I was out and about recently heading home from Dierbergs in O’Fallon, Illinois. I was in the wrong lane to turn right on Greenmount Crossing to get on the entrance ramp to I-64, so I decided to just go straight onto Central Park Drive which took me right by Syberg’s restaurant. And what to my wandering eyes did appear, but a gorgeous 1955 Bel Air.
Well, I just had to go into the lot. I was looking for lunch anyway and thought I’d get some Syberg’s hot wings (yummy!) and hoping to run into the owner of this sweet ride. Luckily, I did! I met Jim Thomas, owner of Key Commercial Corporation, a commercial equipment financing and leasing company in Lake St.
Louis. Jim, who is 86-years old but you’d never guess it, is married to his wife of 25 years, Marcia. Jim graduated from Jennings High School and joined the Marines, stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.
He was with his sons, Chris and Craig. Jim is a regular reader of this column and recognized me immediately as I was wearing my shirt with The FIN MAN emblazoned across the back. Jim and his sons were on their way to the annual gathering of the Tri-Five Chevy Club at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
In case you happen to be a Ford or Mopar fan, you may not be familiar with the “Tri-Five” folks. They are followers, fans and owners of the ‘55, ‘56 and ‘57 Chevrolet’s. Model year 1955 brought with it a whole new body from bumper-to-bumper and side-to-side.
The new models were longer, lower and wider than the previous models of 1954. This new body style would be changed again for the 1958 model Chevrolets, making the five, six and seven models unique and special to this day. After meeting Jim and his two sons, the four of us went outside to get a closer look at this amazing 1955 example and to hear the story of how it came to be.
Jim, who lived in Texas at the time, purchased the car out of South Dakota in 2007 from the previous owner. He took the car back to his home where it spent the next six years awaiting restoration. Jim moved back to his home state of Missouri in 2013, and the restoration project began two years later.
Jim’s Bel Air was equipped with the standard Chevrolet engine, a 265 cubic inch, in-line six — that’s 4.3 liters for you gen-Xers and younger. The transmission was a three-speed manual with a column-mounted shifter, and the car needed a total restoration.
Jim had the car undergo a “ground-up, frame-off” restoration resulting in the car as it is now. The body was painted in Chevrolet colors of Matador Red and India Ivory. The six-cylinder engine was replaced with a 350 cubic inch V-8 and an R4 automatic transmission.
The car has been upgraded with power steering, power brakes and air conditioning. The only visible changes to the car are the tinted windows, which help the air conditioner keep the car cool inside. The custom, Crager mags were a present from Jim’s three kids, but Jim insisted they be mounted with wide whitewalls, to the dismay of the children.
However, after seeing the result, they began to like dad’s choice. With the custom Crager rims and the tinted glass, the car is categorized as a mild custom or resto-mod. The Bel Air was Chevrolet’s flagship model for 1955, 1956 and 1957.
Lesser models were the One-Fifty and Two-Ten series. The two-door hardtop Bel Air with the six-cylinder engine had a manufacturer’s suggested base price of $2,067 and the V-8 engine was considered a different model, not an option. After Jim got the car finished, the interior, trunk and engine bay looked just as good as the exterior of the car, and it has won numerous awards at shows far and wide.
Jim also owns a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air which I’m told looks as good as the ‘55. Tri Power Trivia: 1. What word can you add two letters to and make it shorter? 2.
What was the moniker used for the Bel Air two door station wagon? 3. The number one and number two top hit songs for 1955 were “Rock Around the Clock” and “Sixteen Tons” in that order. Who performed these hit songs? Tri Power Trivia answers: 1.
Short. 2. The Nomad.
The four-door wagon was the Beauville. 3. Bill Haley & His Comets and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
.
