Tri 5 Chevys

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

Not too sure how much this one still counts, but it IS a '55 Bel Air..

The Aztec is one of the greatest kustom cars to ever roll out of the Barris shop..

Sam Barris really was a genius..

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

Lately, I've been looking into all of the techniques and whatnot that goes into making rust buckets..

I've always wanted to build a few cool junkyard cars..

Some of the junkyard reference pics I saved happened to be some pretty rare, and forlorn Tri-Fives..

Maybe one of these will make one of you guys build a heap too..

'55 Bel Air convertible, looks to be a well optioned car..

'56 Bel Air 4-door sedan, amazing how well that paint job has held up!

'56 Bel Air convertible, been sitting there for a really long time..

'56 Bel Air convertible..

'57 150 4-door sedan, old U.S. Army fleet car, how cool is that?

'57 Bel Air convertible, yes, really! This picture is recent, hard to believe that nobody snapped this one up in the 50 or so years that it's been sitting there!

'57 Bel Air convertible, same goes for this one!

 

And that's the extent of my '55-6-7 stuff..

[TarheelRick]

First car I ever owned was a '56 Chevy 150 6X3. I paid $100 for it. Body was solid, interior looked like it had been the arena for a catfight. Another one I let get away.

[NOBLNG]

When I was 16 (1977) I had a chance to buy a 1956 BelAir convertible sitting in a farmers field for $500.00.  The roof was shot and interior in bad shape. But there was not a speck of rust on it because it had a tow bar on the front and 1964 California plates on it. Being 16, I wanted something I could drive so I bought a ‘67 Falcon instead.😕

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

I found a few more Tri-Five pics in my digital stash, they're the last of em..

All scans from old Kodachrome slides..

My dad has a '57 Bel Air 4-door that his dad bought new, it's Colonial Cream & India Ivory, which is likely why I saved these scans -

Looks like a brand new '57 210 2-door sedan with 1957 Michigan plates..

'57 Bel Air sport sedan, the best looking '57 Chevy body style, in my opinion..

'57 Bel Air convertible on the sand at Daytona..

'55 sedan delivery Pepsi truck! How COOL is that??

[Old Buckaroo]

That '55 sedan delivery Pepsi truck is just begging to be modeled. 

That is so cool but on another note, all the models that are marketed with Coke on them annoy me 🤪

 

 

[TransAmMike]

And this is me at 17 in 1964 with my Dad's second  '57.  Note the '58 wheel covers. No pic of the first '57, convertible that he hated because the top frames rattled😄

                                                        

 

                                                                                                                                           #3 around 1967 

                                                          

 

                                                       

 

 

 

 

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

On 12/17/2024 at 6:12 PM, TransAmMike said:

And this is me at 17 in 1964 with my Dad's second  '57.  Note the '58 wheel covers. No pic of the first '57, convertible that he hated because the top frames rattled😄

                                                        

 

                                                                                                                                           #3 around 1967 

                                                          

 

                                                       

 

 

 

 

Cool cars!

What are those wheel covers on the black one off of?

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

Cool thread OP!

Also, I happened across several more Tri-Five pics in my file collection..

This really, really is the last of my pics!

'56 Bel Air - I really dig this color combination..

My next '56 kit build, a Del Ray, will be painted like this..

'57 Bel Air Convertible

Those silver an yellow seats are wild!

'57 Bel Air 4-door sedan - THIS ^^^^^ car is NEARLY identical to the one my dad owns, save for 3 things : my dads is a V8, 283 4bbl/Overdrive, it has accessory front bumper guards, and it has accessory spinner wheel covers..

At the inaugural Tri-Five Nationals, he scored a set of incredibly rare Vermont-only rear bumper guards.. NOS parts too!

Car is pretty far from being from Vermont, but those rear bumper guards are very cool because they each have a license plate light in em, as Vermont required TWO license plate lights at the time, instead of the industry standard single light mounted above the rear license plate, the ONLY state to do so in '57..

Anyway, I had a few more pics of rust buckets too..

'56 Bel Air convertible, looks like it was originally solid white..

'56 Bel Air convertible that looks like it was originally light blue an white..

'57 210 4-door sedan same color as my dads car..

'57 Bel Air sport sedan..

'57 Bel Air convertible, same colors as the restored one I posted..

'57 Nomad being eaten by Kudzu..

These last two cars were from that Lambrecht Chevrolet auction, they were IDENTICAL Colonial Cream an India Ivory '57 210 4-door sedans with V8s, and both of them had less than 5 original miles on them, one was stored indoors, the other stored outdoors..

The indoor car, had, I think, 1.7 miles on the odometer..

The outdoor car, had something like 3 and 1/2 or 4 miles on the odometer, and somehow, seems to have fared better than the other one, in spite of being parked in the grass for 60 years..

That auction was crazy, and I doubt we'll ever see the like of it again!

[TransAmMike]

Interesting and good pictures Earl.  What a shame those low mileage cars were left to die.  And interesting about those Vermont bumper guards.

[TransAmMike]

8 hours ago, chryslerjunkandstuff said:

Cool cars!

What are those wheel covers on the black one off of?

They were on the car when my Dad bought it.  I did a model of that black car and used '68-'74 what is called finned wheel covers.  Looked pretty close.

[Old Buckaroo]

I made reference to this car down in the "What is your NUMBER 1 favorite movie car" thread in off topic lounge - This is the '55 I bought 30 some years later after watching "American Graffiti" when I was in JR High.  I found it on Racing Junk dot com , an ex drag car that had been parked in 1970.

Those are still the original tubed Drag 500's it was sporting when found.

The last pic is of my wife and self, It still shows up  ever so often to promote a car show in Eastern Washington. I told my wife we are forever young with those posters!

 

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

So, I'm always on the lookout for old automotive related Kodachrome slides and vintage snapshots, and recently came across some more Tri-Five stuff too cool not to share..

I'll post the '55s first :

This new, or nearly new '55 Bel Air drag racin..

Identical pair of '55 Bel Air 4-door sedans somewhere in the woods..

'55 Bel Air Indy Pace Car..

Looks like a 1955 Indiana Dealer license plate..

One of the cars supplied for Official Use, someone put the checkered flag decals on backwards..

The actual Pace Car..

Another Bel Air convertible supplied for Official Use, but Turquoise an White..

Has completely different decals than the Pace Cars, and if I can figure out how to create a sheet of em, I'll be buildin another Revell kit to go with my '55 Pace Car build, looks like 1955 Indiana Dealer plates on this un too..

Edited January 26 by chryslerjunkandstuff

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

Some really cool '56s :

'56 Bel Air 2-door sedan in one of my favorite color combinations..

Slick '56 Bel Air sport sedan with rare accessory bumper guards and painted in a pretty uncommon color combination..

'56 Bel Air with tri-tone paint! Probably not factory done, BUT, who really knows? Only one I've EVER seen, and it sure does look pretty sweet!

Dig this '56 Bel Air painted by Larry Watson..

These almost look like 1955-56 Ford factory colors, just pearlized.. This would make for one awesome lookin kit build for somebody to do!

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

A handful of '57s :

Brand spankin new '57 150 Black Widow blastin up Pikes Peak!

Kodachrome slide of a '57 Bel Air Nomad wagon with factory fuel injection..

'57 Bel Air El Capitola, man, what an awesome kit build THAT would be, right?

This is the very last kustom car built by Sam Barris, and I always get hated on for this, but, this is also the very last truly great kustom car built at Barris Kustoms, as Sam had the lions share of the talent in that outfit.. Everything Barris Kustoms put out after this was either built by someone else, or was some gaudy thing built for movies or TV shows.. The Barris Kustoms golden age ended in 1960, in my opinion anyway, but, whatta I know?? I wasn't even EXTANT until 23 years later!

Holy smokes! An original Dealership Showroom license plate, I've heard some people call them booster plates, but idk, for a '57 150 Handyman wagon! This is the ONLY '57 Chevrolet anything dealer showroom plate that I've EVER seen.. I think it'd be so very cool if the guys at the model kit companies that design the decal sheets would include these style of dealer showroom plates instead of some generic personalized license plate that NONE of us ever use.. BESIDES that, I'd absolutely love to find an original one of these for a Bel Air sedan for my dads car.. These pretty much gotta be the ONLY Tri-Five Chevy parts that are NOT available as a reproduction..

Edited January 26 by chryslerjunkandstuff

[chryslerjunkandstuff]

I have a lonnnnnnng history with tornados, which I won't get into here..

But, the 2025 season is approaching, and I was doin a bit of research on past outbreaks and whatnot, and I happened across this picture..

It was taken in the aftermath of the April, 11 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, somewhere in northern Ohio..

 

Looks to have been a really clean turquoise an white '55 Bel Air hardtop..

It's identical to the one my uncle Dave has owned since 1957!

Anyway, I thought it was cool..