Story by Clint Powell

In 1955:

• 7.9 million cars are sold.
• Seat belts were not yet mandatory, or even included in every vehicle.
• The average cost of a new home was $10,950
• The average cost of a new car was $1,900.00
• And a gallon of gas const 23 cents.

The beautifully restored Oldsmobile is also a product of 1955. It has been expertly restored at the hands of Chrys and Grant Wilcox of Kansas. The delicate process began in November 2012, and the vehicle was on the road by July 2013.

 Chrys and Grant have different ideas about old iron, but they both appreciate all types and generations of cars. Grant is more interested in muscle cars while Chrys has always been partial to the cars built in the 50’s. They had come to the conclusion that instead of “sharing” one car they would each find a classic car of their preference. So the hunt began.

Grant and Chrys saw the Oldsmobile online and were immediately smitten. They bought her site unseen, and when she arrived from Las Vegas, they discovered that there was quite a bit of work to be done. Chrys had never done a restoration before, but she was determined to restore the car to its former glory, so Grant guided her through the process with his vast experience in classic car restorations dating back to when he was a teenager. 

After the Olds arrived from the Nevada dessert the couple started a complete frame off restoration. Chrys’ main goal was to keep everything as close to original as possible. The restoration included suspension, engine, transmission, and rear end. To get the car on the road the 325ci Rocket V-8, 4 barrel carburetor, 4-speed Hydra-Matic transmission, power steering and power brakes were tuned and updated. A/C was added because original or not, there’s nothing wrong with a few creature comforts.

After the engine was taken care of, they stripped the paint to bare metal, fixed the body and then applied 1955 Oldsmobile colors. The Wilcox’s prettied her up in the cabin with all new tuck and rolled seats and new carpet. The original color scheme on the Olds was Burlingame Red and Polar White. The color was faded and thin in many places and there was a large dent in the hood and several dents in the quarter panels that had obviously been repaired at some point. “We knew repainting it would require a complete stripping down to the bare metal anyway so we decided to repaint it using another 1955 Oldsmobile color scheme — Caspian Cream and Polar White,” explained Chrys.

The build was quite a learning experience for Chrys, not only the work involved in restoring a classic car and the expense of everything – not only the required replacement parts or repair of the existing, but all the little “niceties” that goes into getting the perfect look. It helped that the car was mostly intact. “There were a lot of parts we had to go in search of and it was very difficult to find replacement items for a 1955 Oldsmobile – either in a salvage yard or NOS. Unfortunately, there just are not that many universal parts for this year of Oldsmobile. The little things like the dash knobs, or the vent wing locking device were a challenge,” said Chrys. “It was an adventure that was both fun and frustrating at the same time – fun searching salvage yards for parts that were needed, and frustrating when we finally found a donor car only to find that the parts that were needed were either already gone or unusable.”

Because Chrys wanted to keep the Oldsmobile as close to original as possible, they did find the original rims on a 1955 Oldsmobile 4-door Sedan at a salvage yard. Chrys had already found the original hubcaps and was pretty excited about getting to use them. Because of the way that the hubcaps are constructed they would not fit just any wheel, so it was an important part of the build to find the original rims. Once that the rims were located , which were not in the best of shape due to sitting out in the environment over a number of years, they were cleaned up and painted Caspian Cream. After which the original size of tire was mounted and put on the car. But the tires looked entirely too small for the body size of the Olds. After an additional futile search for rims that the hubcaps would attach to, Chrys decided to go with a larger tire and chrome reverse with baby moons. Not exactly what she had envisioned for the Olds, but she found that she liked the look and stance lot better.

This is a special Olds. It is always driven to the car shows, no matter how far. It has won many class awards: Best Engine, Best Interior, Fire Chief’s Choice and Best of Show. Chrys does admit that when she gets behind the wheel and takes off down the road a feeling of complete and pure joy comes over her. She has never had this type of reaction to a possession. She doesn’t know if it’s because something so beautiful was created from her vision or that it’s just a fun car to drive. But she does know that she absolutely loves her Olds and it thrills her when other people are drawn to it just as she is. In the beginning she was looking for a car that spoke to her and now that Eleanor is complete, this girl not only speaks, but she sings loud and proud!

Chrys gives special thanks to her husband Grant for encouraging her to find a car that she would love, accepting what her vision for the Olds was even when he didn’t agree with it, and in the end acknowledging that her vision was the right one for the car. She’d also like to thank Gary Seim. At present time Grant is working on a complete restoration of a 1965 Chevy C10 pickup and has plans to build a 1930 Ford Model A HotRod