Occasionally we run a news item that features a Chevy car in a popular Hollywood movie from the past. In this edition, we are going to kill two birds with one stone by presenting a custom Chevy 150 that appeared in two popular car culture movies. 

How did the 1955 Chevy 150 sedan end up being the star in two car cult classics?

We’ve often wondered how a certain type of vehicle was selected to represent the car culture in different car movies. For example, why was the Triumph TR7 selected as the hero’s choice of transportation in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes? Who decided that an AMC Pacer would be the car of choice for the main character in Wayne’s World?

As far as car selection for Two Lane Blacktop goes, the often retold story goes something like this: In 1970, movie producer Gary Kurtz (American Graffiti, Star Wars, Two-Lane Blacktop) was preparing for Two-lane Blacktop and spent some time with car builder Richard Ruth doing a little street racing in Ruth’s recent creation. Ruth’s Big Block ’55 Chevy street racer became the pattern that he used to build Kurtz two cars that the producer ordered for the upcoming film. Kurtz also ordered a third, more customized version, to be used as a stunt car.

Ruth started work on the three ’55s at his Lankershim Blvd. shop in North Hollywood. At the same time, the movie studio arranged with GM to deliver three BBC crate engines to Ruth’s shop with one of the three being a leftover 1969 L-88 427 Chevy Big Block. The other two crate engines were 454s. 

Ruth installed a Weiand tunnel ram with dual Holleys on the two main cars, and a single four barrel Holley on the stunt car. The stunt car had a full rollcage and was equipped with a Ruth-designed right and left braking system so it could be intentionally thrown into a skid and rolled for a rollover scene late in the movie. That scheduled scene was scripted for the ’55 to roll over as it swerves to avoid a car wreck between a station wagon and a truck. In the finished version of the film, the car simply runs off the road and does not roll over. Conventional wisdom, and those familiar with the filming believe that the driver of the ’55 did not the skills to roll the car exactly as needed for the filming. 

Photo from twolaneblacktop.yuku.com

Ruth delivered all three cars to the studio painted powder blue, but the studio had them finished with a gray primer appearance to fit the persona of the drag racers played by actors James Taylor and Dennis Wilson. The crew put brackets on the two main cars for cameras with one car used for exterior shots and the other for filming interior shots. All three cars were used during the cross-country filming trip.

How did they go from Two-Lane Blacktop to American Graffiti?

Once filming of the movie was done, the three 55s sat on Universal Studio’s prop car storage lot. One of the sudio’s mechanics spotted the camera car and it’s Big Block. Pulling the engine out for use in a boat, the car ended up with the mechanic’s son who repainted it, dropped in another 454 and drove it to school as a daily driver. It was used by the studio during filming of Smokey and the Bandit to record engine sounds that were dubbed in for the Bandit’s Trans-Am. 

From there the car was sold through a succession of owners until it was located in Canada and returned to the US where it has been restored to it’s on-screen appearance (including original camera mounting brackets.

Photo of the custom 1955 Chevy 150 from the film Two-Lane Blacktop.

In preparation for American Graffiti, Henry Travers (Transportation Supervisor) retrieved the remaining two ’55 Chevys from the studio storage lot. Both cars were painted black and a third car was brought in as a “burn” car for the scene where Harrison Ford’s car rolls over and burns.

After the filming, Travers was assigned the task of disposal of the cars. One of the cars was sent to the crusher after sitting several years in a salvage yard. The other sat in Travers’ front yard for a year and then was sold to Sam Crawford who wrenched the car for a few years. It was featured in the May 1976 Street Rodder magazine with some of the other notable “Graffiti” cars.

The ’55 Chevy in these movies are often confused as a Bel Air or a Chevy 210. It is a Chevy 150, confirmed by Ruth and  identifiable by the rubber around the windshield instead of stainless trim, its lack of side stainless, and the lack of stainless along the beltline.

The Chevy 150 makes another feature film appearance in the movie American Graffiti.

In a Nutshell

These cars were built from scratch by Richard Ruth, featuring a 427 Chevy block engine with custom aluminum heads. Stock steel doors, trunk and hood lids were replaced with fiberglass and the side windows made of plastic. Ruth copied his actual street racer to build these cars originally for the Two-Lane Blacktop feature film.

Reportedly $10,000 to fabricate, the main car made another appearance two years later in American Graffiti, along with the “stunt” ’55 Chevy from Two-Lane Blacktop. Over the years the three Chevys were poached for parts, lost, and the born again; their stories documented by current owner, Walt Bailey on this website.