1957 CHEVROLET BEL AIR

Classic cars are often more than just cars, more than just four-wheeled transportation. They can act like a time machine – evoking a time and place that we all recognise.

To do that they have to stand out from the crowd, be special in some way, be a design that is unique to its time and yet be acknowledged as special decades later. You could hold up the E-Type Jag of the ’60s, or the broad, gull-winged DeLorean from the ’80s as examples, but perhaps no car does this better than the second generation Chevy Bel Air.

Produced from 1954 to 1957, the Bel Air’s lines, flared wings, idiosyncratic touches and shining chrome do, of course, evoke a time when everyone was swaying their hips to Elvis and had pictures of James Dean on their wall but, more importantly, it’s just a great-looking, beautifully designed car.

For Alan Raine, a 47-year-old light vehicle apprentice training with MTAQ, owning a ’57 two-door pillarless Bel Air was a dream come true.

“I always wanted a 1957 in that exact model,” he says. “Why? I suppose it’s like a lot of people with Mustangs – they like a certain year, a certain model. For me it was this Chev. I love the shape, the wings, everything about it – they got it just right.”

However, without a lot of love and attention, even a 60-year-old Bel Air is bound to lose its lustre and Alan’s was no exception – when buying the car from a Brisbane seller, he knew what lay in store.

“I knew it would have to be restored,” he says. “If I was to import one I was only going to pull it to bits anyway so I got something that was already a big mess!”

A ‘big mess’ was exactly what Alan got.

“It had no floor inside, no floor in the boot, the rear quarters were buckled in, the front doors and front guards were no good, it had no engine or gearbox and half the wiring was gone,” says Alan with a grin. “Inside was a bench seat and back seat just thrown in and heaps of stainless and glass lying about. And, of course, there was no carpet because there was no floor!”

It’s possible many people would be put off by such a monster of a job, but Alan has history with car restoration work, completing ‘a couple of dozen’ since his first, an HZ Holden that he bought and restored when he was just 17.

Still, even for this experienced campaigner, the Bel Air took four years of hard graft – and almost the entire job was done from Alan’s home and his professionally set-up garage.

“Firstly I had to put a boot floor into it because I wanted to put it on a rotisserie,” he says. “Then I cut it all open, cut rust out of the wheel arches, put in a complete new floor, new doors, new sills and I ended up making the bottoms of the rear quarters from the back of the door to the front of the back wheels.

“You can buy new doors, floor pan sections – pretty much anything – and everything, including upper and lower ball joints and control arm bushes is new, every steering linkage and every bolt is new, the front springs are new, the rear leaf springs are new – everything is new.”

Alan then put in disc brakes, sourced a new diff from a VL Commodore running a VSS centre, rewired the car and turned his mind to the engine and gearbox.

“I bought a standard bore 350 four-bolt block, ordered the bits I wanted and once all the machining was done I started assembling it all. I had the gearbox built, then started organising the interior and other modifications.”

Those modifications include some clever touches, including a gauge that appears to read ‘miles per hour’ but is actually set to kilometres per hour – “I can look at it and know I’m doing the right speed,” says Alan. “I’ve got enough to worry about sitting on the other side!” –  to an iPod tucked into the glove compartment that can play through the classic-looking radio.

Another modification is Alan’s stunning colour choice – a colour that comes from an unusual source and which is carried through to the Bel Air’s interior and engine bay.

“I’m actually colour blind.” says Alan. “However, I can sort of make out blues and my neighbour had a Toyota Corolla this colour and I just said ‘Let’s do it the same – job done!’ So the colour is from a 2000 model Corolla!”

After four years’ graft, and with the Bel Air now complete, Alan is toying with the idea of entering it into Car Show competitions but insists that winning trophies would be just a happy by-product of a job well done.

“I’m going to enjoy it and drive it,” he says. “I think I’ll take it to shows and so on this year but I built it because it’s what I wanted to do, not because of trophies.”

But is there another project on the agenda? With so many car renovation jobs under his belt, is another one on the cards?

Alan shakes his head and smiles wryly. “My wife was shaking her head when this car rolled up after I bought it,” he says. “After four years I think the next project will be the house!”