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Cars in Taylor Swift Music VideosRarified Air – ‘62 Chevy Bel Air Bubble Top
This unique bubble top ’62 Chevy Bel Air manages to honor the classic look while making critical modernizations in this one-of-a-kind build.
The Singular Look of the ’62 Chevy Bubble Top
For car enthusiasts, one of the biggest attractions of the cars of the 1950s and 1960s is their constant, rapid evolution. The heated rivalry between Detroit’s Big Three automakers, Ford, Chrysler, and GM, gave us an era of unprecedented change as each company sought market advantage through annual updates. Engines grew in power, and body styles morphed year-over-year to remain at the forefront of public tastes. This constant flux meant many unique body styles and engine offerings that winked in and out of existence, leaving us indelible singular classics like the 1962 Chevy Bel Air “bubble top.”
Our featured listing is such an example, an impressively restored and modified 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air “bubble top” sporting Nardo Gray paint and a 6.0L LS V8 under the hood. The combination of an impressive restoration that respects the original design, plus a bevy of modern mechanical upgrades, makes this one of the finest ’62 Chevys around.
Fifth-Generation Chevy Bel Air
The prior 1960 model year was a harbinger of things to come for Chevrolet styling. The wild, one-year-only design of the 1959 Chevy, with its cat’s-eye taillights and bat wing fins, was tamed considerably the following year as the 1960 model shed ostentation for slickness with straighter lines, smaller fins, and a return to the double/triple taillights of the 1958. (Styling was shared between models with the Biscayne as the entry-level car, the Bel Air as the mid-level car, and the Impala, with its distinctive triple taillights as the top-of-the-line model.)
For the new fifth-generation, Chevrolet brought in an even flatter, sleeker design. Engines for the now mid-tier Bel Air included the 235-cu.-in. straight six and a host of V8 options that included the 283 cu.-in. (170-230 hp), several versions of the 348 cu.-in. V8 (250-350 hp) with the mid-year addition 409 V8, good for 360 hp, rounding out the top of the range. The 409-equipped Bel Air became a favorite at drag strips, frequently putting down 12-second quarter-mile times and besting the top-tier Impala. Body styles included two- and four-door hardtops and sedans. Of course, year-over-year styling changes, while expensive, were the order of the day, and the fifth-gen Chevy continued to evolve.
1962 was a year of significant changes to the Bel Air and the rest of the lineup. The four-door hardtop was discontinued while a new four-door station wagon was brought in. The two-door hardtop a.k.a. the Sport Coupe, with its distinctive “bubble top” design, remained. There is some debate among Chevy die-hards whether both the 1961 Impala and ‘61/’62 Bel Air count as “bubble tops.” The design is defined by its wraparound windshield, curving A-pillar, deleted B-pillar as well as a sloping roof, curving C-pillar, and fishbowl-like wraparound rear glass. For 1962, the Impala reverted to a blockier look for its hardtop.
For 1963, the Bel Air received more subtle updates to the body, and an inch added to the overall length of the car. A new 230 cu.-in. straight-six was brought onboard while the 409 was tuned to reach 425 horsepower. The 1964 model year chopped off half an inch in length while carrying over much of the styling for the final year of the fifth-generation Bel Air.
This Restomod Bel Air Pull Out All the Stops
Key to a good restomod (restored and modified) classis is not only retaining but honoring what made the original car special and distinctive, even as mechanicals are modernized and creature comforts added. This 1962 “bubble top” Chevrolet Bel Air manages to do just that. Its Nardo gray exterior and red interior harmonize cool and warm. The point of contrast is, of course, the bubble top itself, which draws the eye immediately rearward from the curving A-pillar and the descending roofline back along the gradual slope of the C-pillar and rear glass.
A recent restoration, just 2,300 miles ago, has seen every detail attended to from the grille’s gleaming brightwork to the well-sorted undercarriage. The suspension has been upgraded. Brakes are now Wilwood discs front and rear. Custom wheels are wrapped in new tires. Under the hood is a 2005 6.0L LS. This 4-inch bore motor is a larger version of GM’s small-block that saw widespread use in trucks and SUVs and makes between 300 and 345 horsepower. It comes paired with a GTO’s 4L60E automatic transmission. The Bel Air’s interior has been cloaked in red-on-red covering the upholstery, carpet, door cards, and dash. Modernizations included Dakota digital gauges, a modern stereo system, and modern AC.
Given their relative rarity and desirable styling, bubble-top Chevys have risen in price over the years and now often top $80,000 at auction. This 1962 restomod Bel Air is priced at a very reasonable $89,962.
The 153 cubic inch Four and the 194 cubic inch Six weren’t introduced until 1962, and they were never offered in the full-size Chevrolet. The 153 was the standard engine in the new-for-1962 Chevy II. The 194 was the optional engine for the Chevy II (standard in the Nova), and it would later become the standard engine in the new-for-1964 Chevelle.
The Chevrolet engine options for 1961 were the 235 cubic inch Six, the 283 cubic inch V8, the 348 cubic inch V8, and, introduced at midyear, the 409 cubic inch V8.
Sorry for the confusion! That paragraph was talking about the available engines across the entire Chevy line-up. We went back and streamlined/clarified the information to focus on the Bel Air specifically.