You Can Be The Envy Of Every Boomer In This All-Gold Chevy Bel Air
Image: Mecum Auctions
Over 600 different components of this 1955 Bel Air Sport Coupe have been electrolytically plated in gold to create an exact replica of a long-missing piece of General Motors lore. Back in 1955, to commemorate the the 50 millionth General Motors Car built, Chevrolet rolled out an all-gold ’55 and paraded it through the streets of Flint, Michigan. After the parade the car disappeared, never to be seen again. Decades later, this car was painstakingly crafted in tribute to the long-lost piece of Chevy history.
Tig Notaro Recalls Joyriding In Her Mother’s Car
Image: Mecum Auctions
Starting with a brand new body shell and some of the spare pieces left over from the original car, the car shown here was built as a spared-no-expense replica finally finished in January of this year. This tribute is a mix of reproduction and original pieces, down to a set of new-old-stock AC spark plugs from 1955. It’s probably built to a much higher standard than anything that would have rolled off a Chevrolet assembly line in-period. The seller claims that over 1,800 hours were rolled into building this machine.
Image: Mecum Auctions
General Motors actually built three different gold ’55s for this momentous occasion. Two were used to promote the event beforehand, and the third was the actual 50 millionth General Motors car off the assembly line (or close enough to be fudged, who knows what record keeping looked like in the early days of Cadillac?) The first car was re-painted and sold off, the second car burned down (though some of the parts on that car were salvaged for this build), and the fifty-millionth just evaporated into thin air. This meticulous show car memorializes the event in a way that hasn’t been seen since 1955. It’s as close to an exact replica as you can get. I don’t really understand it, but I respect the hell out of it.
Image: Mecum Auctions
The car was built to win awards, and it was given plaque after plaque at the recent Chicago World Of Wheels show. Now that the builders have accomplished what they set out to, it’s time to move on, and the car is for sale. It’ll be crossing the block at the Mecum Indy auction on Saturday, May 18. There’s no telling what it’ll sell for if two interested parties with too much money get in the same room. There’s nothing like it, that’s for sure.
As Goldmember once said in his titular iconic 2002 Mike Meyers film, “I love goooooooold!” Maybe he’ll be the winning bidder.
