Watch a Dusty, Moldy 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Transform Into a Concours-Winning Survivor

The Tri-Five you're about to see below is not a barn find. This old car has been rebuilt sometime in the 1990s and it's been driven regularly every summer since then. But when the owner had to repair the garage he was keeping it in, the Bel Air was moved into a barn. About a couple of months later he found it with a mold-infested interior and covered in dust and debris.

That's a sad condition for an iconic classic like this to be in, but fortunately, it can all be fixed with proper cleaning and detailing. And the result is downright amazing.

While I'm not a big fan of black-painted cars, I must admit that this 1957 Bel Air looks amazing once all the dust and most of the scratches are gone. The paint shines almost as bright as the chrome trim, something we usually see only on Concours-winning classics.

The interior looks just as impressive with all the mold gone from the black upholstery. Sure, the latter still shows a few cracks and the carpet has seen better days, but let's not forget that this Bel Air is regularly driven. It's no museum piece by any means, but it morphed into one of the best-looking survivors out there.

As a brief reminder, 1957 was the final year for the second-generation Bel Air. Part of the Tri-Five family introduced for 1955, the 1957 Bel Air is now a design icon and one of the most expensive classics from the era. The same year saw coupe gain the 283-cubic-inch (4.6-liter) Super Turbo-Fire V8 option shared with the Corvette. The fuel-injected mill was good for a solid 283 horsepower and 290 pound-feet (393 Nm) of torque.

But enough history for today, let's watch the 1957 Bel Air regain its luster in the detailing video below.