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March 2009
Ride of the Month




JapanAaron's


1955 CHEVROLET 210


History:
From best I can tell, car was imported to Japan in 1990 from Ventura California. Prior to shipping to Japan cars frame was cut off in line with the firewall and the front clip from a 1989 Corvette was welded into place. In the rear, the shop installed a 1989 Corvette independent suspension w/3.73 gears. Also installed were the Corvette 4 wheel disk brakes, Bilstein shocks and rack/pinion steering. The engine specs were as follows: 1969 2-bolt 350 (5.7L) standard bore, 283 heads, Edelbrock intake, points ignition system, Edelbrock carburetor and a Street and Performance serpentine belt system that had been abused and needed replacing. All this was bolted to an ailing and slipping TH-350. Exhaust specs: 2 ½ polished stainless pipes w/ stainless custom made headers. Stainless polished fuel tank non-baffled was also installed. Interior featured an imitation leopard skin seats covers and dash covers. Door panels and headliner were torn and moldy.

Purchased and project initiated:
Car was listed on Yahoo Auctions Japan for 1,400,000 yen (approximately $13000 with the yen/dollar exchange rate at that time). Purchased in February 2007 and driven home. On April 2007 car was transported to Yoshi Yoshi Motors in Yokosuka Japan for complete restoration/modification. Japanese body shop owner insisted on removing all paint from the car and starting with bare metal as the base. After two months of chemical stripping and sand blasting, the cars paint was finally removed. Surprisingly only three (3) layers of paint were on the car since 1955. Originally the car was turquoise green/blue, then yellow and finally white. Upon deconstruction it was revealed that the floor pans on both drivers side and passenger side were rusted through as well as the roof rails on both passenger and drivers side. After 6 months of cutting and welding in new sheet metal, the firewall was smoothed, roof was removed and all new steel installed, new floor pans, rocker panels and numerous other areas corrected.

Drivetrain: During this time, a 1988 IROC-Z Camaro was parted out and sent to the junkyard. TPI fuel injection unit was removed and installed with a new computer friendly camshaft and double roller timing chain onto the existing original engine that came in the 55 Chevy.

Other Items that were added from October 2007 until January 2008:
Street and Performance chrome aluminum serpentine pulleys
TPI custom stand alone wiring harness w/ MAP conversion
TPI custom tuned ECU
headers were JET HOT coated
American Autowire complete car wiring harness
BBK high pressure fuel pump
Polished stainless Magnaflow mufflers
Flaming River polished stainless steering column
Dakota digital dash
Classic Truck Consoles center console
JVC DVD player
Pioneer kick panel speakers
new headliner
new carpet
polished aluminum trunk battery box relocation kit
new door panels
new dash trim and all new chrome interior pieces
new bumpers front and rear
new TH-350
new Northern radiator
new transmission cooler w/cooling fan
17x8” American Racing Torque Thrust II wheels
new grille
new emblems
Dupont black and white paint

The car was finally finished and driven out of the body shop in mid January 2008. The 55 Chevy was published in the April 2008 A-CARS magazine in Japan. Due to the high level of salt in the air and high humidity, the car was shipped from Yokohama Japan to Los Angeles California in March 2008. Car was then shipped to central Illinois where it is in storage and awaits my retirement from the military in 2010.

In closing I would have to say that this car is absolutely awesome to drive. Handles like or better than a 1989 Corvette. Of the two car shows it has been entered in, it has won awards at both car shows and always draws a crowd and plenty of positive comments.