In the Spring of 2007 I was finally able to realise my long held ambition to own a classic American car. As a life time rocker it obviously had to be a fifties vintage but which one? There were so many beautiful cars from this period. I looked at a ‘58 Ford Fairlane retractable and a ‘59 Pontiac Bonneville, but the decision was made easy the day I walked into Dreamcars in Redhill, Surrey and spotted a 1955 Chevy Belair convertible. A quick test drive however revealed that the motor was quite sick and further investigation uncovered a crankshaft and bores that had both reached maximum tolerances. At this point we had to make a decision as to whether to keep the car stock as the obvious option would be to junk the standard 265ci motor for the more easily obtainable 350ci lump, but the overall condition of this rare classic vehicle meant going the extra mile and sourcing the parts from wherever. Stewart and Milton had a spare short engine to hand and sourced a new crank from Florida. I had a job to find an original harmonic balancer but eventually found one at Classic Bow Tie Chevy in Canada. We then added a rebore with new pistons, rings and rods, plus a full set of bearings, mains, big and small ends. In other words what came back from Gilford Engines was a new motor and it runs like it. -Perry
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