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Car Tales: An Utter Stunner, 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

An absolute classic, the stuff that dreams are made of, one of the most romantic-looking cars ever made, with chrome like a Christmas tree and named after the wealthy Bel Air neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, the 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible is one of the all-time motoring archetypes, an absolute stunner.

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible for sale
The 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible is one of the most coveted classic models ever to rumble onto the road. And we have an excellent example of such a wonderful car right now at Beverly Hills Car Club, a 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible that has just come out of long-term ownership and is finished in Target Red complemented with a gorgeous Red and White interior.

Buyer / Seller Questions? 310-975-0272

Equipped with a manual transmission with steering column control, 6-cylinder engine, single carburetor, single exhaust outlet, convertible soft top, boot cover, 2-spoke steering wheel with a horn ring, chrome trim/bumpers, body-color dashboard, wire hubcaps, and whitewall tires. Amenities include comfortable bench seats, a fender-mounted antenna, manual-crank windows, vent windows, sun visors, and a push-button radio. This example comes with service receipt copies. This is a stylish American classic that is an excellent weekend cruiser and is mechanically sound.

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible side view
For 1950, Chevrolet came up with a revolutionary style that would set a pattern for decades. The Bel Air Hardtop was styled as a convertible with a non-detachable solid roof. Models like this had been around since the 1920s, including early Chevrolets, with no degree of success.

But the newly revised idea, sweeping the GM line from Chevrolet to Cadillac, had finally found its era. The Bel Air moniker was used from 1950-1981, but the first two generations (from 1950 to 1957) live on as some of the best looking and significant body styles ever produced by the United States.

Swift managerial changes in the late 1940s had ushered in Thomas H. Keating as Chevrolet general manager; he was bustling with innovative thinking about the coming years and ready to take it on. Although the division was hard at work on an all-new V-8 for the 1955 group of passenger cars, Keating first looked at how to extend the sales life of the basic 1949 platform. Reskinning was the obvious answer.

Stylist Carl Renner dressed up the old bodies with fresh sheetmetal below the belt, one-piece windshields (replacing twin-panes), and a prominent oval grille whose three vertical teeth provided a prediction to Chevrolet’s forthcoming Corvette sports car.

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible rear view
Rear ends on hardtops and sedans gained a bulkier, more imposing look, and introduced two-toning on Bel Air rear fenders. Artful die changes also reshaped rear side-window openings.

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible interior
On the mechanical side, Chevrolet scrapped its smaller ‘Stovebolt’ six and adopted the 235.5-cubic-inch Powerglide unit for all models. Higher compression boosted it to 105 horsepower with stickshift or 115 with Powerglide.

The latter version received aluminum pistons (replacing cast iron) and insert-type rod bearings plus a more modern, pressurized lubrication system. Manual-transmission engines would get these changes for 1954, when the six was retitled ‘Blue Flame.’ All this reflected the presence of new chief engineer Edward N. Cole, who’d arrived from Cadillac in May 1952 after working on that division’s milestone 1949 V-8.

The 1953-1954 Chevrolet Bel Air arrived none too soon. Ford, determined to regain sales supremacy, launched an all-out production ‘blitz’ that year as the industry shifted back into high gear with the end of the Korean hostilities. Forced to sell cars they hadn’t ordered, Ford dealers resorted to heavy discounting. Chevrolet had no choice but to follow, and the race was on, though Chrysler Corporation and the independents ended up the losers.

Despite Ford’s hard press, Chevrolet added enough in 1953-54 to remain ‘USA-1,’ producing nearly 1.35 million cars for 1953 (about 100,000 more than Ford) and 1.166 million for 1954. The Two-Ten emerged as the volume leader in both years, but the Bel Air finished second, rare for a flagship line even in those days.

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible engine
The Bel Air’s success also indicated that buyers were ready for more upmarket Chevrolets with colorful ‘living room’ interiors; chromier, two-tone exteriors; and ever more convenience options. Indeed, the 1953-1954 Chevy pointed toward the future more than anyone probably realized at the time.

Nobody did this better at the time than General Motors, and the 1953-1954 Chevrolet Bel Air proved it, the most changed Chevrolet in five years. On national television, Dinah Shore, the celebrated singer and Chevrolet’s then TV spokesperson, introduced the Chevrolet Bel Air as a ‘glamorous new star.’ Then she asked: ‘Isn’t that about the prettiest thing you ever saw?’

‘See the U-S-A in a Chev-ro-let’ was Dinah Shore’s tagline.

-Alex Manos, Owner
1953 Chevrolet Bel Air buyer Alex Manos

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