WAPAKONETA — Al Elsass, of Wapakoneta, has owned his 1956 Chevy Bel-Air Convertible for 41 years.
He purchased the car from a friend that had served in Vietnam with him. At the time that his friend went to Vietnam, he parked the car behind his mom’s barn, where it sat for years. Elsass, being a car guy, bought it for just $100. By the time he got it home, the back tires had blown off, he was driving on the rims, and the convertible top was blowing off the car as well.
“My friends were laughing at me for buying it. Today they wish they had it,” Elsass said.
It took Elsass three years finding the parts for his car, which at that time was a hot rod. His friend had raced the car at Kettlersville Drag Strip and Pence Drag Strip in Sidney, and ran it in D modified production.
Elsass then had other plans. He found original parts, and now the car is back to original with all numbers matching. He takes it to car shows and it does “really good” at the car shows.
“It took me over 20 years to find all of the original matching number pieces to put together,” Elsass said. “The car is not for sale. I have been offered money for it several times at car shows. It will be going to my son, Eric.”
The car features a 265 cubic inch V-8 motor with 200 horsepower. It contains a very rare first design intake-W at the rear of the carburetor, along with hard-to-find early valve covers that are not notched. The antenna is a single rear antenna only on early builds, as the car was built in January of 1956. The engine has all matching numbers on the motor, transmission and rear-end.
Elsass owes a special thanks to Mike Stolzenburg and Bob Williams for helping him with restoring the car.
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