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

Why, Man? Why???

Pretty simple. I was always into old cars, and always into customs.

My father, Charlie Pinto, was always into old cars and customizing in the 40s, 50s and 60s. In 1968, he took a ’66 Mustang 2+2 Fastback and did so many mods on it, it was damn near unrecognizable. He chopped out a cabriolet top, mounted ’63 Imperial headlights on the front, and ’59 Caddy tailfins on the back. Then he painted it Corvette Bronze and drove it around for a while. He sold it before I was old enough to know what it was, and this is the only picture of it that exists. (Where the car is I have know idea) I always wanted to do something like it, and over the years I had a ton of old cars but never any lettuce or time or a garage.

Dad’s 66 Mustang 2+2 with ’59 Caddy Fins and ’63 Imperial Headlights, 1968


I always wanted a car with big fins. By the time I could afford one, I couldn’t afford one anymore. ’50s car price started getting krazy nuts high in the ’90s, so in 2000, when my wife, my father and I moved to Florida, he made the suggestion…


“Why not put fins on the Chevy?”


That simple sentence would turn into years of hard work, time, some money, and a lot of crazy looks from a lot of people!

What led to this sled…

I had a lot of vintage/classic cars over the years. I got to drive some of the coolest, fastest, craziest cars around from when I was a teenager. But I never had the resources to build a real custom or hot rod. I was always more into big luxury cars with big, fast engines than I was into rods; Between 1986 and today I’ve owned seven Cadillacs, three Lincolns, and an Imperial, all vintage. The only time I strayed was when I bought a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT Turbo convertible, a small car that was necessary to navigate the construction on the Florida highways I drove between ’06 and ’15. Once the construction was done, I jumped into the 1985 Cadillac Seville that’s my everyday car at the time of this writing (2020). Here are some of the cool cars my Dad and I had over the years…

  • 1975 Dunham Coach Superfly Eldorado
  • 1975 Dunham Coach Superfly Eldorado
  • 1974 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
  • 1974 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
  • 2005 PT Cruiser Turbo GT
  • 1973 Chevy Caprice Mild Custom
  • Pimped-out ’75 Buick LeSabre Convertible
  • Pimped-out ’75 Buick LeSabre Convertible
  • Pimped-out ’75 Buick LeSabre Convertible
  • 1950 Dodge Meadowbrook
  • 1956 Buick Century V8 Wagon
  • 1956 Buick Century “Dragon Wagon”
  • Dad’s 1946 Buick Mild Custom
  • Dad’s 1948 Buick Mild Custom
  • 1960s MG sportster
    Dad’s 1960s MG Sports Car mild custom
  • MEtro Bus
    Dad’s 1950s Metro Van converted into a Camper in the 1970s
  • 1948 Plymouth
    Dad’s 1948 Plymouth
  • Dad’s 49 Dodge Wayfarer with custom touches
  • 1968 Mercury Monterey Convertible
    1968 Mercury Monterey Convertible
  • 1989 Cadillac Brougham
  • Foxy, my 1985 Cadillac Seville

Years of owning old cars gave me the experience I needed to tackle the custom job on the Chevy. My Dad taught me a lot about mechanical and body work. I grew up in a neighborhood with a half dozen mechanics, all of whom had a hot rod or muscle car. They would always come running when we brought a new vintage car home. Hell, we got cars that hadn’t seen daylight in 15 years running! So I learned a lot. And working on my own cars, I learned the hard way about engines, front-end suspension, transmissions, bodywork, and interiors. I believe my first “great feat” was setting the timing on my ’63 Imperial. I believe my greatest mechanical feat was learning how to tune and program the computerized electronic fuel injection on my 1985 Cadillac Seville HT4100 engine…late 70s solid state technology, still working today. All that…plus learning new things from friends, and from youtube…got me to the point of being able to start hacking away at the Chevy to turn her into something truly unique.

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