Classic Chevy Club
Hi, I'm Chris Richards. I became Classic Chevy Club Secretary in 1997. My first Chevrolet was a 1956 Bel-Air 4-door hardtop, which I owned for several years. Just after I sold the '56 I was offered a '54 convertible - OK, so it wasn't perfect, something I would describe as condition 2, but for £8,000, certainly worth it. Regrettably I chose not to part with my money - a decision which I'm sorry about now.

My latest acquisition is a 1957 Bel-Air Sport Coupe, which I purchased from a club member in spring '98. As some of you may already know, I carry out all my own mechanical and body repairs/modifications myself. The improvements I have made so far to the '57 have been to fit a modern dual master cylinder and servo, front discs on dropped spindles, and standard rear drum brakes, plumbed in via an adjustable proportioning valve situated under the dash board. On the road, without a doubt it's far better than the standard brakes, no matter how hard you brake there is no tendency for the car to pull to either side and it stops much quicker and with rather more 'poise'. I have also recently fitted a front anti roll bar.

I write regular articles for the club magazine - covering both Chevrolets in general, and also technical features, so you can read all about the running repairs and modifications carried out on my own car.

'54 and before
It's odd that Buick chose "Valve in head - ahead in value" as an advertising slogan, while Ford continued with flathead engines, as did most manufacturers in the 30s and 40s. Chevy in 1929 debuted "Six for the price of Four" - their first Stovebolt Six overhead valve engine. Following a complete redesign in 1937, the engine soldiered on until 1962, increasing from 194 cu. in. to, I think, 235 cu. in. at its death.

As with all car manufacturers, due to the war effort, car designs remained stagnant in the mid forties, and it wasn't until 1949 that Chevy tooled up to produce a new model and this platform with various face-lifts continued until 1955. To be blunt, at the time these models were rather plain, Ford took the edge, especially with their V-8 engine and a complete redesign in 1952, their second since the end of the war. Chevrolet made do with the venerable Stovebolt Six, increasing the horsepower and adding glitz to their cars with very popular hardtop body styles; but Chevy knew that times would get hard if they didn't 'rev' up their image, and later on in 1951 plans were hatched for big changes for the '55 - the rest is history, as they say.

Chevys on the Net
Just recently I've been actively using the Internet and took the opportunity to hunt for Classic Chevy stuff, of which there is tons. Apart from the obvious sites like Classic Chevy International, there are quite a few club sites; since these are not commercial they tend to have links to a greater variety of other sites. I started off at www.laccc.com. Los Angeles Classic Chevy Club, from their links pages I visited various other excellent related sites. It really isn't worth detailing every one, suffice to say anything you want is available, from body panels to windscreen wiper conversions.

I had a couple of good uses for the Internet recently. I have now fitted a dual circuit brake master cylinder and discs to the front of my Chevy. I wanted to fit a proportioning valve, preferably an adjustable one. I telephoned a couple of suppliers over here in the UK only to be quoted well over £80, so I logged on to the Net, went to www.altavista.com - a good search engine - and typed in 'proportioning valves'. hey presto!, loads of sites in America came up: Summit Racing and Magnum Force were excellent sites, each quoting $55 or so for the Willwood adjustable valve, so I e-mailed them and within 24 hours received message back: the upshot being that I only ended up paying £60 for one from an address in the UK. My second use for the Internet was to glean a wiring diagram for the Accel coil fitted to my Chevy.

Contact email address: aaccuk@btinternet.com


Classic Chevy Club Articles
Tales of an Old '57 - Yvette Barratt
Buddy Holly & A Wet Day at Knebworth - Fred Jones
A Little Red Chevy Pick-up Truck - R. Glenn Reid
‘59 Chevy Stepside Rescued - Mark Whitehead