<VV> 55 Chev Dream car

[corvairduval at cox.net]

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention your involvement when I mentioned Marty.

You did a lot of good work on the Biscayne.

I got to see the car when Marty had it. It is a shame it did not inspire
production cars for the late 50s. I guess it was the lack of fins! ggg

Frank DuVal

Original email:
-----------------
From: Mel Francis via VirtualVairs virtualvairs at corvair.org
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 09:02:48 -0600
To: lechevrier at q.com, virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> 55 Chev Dream car


None of the windows in the '55 Biscayne concept rolled down, although the 
installation was meant to represent roll-down windows.
The windows bolted in place in either the up position or the down position. 
This was a showcar, remember.

Before the car went to Marty Martino, it spent a year at my shop,
undergoing 
a complete fiberglass restoration, due to heavy
damage and several large body sections had to be completely replaced, 
including the roof. The taillights were long gone, so I adapted '60 Corvair 
tallights, since they were the closest to the original design, although
they 
were a larger diameter. The bezels and all the rear trim had to be 
re-created in fiberglass, then chrome plated, since all that had gone 
missing, too.

>From there, the car went back to Fran Roxas' shop in Chicago, for
additional 
hardware details, then off to the Pebble Beach concours
in 2008. It was displayed there without paint, in its raw green fiberglass 
look. Once it returned, it went to Marty for paint and upholstery
and was finally displayed fully completed in 2010 at Meadow Brook, MI.

One of the most interesting things about this car is how incredibly close 
its overall dimensions and proportions are to the '64 Mustang. If GM had
put 
this design into production in say, 1957, they would have scooped the 
introduction of the Mustang by seven years!  It's also one of GM's first 
perimeter frame designs, which allowed the roof to be 7" lower than a 
production '55 Chevy, at 52". It was very compact for its time, perhaps too 
compact and in 1957, longer, wider and fins were in, so this car was
shelved 
and scrapped in '59.

It was a really educational experience to work on this car and see, from
the 
inside, how GM built their showcars back in the '50s.

Mel Francis,
Oconomowoc, WI

--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web.com - Microsoft Exchange solutions from a leading provider -
http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange