Well, I finally found some time to scan a few of the pictures of my dad's '57 Bel Air. He bought the car sometime in the summer of 1985, and "finished" it over the summer of 1998. 13 years is a long time to work on a car, but it really turned out nice. As you can see, she was no beauty queen when he dragged it home...
The car had no drivetrain, no windshield, and lots of junk inside. There were trim parts from 2 door hardtops, 2 door sedans, 4 door sedans, and various other unidentified vehicles packed in the interior and trunk. These pictures were taken after most of it was removed, however.
The car was originally a V-8 car, I would assume it was a 283, with a 3 speed trans.
The car appeared to be pretty solid, but he found a lot of rust in the rocker panels, front floor pans, front fenders and the front portion of the rear quarter panels. This picture shows how much sheet metal had to be replaced to make the car solid again.
Dad made a few "modifications" to the body as he went along. The hood rockets were removed and the holes were rounded over, the hood bar and "eyebrow" trim is painted like the body and the hood "V" was removed.
The trunk "V", license plate mount and lock were removed. The license plate is now mounted on a station wagon bumper, and the trunk latch is operated with an electric solenoid.
He made a few other "restifications" to the mechanical parts of the car, as well. A rebuilt '70 300 horse 350 now resides where the original 283 was, a muncie 4 speed replaced the 3 speed, a late model "605" power steering box and IDIDIT tilt column replaced the original manual steering, late model power disk brakes up front replace the original drums, a new Vintage Air air conditioning system, Griffin aluminum radiator, Rain Gear windshield wiper system and power windows pretty much round out the mods.
The interior was done in the factory pattern and colors, but he used convertible material instead of hard top material. Yes, the paint is an original '57 color, and it is the factory color for this car, although the top was originally white. The color is called Dusk Pearl.