This 55 Laurentian has 93,000 miles. The car is all original except for the white paint which was done at Dickson's Motors,Winnipeg in 1955 and a new carpet set. The car is powered by a 261 six cylinder 3 speed standard. It was somehow ordered with no signal lights and an aftermarket signal light kit with four way flasher was installed at one point in it's life. I purchased the car from an auction on ebay and flew to Paradise Newfoundland on fathers day in 2005 to pick it up. I made arrangements to use a shop to inspect it and get it ready to drive home to Northern Ontaro. My wife and I toured Nfld. with the car and fortunatley meet the Bartlett family who treated us like we were part of their family.We took the fairy from Argentia to North Sydney 14 hours and drove it back home to Timmins Ontario for a total of 2010 trouble free miles. The car has been great and the only improvments I have done are the radial www tires and I am planning on installing the correct signal light assy, removing the red lights where the backup lights are supposed to be and installing the correct backup lights. I am also going to install an original radio that was converted to am/fm from just am.
It's a beauty Al. Funny you mention the signals as I recall my father telling me he bought a kit at Canadian Tire and installed them on his 55 Bel Air since it did not have them from the factory either. Granadpa had a two tone 55 Laurentian and I would get pick ups from grade school in that car. I don't know what engine it had but it was most likely the big 261 - 6 as well but I do know it was an automatic because my mom would drive it from time to time and I guarantee she never knew how to drive standard. Thanks to Carl 1 for posting and to you Al for sharing your story.
Hi Al nice car. plan ahead on your upgrades, my 55 GMC didn't come with signal lights and someone in the past put a aftermarket one in. no biggy figured i would retrofit an original optional one. did that and it wasn't that great of a system. very fragile. i ended up putting an aftermarket one back in and it's very study and besides that looks the retro bit too. good thinking on the amfm radio thing because i put an original am radio in the truck with tubes. do you realize that there isn't many am radio stations around and the drive-ins all use fm transmitters now.
Love your car! Seeing as I have a "sister" car to yours, I may end up asking you some questions later such as how the head liner goes in. My was all apart when I got it and it will be a puzzle i'm sure.
