Classic cars have always been a hobby for Dan Harris’ family. Between his wife, daughter and son, the family owns four 1955 Chevrolet Bel Airs and several Camaros, and spends nearly every weekend on the road traveling to auto events across the state.
Wrenching on Tri-Fives is nothing new for Harris, who bought his first 1955 Bel Air when he was working at a full-service gas station as a teenager.
“When you’re that young, you don’t have the money to do it right,” he says. “I would spend weeks and months working on it, and then drive it one time and it would break down.”
While he’s now up to four Bel Airs, Harris considers his latest addition, a two-door post, to be his favorite. Purchased in 2003 from a customer of his shop, 2nd Opinion Auto Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Harris knew he wanted to do a resto mod, with hopes of creating a turnkey car that he could simply drive down the highway with little maintenance.
“There’s a fine line on some of these cars when you start working on them more than you drive them,” he says. “I didn’t want to make more work for myself.”
The car at hand, however, was what Harris describes as “nothing but a rolling hole.” It was completely gutted and came with boxes of parts, half of which Harris says didn’t fit the car. After bringing the car to his home shop, his first move was to purchase an AGM assembly manual, the manual used during the manufacturing of the car.
“That way I could figure out what went in what hole,” he says.
Though the car had already been sandblasted and primed, Harris started by removing the body from the frame. Next, he stripped the chassis and had it sandblasted and powder coated. He removed the rusted floor pans from the front firewall to the rear firewall, electing to do whole floor pans instead of patch panels, before reinstalling and sealing them in the car.
