Projects Cutting my Hotrod Teeth (57 Chevy Budget build/revival)

I admire your tenacity with this car and the issues you've had with it. I do think it'd be smart to just bolt in a direct replacement 3 speed for the summer while you work out a shifter and whatnot for the 4 speed swap.

 

I’m an effing prophet, I tell ya!!

 

Annnnd we’re back! All 4 of the transmissions had their positives and negatives, but one was really nice internally and shifted really smoothly, so I swapped over the side cover and front bearing retainer from my blown transmission and threw her in. A plus side of using the same side cover is, I didn’t need to do any linkage adjustment since it was all set on the old trans.

 

Thank you! Winter is for projects it seems. We have a couple good swap meets around here that I could probably find a shifter at but they only run from November to April so it’ll be a few more months until I can go again. Hopefully this time I can find a Hurst for a decent price!

 

Decisions, decisions. Aint it nice to have spares? Reminds me of my OT '66 Impala. Came with a 235 six, three on the tree. Swapped to a floor shifter from J.C.Whitney. First 8 was a '64 283 which blew that trans to peices, then a 327 and more 3 speeds, then 4 speed Saginaws, ended with a 350 stroker and a Muncie. Then when all of that blew up came the 390 Ford and a 4 speed top loader. That car was never the same and ate Camaros and GTO's for lunch. Then the rearend tore out of the frame. Which was a Dana 60. Running gear all survived and went into a OT '66 Fairlane and never looked back at a shivrola.

 

It’s about time you got this back on the road pineapple! You’ve come a long way baby!

 

Now yer Hot Roddin!

 

You know I know a guy in st Louis with a m***ive stockpile of tri five Chevy parts

 

It’s not Dale, is it?

 

Guy named Thomas Sutton. He's also buddies with a guy named Justin Wilkerson who also has a stash

 

Oh yeah, I was at one time facebook friends with Tomas and his dad who has p***ed I believe. I haven’t met him but he’s known around here in the trifive scene. As a matter fact, he has a stripped out 2 door 57 210 I debated buying as a donor for the 2 door conversion since the 210 is my favorite trim of 57

 

Yeah he kinda specializes in 2 door conversion "kits". Not bad pricing on them either. Just wish I could get him to get me a price on a 57 Chevy grill bar lol

 

And yeah 210 is my preferred trim. Why I bought my 54 when opportunity arose.

 

In an unexpected turn of events, the ‘57 is currently my daily driver if I can’t use my Fiancee’s car. On Monday, our 65 year old M***IVE pin oak dropped a huge branch on the car I was using as my daily and completely pancaked it! The carnage was crazy, though it was an OT car so I’ll leave the thread with just one photo. The limb that fell was the size of an entire tree! I don’t commute so not like I’ll be putting a lot of miles on the Belair, but for the time being, it’s my errand-mobile!

 

Oh my!

 

That’s fubar

 

Oh, man! So glad no one was hurt. Sorry about the daily, good thing the Chevy wasn't there. Another vote for 210 trim here, of course. Recently, I saw that you were looking for a set of wheels. Did you find any?

 

I’ve been looking for some chrome reverse wheels that actually fit for a while. Haven’t seen any come up for sale locally since I bought that set a couple years ago unfortunately

 

That's a big branch. Glad it was the late model parked under it, that'll at least be easy to replace. Still a bummer, but good that you have the '57 sorted and ready to fall back on.

 

Yeah, won’t be easy finding a other manual trans chevy cruze! Was a fun little car for what it was. And you won’t exactly find me complaining having to drive the ‘57

 

'57 Chevrolets are good transportation! Hey, north of one and a half million were produced. These good 'o cars trundled a lot of people around for a lot of years. In the late '70s and early eighties when I was in high school, there were plenty of original paint examples running around. 1982 was the year they turned 25 and became eligible for historic plates in most states. Sadly, many got junked then that could be easily restored today. Cowl damage was a death knell, those parts weren't available.

 

So far I’ve been surprised every time I get on a highway, with how smooth it cruises at 55 mph. Around town it’s a little bit of a handful for me since I’m used to fuel injection and modern cars pretty much running themselves, not to mention the 3 speed is a lot more archaic than anything else on the road

 

I could actually probably find you one if willing to go to Arkansas for it lol

 

I probably won’t end up getting another one, though I actually did find another for sale on marketplace about an hour from my house. Same color too! I know that model gets a lot of flak on reliability, but with the manual trans it was actually a very reliable car the 8 years I had it!

 

Still not quite finished but the steering wheel has been painted! Both the black and silver are metalflake which won’t match the dash 100% but felt like the right call, leaning into the 60s era I’m going for with the car.

 

PURDY!

 

So are those steering wheels the same for '58 - 60? Seeing your pics triggered a memory of one near me. No horn ring. Black, in good shape. I see some with a complete ring like yours, and some with only the lower 1/2 hoop. I don't know what the difference is about.
Your paint job looks great!

 

Thank you!
‘58 had a full horn ring. There are extra notches in the wheel itself to allow the full ring to fit. The ‘58 ring also has 3 holes on each side of the center boomerang, instead of 2 like 59-60. 59-60 have a long triangular ****on in place of the 3rd hole, and are also just the bottom half of the ring. The 59-60 horn ring will fit on the 58 wheel with no modifications, but a 58 ring will not fit a 59-60 wheel without cutting notches in it for the ring to sit in. As far as I know, the shape and dimensions of all 3 years is basically the same and they will all bolt-on the same way.

Personally I think it never got better than the ‘58. I have always loved full horn rings on 50s cars!

 

^^^^^^^^ Look how much useless information you have learned! It is so great to see your progress from know nothing to trying and getting frustrated to driving your dream.

 

I’m one of you guys now