Technical 57 Chevy 210 rework thread & need some buffing advice.

I am finding that the 3000 grit is a lot easier to buff than the 2000 grit, I'm going over the whole car again with 3000 and it seems to be working nice. It was solid advice, and I don't know if I'd ever risk paint to a wool bonnet and heavy compound again, just too easy to damage it.

 

I've got a '57 210 hard top in the shop right now if you need any comparison pics. This one isn't all original, but may help. Your dads car is cool!

 

Looks good in black too! I think there are a few things I'd like to see pics of, let me look my dad's car over and get back to you, that could be a good resource. Thanks!

 

CrustyNut, the two things I'm most curious about are how the headliner is installed above the side windows (if this one has a garnish trim or just an extra seam on the headliner, if it just has a headliner seam, I'd like to see how the rear corner trims look, are they open on the ends like my dads are?)

Also, on the vent wing window trim, are the ends open or are they finished? My dads look like they're open, like the Belair trim is supposed to slide under there, in fact, one door has the trim on it. It looks like it's painted underneath that trim so if the paint is OK I'll take it off but I'm curious to know if the 210 hardtop got a unique trim for the bottom of the vent wing or if they all look like this one does.

No big hurry, but a couple pics would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

I'll take a couple pictures for you tomorrow. This car has a fair at best reupholstery job. And your welcome in advance.

 

Squablow,

Your inner c-pillar stainless looks correct for the 210 HT. Your outer garnish at the wing window looks wrong though - looks like Belair. The wing window garnish and the outer C-pillar garnish are made to 'receive the wide garnish at the top of the door and quarter panel (below the rear side window). What I didn't see in your photo of the wing window garnish is the narrow piece of stainless on the door of a 210 HT.

I'll look for an example of what I'm describing in one of the two 210 HT video links I included earlier.

Gotta56forme/Scott

 

Squablow,

In the red & white 210 HT vid at the 5:17 mark, you might be able to see the narrow stainless strip (in full screen mode) I'm trying to describe on the door,outboard of the side gl***, and how the wing window stainless trailing edge is dressed to not accept the wide stainless, like on a Belair.

Gotta56forme/Scott

 

Some pics for you.
It's hard to say what all has changed on these cars over the years. The more I dive into this 57 the more my head spins at the amount of trim and the changes between the models.
Need any more pics? No problem. I'll have this one for at least a week or two.

 

Looks like my dad's car has Belair vent wing stainless and rear pillar garnish. That'll make the transition on the edges of the headliner easier, although the door trim might look odd. Thanks for the pics, they are helpful.

 

Crusty,

That 210 HT has the Belair stainless over the side windows on the inside. The C-pillar garnish is for a 210, though. The Bel Air HT c-pillar garnish looks like...


The 210 HT c-pillar garnish (like yours) looks like...


As you can see, there is a gap between the 210 c-pillar garnish and the Belair side-window garnish.

Squablow - any updates on your dad's car?

 

I'm chipping away at this project with every free hour I have and I will post some update pictures soon, just wanted to comment that the above pictures and info have helped immensely.

This car is eating my brain. Everything I work on has been worked on before, so there are snapped off bolts and missing pieces at every turn. I bet I have close to 100 hours in it at this point and I feel like there's more work left to do than I thought there would be total when I started in on it!

 

Its a hobby

 

Have not updated this thread like I was going to but the car is almost ready for this weekend (show in my dad's hometown) and it's turning out really great. Paint looks amazing and headliner is my best install ever, thanks to much helpful advice. Took a couple of shots outside before the front bumper goes on, for the street racer crowd.




The front bumper will be back on tonight though, no way my dad would go for that. I'll get some more finished pics in the next day or so.

 

Looks great. I like the solid color, don't see very often. 55 and 56 Chevys can pull off the bumperless look. 57s don't do it as well, to my eye.

 

Looks pretty nice to me...I had a 57 Bel Air with a 327/4 speed as a daily driver back in the 70s...was a good car but 57 is my least favorite of the tri-5's.....a 57 210 is better looking than the Bel Air IMHO.
Your dad should love it!

 

The no front bumper look does go with the poverty cap vibe better for a kind of a 60s street brawler look
(in my opinion)..... if you are gonna run the caps on a hardtop (or convertible).
Looks slick tho.

 

That is a great looking car.
I had a yellow/white 57 BelAir 2dr ht, my second car, it wasn't until many years later that I even knew 210 hardtops existed.

 

I see a lot of interior trim on this car that is NOT 210 trim. Above the windows inside it should have wind lace not metal, Also the exterior trim outside of the wind wings is not 210 but Bel Air.
Check the vin for VB57******* If it is VC57******* than it's a Bel Air. Also check to see if the cowl tag is 1037 and not 1037D The "D" indicates Bel Air.
Not a big deal, but you should know what you have.

 

Four year old thread...

 

Yeah, but it's a cool car.

 

Old thread but the car turned out real nice, and my dad has sold it since. Now I've got my own '57 210 on the road, but a 2 door sedan.

As to the model of the car, it was definitely a 210, I know the vent wing moldings were wrong and I think the trim below the rear quarter windows on the outside was added on later. Not sure why that was done but it had been on the car for at least 35 years.

The headliner is a different story, I had a Belair headliner and I added the stainless interior roof moldings from a '56 Pontiac hardtop I found in the junkyard, they did a really good job of hiding the tack strip staples on the headliner. I knew it wasn't correct for a 210 but the car was mildly customized anyway so it really didn't matter.

 

I like those BelAir bows. Good addition to the car. My dad always cut the aluminum top and bottoms off of the BelAir dash trim and then used the 210 dash stainless
. He liked the way it polished up.

 

@Dan Glover - thanks for your input, my pal has a 210 Sport Coupe. P.O. put Bel Air trim on it, he's interested in correcting this.
Squablow - more pix!!

 

Just to keep this "four year old thread" current.
There was a time when I thought the sun rose and fell for the 57 BelAir but there is just something about the 210 cars that stir me up.
As I said prior, my second car in high school was a BelAir 2 dr hdtp and nowadays after seeing hundreds of them gingerbreaded up at car shows they just get lost in the crowd.
I really like that red car, maybe it's just that "I make no excuses for what I am" image it portrays.
I remember one of the first 210's I ever saw was a white one just like this, body color painted wheels and dog dish hubcaps, I was mesmerized.
I could live without the whitewalls though.

 

Unfortunately I never got a good picture of the car with the front bumper back on, and my dad has since sold the car. A friend of mine owns it now and apparently drives it pretty hard.

The only other interesting pictures I have saved is a shot from the rear (sans front bumper, again) and an OK pic of the finished painted dash. You can see it's delete plates, chromed gauge cluster/steering column components and you can kinda make out the chromed glove box. It also had a '58 Belair steering wheel and you can see some of my finished seat job.

I really wish I would have taken more.




I wish my 2 door sedan was this nice.

 

Building my 210 HT

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kr5LH2Gm9bX8XfWh6