55 Chevy Bel Air 2 Dr Hardtop

[lump]

Victoria, in looking at your photos it appears that your car has had replacement floor pans welded in. Potential buyers will want to know that. In your photo just before the photos of the inside of the roof, you'll see weld seams along the transmission tunnel. 

 

Drag racers have always preferred 2 door sedan cars (WITH post), because of more rigid body structure, and because the cars are slightly lighter than the 2 door hardtops (no post). The reason is that the hardtop models needed extra bracing to support those long doors without posts. 

 

Chevrolet put out a flyer in 1957, explaining to racers which models/styles to order, if they wanted a new Chevy to race. They suggested the 150 series model (no trim, etc, as mentioned above, and some of them even came with rear windows which were fixed in place, with no mechanism for rolling windows up or down). As far as I know, 150 series cars were only available as sedans, (WITH posts). 

 

But as others have said, potential buyers won't much care about the trim or model number. This car is almost surely going to become someone's hot rod, not a "correct" restoration. So the new owner will build it to suit him or her self. 

 

Cheers! 

[mike6024]

40 minutes ago, lump said:

Chevrolet put out a flyer in 1957, explaining to racers which models/styles to order, if they wanted a new Chevy to race.

And there was this?

http://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/2013/10/22/the-1957-chevrolet-stock-car-competition-guide/

[John348]

The 55 has Belair dash trim and a Belair script on radio speaker grill

[lump]

8 hours ago, John348 said:

The 55 has Belair dash trim and a Belair script on radio speaker grill

You're right, John. I looked right at that, and failed to notice. Yet, who knows how many different features have been added or subtracted from this old hot rod. Nevertheless, it will make a good project for someone. And I doubt very seriously that anyone would choose this project car at this time in history to totally restore to "correct original" state. It will be a fun car anyway, when it's done. 

[cheezestaak2000]

i kinow chevy made both the "coupe" and 2dr sedan both in the 1952 year. the rear quarter window much smaller in the coupe, and if i recall correctly, slide open rather than rolling down. in later years, the post 2dr had number 11 as the model number, where the hardtop was a 37 model

[supersix]

Chevrolet referred to the Two Ten (Model 1011) 2 door as a sedan. They called the Two Ten "Delray" (Model 1011a) a coupe. It was the same body. The difference was a Delray had a special vinyl interior, carpeting, and different headliner.