By Jay Hirsch
What began life as a basic Chevy 150 two-door sedan has been transformed into the magnificent custom street rod seen here. Toni Sakos — and that’s Toni with an “i,” for Antoinette who has an artist’s “eye” for works of art — had a vision of what her Chevy 150 could not only look like, but perform like, in the 21st century
The 1956 Chevy was two and half inches lower than the 1955, which gave Toni the look she imagined when she decided on which 1955–1957 Chevy for her dream car. The 1955 was a little too tall and the 1957 did not have the Cadillac-like tail-light assembly that would work for her artist’s eye.
The 1957 also had 14-inch wheels. Even though Toni was going to use her own wheels, she wanted to have the car look as it might have in 1956 if Chevy had made it.
Toni and her husband, John Sakos, who is also an artist, lengthened the side trim on the rear quarter panels by sixteen inches. The original side chrome was “too short” for Toni, and the side trim of the Bel Air was too long and cumbersome, and “it did nothing to enhance the design of the car and also did not work for a two-tone paint scheme,” she said.
The ’56 Chevy’s tail lights were not that attractive to Toni’s eye, and the housing was too short and stubby for the lens in there. The new LED tail lights fill the entire housing. The gas fill, which was in the driver’s side tail light, was moved to the center of the car behind the license plate, and a new gas tank was installed under the rear of the car, similar to how the 1960–1966 Cadillacs were designed.
Next on the to-do list: the small, chromed V-8 emblems under those tail lights. John was planning to have those made, when Bill’s Service and Body Shop in Pennsylvania that did all the work, told John that there is a company that makes V-8 emblems that may “do the trick,” and they certainly did. Toni did not want the large V-8 under the Chevy emblem on the trunk or hood, which she found too distracting. As for that custom-made emblem on the trunk, John made the plastic lens in his studio workshop which is LED lit.
Getting to the front of the car, and the hood in particular, Toni wanted a louvered hood but felt the usual way of louvering never looked that good. So Toni designed the louvers to follow the flow of the wings on the Chevy chromed airplane hood ornament. The two louvers on either side of the center of the hood are straight with the other louvers, each on slight angles with the outer louvers forming the “V.”
As for the wheels and tires, Toni likes to cruise at 70 to 80 mph on the highway and is not that concerned with taking a curve at 75 mph.
“That is why the car has four-wheel disc brakes, to slow down and stop,” she said.
The front tires are 235/75 x 15, and the rear tires are 255/75 x15, with the rear of the car one-half inch higher than the front. The wheels are painted dull silver with “chromed baby moon” wheel covers.
Powering this “new 150” is a new 350 Chevy fuel-injection crate motor with a custom air cleaner housing made by John and painted by Toni. The original radiator was re-cored and works fine and also keeps a nostalgic look to the car; Toni and John did not like the look of a new aluminum radiator.
After all the body work was completed and before the new engine was installed came the choice for color. Toni’s favorite color is blue, and Chevy had two shades of blue in 1956 that Toni liked very much: Nassau Blue and the darker Harbor Blue. Toni had Bill’s Service make a few pints of each, with different tints added to each pint. Then Bill sprayed some bare metal he had in the shop with the different tints added, and they waited for the paint to cure over night before deciding on which shade of Nassau and Harbor Blue to go with. The finished work can be seen in the pictures here.
Toni asked me if I would like to take the car for a “spin” up and down the road in front of their house. Of course the answer was “YES!” Sitting in that newly-upholstered, two-tone blue bench seat where your legs hang down as if you were sitting in a club chair, makes one understand why SUV’s are so popular. Your legs hang down, they are not stretched flat.
The Chevy has more than enough power and performance from that new 350 OHV V-8 and just enough of a grumble from the custom exhaust to let people know you riding in an American icon.
When I returned the car to the long driveway of Toni and John’s house, John then told me the following: “To say this is Toni’s car is not an understatement. I do not even move the Chevy out of the garage without asking Toni beforehand. I think I have driven the car twice, and then Toni was in the car!”
