Navigator Rob
02-21-2011, 12:53 PM
I'm Rob and my family and I recently moved to the Monterey, CA area. I just retired from the Navy after a 26 year career. What an adventure that was! ;) There are many car enthusiasts of all types. I've been working on my project for almost 4 years. It's a '56 Chevy Hardtop Bel Air. This girl was in an extreme sad state of affairs when I took on the chore of bringing her back to life. Most of you would have probably laughed your butts off, but I saw the vision and it paid off. NO I will not let my wife in on the "actual" cost of her rebirth. :D It started off as a '56 Bel Air 4dr. Donated was the one-piece frame, front clip, deck lid and one-piece bumpers. I found a VERY ROUGH Hardtop body with swiss cheese-looking frame and overall mess. I had to purchase a donor Hardtop, which I took the roof and cowl and spliced to make a solid car. Upon replacing floors, trunk, doors, all braces, numerous patches, she is rock solid. I have about three week's worth of welding and cutting invested. Now she's got a nice 396 with a Super T-10 combo with a Ford 3:73 geared posi-disc rearend. She's fitted with custom headers with a 3" stainless exhaust, power steering and four wheel disc brake system, Tilt stainless steering column and VDO guages. I'm running 17" American 200s (daisies) rims on Nitto 555 tires. The rear are 10" on P265 40R 17 and the fronts are 8" on P235 45R 17'S. I moved the rear spring inward to fit the larger tires and keep the wheel wells intact. The frame is strenghtened by front and rear stabelizer bars, as I wanted to get rid of the "whale roll" that came with these cars. The interior is a new custom two-tone Saddle color that was found in a '65 Chevelle. I put buckets from a '65 SS Impala. The glass is tinted as dark as I legally can, for California laws are a tad strict. I'm now saving for a paint job that will be a Purple Rhapsody and Champaigne Fizz from Dupont's Hot Hues selection.