That’s the first thing that Wally Bell of Acworth, GA said about his beautiful ’56 Be1 Air. It turns out his best friend, Glenn Barnett of Marietta, GA had owned a ’56 for about ten years and Wally had really admired that car. So when an opportunity presented itself for him to purchase a ’56, he jumped at it.

 

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Wally purchased the car in 1999 from Thomas Evans of Cartersville, GA. His friend Glen had heard about the car being for sale from another mutual friend, Ken Moss of Cartersville , GA. Before making contact with the owner, Glenn told Wally not to expect
too m

uch because he had heard that the car hadn’t been well cared for. Boy, was that an understatement! Upon arriving at the owner's home, Wally found the car in a barn where it had been stored for many years and it was just a shell with many parts in several boxes. The engine and transmission were out of the car and Mr. Evans told Wally that if he wanted the powertrain that he would sell the motor and transmission for “a little extra.” Wally passed on that offer because he was going to update these items anyway.
 
The deal was made the same day and Wally and Glenn trailered the pieces and parts back home to Acworth. Soon after, a brand new 350224 crate motor and TH700R4 with overdrive arrived and was offloaded in Wally’s driveway. Purchasing the engine and
transmission was a simple matter of placing the order with the parts department at Day’s Chevrolet in Acworth. Thank God for these crate motors - if only they had those in the late fifties early sixties Chevys when I lived and breathed hot Chevys, Hot rodding life would have been so much easier to just order power in a box!
 
It took the next four years to complete the frame-off restoration and modification process. Wally had help from friends Tommy Bell, Don Naugle and Dan Pinaro over those four years. He said without Glenn’s and their help the car would still be in boxes. The build included big block springs in the front and another leaf spring in the rear, power disc brakes and steering, tilt wheel, A/C, 9” Ford rear end with 3.73 gears, Positraction, CD changer, power antenna and he had the original radio modified with modern AM/FM parts. The exterior was finished off with a nice set of polished American wheels.
 
The interior design was coordinated by Wally's wife Alice. He said that Alice was all for the building of this car and that she always supported him in everything he did. He said, “I had a ’57 Chevy 2-door sedan for about 11 years and we both went to a lot of car
shows in it. But when I decided to build this ’56 Chevy, which she was all for, she told me that men are not good at color coordinating and that she would pick out the interior colors and fabric. She said that over the years of going to car shows she had seen too many nice cars with interiors that did not match the exterior color of the car. And, wow, she did a great job on picking out the interior. Once the colors and fabrics were chosen, the new interior was installed by The Wilson Brothers of Rockmart , Ga. They did a great job.”
 
“I really want to give Glen Barnett special thanks for his help (and the use of his garage space to build the car). His knowledge was a major help to me in redoing this car from scratch. And a real big thank you to Glenn’s wife Kathy for all the meals that she fed to
me during all those evenings at her and Glenn’s house working on my car. She is a great cook. And the biggest thanks of all go to my wonderful wife, Alice, who might not have helped build the car, but she sure was a wife who never, never, never complained. She
really loves to ride to car shows in our ’56 Chevy, too.”
 
“So, now I have a ’56 just like my pal Glenn has. I wonder what he’ll buy next?”