1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible in Campus Cream & Ride on My Car Story with Lou Costabile

hi I'm Lou with another episode of my car story and today we're out at Fountain Hills at a car show and Gary C and I have been talking for about a year he's got a great car Gary what year making model is this one it's a 1953 Chevrolet B air convertible and I'm excited about this car cuz I don't have a 53 Chevy and we've got a convertible so now we have one on the channel for you and this one's great so let's take a look at our featured attraction I'm just going to go right there so you can see that so Gary how long have you had this one I've had this car for 19 years it uh belonged to a very close personal friend of mine he purchased the car in 1977 and Resto started in uh it in about 1980 I helped him with some of the restoration at the time and uh it's a aaca senior car what does that mean it's a aaca senior car is has been judged a national first place in the antique Automobile Club of America just one more thing these are additional bumper pieces correct it didn't come with those that was an optional upgrade these are the uh bumper ends and Center bumper grill guard or factory options the friend of mine that owned the car he wanted to try to put every option that was available in 1953 on the car and he did a pretty good job of that yeah so you shared with me this guy was like a father to you uh yes he actually was my dad's age and but he lived down the street and he was a fun dad cuz we did other a lot of fun things together or my other dad my real dad was the uh person that had to take care of business got it all right so we had the business dad and the fun dead kind of like a nice combination there for sure and I see we've got the the belir right there as you can see in the sun all of this extra Chrome I'm assuming that was like this that I'm guessing that was optional and it looks like you've got the optional upgrade for the Dual spotlights as well is that accurate yes they were uh and option also we' got the nice rounded glass there we'll come on back here this looks like an optional guard for the fuel yep that was also an option got it nice we'll show this back end do you have the keys for the trunk I do okay give me just a second this looks like the optional bumper extensions and we can see the word power glide right there did you ever actually really tell anything with this uh no he said that was an option that year so he put the trailer hitch on also and I also see the optional exhaust tip go ahead I'm sorry to jump in there okay lots of room in this trunk as you can see nice sound deadening up there even how it has all of this where you've got your convertible packed and stacked in there okay we'll close that may I open it yes you may thank you so as we pop it open we have a big door sill here notice you've got the two torn colors and I like the color combo on this car cuz with the yellow uh what is the color of this car it is a uh it's called a cream I don't know remember the exact color that's okay with that cream and green it has a real nice look to it as you can see beautiful and then we have our details here I'm just going to sit in there we have our radio the word Chevrolet scripted and you know the 53 obviously 55 56 57 became very popular so how you know do you see any other 53s on the road or not many I have seen seen a fewel 54s which is the basically the same body style but I have not seen any 53s got it in 1953 the convertible was offered in uh two trim levels which was the B air and also the two1 okay so this is the top of the line yes it is and it didn't come with seat belts did it at that time uh no yeah okay that was just an optional upgrade that you put in there for safety that was added as a necessity in our day and time yeah right let's take a look under the hood what a great body I'll just step back and show you that one more time that's great dual horns that must have been an option I'm guessing it was just one at the time maybe I'm wrong I like I like how you put the first place trophies in there inside so it still kept the body all nice and clean and you have your vehicle tag right there that you can see with all the details what's this canister here that is the uh overflow from the radiator where it would return the coolant to the radiator that was also an option in 53 okay instead of the cooling just running over and going on the ground when the engine cooled it would pull it back into the radiator perfect yeah good to know and then it's got a single barrel single barrel carburetor yes I like that you know the one thing too is is the other challenge is if you do ever find some of these sadly they don't have it you know original under here it's got some modified engine or something like that and they're hot rodded so to find one that looks like this is really not only a a treat but super exciting to have on the channel for me I I know that uh I enjoy all the 50s cars but this is something you know what's the Hot Wheel you want right the Hot Wheel you want is the one you don't have yeah there you go this is the this is the one I didn't have uh tell me about the filament here is this cleanable it looks like yes well this is a what they call an oil bath air cleaner it actually had oil in it to help catch the uh dirt and it is something you take out and you would you would actually have to clean it and put it back on the engine being a 235 with a power glide that was the first year that chevret had uh full pressure oil oil systems on the engine but it was only on the 235 okay if you had a standard transmission in your car it actually had the original B babits which they had previously with Dippers got it okay great well let's fire it up shall we okay big hood springs too you could see that there that's a a massive Hood I love how everything's so clean the Chevrolet bag everything idle's real nice let me uh listen to it back here can you step on the brakes for a second Gary beautiful all right let me listen to that idle [Music] well all we've got left is let's take it for a ride and I are in the 53 Chevrolet belir convertible it's a nice floater floats along doesn't it it rolls along pretty good it's pretty good it was a 45 M drive up here to today right we uh actually do a lot driving a lot out here in Phoenix and uh it's always been a very dependable car well I appreciate that you drove 45 miles to to do this video I know we talked about it it's pretty exciting I'll just show people that mountain right in front of us that looks great as we're out here in beautiful Fountain Hills get people to see that is that a jet or an eagle with those wings like that it looks kind of like a combo that's well they had in previous years earlier years they were always an eagle so I'm assuming that that is also an eagle got that's an optional hood ornament is that an upgrade that is an upgrade also okay did it usually come with no hood ornament it had a pretty basic hood or pretty basic hood ornament yeah that they came with and uh so this that was like I said that was an option uh just like most of the pieces on this car when when this car was restored a lot of NOS parts were pretty readily available at swap meets and most the parts put on were NOS yeah the only problem with 53 chales was during the Korean War and the parts they people dubbed of maore and chrome okay and it was a a bright finish that was on the parts and then they put a Lac clear lacquer finish over the top of them so even if you purchased no parts normally you ended up stripping off that lacquer finish and having them rechrome got it I just want to show people this view that we we have here just spectacular that's pretty sweet how long did the restoration take or was it just kind of a labor 11 pieces just kind of kep years well okay 3E restoration well I'm glad that you kept the legacy of your friend's car and I'm glad that we had the chance to finally connect and share your car cuz it's so much fun I've been waiting for a 53 and well this one's just the right one for sure Gary thanks so much for being on my car story thank you I enjoyed it

Channel: Lou Costabile

Views: 5,868

Keywords: 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible, 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1953 Chevy Bel Air Convertible, 1953 Chevy Bel Air, 1953 Belair, 1953 Bel Air Convertible, 53 Belair, 1953 Bel Air, 1953 Chevrolet, 1953 Chevrolet Convertible, 1953 Chevy, 1953 Chevy Convertible, Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible, Chevy Bel Air Convertible, Belair, Belair Convertible, Chevrolet Bel Air, Chevy Bel Air, Bel Air Convertible, Video, Review, Ride, Bel Air, 53 Chevy, 53 Chevy Belair

Id: 44VpmYOzfLw

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024