1955 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery

Here's a style of car that died out a while ago, largely replaced by small vans. The "sedan delivery" style was a two-door wagon with no side windows into the cargo area and no back seat. They were more maneuverable on crowded city streets than truck-based delivery vans, and generally cheaper and more fuel efficient.

This one's a '55 Chevy that's obviously been hot-rodded. The chrome trim on the rockers is pure Bel Air, but the vast majority of sedan deliveries were done on the spartan Chevrolet 150. Things like "passenger side sun visor", "passenger seat", "heater", and "oil filter" were fripperies that cost extra money.

Base price for a '55 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery was $1,699 in those pre-inflation dollars, or about twenty grand in current money.

Those expanses of sheet metal enclosing the cargo area made a handy place to paint the company name, in this case "Paul's Garage & Speed Shop" which, alas, does not appear to have a web presence under that name that I can find.

This one was photographed in May of 2024 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS.

1955 Chevrolet Bel Air

1955 saw a complete re-styling of Chevrolet's lineup. The new cars had "shoebox" lines that dispensed with the distinctive pontoon fenders of the previous generation, while the rear fenders had a hint of the then-trendy tail fins and the windshield had a pronounced wraparound curve to it. The models, however, retained their previous designations. There was the spartan 150, oriented toward fleet sales, the midrange 210, and the top-of-the-line Bel Air.

The Bel Air featured many items that were optional on the 210 as standard equipment and could be had as a 2- or 4-door sedan, a wagon, a convertible, or a hardtop sport coupe.

The two-tone Sport Coupe in the picture above is finished in India Ivory over Harvest Gold. Under the hood could be one of two "Blue Flame" inline sixes, producing 123 or 135 gross horsepower, or the big news for 1955: Chevrolet's new Turbo Fire pushrod V-8. Displacing 265 cubic inches with an "8-to-1 ultra-high compression ratio" and a two-barrel carburetor, the new Chevy small block made 162 SAE gross horsepower.

Not long into the model year came the Super Turbo Fire version, with a four-barrel carb, performance intake, larger air cleaner, and dual exhausts. If those are factory duals on the car in the picture, it has the Super Turbo Fire, which was rated at 180 ponies.

In a test of the Bel Air 4-door sedan with the regular 165-horse small block and PowerGlide transmission, Motor Life recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 13.6 seconds.

This one was photographed with a Nikon D3 and a 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens in November of 2022 in the top photo and with a Nikon Zfc and a Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 in July of 2026 in the bottom photo. 

1955 Ford F-250

Ford's F-series of pickup trucks started with the 1948 model year. Called the "Bonus-Built" line, they were all-new designs, replacing the prewar carryovers that had resumed civilian sales after VJ day. They offered a stronger frame, V-8 engines were available at every level of the lineup, including the light-duty ½-ton F-1, and were the first domestic pickups to offer telescoping hydraulic shock absorbers, which were marketed as "Aircraft-Type" shocks.

The Bonus-Built trucks were replaced for '53 with the new "Triple Economy" series of trucks. This was when Ford went to the triple-digit nomenclature that has hung on to this day. The half-ton F-1 became the F-100, while the ¾-ton F-2 was transmogrified into the F-250.

The F-250 had a wheelbase eight inches longer than the F-100, at 118", and had a heavier duty suspension, rear axle, and 8-lug wheels. The wheels make it an unusual choice for hot-rodding, as disc brake conversions aren't really available, so the driver of the '55 F-250 in the picture is something of an iconoclast.

Engine choices for 1955 were either Ford's 223 cubic inch Mileage Maker  OHV inline six, rated at 115 SAE gross horsepower, or the Y-Block 239cid OHV V-8, which put out 130 horses.

This one was photographed in October of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

1955 Packard Patrician

The Patrician was the last "Senior Packard", the company's top-of-the-line model, intended to go head to head against Lincolns, Imperials, and Cadillacs on the American market.

For 1955, the Patrician above, with its Agate-over-Topaz Metallic two tone paint job, would have featured Packard's first... and only ...V-8 engine. Displacing 352 cubic inches and topped with a Rochester 4bbl carburetor, the overhead valve V-8 put out 260 SAE gross horsepower in the Patrician.

The Patrician also features a "Twin-Ultramatic" transmission, an improvement on the existing Ultramatic, designed by a young Packard engineer who had been lured away from his job at Chrysler by a $14,000-a-year salary offer. The engineer's name: John DeLorean.

Talk about a different era. You can tell the image the manufacturer wished to project with a vehicle name like "Patrician". Bunches of chrome gingerbread, a two-tone paint job, and sweeping ribbed stainless steel accent panels on the sides. It even says "The Patrician" in script on the fenders behind the front wheel wells.

The photo above was taking in southeastern Colorado in October of 2013 using a Sony Cybershot DSC-W650.

1955 Plymouth Plaza

The Plaza was the de-contented base model of the 1950's Plymouth, below the midrange Savoy and the high-zoot Belvedere. Mostly intended for fleet purchases, although also purchased by frugal individuals, it had a very limited option list.

The 1955 model, like this Miami Blue 2-door club sedan... well, it may be a business coupe, since the only differences are the lack of a back seat and rear roll-down windows in the latter ...shows off the first year of Virgil Exner's "Forward Look" styling.

The factory motors would have been either the 230 cubic inch PowerFlow inline six rated at 117 SAE gross horsepower, or the optional 157 horsepower 241cid Hy-Fire V-8.

However, if the MoonEyes tank, leaf springs up front, enormous headers ahead of exhaust cutouts, and six-bolt rear wheels that indicate a truck rear end is under there aren't enough of a giveaway that there's something more serious going on under the hood, then the "Hemi" decal on the fender sure should.

Classic gasser, very period-correct drag car.

Photo snapped in June of '24 with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X & Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 lens.