Heartbeat Classic Chevy Club

Members - Brooks, Bill & Dawn

Member(s)	Brooks, Bill & Dawn
Location	Vista, Ca
Member Since	2004
Club Position	n/a
Classic Cars Owned	'55 chevy bel air 2 door sedan
Other Collector Cars Owned
Gallery Search	Search for Brooks, Bill & Dawn in the gallery.
Profile	Bill's '55 and son Jimmy's '56 BLAST TO THE PAST This picture was when I was about 2, that would be 1957. I was always ready to go somewhere. I loved riding in the car and would look back at my mom and say "C'mon let's go" This was our home in Culver City, California back in 1957 and that's my Dad's Chevrolet 150 business coupe. (No back seat) He was an Amateur Radio operator and wanted to put his "HAM Rig" in the car with a motor generator set up and liked the large engine compartment with room to spare. He sold the car in 1959. Here's a shot of me and my brother Mark back in 1958, sitting in my dad's 1956 Chevy. We were influenced early on as you can tell. About 1978. Here are a few pictures of my first 1955 Chevy back in 1975. I was about 19 years old when I bought it for 750 dollars. I had to get a loan to buy it from the guy that owned it in Oceanside. My boss at 7-11 co-signed the loan for me as an act of good faith in my integrity to pay the loan (as it was my very first loan). I worked on that car and rebuilt the engine and fixed things on it until my son Jimmy was born in 1985 and then sold it in 1986 to a guy that worked in the motor pool at Camp Pendleton because we were moving to Oregon. His son had just joined the Air Force Academy and the car was for him. They did a great job of restoring my old car and painted it Turquoise and White - it was beautiful, sorry I don't have any pictures of it after they restored it. Maybe some day I will see my old car again, who knows. It was a 55 Bel Air 2 dr sedan, with a 327 Small Block Chevy V8 engine, 30/30 Cam, Edlebrock High Rise Manifold, Power Pack heads, a Holly Spreadbore carburator, Borg Warner T-10 4 speed manual transmission and a 4-11 Posi-traction rear end with home made "ladder bars" attached to the axle housing to restrict the rotation of the rear end under the strain of racing, Headman headers, with dual exhaust and glass pack mufflers and an "H" pipe for more horse power. The cam made the engine lobe quite a bit, it sounded terrific. I recall racing a late model Corvette in Vista from the Santa Fe/Vista Way intersection back then and the front wheels of my car cleared the ground by a few inches on the take off, it was "way cool". The guy in the corvette was astonished that my old 55 was so strong and just looked over and gave me the thumbs up sign and smiled. I drove that car everywhere, and missed it terribly when it was adopted into a new family, it left its mark on me forever, and only now, at age 50 do I have one again, it feels finding an old best friend, it's great! The last shot was after the paint job I had done in Vista. The color was midnight Bronze. It looked like almost black with bronze speckles that danced in the sunlight, but at night it was very black and looked awesome. My car today is more tame than the "beast" I owned as a kid, but I love it just the same, after all it's a classic 55 and we are both the same age, It was meant to be. That's my Blast from the Past