The Dark Wob

This year is my 20 year anniversary of not doing much to this car.

When I bought it the "plan" was a quick rolling resto and then drive around places in it.

In those days it needed an MOT before it could be put back on the road.

So I took more and more bits off during the years and then even started cutting out grot - and now there's not much left at all in places.

In recent years I have come close to selling it a few times, but somehow I always keep hold of it hoping I will win the lottery and can then get the body done by someone who knows what they doing.

It's had so many "period" repairs, I swear there are 3 layers of steel in places, often held on by neat rows of gas weld blobs from the days before everything had to be seam welded.

I even bought a welder and shrinker/stretcher as if I would somehow magically be able to repair all the missing bits in a fortnight of weekends and evenings.

Like most of my shite, it's rare in the sense of being undesirable rather than valuable.

Lots of people over the years have told me all sorts of stuff like -

It was made in Canada/shipped here as CKD/imported from Australia (it wasn't)
It's a Bel Air (it isn't)

and so on.

I expect I will probably die with it in this state and my poor daughter will have to sell it.

In spite of it all I do love the old thing.

I'd love to know who bought it new, in London in 1956.

It is a factory RHD that came here brand new and has never been anywhere else.

I have been in touch with a previous owner who used it as his everyday car in the late 70s - he used to drive it from the West of England to Scotland where he was at university quite regularly.

The chassis is sound but the body (4 door hardtop - no centre B pillar) is fucked - none of the doors fit and it's as rusty as shite.

Also paradoxically, no-one in the UK likes RHD Yank cars (except me).

I have managed to track down some old pics over the years - if only the car still looked as good as it does in some of them!

AMCrebel wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 1:47 pm I expect I will probably die with it in this state and my poor daughter will have to sell it.

I think that you need to convince PhilA that you're his long lost brother and also that he needs to come back to the Old Country.

I love this car. I remember it from t'other place on here. There are so few RHD UK-sold Yanks remaining now, particularly with original registration numbers.

Sadly the two owners immediately before me seem to have made things worse. One of them took it right back to bare metal, then took it to a "restorer" who put about 3 tonnes of wob on everything and then did a pretty average spray job - hence the incorrect colour it is now (although you can see from the pics that it has had many colour changes mostly involving red and white over the years). The original colour is red and ivory two tone, with a black interior.

Then he lost interest and sold it on to some old geezer. This bloke reassembled bits with the zinc nuts you get from B&Q for greenhouses and did the front "wiring loom" using 3 core domestic mains leads. Then he lost interest and sold it to dealer Rod Eady (now defunct) from whom I bought it in 2000.

The 55-57 Chevy's are truly great cars! I even had a 56 4 door as my wedding car.

In the 70's I ran a 55 for a couple of years before taking it off the road and starting a restoration on it...and eventually giving up (I just ran out of space, time and enthusiasm)!

In those days there weren't many 55-57's around on this side of the pond and the (UK) Tri Chevy Club kept a register for them. If you're interested in your car's history it might be worth trying to follow up on it - maybe through the NSRA?

There's a thread here on NSRA.org.uk talking about the UK Tri Chevy club: NSRA Tri Chevy club thread

which interestingly enough has this picture of your car in it:


Might be worth a follow up?

As bought

koala27 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:16 pm The 55-57 Chevy's are truly great cars! I even had a 56 4 door as my wedding car.

In the 70's I ran a 55 for a couple of years before taking it off the road and starting a restoration on it...and eventually giving up (I just ran out of space, time and enthusiasm)!

In those days there weren't many 55-57's around on this side of the pond and the (UK) Tri Chevy Club kept a register for them. If you're interested in your car's history it might be worth trying to follow up on it - maybe through the NSRA?

There's a thread here on NSRA.org.uk talking about the UK Tri Chevy club: NSRA Tri Chevy club thread

which interestingly enough has this picture of your car in it:

Might be worth a follow up?

Thanks for that - I was in touch with a few folks via Rods and Sods (where it also cropped up in a thread) and also the Tri Chevy group on Facebook. But I fell out with R&S and I have also stopped doing Facebook.
I was in the Tri-Chevy club briefly but lack of time and not being able to to take the car anywhere made it a challenge so I gave up.

Looking at those pics I know it doesn't look too bad in 2000 but it was really just hiding a ton of rust under the wob and the fresh paint.