When my wife and I dated, I owned a 55 Chevy convertible that was midnight blue with a white top. Then came marriage, buying a home and there went my first 55. We had often thought about getting another one, but the wife and I agreed that bringing up the kids came first, and someday soon our day would come. When we saw this car I knew that it would be the beauty that we had always wanted to own since our first 55 Chevy of so many years ago. We purchased our Chevy three years ago, just before our son's wedding. Our three girls were wed previously and we could now get into a hobby that we would finally have time for. It was jet black with light blue ghost flames. It needed a good cleaning and waxing plus detailing to bring it to its just painted cruising look. The 55 is powered by a 350 cubic inch Chevy that is bored and stroked with Corvette Fueler Heads, and roller rocker's which are bumped by a Crane Cam that pushes out 425 horsepower. This spins through a beefed up 350 Turbo Transmission. From the old days I have the tachometer mounted high in the upper left hand corner of the windshield so I don't have to take my eyes off the road to check the engine RPM's. The interior is complemented with bucket seats and a tilt wheel.
When we first started to cruise with it, the engine would run hot and be turning about 3000 RPM's when I was only doing 60 MPH. I added a fan shroud to it and changed the rear end gear ratio from 4:11 to 3:36 and it ran cooler and did not beat the engine up so bad! I have made a lot of changes to the 55 since I bought it, like changing the taillight bezels and parking light assembly's, but the most outstanding was taking the black painted bumpers off and going back to chrome.
One of the best features about owning my 55 is going to all the cruise in's that are around here and having met so many fine new friends not to mention finding a lot of High School Friends that also cruise or just come up to see the cars.
Bill Covelli