Home-Built Hero: A Bullet-Riddled 1956 Chevy Bel Air

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It’s not every day you see a car like this. It runs like a bear, and is wearing a lot of untouched patina — untouched all the way down to the bullet-holes and the cracked window. “I have not done any body work. I punched out a few dents, but that’s it,” detailed the owner, Andy Thompson of West Bountiful, Utah. “The Patina is the way it is.  I wanted an old school hot rod that was a Two Lane Blacktop kind of car. I just wanted to build something like my dad would have built back in the day.”

And yes, those are real bullet-holes. We asked.

Andy bought this Bel Air shortly after his dad passed away, and put it together with his father in mind. “It was a rolling chassis when I got it,” he explained. He ended up installing a 327 cubic-inch engine with “double hump” heads, a solid-lifter camshaft, and a tunnel-ram intake with twin Holley 450 cfm carburetors. The drivetrain is completed with a Muncie M21 four-speed and a posi rearend with 4.56 gearing.

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The inspiration for this bullet-riddled hot rod was Andy’s dad, Joe Thompson, telling stories about his old car. Andy even went to his father’s old friends to ask them for advice during the build. In a way, the entire project was a tribute to his dad. It also brings the family connection in even tighter, knowing that Andy’s brother Taylor was there helping along the way.

This could be one of the toughest '56 Chevys we've ever seen.

The only thing Andy really wants to change is the interior. “As far as the interior goes, I’d like to put something nice in it someday,” Andy detailed. The look is really what makes this car, and Andy spared no expense in making sure it was authentic.

He spent the extra money needed, and spent countless hours on eBay making sure he was able to accumulate just the right parts for the build. The build process took five years, and the effort really shows in the final project. “It was a lot of fun collecting parts,” Andy said. “I like the hunt.”

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Andy started the project right after buying the car, and already had an engine in the shop being readied for use in a ’55 Chevy truck that he was restoring. “ When I found the car, I decided to sell the truck and buy the car,” Andy told us.

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We’d love to see this through the front windshield while driving around town.

For the most part, few modifications have been made to the car other than the obvious addition of the hot-rod look. “It’s just bare bones,” Andy explained. “It has a ’59 Impala steering wheel and ’65 Impala front bucket seats.” Andy’s advice for someone building a project like this is to stick with one genre of build, figure out the direction you are going, and then stick with it. Changing directions in the middle will be costly in time and money, and just make things more difficult.

On the list of people Andy wanted to thank along with his dad Joe and brother Taylor, are his mom for letting him use her garage, and his friend Jeff Parish, who helped with the engine and transmission work. The entire project has been a group effort in building something that we know his dad would be proud of.

About the author

Kyler Lacey

A 2015 Graduate from Whitworth University, Kyler has always loved cars. He grew up with his dad's '67 Camaro in the garage and started turning wrenches at a young age. At seventeen, he bought his first classic, a '57 Chevy Bel Air four-door, and has since added a '66 Plymouth Valiant and '97 Cadillac Deville to his collection. When he isn't writing for Power Automedia, he's out shooting pictures at car shows, hiking in the forests of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, or working on something in the garage.
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