‘56 Chevy

My April 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Car magazine has a 1956 Chevrolet BelAir four-door hardtop (pictured above) on its cover.
The ‘56 Chevy is one of the infamous Tri-Chevys, ‘55-‘57, perhaps the best Chevrolets ever brought to market.
Chevrolet was still building basic transportation, but for the 1955 model-year introduced their fabulous Small-Block V8, a watershed design — that determined the future of Detroit V8s.
Instrumental were ball-stud rockers, and lightweight valve-gear. It let the engine rev to the moon.
The Small-Block made a great hot-rod engine; it became the motor-of-choice for hot-rodders.
So many were cheap and available, plus it was light and small. It supplanted the famous Ford Flat-Head V8, the engine that started hot-rodding.
The Tri-Chevys were like ‘30s Fords; cheap but fast.
In the 1958 model-year Chevrolet strayed from basic transportation, turning to glitz and glamour.
For the 1959 model-year Chevrolet strayed far afield; all swooping curves and drama grafted to an el-cheapo grille.
A car styled by a committee.
An el-cheapo ‘59 Chevy DelRay looks ridiculous; a kid dressed for prom-night in an ill-fitting flashy rental tux.
Of the Tri-Chevys, to my mind, the ‘56 is the worst.
The ‘55 is the best; ‘57 not bad, but pretending too much to be a Cadillac.
Even the ‘55 makes two styling faux pas: -1) that wraparound windshield, and -2) Cadillac styling out back.
Strip the chrome off and it looks like a Buick.
But still squarish and small.
Offsetting that is that fabulous Ferrari egg-crate grille; a step away from the chrome-laden grilles of earlier Chevys.
The grille of the ‘56 is too squarish, an apparent reaction to the ‘55 grille being too plain.
And there are those taillights; an overly detailed modification of the great-looking taillights of the ‘55 Chevy.
About the end of 1955 I was riding my bicycle up Park Drive in Erlton — I would been 11.
A brand-new ‘56 Chevy, just like this one, same colors, was in a driveway, garnished with a large red bow on top.
Just like the recent Lexus ads.
It was just before Christmas. Someone had just purchased a new ‘56 Chevy.
Although it was probably a four-dour sedan; not a hardtop.
‘56 Chevys were apparently quite popular.
It was that motor.
My friend Harry Founds had one.

Photo by BobbaLew.

I took this off a stepladder.

Founds was in my high-school class.
He had purchased it already customized by its previous owner.
Customization was minor, just nose-and-deck and that Chrysler lion emblem on the front fenders.
Although nosing a ‘56 Chevy was a major project. Its hood-ornament is on a raised emboss.
That all had to be cut out, and sheetmetal welded in to be flush.
Then everything had to be smoothed with lead filler.
Most owners of ‘56 Chevys didn’t attempt nosing — except to remove the hood-ornament and perhaps fill the holes.
The raised emboss remained.
But the previous owner did it right.
Probably cost him hundreds.
Looking at this, anyone who ever owned a ‘56 Chevy knows what happened here.
The nosing looks professional, and great.
The previous owner also converted the three-speed column-shift to a floor-shift.
But it wasn’t the four-speed; still the 265 three-speed.
But it was a really great-looking car.
It was a shame Founds totaled it; wrapped it around a tree.
Scalped himself so-doing; got a ‘55 Chevy convertible after that. —Painted flat-gray.
He was a sucker for that motor.
And so was I.
When I was 14, I was peddling my ancient RollFast balloon-tire bicycle through the parking-lot of a nearby shopping-center, and I noticed three Corvettes parked in front of the bowling-alley, two ‘57s and a ‘56.
One ‘57 was Fuel-Injection.
Suddenly four macho dudes strode out of the bowling-alley and fired up the Corvettes.
I immediately peddled my bicycle up to the parking-lot exit.
I knew I was about to witness AN EVENT.
Sure enough, the three Corvettes pulled out onto the main highway in a torrent of smoking rubber.
WOW! I was a sucker for years.
My dream was to own a ‘55 Chevy of my own, with a four-speed Small-Block.
There were a few at my high-school.
And Founds’ car — despite it being a ‘56; but great-looking.
The Small-Block was incredible.
My parents bought a used ‘57 BelAir stationwagon, with a four-barrel 283 Small-Block.
The first car I really relished.
Everything prior to that was the Chevrolet Stovebolt Six.
All pigs!
For over 25 years my greatest desire was to own a ‘55 Chevy hardtop with a four-speed floor-shifted Small-Block.

Photo by BobbaLew.

At Cecil County Drag-o-way. (The kid walking in front was the driver.)

The car pictured at left drag-raced at Cecil County Drag-o-way. But it was tuned by Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins. It always won. Bog-stock (essentially, but it’s modified production — which probably means 283 four-speed), but extremely fast.
The Small-Block was fabulous.
A friend at the mighty Mezz had had a ‘56 Small-Block, but he’d wrenched in a 350 Small-Block.
He loved that car.
He brought in a picture of it and I identified it right away.
“A ‘56 150,” I said.
The Cecil County Drag-o-way car pictured is a ‘55 150 two-door business sedan; no rear seat, the lightest you could get.
My friend’s ‘56 was identical, but a full two-door sedan with a rear seat.
Still quite light, and fast enough to beat 383 RoadRunners.
The fact I knew what model it was left him impressed.
“The only thing wrong with that car was it wouldn’t stop.”
The Tri-Chevys were all drum brakes. Disc brakes are later.
When hot, drum brakes expanded away from the brake shoes.
Of note is that the Hemmings car is a four-door hardtop; pillarless.
Ya don’t see any such things any more.
Not very sturdy in a rollover.
Hardtops were the pillarless convertible windows, but with a hard top.
Most hardtops were two-door; four-door hardtops were an engineering nightmare.
How does one get the doors to not sag out of alignment without a pillar?

• The “rockers” turn the valve-motion about 180 degrees. Pushrods activated by the camshaft push up, and the “rockers” reverse the valve motion for valves in the cylinder-head. In the Chevrolet Small-Block the rockers were on pressed-in studs with a ball on the end (“ball-stud rockers”) — instead of a rocker-shaft; what rockers were on in-the-past. Ball-stud rockers were very cheap to manufacture — everyone eventually went to them. The pushrods were tubular, so very lightweight. Being light, they had much less momentum, and allowed the engine to rev higher without valve-float. Such lightness also allowed more extreme valve actuation. (Valve-float was for the valves to float freely, and perhaps smack into pistons.)
• “Erlton” (‘EARL-tin’) is the small suburb of Philadelphia in south Jersey where I lived until I was 13. “Park Drive” was a street near we lived. Erlton was founded in the ‘30s, named after its developer, whose name was Earl. Erlton was north of Haddonfield, an old Revolutionary town.
• “Nosing-and-decking” is to remove the hood-ornament and identifying monikers from the hood and trunklid — leaving a finished painted surface behind. This was usually the first thing(s) a car-customizer did.
• RE: 265 and 283....... —The Chevrolet Small-Block was first available at 265 cubic inches, then 283 cubic inches in the 1957 model-year. It was later expanded all the way up to 350 cubic inches displacement; the largest displacement of the Small-Block without siamesed cylinders. (Siamesed cylinders did not have cooling passages between cylinders; with that arrangement the Small-Block could be taken up to 400 cubic inches. But siamesed cylinders didn’t work very well.)
• “Fuel-Injection” was a specific arrangement that used various paraphernalia to replace the carburetors. It used engine-vacuum to meter the precise amount of fuel needed to each cylinder port, each of which had long tuned intake runners. —With such an arrangement, an engine could breathe much better, and thereby produce more power. Chevrolet introduced it in the 1957 model-year, on both the Corvette and their sedan. But it wasn’t very successful; too complicated for the average mechanic. —Carburetors are very sloppy, so now everything is fuel-injected to meet emission requirements.
• The Chevrolet overhead-valve inline “Stovebolt-six” was introduced in the 1929 model-year at 194+ cubic inches. It continued production for years, upgraded to four main bearings (from three) for the 1937 model-year. In 1950 the Stovebolt was upsized to 235.5 cubic inches (from 216), and later upgrades included full-pressure lubrication and hydraulic (as opposed to mechanical) valve-tappets. The Stovebolt was produced clear through the 1963 model-year, but replaced with a new seven-main bearing (as opposed to less — like four) inline-six engine in the 1964 model-year. The Stovebolt was also known as “the cast-iron wonder;” called the “Stovebolt” because various bolts could be replaced by stuff from the corner hardware.
• The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over four years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• The “383 RoadRunner” is a Plymouth RoadRunner model with a 383 cubic inch engine.