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January 3, 2009

Old Yeller an All-American classic

By Doug Hill

Terry O'Dea was an over-the-road trucker for more than 30 years. He drove big rigs for the Chief, Roadway and Churchill lines. It was during those long hours of driving that the Norman resident spotted a car his wife has accused him of adoring above her.

"One day in 1981, I was in Shawnee delivering freight, going down Kennedy Street pulling a 48-foot trailer. The original owner, Mr. Tulley, was driving his 1955 Chevy Bel Air past me with a For Sale sign in the window," O'Dea said. He managed to follow the old man, flagged him down and purchased the car on the spot. Anyone with the money in his pocket who's ever dreamed of owning this uniquely American automobile would have done the same thing.

The Chevy that O'Dea's fondly refers to as Old Yeller because of its Harvest Gold paint job was delivered to Ada, Oklahoma's Service Chevrolet dealership new in 1955. It cost $1,536. In 2008, for insurance purposes Old Yeller's appraised value is $27,500. His gorgeous two-door sedan was assembled at the Chevrolet and Fisher Body plant in the Leeds Industrial District of Kansas City, Mo. Having first walked into the Leeds car factory at age 19 as a college student summer hire on the assembly line, I can tell you a bit about where Old Yeller was born. Cranking out new Chevrolets since 1929, the plant's factory floor was oil-soaked wood blocks. Warm weather ventilation was a humid breeze coming through open windows from across the Little Blue River. Labor was provided by hayseeds from small farming communities outside K.C. and hip inner-city African Americans living just blocks away. Management was by steely-eyed bosses. They were hard-nosed, no-nonsense men called Fisher Body Bulls. Together they made some of the prettiest little cars ever seen in the U.S.A. They were as cute as Dinah Shore who sang about them in the TV ads.

By the time O'Dea bought Old Yeller she'd been rode hard and put away wet for over 25 years. Her chassis required serious scrubbing. First he removed the engine and transmission, before scraping the entire undercarriage.

"I found that Easy Off oven cleaner works better than anything else," O'Dea said. He discovered only one perforation in the sheet metal. The original owner's wife's stiletto heel had worked a hole through the driver's side floorboard by the brake pedal.

"I had the car entirely repainted here in Norman to the original paint codes," O'Dea said.

GM's color description is poetic but inaccurate. The vehicle is 2-tone canary yellow and cream. The interior is also 2-tone with dark and light aquamarine. All the enameled trim, chrome bumpers and wheel covers are immaculate. O'Dea located a 1955 Oklahoma vehicle registration plate which he had painstakingly repainted by hand. It looks great and for a small annual fee ($21) to the state it's now the car's permanent tag.

Old Yeller has its original 235-cubic-inch in-line 6-cylinder engine with 2-barrel Carter carburetor and 2-speed Power Glide automatic transmission.

The engine is often referred to as the "Stove Bolt Six." The slotted head fasteners resembled the ones holding granny's wood burning stove together. Those power plants, sometimes also referred to as a Blue Flame 6, paired with the Power Glide tranny had hydraulic lifters and develop 136 hp. They were known for their durability, but the available V-8 was more popular.

O'Dea reports that he gets around 16 mpg, which is not bad considering the vehicle's weight. My own experience in 1971 with a 1956 Bel Air sporting the V-8 engine was around 8 mpg. Gasoline was 35 cents a gallon, so I had to sell it. Fill-ups were too expensive when you're making 50 cents an hour flipping burgers.

Finding parts for O'Dea's 53-year-old beauty is no problem at all. "The aftermarket suppliers are tremendous. There's no shortage of places to buy just about anything you'd ever need," he said.

A heater, windshield defroster and clock on the dash are Old Yeller's only amenities. The 1955 Chevy's marketing lure in its day was styling. It was a radical body style change from the 1954, a stodgy looking boat in comparison and the last of Chevrolet's fat fender cars. But rock 'n' roll was born in 1954, and with that many things changed in America, including automotive styling.

If he'd had her as a kid, O'Dea would have been a cool cat driving Old Yeller to his alma mater, Harding High School at NW 34th and Classen in Oklahoma City. But his first ride was actually a beat-up 1946 Chevrolet pickup.

"It was so ugly the vice principal called my dad and told him I couldn't park it on school property," O'Dea said.

"The cab was black and I painted a Chinese red racing stripe right down the hood," he confessed. "My German Shepherd dog always rode in the front seat with me."

Rather than argue with the school, his pop suggested parking a few blocks away from campus as a compromise.

"Mustangs were real popular at Harding, but in my price range, anything that would run was more like it," he said.

"My wife and I like to drive Old Yeller on Sundays, but it's really the most dependable car we have," O'Dea said. It sees service when their daily drivers go in the shop.

The Bel Air looks like she just came off the showroom floor. Both the O'Deas' adult children, a son and daughter, drove the Chevy away from the churches they were married in. One time O'Dea surprised and delighted a young neighbor couple by loaning it to them for display at their church's car show.

"I'd never part with this car. It's staying right here in our garage," O'Dea said.

There's a sign by Old Yeller's stall bearing the familiar Chevrolet bowtie that states, "Terry's Garage parking only, all others will be towed." He keeps a thick, fitted cover in the Chevy's trunk in case a hailstorm comes up when they're at car shows.

"Old Yeller's like part of the family," he said.

Have you seen a cool car around Norman ? Writer Doug Hill's always on the lookout for future Dig My Ride columns. E-mail him at Hillreviews@hotmail.com.

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