Considered to be a true Barn Find, this not so common ’55 Chevy Convertible is a decent start to a project. The body seems inordinately solid considering how many rough 150/250/Bel Air’s I have seen in the past. There is no drivetrain, but it would seem that this Chevy was a hotrod at some point in its past. This not so common convertible comes with a not so common price at $24,500. Check out this drop top Chevy here on eBay out of Gainesville, Virginia.
Showing a few different colors, the engine compartment is very solid with no evidence of rot. The most obvious color to see on the firewall looks to be Gypsy Red. I am guessing that this car was a hot rod in its past due to the massive bulge someone put on the hood. I see only one exhaust, and a few mounts remaining from the previous drive train.
There are a set of seats, as well as door panels and the dash, but that’s about all you are getting with the interior of this car. The seller mentions that floors are needed, but there are no detailed photos showing the condition. Looking through the rear window opening, I would say that the rear floors appear quite reasonable.
For a convertible, this Bel Air is really nice. The rockers and quarters are very reasonable although they are not perfect. I have seen much worse from hardtops, so I would say this Chevy has lived a decent life indoors. There is rust and some rot mixed in along the body trim, which seems like a typical issue with these cars. There is also evidence of yellow paint on the passenger side as well. The trunk floor is in need of attention as is the spare tire well. Claimed to have all of its body trim, this not so common find is starting to seem a little sweeter the more I look at it. Would you revive this Bel Air Convertible?
24,500.00 to start?, and how much money in the end?. I’ll take a 12 pack and dream a little dream of my own.
People in Hell want ice water.
Parts:
Price $24,500.00
Engine transmission, frame 20,000.00
Body & paint 17,000.00 +
Interior metal & upholstery 15,000.00 +
Air conditioning 4,000.00 +
Wheels & tires 4,000.00 +
Chrome work 3,000.00 +
Radiator 1,000.00 +/-
Replacement hood 750.00 +/-
New Convertible Top 1,000.00 +/-
NOS Steering Wheel 800.00 +/-
NOS Dash Board 300.00 +/-
Stuff you forgot about(Battery 3,000.00+/-
Window cranks, pedal covers)
TotalParts $95,350.00
Medications: open
Hospitalizations open
Dr. Appointments open
Bank overdraft charges open
Labor You do it all Free
Labor Shop does it
2000 hour at $100.00/hr $200,000.00
I think my pricing is on the conservative side. You can build it for $95,350 if you do the work your self or if you have someone do it for you the cost would be almost $300,000.00. assuming I added it correctly–and several potential costs have been left open. You can buy a perfect one for less by quite a bit.
I think you are pretty spot-on with this Lawyer George. You might be a bit low on the convertible top and a bit high on the radiator, but everything else….yeah pretty close. If one could do some work himself (i.e. strip the car down, smooth out dents & dings, get it into primer, pull the upholstery off the seats, etc.) you could possibly lop off $5,000 or so from that price. Also, the A/C unit could get horribly, horribly expensive depending on what parts can be salvaged.
Personally, I think this car would look best with that God-awful hood replaced, everything cleaned up, new wheels and tires & top, get it mechanically sound and reliable, and then enjoy it. But, that’s me……
Oooh, a 55 Chevy…now there’s something you don’t see every day. Wait… actually you do see one every day! I swear to God I think I’ve seen every 55 Chevy in existence. At this point the only Tri-fives that get me interested are original un-molested survivor type cars, and even then I’ve see a zillion of those. Yawn.
So… you see a 55 CONVERTIBLE every day? I need to move to where you live…
Where is the value here?
Wow you guys must know where a lot of decent 55 belair convertibles are stashed! I don’t remember the last time I saw one? And this one appears to have been equipped with a factory V8!
A lot of memories here for me. As one of these was my high school ride .
Watch out for rusted out rear upper shock mounts on convertibles. When I purchased mine the previous owner had installed air shocks. (Lower end of rear shocks mounted to rear axle, upper end mounted to body, not frame.) Yup, you guessed it. put the top of the shocks right through the body. I had to weld up upper shock brackets to the frame. So, somewhere out there is my old ’55 Chev convertible with extra heavy duty upper shock mounts. Please let me know if you find it!
When you mention that you had a 55 in high school, I would assume that it was at least longer than I was in school in the 80’s. I hate to break it to you, but depending on how long ago you were in high school (I did have a classmate who drove a 55 dr sedan) I would give your 55 high school car MAYBE a 50% chance of survival.
I had my grubby fingers on that same car in Carlisle last Saturday, cool old hot rod bad new price. ” claims to have all the body trim” ? check the racks behind this car…tri five stainless stacked high and wide from same dealer.
$24,500?? .. dollars?? US dollars?? Unless there’s gold bars in the glove box, I’m not seeing the value. Me thinks the seller has watched too much Barrett Jackson coverage. For the money it will take to get this drop top ready to hit the streets, you can buy a much better 55 in RUNNING, DRIVING order. He’ll be sitting on this one a while.
I live in Soyhwest Florida, every few months there is a fiberglass 1955 Chevy convertible replica for sale for $25,000. I have never seen it, but th pictures look nice. Never heard of another.
Hey Steve, yes I know that is a long shot. ( graduated high school in 1971)
Not likely she is still around. The girl friend did not last either. She is still alive however. ( she now lives in the northwest which means she is probably really rusty! lol)
24K? Really? Well I admit it should bring more money because it is a ragtop. But this guy is pushing it to the top of what is possible. These things were bringing 155K a few years ago/ But the last time I watched BJ Auction I saw them going for half of that as a resto mod. Your gonna be paint deep in this thing if you try to bring back as original restored. Speaking of paint I saw 3 different colors on this car. Red, Green and Copper in the trunk. That looks like an Earl Schibe paint job no telling what is under all that. They include a spare tunnel patch panel, That is never a good sign. A person might just be better served by buying a dyncorn replacement body and switching the tags on this one. I don’t know if there is enough left there to even replace all the bad and rusted panels. You could sell off what is left over to someone else for 10K LOL.
Money pit …
Do the math , oh wait , not worth even doing the math .
Well, it does have that awesome camouflage engine.
That is actually a cloaking device. LOL
$24,500???
What is WRONG with people?
Here in the East when you find a convert that has been outside-when there is no roof there are no floors. :( Don’t know about this one but I’m guessing there are issues.
At that price going repro makes sense
http://realdealsteel.com/c-1105814-bodies-1955-57-chevy-convertible.html
Everyone’s an expert after watching Barrett-Jackson auctions on TV, perhaps while swilling beer and nudging their gearhead buddies on the Laz-e-Boy.. The day after these auctions air there is always an uptick of rare, desirable crap on eBay and Craiglist purporting to be the next big blue chip investment.
Seems like somebody was smokin a bit too much of something when they dreamed up that price!
Back in High School in the late 1960’s, my good friend bought a beautiful 1956 Chevy convertible that had a 409 transplanted into it. He paid $225 for it. It was a monster of a car. Would love to have it now!
Hey Bruce I remember those days also, my senior year here in Central CA we could buy those tri five chevys all day long for $200 -250 bucks, and really nice two tone beauty’s, one friend had a yellow white bel air ’55 we drove the wheels off our senior year ’66. Ah the good ole days that so many of the older gear heads on here can only dream of. We actually lived it!
Exactly why they bring so much at BJ they cost this much then twice as much to restore if there is enough rust to pass through the sieve to call it made from a 55 and then no one can recover the cost. No car like this that rare or worth that kind of money but there are many out there with more cash to play with than gray mater to think with Agreat deal of these deals that run through these shows are just that. ATV SHOW for entertainment
I went to the US Chevy Show in Massachusetts in about 1991 or 92, and saw a 55 Chevy convertible sell for $10,000 give or take a couple bucks. No driveline. No interior. Not sure if it had hood, doors, or deck lid, but it was a 55 convert with a title, nothing more than a template to build a new car around. And that price was 26 or 27 years ago.
Last one I bought was 25.00 in about 71
There s nothing conservative about your pricing. 800 dollar steering wheel 1000 dollar radiator. My advice is if you can’t or won’t build your own car buy one done for 65k. Restoration shops charge insane amounts of cash to work on a classic car. If someone bought the car for 20k or so and built it themselves 50 60k all in cruising down the road