12th Nov 2021, 17:30

Here's a quick update from the '64 Bel Air owner: Rustholes on the body have been welded shut; the front and rear brakes have been renewed and now work like a charm; the differential case no longer leaks; the new radiator has been installed; a new water pump has been installed after a bit of fiddling because it didn't fit properly at first.

The focus is now on sealing the engine and the transmission. All necessary gaskets are on hand so there shouldn't be any major problems.

In the meantime, I've deciphered the cowl tag. My Bel Air - or at least all the parts that it is composed of - were produced on January 17th, 1964, at GM's Tarrytown, NY plant before being shipped to Antwerp as a CKD kit.

According to the tag, the car was originally a two-tone job with a white roof and a beige body. GM's export models like mine, however, were painted in locally available colors, which in case of continental Europe meant Opel colors.

One of the previous owners had the car repainted in light blue; the roof is still white. I know it's not the original combo, but it looks pretty good plus I've always been a sucker for blue so I'll keep it, at least for the time being. A white/blue two-tone job was available in '64 both in the US and Europe even though the blue color matches Chevy's light blue truck color rather than the car colors of that year. I'm not sure what color blue was offered by Opel in '64.

I've had the steel wheels repainted in the same blue to match the lower body, which looks great in combination with the vintage '64 Chevy dog dish hubcaps I found on Ebay. The full wheel covers I bought the car with are from a '73 Malibu. Nice-looking but out of place. Too 1970s. I'll sell them.

The interior was originally in a color GM called "Fawn", some kind of beige. It is now black, which is also non-original but I'll keep that, too. Beige or fawn or whatever you want to call it is such a boring color, in my opinion.

There is one problem I see on the horizon: The previous owner who swapped the Rochester single-barrel for a Holley carb doctored the original throttle linkage to fit the new unit. That means I'll either have to bring the linkage back to its original condition or find an OEM replacement, which doesn't seem easy to come by as my preliminary research shows. We'll see.

Needless to say, I firmly stand by my decision to buy this plain four-door sedan even though V8-engined two-doors are considered more desirable. I agree with one of the previous commenters who said that he doesn't go to car shows any longer because he can see only so many '57 Bel Airs et al. While I wish every classic car owner a lot of happiness with his/her ride of choice, I do think that the lineups at car shows these days have gotten a bit monotonous.

Let's save the four-doors because like the man said: Variety is the spice of life.