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The inspiration for this build came from my dad, and this photo of him standing with his hand on his new car, his 1953 Chevy Bel Air.
![Dad's 53 chev.jpg Dad's 53 chev.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ratrodbikes/data/attach/169/169812-Dad-s-53-chev.jpg)
My dad has been gone for nine years now, and never got to see any of my RRB Build Off bikes. At least, in the flesh anyway. His spirit of fun and ingenuity, craftsmanship and creativity lives on in every one of my builds. I had picked up this '53 Shelby Bicycle Co. Airflow frame and fork to use for the BO 15, but then the gasser bug bit me and RaTs GaSs took the place of the Shelby.
This past Spring, right before our BO 16 began, the idea of combining my '53 frame and fork, and dad's '53 Bel Air into a theme, took hold. The rest, as they say, is history.
Here is the build thread for my build. It's fairly extensive, but will give you a play-by-play of all the custom steps along the way.
https://ratrodbikes.com/forum/threads/53-bel-airflow-shelby.113622/
And a some photos of the process along the way. Thanks for all the input, ideas, critiques, comic relief, and shared nostalgia throughout this build.
I will kick off the photo montage with this really cool bit of graphic wizardry that my friend Jim pulled off. Pretty much says it all....
![Finished 1.jpg Finished 1.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ratrodbikes/data/attach/169/169815-Finished-1.jpg)
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