- [Colin] Now this is a 210 Delray Post Coupe.
This car is well known.
It's been around.
- It went 12 40s at 110.
- Never on the street, right?
- No.
- Clearly not a car that was built
to just go over an auction block.
You've kind of made this car famous.
(engine rumbling)
(dynamic music)
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(jaunty music)
(engine rumbling)
- Good morning, Colin.
- [Colin] Good morning, Bob.
How are you? - Fine, how are you doing?
Nice day.
- Nice to meet you. - Thank you very much.
Nice to meet you too.
- So, what did you bring?
- This is my '56 Chevy that I've had since the '80s.
We used to drag race it here in Orange County
at the drag strip.
- Never on the street, right?
- No.
(both laughing)
And it went 12 40s at 110 with a small block Chevy.
And we had a lot of fun doing it.
- You know the premise, you know why you're here.
You've allowed me to do an appraisal of your car.
So if it's all right with you,
we'll usher you off to our lavish green room.
- Yes, absolutely.
- And come and get you in a little bit and...
- Okay. - Tell you what I think.
- Sounds like fun. - All right.
See you in a little while.
Thank you. - Thanks.
(jaunty music)
- So I finished my inspection
and appraisal of Bob's 1956 Chevy.
Now this is a 210 Delray Post Coupe.
It's also a Van Nuys built car,
so that means it has a few unique features
that I'll show you when we walk around.
But first, we're gonna start under the hood
because this is a gasser,
it was built to drag race and have fun with.
So let's look where the action happens.
Now for those of you that aren't familiar,
Bob worked for Peterson Publishing for a couple of decades.
This car was the subject of many articles.
It was in Chevy High Performance and Car Craft.
It was in a GM performance parts catalog.
This car is well known, it's been around.
And it's well known in big part
because it's a super sanitary build.
It's period correct.
Bob's intent was to make a car that was a replica
of an early 1970s gasser-style car
here in Southern California.
You can see it has the tow tabs on the front.
The front bumper's been removed.
He drag raced this car everywhere.
He says he didn't street race it,
but I know he street raced it.
What Bob said to me when he was walking away,
he says, that car has no blister pack parts.
That means he didn't go and buy reproduction crap,
and throw it on the car.
He scoured junkyards to find original GM stuff
and the cool parts that the factory made to use on this car.
For example, the engine.
Early 1970s Z/28 short block.
It has GM single hump over the counter turbo heads.
So it's a super high performance cylinder head from GM.
It's 11:1 compression.
It has a GM dual circuit braking system
he put on for safety.
But again, that's a part he found from pick a part,
and rebuilt, and put on the car.
He didn't wanna use anything that didn't come from GM
if he could avoid it.
The cowl tag is in place.
Everything lines up here.
It is not the original colors.
Instead, he picked these colors
because he said he wanted calming colors.
He wanted the quality of the car to speak for itself.
It was painted 30 years ago.
Single stage enamel paint.
It's gorgeous.
The chrome is gorgeous.
The whole car, the fit and finish, is extraordinary.
Especially for a car that's been used,
and driven, and raced for decades.
Now, when you look down the sides of the car,
it's nearly laser straight.
It's as nice as you could expect a car that got driven,
and raced, and built by the owner to be.
It has Cragar S/S wheels.
It has slapper bars on the rear leaf springs.
Another point of the Van Nuys built cars,
is it has a seamless one piece frame,
a hydroformed frame that was not prevalent
on all 1956 Chevrolets.
And again, it's a Post Coupe.
So you have this post here, more rigidity.
The drag racers love these things.
It's not a hard top,
hard tops have a little less body rigidity.
But everywhere you look on the car,
it's just really nice and sanitary.
You look at how he did the paint in the door jams,
the cut line between the upper and lower colors,
the seams on the door skins, the seams in the door jams.
Everything is nice.
On the interior, Bob told me he picked a high quality vinyl
because he wanted the interior to smell right.
He wanted it to be high quality and hold up.
And it has.
There's no cheap materials in here.
He didn't chintz on anything and it shows.
Now, let's take a look in the trunk.
The first thing I'll point out, is again,
Van Nuys California built car.
One piece rear bumper, not the multi-piece rear bumper
that GM used at other plants.
And before I pop the trunk,
check out this original California black plate.
This has been with the car since new.
By coincidence, I don't know if you noticed,
the prefix, JHB, is also the prefix used
on the Chevy in "Two-Lane Blacktop."
- [Man] All they think about is cars.
(engines revving)
- Little pop trivia there for you.
In the trunk, you see the back part
of the roll bar that Bob made himself.
It's mounted right down through the body into the frame.
He's relocated the battery to the rear for weight transfer.
He has a battery cutoff switch here.
Obviously there's no spare tire in the car
because you want it to be light for drag racing.
You don't want something rolling around
if you flip the car, and barrel roll it, whatever you do.
And this is the kind of owner that you wanna buy a car from.
Check it out.
He takes painter's tape
and puts his maintenance records on the battery box.
So he knows when he changed the oil,
he knows when he put a battery in it.
That is cool.
I love that kind of stuff.
Another little neat '56 Chevy feature here.
This is where you fill it up with gas.
So when you go to put your $8 a gallon fuel in it,
you put it right in here.
And while we continue our walkaround, just again,
the fit, the finish, the chrome,
the stainless, everything is nice.
The glass is nice.
There's nothing on here that shouldn't be on here.
It's just a clean build and it looks cool.
Now, let's hop inside.
The car has its original serial number tag on the A-pillar,
just where it should be.
The intent again was to build an early 1970s style gasser.
He has an early 1970s Sun Super Tach.
Not a modern reproduction, not a new one.
A vintage Hurst shifter with the cool white T handle on it.
The only thing I can see in here
that doesn't exactly fit the early 1970s build
is it has a little more modern AutoMeter water gauge.
But it does have an early Stewart Warner oil pressure gauge.
I just love this thing.
So as long as I'm sitting here waxing poetic,
why don't we start it up?
(engine rumbles)
Obviously, lights right off.
Sounds great.
Really nice lumpy idle.
He has his red line set a little over 7,000 RPMs.
So clearly the bottom end of that Z/28 block is built right.
60 pounds of oil pressure at idle.
Just everything's just the way I'd want it.
(engine revving)
So because this car was built to be a drag car,
and it ran in the 12s, it has a roll bar.
And Bob built this roll bar himself.
It's really slick.
Comes down, it's mounted right into the chassis.
It's everywhere you look, the car has
really quality touches to it all the way through.
Clearly not a car that was built
to just go over an auction block.
This was a well thought out car,
built by a caring owner,
who's enjoyed it for a lot of years.
(jaunty music)
I've finished my appraisal of Bob's 1956 Chevy.
I have my number, so we're gonna go pull him back out here
and see what he thinks of it.
Welcome back, Bob.
- [Bob] Well thanks, Colin.
- You're heading to the principal's office.
- Okay.
Where's my hall pass?
- Obviously I've gone over your car.
I love it.
It's great.
It's cool.
You've done magnificent work.
And I love your history with the car.
- Thank you.
- The pride of ownership is evident, as they say.
- Yeah.
- So I have a number. - Sure.
- I'm curious, you've owned it forever.
I mean, you follow these things.
What do you think it's worth?
- Yeah, you know, to me they're like lost puppies.
So I kinda don't actually have a number.
But I can tell you that when I bought this car,
it didn't run, it had a broken 327 in it.
And I paid $3,500 for the car, and had to tow it home.
I have several friends who have asked
if I ever wanted to sell it,
and I've told them wasn't too sure
I'd ever wanna sell it, so.
- Okay.
You've been around cars for a long time.
You know how it is.
It's, everybody has their own taste,
and peculiarities, and they like what they like.
- Sure.
- I think it's a great car.
I mean we can't apply a price guide to it
and we can't compare it to a modern restomod.
So it's kind of in a weird space.
It's floating out there on its own.
You've kind of made this car famous.
You've had it in countless articles
and GM parts catalogs over the years.
And that means a lot too.
So, people know the car.
It's a known quantity.
That being said, I think the car is worth $50,000.
And I think if two people want it, it's worth more.
If you find somebody that's really into the history of it,
I mean it's a wild card.
It wouldn't surprise me if it was $75,000 to the right guy.
This car has the quality and the look.
And can you put me on the list
if you ever wanna sell it? - Sure.
- Can you call me? - Sure, absolutely.
- Because then my number won't matter either.
'Cause you just tell me
and then I'll make a yes or no decision.
- Okay, that's fine.
Well you already know the car, so. (laughing)
- [Colin] Yeah, I know the car.
But again, that's what it comes down to in the end.
- So that's considerably more than I paid for it.
- Right.
And you just built it with junkyard parts,
you told me yourself. - There you go.
Better yet.
Exactly, I did.
- I think it's a wonderful car,
and your history is wonderful,
and I appreciate everything you did with it.
- My pleasure.
- And I love looking at cars like this,
so thank you so much for bringing it.
Really appreciate it. - Okay, Colin.
Great, well thank you very much.
- We'll talk when you decide to sell it.
- [Bob] Okay, alrighty.
But I'm not gonna tell my wife, okay?
- [Colin] It's fine, I won't tell mine either.
- [Bob] Okay.
(engine revving)