As one of the longer-running car nameplates of the second half of last century, the Chevrolet Bel Air is one of those cars many of us alive today know a thing or two about. And some even appreciate it enough to keep the moniker alive through various, more or less successful custom projects.\
At $42,500 on Bring a Trailer, with less than nine hours left in the bidding process at the time of writing, this here Bel Air example from 1956 clearly belongs to the former category, a well-kept machine which gained its current form back in 2011.
That’s when the owner of the Bel Air decided to go for a complete overhaul of the ride, which started with the complete stripping of the metal bits, and the fitting of a GM Performance engine under the hood.
Now displaying a cold-looking exterior that under the right light seems more silver than the two-tone green it is actually wearing, the Bel Air presents itself with shaved door handles, door poppers that are activated remotely, and chrome bumpers.
Under the airbrushed fenders sit four Boyd Coddington wheels, sized 18 and 20 inches and shod in Bridgestone Potenza tires. Behind them, we find Heidt suspension hardware, and to the front and rear ends, chromed bumpers to match.
The custom green leather interior presents us with the usual Bel Air layout, only this time enhanced by means of Dakota Digital climate control or an Alpine head unit and, of course, a center console.
The magic happens under the hood though, where the unnamed builder of the Bel Air hid a 502ci (8.2-liter) engine, backed by a five-speed manual transmission and a Magnaflow dual exhaust.
One interesting thing is that even if work on the car was completed a decade ago, the odometer shows just one mile. That’s not the thing’s total mileage, of course, just the one since the hardware was fitted in there, but it doesn’t make it any less unused over the past few years.
The other is the fact the engine bay was equally as cared for, and now comes with carefully crafted graphics to remind of Betty Boop, and the Flying Eyeball made famous by one of the geniuses of the custom industries, Kenneth Howard, better known as the Von Dutch.
