It would be no exaggeration to describe Stu Parris as the perfectionist’s perfectionist. A TAFE teacher by profession, specialising in automotive painting and fabrication, he has created the car of his dreams, the ultimate 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. Stu’s Chevy is one of those very special custom cars that expresses the quintessence of the original design, arguably the most iconic Chevrolet ever.

The black and white THE 55 plates tell the story. There simply could not be a more evocative 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport coupe than this one. Nineteen fifty-five was the year Detroit’s Big Three mainstream marques – Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth – acquired V8 engines but Chevy’s 265 cubic-inch unit was the pick of the three with its low weight, forged steel crankshaft and aluminium ‘slipper’ pistons (devised by Byron Ellis) on short connecting rods. Styling, too, made the ’55 range absolute standouts headed by the Ferrari-style eggcrate grille and flowing through to Harley Earl’s trademark beltline ‘dip’. The Bel Air Sport coupe is the flagship variant.

Understanding all this, Stu Parris set out to imagine the perfect expression of the theme. ‘From the start my plan was to create a resto mod with the best late model running gear, yet retaining the classic look.’ Stu moved from New Zealand to Perth and before long began working as a TAFE teacher, imparting the skills he had been accruing since childhood. He started younger than most enthusiasts and was painting actual cars from the age of six. 

‘After a couple of work experience jobs I started doing car yard window signage back in the late 1980s. One day while I was doing the 1600 sport stripes on a smash repaired Mark 2 Escort at a paint shop I was offered an apprenticeship in spray painting. I have always loved working on cars, so it seemed like a good career path. After being in the trade for 20-plus years doing both smash repair and restoration, where I also picked up a lot of panel beating and fabrication skills, I heard an ad on the radio on my way home from work one day that there was a shortage of TAFE teachers, and I thought why not, I have now been doing that for 18 years.’ All the skills Stu acquired over those years have been applied to this supreme resto-mod, which he got ex-California with no running gear whatsoever. Not only was it an extremely rusty relic, but most of the body was missing. ‘The front and rear windows were in place but very little else,’ says Stu. But since he planned to make such major changes, this was not an issue. 

Consider the two-toning. While it is completely in the spirit of the original, the colour scheme was dreamt up by the owner. The technology to create the twenty-first century livery simply didn’t exist back in the day. ‘Right from the start,’ says Stu, ‘I wanted the colour combination to look like it could have come from the factory like this but with a modern twist involving pearls and flakes. I also had in mind that the car is going to be a driver and I didn’t want to go overboard and make it too difficult to repair.’
  Stu conceived the particular shade of blue himself, and it took him months of experimenting with different colour metal flakes and tinters. Look closely at most metallic colours and you’ll see just one shade of flake – for example black often has dark blue or gold flecks – but Stu’s PPG Vibrance Custom Blue Metalflake has green, red and blue flakes running through it.  The configuration of the two-toning is the same as in 1955, contrasting roof, boot and upper rear side panels with the rest of the car. But back then white was pretty much white. Even metallic paint was only just coming into vogue; Australians regarded the ‘iridescent’ colours on their 1962 Holden EJ Premiers as the height of automotive fashion! This colour is Mazda Snow White Pearl – with a little twist – in three layers. The best paint job in the world hardly serves if the body to which it is applied is not equally resolved. Consider, for example, panel gaps. It is doubtful whether this term was even in common usage when Chevrolet’s engineers conceived the 1955 model. Stu describes them as ‘not good’ by modern standards, which is doubtlessly kind. Manufacturers have pretty much mastered the issue now but as late as the turn of the century many cars, e.g. the AU Falcon, had poor panel gaps in places (left rear door on AUs, very evident on white cars). ‘Right from the start I wanted all the modifications to the outside of the car to be subtle enough to make it look like it could have come from the factory like this. The straightening of the sides to remove the pillowing and blending into the wider rear quarters to give it the hip lines and wheel arch look I was after took some resolving. This was the most time-consuming part of the exterior bodywork, yet I believe it is the least noticeable.’ The lower inner front guards were extended to blend into the sills, floor, and chassis rails. The rear wheel tubs were widened by three inches, and smoothed and blended to match the chassis rails. The floor was lowered with upgraded supports to accommodate the bucket seats. Stu has shown admirable restraint with the wheels, which at 18x8 and 18x12 go perfectly with the classic ’55 Chevy streamline. The wheels are Foose Monterey forged custom offset, shod with 245/30 and 345/35 Mickey Thompsons. Of the car’s many panels the boot skins and the roof alone remain unmodified.

Rob Sellen Motor Trimmers gets the credit for the Butter leather upholstery, Caramel suede headliner and Walnut cut-pile carpet. These colours contrast with and complement the exterior superbly.

At Shannons, we just love this car and we are sure you will too.