My 55 Belair,,,,A lifelong dream

[ilike55s]

Hello,,, This is my current project that began almost 20 years ago. I had seen an ad for a low milage,55 Belair Hardtop so I went to go look and bought it on the spot for $1500! It had EZ-EYE glass, all the optional stainless, electric windows, electric seat, Wonderbar radio and electric wipers with windshield washer. I'm surprised it did not have A/C but maybe cause it was a 235 w/ powerglide, and everything worked like new. I was one sick dude when I got it home and took the seats and carpet out and almost fell through the floor. what floor? the floor was four nice sized HOLES that the PO had put some pieces of tin to cover the holes!!! I was so disappointed, I parked it behind the boat shed for 10 years til I found this perfect body not 30 miles from my house. There is absolutely NO rust in this body and it was a V8 car . I started the re-assembly from the rear and going forward. I have just finished the rear quarter windows area with new fur strips and rebuilt the regulators and polished all that stainless . One thing I did that may be of help to others is when trying to find some " fur strip" or "mohair" for the upper quarter window channel,, I went to Walmart Material Dept and got some Velcro they had in a 15 ft roll that was 2" wide Just perfect fit for the channel and saved a good chunk of money . I'll have enough left to also do the flipper rebuilds. I have a headliner coming from Danchuck and have been looking for a link to a video or a write-up for installation on a hardtop . All the write-ups I have found are for sedans and I can do a "seat of the pants" but don't want to gamble those $ 200 bucks . Hope you all like the pics. I can't wait to get the engine and tranny in it to go drive . 227522762277

[56-210Sedan]

That is a real good looking red, going to be a sweet 55

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

nice, looking good. :cool:

[smooth 56]

Good looking 55 you have.Is the hinge for gull wing door? If so look forward to seeing the door's on.

[ilike55s]

Actually, that hinge is for the Lamborghini style doors, I installed couple of years ago. Those hinges weighed 72 Lbs each! I removed the doors when I started the re-assembly of the interior cause I got tired of opening and closing em. They open out about 6", then swing up to a 90° vertical. These hinges are very high quality 1" thick and use roller bearings for the main body. Best part is, the doors still have that distinctive GM "click" when they close. I took front end off for installation of windshield and engine. I am going to do a "hide and seek" on the engine compartment wiring, hoses etc. Everything will be situated under the engine and in a loom coming up at back of bellhousing under the tunnel ram. Can somebody tell me how to start a new paragraph here? " enter" does not work for starting new paragraph,,,,,,

[ilike55s]

This is my version of restoring the vent windows on a 1955 Chevy Belair Hardtop. If sedans are same as Hardtops, hopefully this write-up will work for both.

This write-up starts with the vent window assemblies already removed from your car as the removal procedure is not that difficult a step. Remove the regulator from the vent window and place aside.
1. Pull down on the chrome/glass frame till the locator pin at top of chrome/glass frame slips out of its locator hole in the rubber seal. Tilt the chrome/glass frame towards you, and pull the chrome frame/glass up and out of the hole in the rubber seal. Lay this aside for restoration later.
2.Pic #1 shows one vent window assembly with regulator removed. 58 year old rubber seal is wasted.2341
3. Pic #2 shows the two rivets that attach the two halves of the assembly together. Using a 1/8" drill bit, drill these two rivets out. There are two other rivets on bottom part of the long channel that also will need to be drilled out. The "bottom" fur channel can now be removed from long channel. 2342
4. Pic #3 shows the small machine thread bolt that has to be removed to separate the two halves of the assembly.2343
5. Using a sharp knife, cut and remove the old fur strip from the top section of long channel. This needs to be removed for access to the 6 metal "tabs" under fur strip. These tabs anchor the "vertical rubber seal" to the long channel. Straighten the 6 tabs and remove the vertical rubber seal. The fur strip channel can also be removed from long channel at this time. 2344
6. Mask off the front and back stainless and steel wool and paint the long channel.
7. A word of caution at this point. The new "u" rubber seals and the vertical seals are side specific, so in order to avoid an " O sheet" concentrate on one side at a time. The second one will go much faster. Charging on.
8. Using a narrow, flat bladed screwdriver, [B]Carefully[B] remove the 58 year old hardened rubber seal from the "u" channel. The top part of this frame is pot metal and will shatter if you get too rough with it. On one of my frames, the rubber seal was not hardened and came out fairly easy. The other one had to be cut out in 1/2" pieces in order to remove from its channel. Be careful that you do not bend the lips on the small channel that holds the rubber seal. 23452346
9. Steel wool and paint the "U" frame.
10. The replacement fur strip for long channel that came in kit from Danchuk is one long piece where the original was two pieces discussed earlier in dis-assembly. Makes for easier installation.
11. Trial fit the fur strip into the long channel. I had to cut 1 1/2" off end as it was a tad long.
12. Turn the long channel over and holding the fur strip tightly into the long channel, use a 7/32" drill bit and drill thru the 6 square holes and into the fur strip. Use needle nose pliers and remove metal shavings and cut fur strip from channel. these holes are for the 6 metal tabs on the 12" long vertical rubber seal that will install later.
13.Using a 1/8" drill bit, and still holding the fur strip down into the long channel, drill thru the long channel and into the fur strip on the 4 remaining holes on bottom section of long channel.
14. I had ordered two " Rivets for vent windows" kits from two different vendors and they were all a tad too short to anchor the new fur strip to the long channel. I do not like these "brad" type rivets even though I had made the necessary base, expander, and flare for these type rivets when I restored the flippers. I only used these type rivets as the rivet heads were exposed on the flippers. The rivets on the vent window assy are not visible so I used 1/8" X 3/8" pop rivets with 1/8" aluminum washers to anchor the fur strip to long channel and they worked great. One thing you have to do is to maintain the rivet gun head down into the "U" channel so the finished rivet head will not contact the door glass.
15. The new rubber seals are side specific so make sure you are working with the correct seal for the right frame. LIBERALLY dust the back side of new rubber seal plus the ID of the "U" frame. Work one side of the rubber seal into the channel all the way around. check all way around on that side for correctness. Using all your fingers, plus a DULL, short, flat blade screwdriver, start working the seal lip into the channel while making sure the backside does not pop back out. Take your time here as the "lip" on the rubber seal will tear if you get too aggressive with the screwdriver. Only the bottom and the vertical side of the "U" rubber seal are anchored with this "press fit" arrangement. The top section of rubber seal is anchored to frame with three small machine bolts. After you get the seal worked into the channel, work the seal up or down to close the space on top of assy and line up the three bolt holes on top of frame and install only the middle bolt at this time.
16. Position the "U" frame onto long channel and install the small machine bolt at top of frame. Line up the two holes that position the "U" frame bracket to long channel and install two 1/8" X 3/8" pop rivets with 1/8" aluminum washers. Make sure you hold the rivet gun down into the fur channel when setting these rivets.
17. If you are not restoring your new vent glass, you can skip steps 17-19.
18. Trial fit the glass setting rubber onto the glass and with a single edge blade, cut a "pie" out at both corners and on both sides of glass. You can leave the ends 1/2" long W/O a problem.
19. LIBERALLY dust the OD of rubber and the ID of the chrome frame. Set the frame on a solid base and using a rubber mallet, start tapping the glass down into the chrome frame until it is in position. Using the single edge blade, cut the excess rubber on both sides of glass. Clean excess baby powder from frame and glass.
20. Remove the small machine bolt at top of frame and allow "U" frame to open slightly.
21. Dust Baby Powder in the "hole" in "U" rubber seal at bottom of "U" frame as well as the arm that the regulator anchors to. Tilting the top of glass frame towards you, Slide the glass frame down into this hole while working frame back and forth to keep from tearing rubber. Work the glass frame up and slide the locating pin on glass frame into the hole in rubber seal. Once glass frame pin is in it's hole, close the "U" frame assy and re-install the small machine bolt and snug down.2347
22. Trial fit the vertical rubber seal into the 6 holes you drilled out earlier. I had to cut 1/8" off one end on both of these pieces. Be sure of orientation before you cut. Using a knife, remove any rubber material off the 6 metal tabs. Install this piece into the frame, making sure that it engages the rubber tang at top and bottom of "U" rubber seal. There is only one way this will work for a good weather seal. Hold seal down firmly and bend the 6 metal tabs down into the fur strip making sure the door glass will not contact them.
23. Do same for other side vent window assembly and you have a pair of vent assemblies worthy of a 995 point car.2348 Good Luck. Joe Rivera

[NickP]

Great write-up!

[ilike55s]

OK, Nick or Chevynut, I do not know how to "move" this long winded write-up so I will leave it in your capable hands as to where to take it. I may have gotton a little too specific, but now that I read it,,,,I wish I would have had all this info before I started trying to do this by the seat of my pants. The pics did not insert exactly where I would have liked em to be, but they will do.
Thinking bout doing one for the Hardtop flippers if any interest?
Same for the headliner as I have yet to find a good write-up on the installation for a Hardtop from scratch. Still trying to decide which goes on first,,,wire bows or stainless bows,,,,? Oh. I'll figure it out for sure then go from there.

[ilike55s]

Hey Smooth56,,, I was trying to upload pics on a write-up I did and found this pic you were asking about.
2349

[chevynut]

WOW, that's different! At least you won't ding my doors when you park next to me. ;)

Looks pretty cool. Bet that took a lot of work to do.

[chevynut]

Joe, go back and edit your post. After each period next to each pic, put a carriage return (enter key). That will put the pictures on the next line and clean up the post some. Maybe Sid can move the post to a separate thread in the Stock section.