Home-Brewed

A bold new vision for the Bel Air

After attending a major SoCal Chevy show that was full of red-and-white Bel Airs, Alvarado drove home and started tearing his Chevy apart, this time with bold new colors in mind. The colors he chose to apply on his ’56 were a bold metallic copper from a Nissan 350Z and straight black to offset the copper. While cars are painted all the time, seldom are they successfully painted by the owner in his own garage. Alvarado’s ’56 is one of those rare exceptions, especially considering it was a complete conversion in color, not only on the body, but also on the chassis, interior, and accessories.

The wife’s perspective and a dining table mishap

With such a radical color change in mind, Alvarado’s wife, Ana, thought her husband may have lost it. They had a beautiful show car and he wanted to tear it down and start over. Many probably thought she was right, but the results seem to side with Albert.

Alvarado spent nearly three months, working long hours seven days a week after his day job, totally disassembling the car and then stripping it in preparation for paint. After all the disassembly and prep work was completed, Alvarado painted the car himself in his garage. He did run into a small problem of not having stands to use when painting, but being a resourceful guy, his solution was one that only came about because his wife was out of town: he used the dining room table to hold the hood and fenders while painting them. Needless to say, his wife was not pleased, but she now has a new dining room set—lesson learned.

A show-stopping exterior

Outside, the copper-and-black two-tone Chevy is a stunner with pristine trim and bumpers that you can see yourself in. One outstanding feature is the original yellow-and-black California license plates. In the rear, Alvarado installed a set of custom Chevy Bow Tie blue-dot-style taillights, as well as an LED third brake light integrated into the center of the trunk.

Performance upgrades under the hood

Mechanically, Alvarado’s Bel Air is sound, a car built to be driven. Under the hood is a small block that looks more show than go, but looks can be deceiving: the 383-inch small block puts out 450 hp with a Demon 725cfm carburetor mounted on an Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold. Spark is fired by a Mallory ignition. Nearly everything under the hood is painted, polished or chromed, and it is beautifully executed.

Modern wheels and brakes

The small block inhales through a large open-element billet air cleaner and exhales through a set of Doug’s headers with Flowmaster 2-1/2-inch mufflers. When the time is right, and Alvarado wishes to make some noise, he can activate electric cutouts to run the car on open headers. The system works great at shows and events, but it would be a no-no on the street.

A beefed-up GM 700R4 four-speed overdrive trans directs power to the rear wheels. And continuing with the show-car theme, the aluminum transmission case was polished to a brilliant finish. Output from the trans is delivered to the 12-bolt Chevy rear with Positraction. The 12-bolt was narrowed 4 inches to allow room for the massive rear wheel and tire package that fits nicely within the rear wheel wells. The tires and wheels Alvarado chose provide modern performance and looks without detracting from the car. His choice was Boyd Coddington Osiris wheels, 18×7-inch in front and 20×8.5-inch out back. Falken FK452 tires wrap the Boyd wheels with 225/40ZR18s and 255/35ZR20s. The large open area of the five-spoke design makes it easy to see the Wilwood drilled and slotted 13-inch-diameter rotors and four-piston calipers that are activated by a power brake booster and master cylinder—in chrome, of course.

An interior with tech and luxury

Inside Alvarado’s ’56 you will find some serious custom interior work and a full audio/video system. The car was used by the Power Bass Company as a demo vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show, and the system consists of 12 speakers, three amps and two 7-inch LCD monitors. While having the system installed by Wired Up of Hemet, California, Alvarado made sure the shop did not sacrifice the original dash. The majority of the audio/video equipment is installed in the custom fiberglass center console and kick-panel pods. One 7-inch video screen is installed at each end of the center console, along with a SoundStream DVD receiver in the front portion of the console.

In the trunk, three Power Bass amplifiers are mounted on a custom amp rack that arcs across the center of the trunk. Flanking the amps is a pair of 12-inch PBX-series Power Bass subwoofers, also mounted in custom and painted enclosures. Sound from the monster woofers is channeled into the interior of the Chevy through a Bow Tie vent integrated into the rear deck set between a pair of 6×9-inch coaxial speakers.

Comfort and custom touches

Sound-damping material was installed throughout the interior to keep the ’56 quiet while it is running down the highway and to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The car has power windows all the way around and A/C for those hot California summers. The upholstery work was completed by Lil’ J’s Auto Upholstery in Riverside, California. And to make the Bel Air really stand out, the shop used black leather with custom-dyed ostrich-hide inserts to match the copper on the car. Bel Air “V’s” and Chevy Bow Ties were used through the interior as accents. A billet aluminum steering wheel, pedal covers and chrome tilt steering column round out the interior.

A unique vision realized

Alvarado set out to make his ’56 Bel Air more unique, to make it stand out among the throng of red-and-white Bel Airs regularly seen at shows, and, as you can see, he pulled it off. Not only does copper and black look great together, but the car also certainly stands out in a crowd.