Hello Folks, I want to present my '57 Chevy that arrived in Germany last week. I bought the car on ebay, just knowing that the customizing was probably done in the 80s / 90s. And that one owner name was Gary Wisner at this point of time. I did some research and member akustom57 was helpful with pointing to Tom Matthew who started the custom build. With help of KKOA I got contact to Gary Wisner and I sent him a letter. He answered via email. This enabled my to put some light on the history of the car, still some questions are not yet answered. Here is what I found out so far: 1st version done by Tom Matthew of Matthew's Garage in 1987 in purple / white paint with 6.5“chopped white vinyl roof, skirts, dummy spot lights, bomb sights in hood filled, twin sunken antennas on rear, moulded grille surround and removed door handles. Lowered 4“ by cut coils front, blocks rear. 2nd version done by ??? in ??? in copper paint with white vinyl roof, seen on a video of the KKOA Sled Scene East from 1992. Owned by Danny Rohrbach. 3rd version done by ??? in ??? in copper paint with black vinyl roof 4th Version bought by Gary Wisner (owner of „Louvers By Wiz“) in 1994 in copper paint with black vinyl roof. Bought from Clyde ????? from Reading, Pennsylvania. Clyde had no garage, car suffered from being outdoors all the time. Gary a dded electric door openers. In the fall 1996 to spring 1997 he did the rest: 53 Merc headlight rims, 175 Louvers in hood (done by himself, layout done by his wife), moulded lake pipe shrouds, Caddy taillights and moulded rear quarter chrome trim, new paint and restyled dash panel with VDO gauges. The dash panel was done with fiberglass cloth and resin, with exhaust tube to house the gauges, then finished with duraglass. It took over a year to get it like he wanted it. Work on it, cut it apart, start over. New wheel covers are 1955 Buick with 1955 Olds accessory spinners. He attended the Gettysburg Pa show from 1987 until it ended in 2014. The 57 Chevy was shown at 69 different shows and cruise Ins. „Low Life“ was given that name by his late wife and the etching was done by Kokomo from New Jersey at the KKOA show in Gettysburg PA. May 2005: Sold to Randolph Haas in Massachusetts for 10.900$. Haas also had no garage he told. 1987 Later Later (from a KKOA book) Today, waiting for brakes overhauling. Unfortunately, the car suffers some bad sheetmetal repairs. Rivet patches on the rocker inner and outer and also on the rear of the trunk floor. That needs replacement to be street legal in Germany. It will take long because currently I don't have space to do these repairs. Need to build a larger garage first. Future plans are a sheetmetal roof skin instead of the padded top (currently with wire frame), 57 Buick rear window (center piece only) and Lemon Gold paint.
Interesting car, very good that you have the history record. Please show a picture of the dash modification.
I plan to replace the modified dash insert by a stock one. I like the stock gauges much more. If somebody has a complete insert with gauges, please let me know.
Pretty wild custom, I think you're on the right track with the plans to reskin the roof and add a regular glass rear window. Maybe adding some kind of side molding would look nice, too. Nice you were able to find so much history on the car, that can be rare.
You could fabricate some panels for the corners of the rear window area, and install a small rear window, like was used by Derham on early '50's Packards.
I hadn't seen the new thread John, but @Opel and I talked via PMs a few months ago passing information back and forth. Glad to see it finally arrived over there and Maik is getting on with the restoration. He sure has done his homework on it's history. I think the car is in good hands with someone who appreciates the fact that the car is a survivor and he genuinely loves this '57. I did find a few shots of it on video that I sent him. They are stills from the 1992 Sled Scene East DVD. Not very good quality but you can definitely tell it's the Gary Wisner '57 Chevy. E
Oh boy! They say there's a "seat for every butt"; this absolutely proves that. You must have a really ugly butt. I'm really sorry, but this should have never been done to that car. But it'as your car; good luck with it. I am Butch/56sedandeliverey.
Congratulations on getting your new Sled...May I suggest extending the drip rail and adding a small 1/4 window to simulate a 2 Dr look...I feel it might flow better...if your skinning the roof that gives you many options for a back window.... Look forward to your bring it back in style...
Congratulations! Please keep us updated with your progress. I took your car to the Photoshop thread, with some suggestions. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...otoshop-threads.300531/page-781#post-13099618 themoose was nice enough to offer this rendering.
Get rid of those caddy tail lights and go back to the stainless spears on the trunk, something to that roof, maybe.. I dunno. Its one of a kind, thats for sure
They put that goofy cloth top on because they lacked the ability to fix the roof in metal. A cop out if you ask me. IMHO, you can do 1 of 2 tings with the car. Either fix the roof in metal and leave it as a chopped 4 door, which would be fine. Or you could cut the roof off the car entirely, and convert the car to a 2 door hardtop, which will be made easier by the fact that you can find every part you need in the aftermarket. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the car and the journey.
Many people = many ideas. Nevertheless, I like the car as it is (except the padded top) and will not change any detail except the roof and paint color. I like the caddy tail lights, the moulded trim on the rear, the 53 Mercury headlights, everything. I would not like these items in stock condition, it would be a boring custom.
Thanks @themoose...it looks like a potential inspiration...I would think the top in smooth shiny red to match the body might also work... @Opel it's your canvas and you have to finalize the work and your making change yourself...being in Winfield's of Barris's shoes is no walk in the park and when one Photoshop's that is our opportunity based on your input and a little of our own to inspire...cheers......keep us on top of things... @'Mo Thank You for for your request that got this inspiration rendered...
Restauration has started now. Many custom modifications were made just out of bondo with no metal..... I will replace / repair properly with sheet metal. Rockers are just riveted on with old rusty metal behind. Disgusting!
The rear window frame from 1957 Buick was already repaired and is waiting for installation once I have ordered a new roof skin from a shop in USA.
Please post pictures as you do repairs, I'm always fascinated by seeing old bodywork, how it was done and how well it did or did not hold up. The standards for that stuff was pretty low in the 80's and 90's. I like your estimated time frame to finish the car. Better to give yourself a decade plus and then maybe beat that time by years, than to think you'll get it done in a few months and be disappointed!
I'll be honest with you, I have no idea why someone would restore this car. It's not an expensive make or model to replace. This particular car needs extensive work in all facets to bring the car back. Even if you did that, what you're left with is a chopped 4 door sedan of a 57 chevy. The car doesn't have a "name brand" pedigree attached to it like Barris or Winfield, and it wasn't built during the golden era of customizing. Everything about this screams that this is a fruitless endeavor.
He is in Germany. While I'm sure a 57 Chevy is still relatively available I'd imagine it'd still be cost prohibitive. While the resto may cost as much if not more than buying a replacement 57 that cost is not all at once. Sort of a layaway 57
He's in Germany, not Antarctica. It's costly to import a vehicle but nowhere near as costly as the repair is going to be on this car, and that's assuming he does all of the work himself. Of course there are cars that are worth building. But there are also cars where you do a dollars and cents analysis and the damage on the car is too extensive to be logical to repair. You have to just let it die. As for the "layaway" aspect of it, that's another surmountable issue by simply financing a better car. This thread started 5 years ago. A decent, road-worthy 2 door hardtop could be had for $30K USD. Even putting 20% down, that's like $6K a year and they car would be paid off by now. He could have been out enjoying the car the entire time he'd have owned it. Instead he's just getting around to fixing the back glass.
The “worthless” orphans are the ones I enjoy fixing the most. if I wanted to be wealthy, I’d invest in something else
Dechroming and removing stainless trim is an honored part of customising even to the point that you can not recognize what brand the car used to be. In this case removing the distinctive V shaped stainless on the quarter panel seems wrong
jMO.... i'D HAVE left it and just did the mechanical.... stuff like this is interesting, with an open mind try to think what they were thinking , working with what they had and being different.. I see it loaded with teens pulling in the drive in movies.. cars with out belly buttons are cool... some of these ol straight out the barn cars have made their mark in history...
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