Welcome To Chris Pinto's 1953 Chevy Hot Rod Belair Wild Custom Site!

  • Garage
    • Cool Stories of my ’53 Chevy Hot Rod – The Blog
    • About Christopher Pinto, Designer/Author
    • Mystery Novels by Christopher Pinto
    • Privacy Policy
  • In the Beginning…
  • Why, Man? Why?
  • Body
    • 1990 Backyard Restoration
    • Second Restoration, and Changing the Body
    • The Fins
    • How I Did It
    • 2020 Pearl Paint Job
    • Driving Around 2000-2020
  • Interior
    • 1938 Digital Dash Cam
    • Trunk
    • Cabriolet Top
  • Power Plant
    • Brakes, Wheels, and Mechanical Mischief
  • Futurama
  • Photo Galleries
    • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust Vintage Photos
    • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust New Photos

The Fins

It took and entire year of sanding, fiberglassing, sanding, bondo-ing, sanding, more sanding, priming, wet sanding and sanding some more to finally finish the fins. Don’t ask me how I got them straight or to look the same, but they came out pretty good.

This all started when I was talking to my Dad about wanting a ’50s car with fins. “Why don’t you put fins on the Chevy?” he suggested, and that’s how this came to be. First we experimented with cardboard cut-outs. We tried ’63 Caddy style fins, but they didn’t look right with the rounded corners. ’58 Caddy fins would have looked good, but I couldn’t find any parts cars locally, and getting someone to chop the fins off a ’58 Caddy anywhere in the country was going to cost more than the car would ever be worth. Eventually I settled on the Shark Fin idea. The rounded lines mesh with the lines of the car, and combined with the ’59 Caddy tail lights and continental kit, I think it really comes together.

Original Sketch for my ’53 Chevy Custom Hot Rod

It wasn’t until I used Adobe Illustrator to draw the car that I was able to create a fin look that I liked. Illustrator made it easy to try different ideas. Having years of graphic design experience was very helpful too.

53-Chevy-hot-rod-rendering-ai-2000
Rendering of my Custom 1953 Chevy Belair from 2001. I’m still considering doing blue ghosted pearl flames later on. After all, she has a Blue Flame engine.
As you can see from this photo from 2020, a lot of the styling cues from my original concept made it to the final, including the rounded fins, ’41 Caddy hood ornament, ’59 Caddy tail lights, chrome spoked wheels, and custom sun visor. I also went from wanting a lighter purple to the Intruder Purple Pearl that looks black until the light hits it.
53-Chevy-tail-fins-back-2020

To find out how I built the tail fins, visit the “How I Did It” page.

Recent Posts

  • Gotta Replace 2nd Gear in the 1953 Chevy Belair Custom
  • New Photos of the 1953 Chevy Custom Belair
  • ’53 Chevy at the Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale February 2021
  • Living in Spotlight Hell with the 53 Chevy
  • New Door Striker So I Don’t Fall Out – 1953 Chevy

Recent Comments

  • Pat Lanspery aka TikiPaka on ’53 Chevy at the Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale February 2021

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Note: All photos and stories ©2020 Christopher Pinto. All rights reserved. Any duplication of any part of this site, text, or images for commercial use and/or without permission the owner is a violation of copyright laws. Please only share photos for non-commercial use (no selling). Please feel free to “Pin” photos or share on social media (non-commercial use only).

Pages

  • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust New Photos
  • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust Vintage Photos
  • 1938 Digital Dash Cam
  • 1990 Backyard Restoration
  • 2020 Pearl Paint Job
  • About Christopher Pinto, Designer/Author
  • Brakes, Wheels, and Mechanical Mischief
  • Cabriolet Top
  • Cool Stories of my ’53 Chevy Hot Rod
  • Driving Around 2000-2020
  • Futurama
  • How I Did It
  • In the Beginning…
  • Mystery Novels by Christopher Pinto
  • Photo Galleries
  • Privacy Policy
  • Second Restoration, and Changing the Body
  • Stardust…The Famous Finned ’53 Chevy Belair!
  • The Engine
  • The Fins
  • The Interior
  • The Trunk
  • Why, Man? Why???

Archives

  • November 2021
  • March 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020

Categories

  • 1953 Chevy Stories (6)
  • 53 Chevy Repairs & Mechanical (1)

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1953 Chevy Hotrod Wild Custom Belair ©2020 Christopher Pinto