Initially, General Motors executives wanted an entirely new car for 1957, but production delays necessitated the 1955-56 design for one more year. Ed Cole, chief engineer for Chevrolet, dictated a series of changes that significantly increased the cost of the car. These changes included a new dashboard, sealed cowl, and the relocation of air ducts to the headlight pods, which resulted in the distinctive chrome headlight that helped make the '57 Chevy a classic. A wide grille was used to give the car a wider look from the front and the now famous '57 Chevy tailfins were designed to duplicate the wide look in the rear. These styling features make the '57 Chevy one of the most beautiful and commonly customized cars in American car history. The car you see here has benefited from an extensive 5 year restoration that was just completed in the last 6 months. Obviously the highlight of this car is the paint. As good as it looks in photos, the car looks even better in person. When painting a car, black is by far the hardest to make look perfect. This becomes even more difficult when the body of the car isn't absolutely straight as an arrow. Black will show even the slightest of imperfections. When I say this car has a mirror like finish and is laser straight, there is no exaggeration. If this car was painted all one color, it would have an incredible paint job... But as you can see, it has one of the most amazing fire paint jobs you will ever see. The brother of the gentleman we purchased this car from owns Aggressive Designs in Santa Fe California (www.aggressivedesigns.com). Former clients include Criss Angel, Christina Aguilera, DJ Pauly D, Pink, and Tom Cruise. He gave the car to him for a paint job because he wanted the car to be a fun daily driver. In his own words, his brother "went a little overboard". We think "little" is an understatement. To give the car a sinister look the bumpers, trim pieces, and lights were all blacked out or darkened. The bumpers and trim were all powder coated, with most parts being new. While the grill was kept gold, the headlights and blinkers were both tinted as well as the windows. For a detailed set of photos of the paint process, copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://www.aggressivedesigns.com/special_p50belair.html. The only blemish to the exterior is a crack above the passenger side rear wheel well. This is from pulling the fender out a bit to accommodate the wider rear tires. Inside, the interior looks great and is all new. The black vinyl seats are nearly perfect with no wear showing. The same goes for the carpet, door panels and headliner. All of which are new. The dash has been painted with the same metallic black to match the exterior. The dash has been replaced with digital gauges from Dakota Dash that all work with no problems. Steering column is from Flaming River. The car has had a completely new wiring harness installed for improved reliability as well as a new Pioneer AM/FM/CD/MP3 player. All lights, blinkers and wipers work with no problems. All of the rubber around the windows is new as well as all of the window fuzz.Under the hood, the heart of this flaming monster is a 383 stroker motor connected to a 700R4 transmission with a 2300 stall converter. The top end of the motor was completely rebuilt by C&J Engineering out of Santa Fe Springs California. During rebuild a mild roller cam was installed as well as a tuned and re-jetted Holley carb to feed this small block. Exhaust is handled though custom headers running into a dual stainless exhaust system that dumps behind the rear axle. The underside of the car has never seen any undercoating and is solid. The car sits 2 inches lower in the front thanks to drop spindles and new shocks and springs all around. Stopping is handled with power disc brakes in the front and drums in the rear. The wheels have all been custom painted to match the rest of the car and are wrapped with newer radial tires that all have good tread life left on them. This is an incredible work of art that will draw more eyes then any six figure exotic or luxury car on the road. Be prepared for a crowd at the next car show or cruise because you will be the focus of everyone's attention with this amazing '57 Chevy. VIN number is B57K112577 and the car is being sold on a clean Missouri title showing that the previous owner has had the car since 2006.