1955 Chevrolet Belair 2-Door Coupe - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] that's pretty good [Music] what in an episode of Jalen's garage today's featured car 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door coupe with a post now you see a lot of these around and they're slightly resto modded you could say that about this one let's have something very special very different so stay tuned I think you might find this interesting because most of these have the 350 Chevy with the flaunt automatic this is uh well I think stay with I think I'd like it I first saw this in car craft magazine a while back Erica laughs keys you want to Garrett come in in here character to see it my friend thanks for bringing this out thanks Jay great to be here beautiful bill beautiful car I like the fact that it looks like just slightly hot rotted a little bit oh just a little just a little social yeah yeah it looks totally stock although you did right widen the rear a bit right the wheel openings have been raised two inches okay yeah well that's why because of what's under the hood tell people what the engine is the engine is an all-aluminum 730 cubic inch Hemi headed v12 out made where they're made in Italy by a company called BPM okay so a little bit of American a little hybrid a little it out you know usually it's an American engine an Italian body is Italian engine and an American body that's right inside of the flipside well let's show people what this motor looks like it's just beautiful and you got to let's open the hood the traditional way first go ahead normally you'd grab the little lever under here and lift straight up but this one opens that way okay now look at this look how big that engine is in there that's pretty incredible and that header just barely clears the steering box now oh yeah yeah okay but it lit well let's show people how to really get a look good what do we do now if we really want to get a look at how this opens up okay okay there we go now I know you're a high school math teacher but how much geometry went into figuring this out quite a bit especially with the hood to get it to articulate and not hit the grill yeah that's pretty wild that's amazing and that's that's a big like to admit it look like Chevrolet here just look like some huge Ram what do you have for carburation on there there's three 600 Holley double pumpers tripower and what kind of what kind of gas mileage you get with this about ten if I'm lucky you get ten oh yeah you can get ten it's ten gallons to the mile yeah it's going to say yeah good heavens and boy these headers come awful close here too did this steering box man you can actually get the headers out of the car without taking the motor out really okay and the way these doors opened does it open yup use both thumbs and kind of torque it but it opens this way oh there we go this thing's full of surprises isn't it you know what I think this is 55 Chevy at all and this is your clutch and brake that is the power brake unit right there's an electric power brake unit underneath that okay cover okay very nice and it's an automatic what transmission you using with this kind of engine it's a for la de Chevrolet four-speed automatic is that out of a truck yes so can take this kind of power yes I don't it's uh it's pretty wild well you must have been the coolest math teacher in high school yeah maybe did your students know you a real car guy like this yeah they did when I first started when cars were real popular yeah yeah so what happened you bought a 55 you drove it for a while you decided to modify it or did you get the engine first and then what am I going to put this in or what was your thinking I actually a friend of mine was in a warehouse down in Huntington Beach looking at a boat call and said there there's 55 two-door post down here you interested he told me the price I couldn't send him the money fast enough okay so I got the car it was a six with a stick it was a Bel Air and I don't like the Bel Air trim the top trim so I converted a kind of a Bel Air to ten right and then I bought these this motor and I bought two of them actually from a gentleman in Florida that was converting a 48-foot cruiser to diesels and I end up selling the second one to a gentleman in Montana that was it put it in a scaled-down version of a p-51 Mustang airplane well that's a massive radiator too it's enough to keep this thing cool it should be you bet yeah he's got air conditioning in the car also okay is that a vintage air unit is it yes yeah boy they do a nice job okay unbelievable how we use vintage air and everything and of course power steering power steering yeah I see that boy it's beautifully done the only thing that's got an electric water pump on the thing is your electric water pump built into the radiator right okay the only thing it doesn't have his cruise cruise control yep well I don't think unique with no now what surprises there at the back at the front we'll see later when we go for a drive it looks pretty standard but I'm adding a few surprises in there as well huh it's got a roadster shop chassis in it with a triangulated four-link rear suspension coil over shocks all the way around it's got a mini tub in the back and let's see what else how many gallon gas tank you have a 22 gallon fuel cell in the truck so I'll get you the end of the block yep yeah okay and you've widened the rear widen the rear the rear openings boy it's an it's so subtle it it's really good I can't really tell well it looks fairly stocked back here I'm sure there's some surprises they've got a v12 emblem did you make those up where'd those come from no a friend of mine in Minneapolis hand-painted those on there look beautifui averse indid that and you cut in here the license plate huh the license plates been frenched in the emblem has been moved up the key has been moved up to clear everything can we open the trunk you better believe no this has no gas filler Georgia gas filler inside yes filler is inside I'm guessing right under here yep just pull it up yep then oh I see I pulled it off there there you go I see yeah okay cool you got that velcro cuz you're filling up what maybe every 20 minutes my carry is it's like filling up a jet fighter you carry the plane behind you well look at the size of the fuel I mean what is that a one-inch fuel hose on that thing it's like a fire hose you know what that really is what is that the positive battery cables inside there oh is that what it is okay look like a fuel line okay all right Oh batteries here yep battery in trouble it's beautifully done it's really incredible how long did this project take probably about four and a half years yeah yeah okay now many of your students your previous student some of your retired teacher now I need the student seen this car a bunch of them have I've had it it's been on a couple of sites and was down at the try five Nationals yeah been in a couple magazines so yeah but do you ever pull up likes to the kid you're flunking he's got a Mustang hello his doors off and that's why educated in education yeah that's right any of that now that's pretty neat the power train takes that power from that engine oh it does it how many miles you put on it I probably got about 1500 on the thing so we did it that's about ten thousand dollars in gas exactly yes the moment god it's amazing motor the gentleman I have to give a plug to the gentleman that did all of the work on the thing Bob Benson started the project yeah and did the serpentine belt on and put the motor in and then it got turned over to Dale pelvin a friend of mine that I've known for 40 years it came in and did the headers then he did all the rest of the thing the front end the doors the openings he is just a phenomenal engineer it just way did a beautiful job oh now did you have to have the doors open that way because of the hood we thought of that in and that was one of the reasons one of the impetus in having the suicide doors show you can't and somebody tries to break in Tunica no well I just like the fact that it's not chopped in channel I like the fact that it looks like a 55 and he still got the stock speedometer and stock steering wheel huh yep yeah I mean that's what I love and yet it's got what do you got for brakes in this thing it's got will woods all the way well with yeah they're really good we always will would on a bunch of stuff and they're adaptable they fit anything you know you can put them any kind of build I even put them on my58 Chrysler Imperial and it really really works terrific it's a nice product cool well it's can we take them for a ride oh I suppose yeah I got this no problem this is hilarious see when we get I need a with a temperature gauge on the right okay you want to wait till it's about 150 yep was that where the glove back wasn't 55 now I was okay we got to tilt real in there too yep though I have to admit I didn't notice it right away on this one usually I don't like tip wheels and tilt wheel commercial ones because they kind of give it away yeah but this wheel is so small you don't really need that feel real huh it for me with the long legs I like it yeah yeah you got a quite a few more lunches before you really need you are the first that's as fast as I've ever had it going integrality area I mean I'm a real chicken I don't want to break anything I don't out here in California yeah I don't really have any place to fix it right when you gotta get the cobwebs out oh yeah now what are you running this just straight dreaming a straight dream you up as high as I can get Achtung you put any additives in octane booster it's it's got an 87 to one compression ratio on the thing so I really don't need anything else not some rainwater yeah yeah and how long have you had it done it's been done for probably about I want to say four years okay what is cold blood takes a long time to warm up oh I know what twelve big cylinders is anybody else use one of these engines in an automotive application that you know Boyd Coddington built are we in what am I trying to say it just got sold at auction at barrett-jackson about a year ago yeah it wasn't like adela he had one of these things and one of the VPI wasn't called what the hey or something like that that might have been it had some crazy name yeah funny while I was amazed by some of these show cars sometimes I'll have chrome-plated brake rotors you go what happens when you step on the brake don't step on the brake yep they use the emergency brake to stop where they could only go three or four miles an hour no exactly and this with a four-wheel disc brakes it seems to work in the power brakes it's an ABS unit we didn't we couldn't get any vacuum without with the Webber's so that's when he built that you know the manifold for the three four barrels yeah you're pretty much just drive this car show the car show you're not going to Home Depot and picking up sheets of plywood well if I get their small four-inch ones you know and adopted not the eight-foot log ones got some power oh it's got 720 foot-pounds of torque yeah 2,000 to 5,000 yeah it's 730 cubic inches 620 horsepower and that was there ever a thought of putting a manual gearbox in it no no no it's just it I think it's just the only thing I would have done differently is take the shifter off the floor and actually put it on the collar I like it's all right on the floor now it'll it looks like a stick and I'd rather have it look at you know get automatic Park okay it's in the electro-motive box someplace that's the one thing about modern stuff the electrics are just scary you [Music] pretty good no horn yeah it works sigh real loud fork operated art you can get over carbureted you know that's a possibility these are the smallest double pumpers we could get I was going to run some 780 s on it that's a possibility might be a little rich keep your foot in it feels like it's drowning event you know I'm okay it's getting too much fuel but I can smell fuel in this melon well yeah that I think possibly that could the few the the vent for the tank is up in the rear quarter-panel yeah they come down the side of the car yeah B&C unity you think it's over carbureted i just taking a wild guess but [Music] oh boy it's just a beautiful build Wendy did you guys paint get it you have attempted chard gentlemen at Minneapolis Steve hasn't painted it boy see where were the cool math teachers when I was in high school never you know you should have been my math teacher maybe I wouldn't have flunked well you know I'd go back and change your grade yeah hey my mother's long gone so that's a fruitless at this point but [Music] so pittmoss really go crazy at car shows and they see that hood open do they well they just it flocks I mean there's always you know 10 to 12 people standing around the car looking at the motor yeah looking at the suicide doors and everything else now you said you're thinking of selling this car huh well I guess if the somebody came up with enough money I would yeah yeah it's like anything else we got a website or something people right now just have them email me a G K o ll o F s k IG koloski ya ayyuha at aol.com [Music] well very cool right very nice a didn't overheat one about 180 yeah what is that what's a peeping oh that's just the end of the electro-motive shutting off oh okay okay sounds like we're a little over carbureted because I notice I put my foot hit second - it starts to bog a little bit like it it's pulling too much fuel but you only got 1400 miles on it well now look we can sit - ho ho yeah so it's the ashtrays are full done time to sell it yeah see my math teachers are never this cool in high school I never did yeah and math was never my subject but you didn't a geometry I mean this you did a nice job it's a beautiful beautiful build and from the suicide doors so the big motor really makes it special I see so many that are really nice but it's the same cooking 54 yeah yeah what is this is definitely not a cook it's a giant cookie but they're really cool Gary thank you very much thank you so much again if you want to bid on this car here's this website again check it out it's for sale is it for sale it's for sale if the price is right it's for sale a surprising math teacher yeah see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 758,713

Rating: 4.8466883 out of 5

Keywords: jay, leno, garage, chevrolet, belair, coupe, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: CGJEgMX_1N0

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/e60deluxe]

i cant understand people like this. pay someone to build you a beautiful car, put in a V12 but scared to push it, ever. that wince on his face when jay barley digs in the throttle. 1500 miles in 4 years. its not for sale, but its always for sale if you give me enough money. from the looks of it, Jay cant really understand him either.