999 Pointer

John Provenzano’s incredible custom ’56 Bel Air wows at the shows, and brings home the trophies!

I never thought I would be writing about one of my cars for Chevy Classics. This has been a dream of mine for decades. When my classic car addiction began (I was 15), I would read the car magazines and wonder what it would be like to have a truly unique automobile. I never thought it would happen. More recently, in my adult life, I also never thought I would have yet another project car! I already have 1955 and 1957 Bel Air convertibles; and they both took a lot out of me. I thought I was done! However, I’ve had significant influences…

My builder, Mark Bauer, and my three children thought it would be a great idea to have three Tri-5 convertibles, one of each year– I am sure my kids have ulterior motives! My wife (thankfully) has never complained about my classic car addiction. So I called Bob Dietzler to locate a 1956 convertible with a known history. He found me a one-family owned ’56 Bel Air convertible out of New Jersey. I was a little bit concerned about excessive rust, however he had good photos of the car prior to its marginal restoration. So the project began in November of 2011 and was completed in February of 2015. My only two requests to my builder were to use the original frame and to not cut up the body, otherwise I wanted him to think out of the box. He sure did!