A 55 Chevy that finally comes alive!

It took 12 long years to build this awesome Bel Air, but Leonard Kirk finally has his dream Tri-5!

Owner: Leonard Kirk, Sandy UT

I first fell in love with the Tri-5s in 1955, when I was five years old. My dad, Jay Kirk, was employed as a salesman at Mantes Chevrolet in Tooele, Utah. A friend of his, Bud Pendleton, used to drive over to our home in a Coral and Gray '55 Chevy two-door Bel Air. I would just stare at the car, thinking how it was the coolest car in the world.

My first opportunity to purchase a Tri-5 was in 1979 when I found a 1956 two-door Bel Air post. It was white and Malibu blue. It had black diamond-tuck interior, Muncie four-speed and a 350 motor and a radical cam and… it ran great!  Sadly, in mid-1985 while going through a divorce, the car was sold without my knowledge by my ex-wife. I was devastated.

I've always been a Chevy guy and dreamed of owning another Tri-5. In 1998 while on a camping trip in southern Utah, we passed through Lyman, a small town in southern Utah on our way to go fishing. We passed by a Coral and Gray '55 Chevy Bel Air sedan with a "For Sale" sign sitting in the front window. We quickly turned around and found out it was a “best offer sealed bid.” The car didn't have a motor or transmission. I jotted down the number and when I returned home I couldn't stop thinking about that '55 Bel Air.

I didn't know what I would have to bid to get the car. I bumped myself up from $2,000 (my original offer), to $3,600 – only to find out I was much higher than anyone else (again, this was in 1998). The owner called and said it was my car.  My wife, Denise, and I borrowed a trailer where we took it to its new home in our two-car garage. My truck was assigned the driveway at this point and soon after I began disassembling the car, labeling and bagging parts.



I had the car blasted, and with such a heavy undercoating, I found the only rust was on the tail pan, which I had welded in place. I took the car to a body and paint shop referred to me by a friend to have it painted and smoothed. In the meantime, I located a '56 one-piece frame. I brought it home and much to my dismay, a family of mice had called it home as well. I welded a trans cross-member, shock mount, and side motor mounts to the frame and had it blasted and powder-coated.

I purchased an 8.5 10 bolt rear end with posi and 3.42 gears and GM rear disc brakes. I used a '72 Nova housing with Strange axles. A 700R4 newly rebuilt transmission with a Grand Am torque converter is connected by a Denny's drive line to a ZZ4 crate motor with an Edelbrock intake, 650 Thunder carb, Zoops pulleys and Patriot headers.

The body sat at the paint shop over three long years with little attention (I shouldn't have paid in advance). It was probably a good thing, because we hadn't decided on a color. While at the 4th of July parade in Park City, Utah, we spotted a Zanzibar Red Porsche and fell in love with the color. We decided on it, and paired it with a Vanilla Cream. Then the body shop went out of business.

I found Phil Bonomo of Filz Customs, who only works on one car at a time. So I towed it to Phil where we placed the body on a rotisserie. I finally got it back after six weeks, and rigged two engine hoists so my wife Denise and I could lower the body onto the powder-coated frame (which was a little hair-raising). I would take the parts to Phil, such as doors, fenders, inner-fenders, miscellaneous parts, and he would expertly smooth and paint them. Then I would take them home one by one and assemble them because I wanted to do everything on my own.

I mounted a set of Kumho tires onto 17” American Torq-Thrust IIs, then went with 2-inch lowered spindles on Heidts tubular A arms and two-inch lowered coil springs. I added an ididit steering column, Rain Gear wipers, American Autowire wiring kit, custom rod gauges with an Alpine stereo and amp with Hertz speaker. I then took the car to Fabric Magic in Kaysville, Utah where Mike Gallagher stitched the leather interior onto a glide front seat and installed wool carpets. He did a great job.



I've never had more fun driving a car and cruising than in my Bel Air. I've been very surprised with how many people wave and give us the thumbs up. I placed it in the Autorama in Salt Lake and received Best In Class and Best Overall Street Machine.

Finally, after twelve years of hard work, I was able to attend an Eckler’s Chevy Classic Event in Flagstaff, Arizona for the Western Nationals where, to my astonishment, the car received a Platinum Trailered Custom with a whopping 995 points overall. I'd like to thank the Chevy Classics state representatives for bringing the show to Flagstaff, especially the Arizona state rep, Dean Echols, for such a great time. Everyone made us feel at home and we are looking forward to our next event!

Shop for Tri-5 Chevy parts at www.ClassicChevy.com

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