Thermopolis cop restores Chevrolet Bel Air into police car

Jaussaud explained that he has been planning this for a long time.

“I’ve actually wanted a cop car before I even applied for the sheriff’s office and started in law enforcement,” he said. “When my grandpa passed away, we went to a car show the day after his funeral. I took his truck, my red truck that I have, was his little truck. They were raffling off a police department car in Mills, so I tried to get it. Then I thought, ‘Well, that’d be a really cool idea to find my own.’

“So I’ve been waiting to do it for a while. That’s what kind of sparked the idea.” Jaussaud described the appeal of the 1957 Bel Air.

“I like the wings on the back. Pretty unique cars. I’ve been looking for it forever,” he said. “I finally found one in Columbus, Montana, I get in the truck, I drive up there, I buy this car, I bring it home and it needs a lot of work. It needs bodywork. It’s rusty. And we put three motors in it, and all three of them turned out to be bad. We spent hours and hours doing motor swaps. Finally put a motor in it that worked well.”

Jaussaud, already certified for detention, went to Douglas to attend the patrol academy to get his dual certification.

“Now I was going for patrol and I had my 57. Then in Casper — at our shop there — I was planning on working on it on the weekend. On the weekends I get down at the academy and instead of coming all the way back here to Thermopolis, I went to Casper and work on it.

“Well, somebody sent me a thing, saying, ‘Hey, here’s this guy’s number. He’s in Douglas and he’s got some 57 parts.’”

Jaussaud needed a steering wheel and some original parts and he thought, “Okay, we’ll get a hold of them out there anyway. I call this guy and he goes, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about cars, but my dad passed away. He’s got some of our old cars from when we were kids and I don’t really have parts, but why don’t you come and see what I got?’”

Jaussaud was pleasantly surprised with this lead. He went to see the man and discovered he had two 1957 Chevy Bel Airs that had been parked in a barn — untouched — since 1975.

“There’s a two-door hardtop, which is an extremely rare car, and a four-door hardtop,” said Jaussaud. “And he wanted $27,000 for the two-door and he wanted $10,000 for the four-door. I gave him $6,500 for the four-door and we gave him $17,000 for the two-door. We bought both of them and took them home.”

Jaussaud described this discovery of the car he would renovate.

“I only paid $6,500 for this car, didn’t know anything about it. It was literally tucked in the corner of this barn with blankets over the top of it and wedged between a bunch of cars … I only saw one side of the car. No rust, no dents, no nothing. And I was like, ‘You gotta be (expletive) me!’

“I was barely able to open the hood because it was so packed into the shop. It had power steering and power brakes, a V8 motor. And the guy told me it had a two-speed power glide tranny.”

The features of the vehicle, according to Jaussaud, are for a special order car. Chevrolet actually made two different kinds of ‘57s: One was made “California style.”

“In California, they outlawed the front bumpers on a normal 57 because they made them into three different pieces. There was the middle section and the two corners on the bumper and they’re separated,” Jaussaud said. “Well, when they’re all one piece, that’s the requirement that California had for the builders. They didn’t let them have the part of bumpers. They outlawed them. So this was an original California car with 41,000 miles on it that’s been parked in a barn since 1975. No rust, no dents, no nothing.”

After purchasing the ’57 Bel Air, Jaussaud started preparing it to become a police car. He ordered an authentic red spinning police light to be put on top of the cab.

Also, while at a Denver car show, Jaussaud met Cassie Evancich, a former Disney artist who traveled to Casper to hand paint all of the pin striping and other artwork on the car.

He’s put around $31,000 into the vehicle and plans to use it for special events, charities, and with children to promote the police department and law enforcement.

He plans to get the car appraised in the spring of 2023.

One of the common questions asked about his 57 Bel Air police car is can it be used for actual service?

Jaussaud said, “According to Wyoming State Statute, yes, it is a marked police patrol car which means it meets all the requirements to be a police car. But it hasn’t like gone through town council or anything. So nobody said ‘no’ and it meets Wyoming State Statute. That’s what I can tell you right now. I’m not pushing anybody, but I keep hinting towards Chief of Police Pat Cornwell, and Pat hasn’t told me no.”