1970 chevrolet Bel Air ?

[American_car_lover]

I saw a newspaper ad for a 1970 Chevrolet Bel Air car and I am thinking of taking a look at it.I phoned in and the guy told me it's a 4 door , 6500 cc car. He lives 250 Kilometres away from my city.

I decided to hit the net to see it and read about it. My net search didn't produce much , it looks like an obscure car to me.Almost all sites are talking about the 56 Bel Air , nothing about the 1970 model.

Old American cars are difficult to find in my part of the world but I don't want to jump head first.

Is this model a gem or a bomb? Do you have any useful links / pics for it?

[curtis73]

The full-size chevys (B-bodies) often came with many names over the years and often had very little distinguishing them. There was the 510, Bel Air, Biscayne, Impala, Caprice, and maybe another than I'm missing.

Usually the Biscayne was the stripped down sleeper; power nothing and cheap hubcaps. 510s and Bel Airs were more of a middle-road option vehicle. Caprice and Impala were often the upscale versions. Sometimes they were distinguished by little subtle external details, like the Biscayne had four tail lights and the Impala had six, but same car, same shape.

It all really amounted to nothing, because you could get darn near any option in any of the vehicles. You could get a stripped down Impala, or order most of the SS options in a Bel Air.

The 6500 cc engine to which he refers is what we SAE folks call a 396. Its a big block. If its the original engine option, it might make for a rare car, although not necessarily add to its collector value. You can never tell.

Here are some historical specifics.

• It originally sold for a base price of US$ 2998
• The 396 for that year made either 350 hp or 375 hp. That was gross hp and translates to about 260-290 by today's numbers.
• approximately 66,800 V8 and 9000 six-cyl Bel Airs were made that year for a total of 75,800, but it doesn't say how many were big blocks
• Shipping weight is 3763 lbs (1707 kg)
• The big block was not a listed option, but probably not too hard to order. If its original, its rare. Most likely its a transplant... which is just as fun

When you go look at it, take this info with you. The VIN should start out "155" if it was a 6-cylinder car and "156" if it was a V8 car. Then the 4th and 5th digit tells you the body style; in your case 69 = four door sedan. The next digit tells you where it was made:

A=Atlanta
B=Baltimore
C=Southgate, CA
F=Flint Michigan
G=Framingham, Mass.
I=Oshawa
J=Janesville, Wis
K=Kansas City
L=Los Angeles
N=Norwood, Ohio
R=Arlington TX
S=St. Louis
T=Tarrytown, NY
U=Lordstown, OH
W=Willow Run, Mich
Y=Wilmington, DE
Z=Freemont, CA

The last digits are the sequential production number starting with 100,000 as the first. If yours reads 244044, then its the 144,044th Bel Air built that year. My prediction is that yours will go something like this;

15569F1xxxxx

Most Bel Airs that went out of the country were six cylinder cars, most were made at either Flint or Oshawa, and since only 76,000 Bel Airs were made, the next digit should be a "1" followed by the sequential number.

Have fun and let us know how it goes! Where do you live, by the way? If its overseas, its definitely a gem if its in good shape. Not too many made it that far away and those that did have usually rotted away.