If I had one nickel for each Chevrolet Tri-Five that ends up in a junkyard in the United States, I could probably afford a fully restored, Concours-winning Bel Air. Yes, we are talking about a very large number of vehicles here, but given that Chevrolet produced nearly five million Tri-Fives between 1955 and 1957, this is by no means shocking.
This four-door Hardtop, one of 142,518 examples built in 1957, is one of those cars. The history of this vehicle is a bit foggy, with the only bit of information about its past being that the current owner has had it since 1981. There’s no word as to when it was parked in what seems like a forested backyard, but it looks like it sat for a couple of decades.
This Bel Air’s body is coated in dirt and surface rust, and its tires have “melted” into the ground, but overall, it doesn’t look too bad for a vehicle that was left out in the weather for so long. And maybe that’s precisely the reason the present owner wishes to give it to a better recipient.
However, despite having an exquisite outside, the four-door lacks an interior. Sadly, there are no images of the cabin in the advertisement, so it’s unclear exactly how well the floor panels are doing. Similarly, we are unsure if “no interior” refers to a car that is completely stripped out or merely lacks seats.
On the flip side, we do get a picture of the car’s engine bay, and there’s good news in the form of a V8 engine. There’s no info on whether it’s this Chevy original unit, but the V8 appears to be somewhat complete. The ad says it “was running when parked,” but don’t get your hopes up. This engine will need a lot of work to purr again.
Is this car worth restoring? Well, it will definitely swallow a big amount of hard-earned, but restored Bel Airs are also quite valuable nowadays, with certain examples going for as much as $100,000.