and worn out parts. Everything was repainted and put back together. I did all
the body work and painted the car myself with base coat/clear coat in the
original Sierra Gold and Adobe Beige factory colors. Ciadella's furnished the
original style interior. All the original stainless was polished and I
installed new glass. It was a lot of work but very worth it as I now have a
beautiful Tri Five Chevy to cruise in!
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