Take a good look at this 1955 Chevy Bel Air. This pristine ride belongs to Joel Sellers, of Garden Grove, California, and it's a beautiful example of a first-year Tri Five.

Of all the details to be found on Joel's '55, the thing that stands out the most is undoubtedly its Candy Apple Red paint. The hue is deep and rich, and the gloss looks so wet you might think it was painted yesterday. However, that's not the case. Far from it, in fact. Joel tells us that this paint was applied in 2000 — it sure doesn't look like a nearly 17-year-old paint job.

Dan Svegliato, of Long Beach, California, is a die-hard classic car guy. When he pulled into our Retail Showroom parking lot in the stunning 1968 Pontiac Firebird seen here, we started talking, and Dan began rattling off his previous project cars. Among them were a '67 Firebird, a '70 429 Cobra Jet Ranchero, and a Texas Highway Patrol Mustang designed for high-speed pursuits.

When starting a new classic car project, there are a number of choices to make. Some owners choose to restore every nut and bolt to factory spec, ending up with a vehicle that looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Jeromey Campbell, of Huntington Beach, California, was looking for something more distinctive when he started work on this 1991 Camaro Z28 convertible.

"It's aliiive!" We can almost hear the cracks of thunder and see the flashes of lightning coursing through the sky as we gaze upon this vehicular beast. Like Frankenstein's monster, it's a maniacal amalgamation of parts that were never joined at birth, but the result is truly astonishing. Simply put, it's a 1968 Camaro with a massive 6.6L Duramax turbodiesel engine bulging from beneath where the hood once was.

Every journey into classic car restoration has to start somewhere, whether that's diving in head-first with a basket-case wreck from a junkyard, or starting gradually by putting a few finishing touches on a partially-completed project. For Gilbert Villegas, of Anaheim, California, this 1968 Barracuda Formula S represented the beginning of a love for working on classic cars.

Each November, many of the world's finest classic and custom cars gather at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the SEMA Show, and this year continued the tradition. Since the SEMA Show is industry-only and not open to the general public, we walked the halls and snapped photos of the incredible vehicles we found inside. For those of you who weren't able to make it to this year's show, we'll be posting some of the most interesting cars we spotted.

Breaking News: at the SEMA Show this week in Las Vegas, Mopar announced its official restoration partnership with Classic Industries. This announcement comes as part of the unveiling of Mopar.com/restoration — a new online resource for owners and restorers of classic Dodge and Plymouth vehicles.

The first-generation Plymouth Road Runner was one of the quintessential muscle cars of the late '60s, and remains an icon of the era to this day. The long-nosed body, quad headlamps, and sweeping C-pillars offer a distinctive and memorable look.

The metallic green 1969 Road Runner seen here belongs to Joe Bahash, of Huntington Beach, California.

Gold isn't a color you see too often on cars these days, with the possible exception of the champagne color used on some luxury sedans. However, back in the early '70s, gold was a much more popular choice—even for muscle cars. This resto-modded 1971 Camaro serves as a reminder of how much gold paint can complement a classic car.

After the groundbreaking success of the 1955-57 "Tri Five" models, Chevrolet had some big shoes to fill in subsequent years. Fortunately, the automaker managed to launch the successful Impala line the very next year, with the 1958 model becoming an instant classic. And rather than resting on its laurels, Chevrolet redesigned the Impala again the very next year, producing a design that hit the peak of the tailfin styling trend in 1959.