Couple Trades Jet Skis For A ’55 Bel Air, Then drop a 502 in it

Sonny and Nancy Poteet from Dallas, Texas own this beautiful, Tennessee blue and white ’55 Bel Air sedan.

Sonny originally took notice of the ’55 during a time when he wasn’t even in the market for a classic car. According to Poteet, the Bel Air was sitting in a friend’s warehouse where it was, at that time, for sale, as Poteet himself would learn later on. Once Poteet discovered that the owner wanted to sell the Bel Air, he took a second look, and would soon find out that the owner of the old Chevy was interested in buying jet skis. Coincidentally, Sonny owned a pair of Kawasaki 1100s with a custom-made trailer, and so Poteet and the car owner made a successful trade.

Originally, Poteet intended the ’55 Bel Air to be not much more than a “cruiser,” something clean and reliable that he and his wife could enjoy around town. But as Sonny started to observe the street scene and started racing against Mustangs, Cobras and other kinds of performance pieces, he decided that he wanted to make their Bel Air into a street performer that was as much go as it would be show.

When Sonny and his wife, Nancy bought the car, it had a Chev 454, which Sonny would eventually toss-out for the Weiand, 6-71 blown 502 motor that sits in the shoebox today. The motor is a 4.47-inch-bore big block from GM Performance Parts, and it uses a stock oil pump and pan. At the bottom-end of the blown 502 is a stock, 4-inch-stroke forged crank with rods and 8.75:1 pistons. The Weiand blower is currently set a 6psi, and a NOS Turbo nitrous system is jetted for 100 horsepower. The Chev’s blown 502 also features a set of ported, Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads with 2.19/1.8″ Manley valves.

Like all hot rod projects, the Poteets’ ’55 Bel Air was a work-in-progress before it was perfected, trying various combinations of parts and accessories. It took a little wheeling-and-dealing, along with some “man hours,” but Sonny and Nancy’s ’55 Bel Air is a true, shoebox-rodding success story!