Customs Pics of 58 Chevies

My old Custom 58 along with my old 37 in front of our Salvage yard we sold 8 years ago today. Still happy to be retired.

 

From Daytona

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start of the project

 

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Dads 58 drove in 60 as a senior. Sorry about quality, picture of a picture. Cant see in the small pic, but it was a factory Fuelie car!! I dont know #s, but kinda rare. Like alot of the Fuelie cars back then, was taken off and a 4bbl was installed by the original "rich kid" owner before my Dad bought it.

 

^^^^^^^A little bigger,,,

 

According to most 58 experts there were no fuel injections for passenger cars and fi was picked up again in 59 with just a rare few of them.

 

Mmm, being from that era, I wouldn't bet on ANYTHING as being a definite fact in buying a new car. It was a VERY different time.
My dad bought a few "new" (from the dealer) cars in the late 50's through the late 60's. He was able to purchase things on a couple of his cars that..."were not" available at the time.
So I don't believe much of anything touted as "not available" in those years.

Mike

 

@MO54Frank .......I think you were correct before you 'noticed'....

According to The Standard Catalog of American Cars ......ALL 1958 Chevrolet models have exactly the same wheelbase and overall length ......117.5" and 209.1", respectively.

You are correct about the model specific quarter panels, but it doesn't stop there. Impala models had shorter roofs and longer and different tapered deck lids as well. The roof line was lower, adding to the illusion of greater length.

'Back in the day' I owned both '57 and '58 Bel Air Hardtops. The '57 Bel Air was top of the line, but that passed to the Impala in '58 and was limited to convertibles and 2 door hardtops until '59 models.

The '58 Bel Air hardtop was a much less common body style/trim combo. In my long term observation, most 2 door Bel Air models were 'post' cars, though the pillar was narrow and had a chrome molding applied that gave it a hardtop 'look' at a casual glance.

When '58 Chevys were introduced I disliked them. In time, maybe a year or two, I changed my mind and I became an admirer. After having sold mine in 1965, it was something I came to regret.

Ray

 

A very nice example of what is my favorite body style/trim level of '58 Chevy....owned one much like this, the main difference being mine was all black....though the two tone looks great!

Ray

 

I guess Steve’s American Graffiti 1958 Hardtop helped improve the car’s image, but really when/where I grew up they got no respect. You could hardly give one away as the 57 Chevy was king... now I like them.
About 15 or so years ago I saw a beautiful Impala Hardtop with air ride suspension. I talked briefly with the owner. He said the air ride parts were the hardest to get and the most expensive area of the restoration.

 

@MO54Frank .....

An interesting story I have heard from a knowledgeable source is that the '58 Chevy was intended to be the '57 model and would have carried over into '58 ...presumably with some minor facelift changes. The story goes that development of the senior GM model (Olds, Buick and Cadillac) had some difficult engineering challenges and work was concentrated on bringing those cars to market on time and Chevy/Pontiac new bodies were delayed and the existing shells were facelifted.

Now there are two separate lines of reasoning on the accuracy of that story line. On the one side is, the '58 Chevy/Pontiac body design cues and chassis configurations are scaled down versions of the '57 Olds, Buick and Cadillac models. If the Chevy/Pontiac had their '58 bodies in '57 it would have been an across the board model changeover for GM and instead of being single model year body shells, they would have been on the traditional two year cycle. That should have amortized the development costs over two years instead of one. Compounding the cost factor was the reduced sales of all '58 models due to the recession that set in that year.

True as that may have been for Chevrolet/Pontiac models, the '58 Olds and Buicks had much more radical changes to their body styles and trim between '57/'58 than was common for a carryover shell. But it was a time of wretched excess in U.S. car styling and redevelopment costs seemed to be ignored. Only Cadillac was more alike than different for '57/'58.

And they were all swept away by the across the board radical styling changes for '59 models and that put the two year body shell use back on track.

Ray

 

I remember reading in one of the magazines about the 58 design being intended to be released in 57, but that gave us the iconic 57 that we wouldn't have had without the engineering problems they had!

 

You don't happen to know what the tail lights are that are in it, do you?

 

More kustom 58 please

 

‘57, ‘58 or ‘59 Mercury.........I think ‘58. They are all very similar, but not the same.

Ray