Well, today I finally had the chance to put My 55 Chevy Bel Air on the Dyno and took that challenge. It was exciting as I had never done anything like this with my car and wanted to see how it would compare to others. Below is the video of my Dyno Challenge experience at the Pep Boys Speed Shop grand opening.

I decided that the doors I got in February have sat around long enough. Today I am getting them sanded down and primed so I can get them hung on the car finally. I did notice that a bracket that holds the window frame was screwed into the door instead of being tacked on like it was originally. I’ll have to tackle that issue when I get to that point. Hopefully it won’t be a very big hurdle to face.

Today I tackled one of the doors I recently got at the Zephyrhills Winter Autofest. By tackle, I mean scraping out the undercoating from inside the door. I was cracking and chipping so I grabbed a scraper and went at it. I spent at least an hour on just the one door. Then I had to figure out how to get all the dried gunk out of their. The chunks were too big for a vacuum so I did most by hand and just rolled the door around until the rest came out. clean as a whistle. Door #2, your next….

The Zephyrhills Winter Autofest was in town again and since it was the first day, I decided to head up there to see if there was anything of use for my Chevy. Normally you can find stuff all weekend long but the good used parts may be gone by Saturday and even Sunday. So I made a Thursday trip just to be safe.

My ankle was still hurting from a couple weeks ago but I had to make the trip to see as this show only comes to town twice a year (February and November) and November was a long wait to get some more parts for the car.

After almost seeing the whole swap meet, I happened upon two front doors for a 1955 Chevy 4-door sedan. The guy that I went with said “This is the best deal of the day for you Dave”.

Thinking that we could get them in the back of my car I went ahead and got them. When we got the doors to the car, it was another story. Luckily we saw a fellow car show cruiser from near where we live who had a pickup truck. He agreed to take them back for me and we were on our way. I called later at night and drove by to pick them up with a bigger car. Thank goodness for friends.

I made my first trip of the year to the Sumter Swap Meet hoping to find some doors or fenders for My 55 Chevy Bel Air. I guess I shouldn’t have used the word “trip”

While I didn’t find what I went for, I did end up taking home a sprained ankle. Yes somehow, I ended up tripping in a pothole or something to that effect and man did that hurt. I would have rather found something for the car instead of and injured body part.

The roof, rear quarters and deck lick are finally primed and ready for paint. Now when I find doors and fenders, I’ll be that much closer to getting the car painted. (Still no word on what color it will be. But it is gonna be a beauty!)

Went to the body shop today to check on the status and while I was there I offered to lend a hand. The roof had not yet been stripped so I proceeded to scrape (yes scrape) the paint from it. Apparently, when it was painted before the surface was not prepped very well and the paint was just kind of on there. Nothing a good razor blade couldn’t take care of.

With that top layer scraped off, now maybe it can get sanded down and primed out. One step at a time….

With My 55 Chevy Bel Air in the body shop, I am now getting even closer to getting that lovely new paint job on it. I still haven’t decided on the color but at least it’ll be ready for paint when I do decide.

So all the rust has been cut from the tail section. No fiberglass filler or rust and the welding has been done. There is very little bondo to smooth out the roughness and Rick has even promised to make it look as if it was never worked on. Sounds great to me!

The outer part of the tail pan was welded on and it’s starting to look more like a new (er) 55 Chevy. I’m liking what I see so far.