Dedicated Enthusiasts Recreate a Golden Piece of Chevrolet History – the Gold 1955 Chevy
Solving a decades-old mystery often hinges on an unexpected tip or a seemingly innocuous event that revives the twists and turns that ultimately uncover the truth. While murder whodunit shows entertain millions, our automotive mystery for this story involves a Chevrolet unicorn: the gold 1955 Chevy Bel Air that was built to mark the production of General Motors’ 50 millionth vehicle.
Of the 1.7 million ’55 Chevys built that model year, this one-of-a-kind Bel Air has captivated Tri-Five Chevy addicts and other automotive enthusiasts for decades. How could such a significant car simply disappear?
The mystery would still be unsolved, except for a phone call a few years ago to Joe Whitaker, a co-founder of Real Deal Steel and longtime Tri-Five specialist. The caller told Joe that he had acquired a pair of gold Trico wiper arms and blades that were produced for the famous ’55. He also had the GM corporate shop order that confirmed that the pieces were made for the anniversary car.
Joe bought the wipers and posted a photo on social media, which prompted a call from someone who claimed to know where the original car was located. Joe mentioned the call to Dave Snodgrass of Snodgrass Chevy Restoration, and they decided to pursue the lead.
That led to the discovery of a few remaining remnants from what was thought to be the famous car, but continued research uncovered an historic twist: There were actually three gold ’55s produced! The remains turned out to be from what was known as the Motorama car – a version produced for GM cars shows and pre-event publicity. The second car was produced for a film that purported to show the car on the assembly line (no one knows what happened to that one). The third car was the unicorn, covered top to bottom in a custom-mix gold paint and outfitted with more than 600 gold-plated pieces.
That is the car that rolled down the assembly line in November 1954, was driven onto a float for a massive parade in Flint, Michigan, and then parked in a huge hall for a celebration lunch. After that event the car simply evaporated. No trace. No GM paperwork. Nothing.
Research by Joe and another Chevy specialist, Steve Blades, confirmed that the remnant pieces were from the first car. They suspect that the second car was repainted to stock colors and sold off as just another ’55 Chevy. The fate of the third gold car remains a mystery.
Joe and Dave discussed the reality that there weren’t enough pieces of the first car to restore and the actual third car would probably never be found, so why not build a tribute car? “Let’s do it!” they decided.
Working with a new steel body from Real Deal Steel, an aftermarket reproduction chassis, several period-correct pieces and contributions from various restoration parts producers, the tribute car took shape in the Snodgrass shop in Florida.
In addition to the iconic gold 1955 Chevy Bel Air, Chevrolet also produced 5,000 Bel Air sedans – painted in a stock gold – that were distributed to several thousand dealerships across the country. Many of those cars survived and several pieces from those sedans were used in the tribute car. As word of the build spread, individual Tri-Five enthusiasts contributed pieces large and small: rare period-correct AC spark plugs, a radiator cap, correct light bulbs for the dash. Steve Blades supplied a date-code-correct Powerglide transmission that was connected to a 265c.i. V8 donated by another fan.
The third gold car featured a one-off custom gold interior. Ciadella Interiors, a longtime supplier of reproduction interiors, located new-old-stock fabric that was used in the seat inserts. A Southern California man performed the gold plating on all the trim pieces.
When the car was ready for paint, deciding on the correct shade of gold presented an historical roadblock. Chevy kept no records of the custom-mix color and color photos from the 1954 events are almost non-existent. Several shades of gold were test sprayed before an Axalta gold hue was selected, at a cost of $350 a quart! More than five gallons of the paint were used, in addition to the primer, sealer, and clear.
The finished car was unveiled a year ago at the Detroit Autorama. In May, it was sold at auction for more than $400,000, including commissions. The buyer, Sam Pack, owns several new-car dealerships in the Dallas, Texas, area and has an extensive personal collection of rare collector cars. The gold 1955 Chevy is now in his collection, which is private and open to the public on rare occasions.
Through the dedicated work of several enthusiasts and contributions from across the aftermarket, the mystery of the missing 50 Millionth GM Vehicle is solved. Sort of. Is the actual Bel Air hiding in a barn or someone’s garage? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Photos by David Doucette