1961 Bel Air family project

[Shake-N-Bake]

I've never seen the rubber-carpet-rubber floor covering combo in anything except '61 Parkwoods. Did they come in Bel Air cars as well? I've always thought it is extremely cool. Wish I would have had the foresight to remove the red one from my parts wagon when I got it 25 years ago.

According to the 1961 Specifications Manual published in Oct of '60, All Bel Air models receive vinyl coated rubber with carpet on tunnel as "regular equipment"....not sure if that could mean that full width carpet could be had as an option though. I presume there would be an RPO code if that was the case but I can't find any mention of such a code...??
The Impala series received full width carpet as regular equipment. Biscayne received colored keyed rubber. The only information in the specifications book on wagons is "vinyl-type cargo floor and covered wheel houses"....doesn't really say anything about the passenger compartment flooring. It looks like the wagons were available in 3 trim levels so I presume the 11 series came with colored keyed rubber in the passenger compartment, 15 series wagons had the rubber-carpet-rubber and the 17 series wagons had full carpet. Perhaps someone else can verify that I am reading the Specifications Manual correctly....

I have seen Bel Air cars at the salvage yard both ways (rubber-carpet-rubber and full width carpet). In particular, there is a fawn colored Bel Air that has full width carpet and it appears to be original to the car (but who really knows for certain?). In our case, our dad has owned the car since new and he says it came with full width carpet. I pulled full width carpet out of the car when I stripped it down....it was very old looking stuff and appeared to be original. I have seen discussions online where folks are adamant that NO Bel Airs ever shipped with full width carpet but that isn't the case with our car.

 

[1961BelAir427]

I have seen a few that had full width carpet that I'm pretty sure was original to the car. This would have been in the early 80's to mid 90's when I'm sure repro carpet was available already, but the carpet in those cars was already old and worn.
Did Chevy use the rubber-carpet-rubber in other years? I've only seen in on the 61 but that may be because those were always my main focus.

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

I have seen a few that had full width carpet that I'm pretty sure was original to the car. This would have been in the early 80's to mid 90's when I'm sure repro carpet was available already, but the carpet in those cars was already old and worn.
Did Chevy use the rubber-carpet-rubber in other years? I've only seen in on the 61 but that may be because those were always my main focus.

Good to know. So it sounds like full width carpet may have been an option for the Bel Air (and perhaps even the Biscayne?). I don't know which years the rubber-carpet-rubber combo was offered....I didn't even know it existed until I saw it at the salvage yard and began searching the internet for more info. They actually are pretty cool looking with the Bel Air logo....would be cool if someone reproduced those things.

 

[1961BelAir427]

It sure would be great. I think they look great with the logo that matches the door panel "medallion". I may be completely wrong about what was originally offered. I just posted up that I thought fender ornaments were an option and apparently they were Impala standard only and would have been available over the counter and never factory installed on Bel Airs. Tommy is the one who set me straight on that. Hopefully he will see this and fill us in on the floor covering issue as well.

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

We had a milestone weekend. On Saturday my daughter spent the morning waxing the exterior paint and trim while my son and I began installing the rear seat and side qtr panels. On Sunday my wife helped me install the door panels and front seat. I then started assembling the dash and hope to get it installed sometime this week (in between Thanksgiving feasts)

Now that I see the finished interior....the stripes are white, black and grey. I wonder if I should have gone with the white floor mats with grey Chevy logo? Does anyone have a photo of how that looks in a red interior vehicle?

 

[LMBRJQ 60]

We had a milestone weekend. On Saturday my daughter spent the morning waxing the exterior paint and trim while my son and I began installing the rear seat and side qtr panels. On Sunday my wife helped me install the door panels and front seat. I then started assembling the dash and hope to get it installed sometime this week (in between Thanksgiving feasts)

Now that I see the finished interior....the stripes are white, black and grey. I wonder if I should have gone with the white floor mats with grey Chevy logo? Does anyone have a photo of how that looks in a red interior vehicle?

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Greg,
In my opinion you have got it just right

Would not worry about other colors, your car looks stunning just the way it is

Congratulations

Steve

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

Greg,
In my opinion you have got it just right

Would not worry about other colors, your car looks stunning just the way it is

Congratulations

Steve

Thanks Steve,
My wife said the same thing. She thinks that white mats will be an eyesore so I guess I'll just stick with the red mats that I have.
Thanks again for the compliments. It's turning out a little better than we expected ourselves. We've been trying to do the best job that we can but reality says that some things are likely to be 'less than professional'. However, it's turning out to be more of the former and less of the latter so we hope the remaining items follow the same path.

Greg

 

[LMBRJQ 60]

Hi Greg,
I had a light colored carpet in a 37 ford Phaeton hot rod (chevy powered of course)
It was a black car with a tan interior and i thought tan carpet would look cool
It did but when the first mark got on it and i couldnt get it off i was so pissed
It marked like nothing else
I think white mats would end up being a pain to keep clean
I also think you want people to look at the car as a whole not be drawn to something that stands out, again just my opinion
Have to say again, awesome job on your car

Steve

 

[tripower]

Interior looks great...

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

Interior looks great...

Thanks Dan. I know the front seat is not correct but the original was lost in the early 80's when our dad installed power seats from a late 70's Buick.
I recently ran across a correct Bel Air seat frame for sale so we will keep that in storage until needed. For now we'll sport the Impala seat and hope that nobody calls us on it. (same with the upper radiator hose location....)

 

[Phil Reed]

I think your Belair seat with the Impala trim...............LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tripower]

I think your Belair seat with the Impala trim...............LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jim Sullivan]

Greg, the interior looks fantastic!

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

I think your Belair seat with the Impala trim...............LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks. My wife was a bit speechless as well. She said she didn't remember the car ever looking so good. She came along in '69 so her first memories of the car go back to the early 70's and some things had likely been changed by then. She does remember rolling down the quarter windows so she had fun helping me install those things and getting them adjusted so they operate well. It was kinda fun hearing the little stories as she remembered them.

I sent the photos to Gina at Ciadellas. She wants me to bring the car over when it's finished so she can get her own photos. That should be fun because the workers in her shop will get to see how the items look when installed.

 

[jim_ss409]

That interior looks great!

 

[63 dream'n]

Nice work......looks marvelous......

 

[DonSSDD]

Looks great to me too.

Don

 

[1961BelAir427]

Greg, In my opinion you have got it just right Would not worry about other colors, your car looks stunning just the way it is. Congratulations
Steve

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

So, we eventually got tired of patting ourselves on the back while staring at the interior and figured we should get back to work.
I opened up the transmission to see how things looked inside and found a few items that need attention. One of the studs on the shift shaft retainer bar (behind the side cover) was broken so that will have to be fixed. The 1st/reverse shift shaft was bent so that explains why the seal was leaking so much. Luckily we have a couple spare transmissions laying around so I'll find some usable parts and swap them out. Our dad had a 'creative' method of modifying the shift shaft levers to accommodate the switch from column to floor shift so I'll have to un-engineer his work to put it back to stock configuration.
I assembled the dash and installed it in the car.
Then I cleaned up the front frame horn area to get ready for chassis black. I'll remove the upper and lower A-arms so I can press in some new bushings and clean them up a bit.
My son and I also lifted the body off the frame so we can change the body bushings. We thought we were going to be lucky and get all the bolts loose without spinning any of the captured nuts but we had one guy that had to be difficult. Luckily that was the LH side mount just behind the axle so I was able to cut a hole in the access cover and reach in there with a wrench to finish the job. I then used a plastic plug to close up the hole that I made (unibit).

Hopefully I'll be able to re-install the drive train soon. Looking forward to hearing the engine start up again....

Still undecided on which steering wheel to use. I have steering wheels for '61 and '64 Bel Air models. I kinda like the '64 better as it has a more 'classic' look. However, the diameter of the collar base is about 1/8" smaller than the column. Of course the '61 wheel matches perfectly. My original plan was to use the '64 wheel and keep the '61 in storage for later....now I might flip that over and use the '61 wheel instead. Thoughts?
(I have a brand new horn button for the '64 (reproduction) but the '61 center cap is original and not exactly perfect...)

 

[LMBRJQ 60]

Looks good Greg,
What did you use to clean up the frame?

Steve

PS 1 vote for the 61 wheel