Words & Photos: Tommy Parry

With two donor cars offering themselves for a pristine build, Tim started this project out on a high note. The baby blue donor car was purchased for peanuts and brought the windshield, doors, dash trim, roof, trunk lid, and the engine – though the last addition turned out not to work. Similarly, the green roller was picked up for nothing – a mere $700 – with all the wanted trim.

While the exterior of the green car was gorgeous, the Ohio weather had done its worst to most of the underbody. Rust had eaten away at the floor, the trunk corners, the rockers and the rear body mounts. It was not pretty, but the right foundation was there, and a little bit of rust-cutting could make up for that.

The green Bel-Air was fitted with four 20” steelies from a Dodge Ram, and a rear end out of a 1984 Pontiac Grand Prix. While the car was not an absolute stunner from the get-go, it had potential and thankfully, Tim has a lot of taste when it comes to building rat rods that look pretty but aren’t overly glitzy.

Robbing the front frame clip from a 1990 Chevy S10, he snipped and implanted it into the Bel Air. After some trimming, measuring and welding, a 3/16 plate was added to lie over the seam.

Next, Tim made a mount for the rear trailing arms and used a Ford Ranger shackle kit for the front bushings for the arms. Leaf spring mounts for the axle were C-channeled in. Before the rear end assembly was mounted, however, the fender wells and floor needed to be cut to fit the wheel and tire combination.

Then came the motor: a ‘54 235 out of a truck and a T-5 transmission out of a Chevy S10. Resurfacing the flywheel, Tim bolted the manifold to a 5’ piece of 2” tubing and made an exhaust. The mounts were hand-made, using a combination of 4″ plate and 1 ½” tubing, a couple big fender washers, bushings Tim had laying around, small spacers/sleeves and two ½” bolts.  An S10 driveshaft was attached to the gearbox, since its length was just about right.

The Dominator 2600 airbags offer plenty of comfort and a wide range of ride height – 2.8” collapsed and 12.5” at maximum extension. Opting for a five-gallon tank, dual compressors, switches, eight fast valves, gauges and an airline was no cheap decision, but it looked oh-so right at full droop. Then Tim made a set of buckets/cups for the front airbags and S10 shocks were chosen for the front axle, their dust jackets cut off to allow for decent clearance. Following this, the rear bags were bolted in, and all the valves/lines appropriately matched.

With the rocker panels corroded by rust, Tim fabbed up his own using sheetmetal and then sprayed them with a combination of hunter green and olive green paints over some Krylon primer. The nitty-gritty had been dealt with, and the interior was given a good scrub before the new carpet was laid down. The ancient bench seats were so dirty that the water used to clean them was nearly mud by the end of it.

The car was looking good and running well, but it needed to sound a little better to be a real head-turner. The manifold was picked off and the Speedway header went on. Then the 2” exhaust then upgraded to a carry a set of Brookman metal-pack mufflers at the rear. While the green paint would catch plenty of attention, the relaxed burble would give it a real presence driving down the freeway.

The front and rear badges were cleaned up and a little pinstriping added around them, as well as inside the car. With a mix of mint, forest, and olive green, the car had a real style and classiness that was balanced with a little patina, some character-building dents, and a jaw-dropping ride height. This build had it all, and then some.