Projects 57 Chevy 2 door conversion pics/build thread

Excellent stuff. I don't think good sway bars get enough attention in HAMB relevant cars, the difference is really palpable. My Olds came with front and rear sway bars and it's no wonder it corners better than pretty much every other old car I've owned. On one hand I feel like that stuff is bordering on O/T, almost like having a car that handles like garbage on the street is traditional.

 

Squablow, I have this thread bookmarked. I go back through it ever so often. On my way to Nashville on the backroads, is a really solid 57 more door, just screamin for a door reduction surgery. One day , when I have room in my shop, I'm gonna hit that fellow up.
Very good work.

 

For sure! It's like some of the threads on early car steering geometry, some comments like "you just have to hold on to the steering wheel tight, they're all like that". No reason these cars can't handle. And a front sway bar was an option on the '57 anyway, this one is just beefier and has different mounts. Even if someone cared enough to look, it doesn't look out of place.

Thanks! If you decide to do it, let me know, I'd love to follow along, and would be happy to help if you had any questions, it's pretty straightforward. I've also got extra B pillars and stuff if you need some and can't find any locally.

 

What do you do about the ***le saying 4 dr?

 

On my conversion i just took the ***le to the BMV and told them i needed it amended to say two door. It was that simple.

 

My ***le said "unknown" in the body style blank, so when I registered it, they asked me what to put there and I had them put 2 door sedan. On a previous conversion car, I had a ***le that said 4 door sedan and I told them that was incorrect and it should read 2 door sedan and they changed it for me. I've never had an issue.

Also, the "VIN" on a tri-5 Chevy doesn't have anything that decodes body style, only the year, the model line (150, 210, Belair, sedan delivery and Corvette) and whether it came with a 6 cylinder or V8. So the VIN is only wrong because it's a 6 cylinder car with a V8 engine swapped in, not because of the body changes.

The DMV does not care. If you buy a white car and paint it black, they have a form you can fill out and they'll update it on their system and send you a new ***le. The same form can change what you have listed as body style.

 

A quick update, I've probably put 10,000 miles on this car since I last updated this thread, including 4000 just this year. This spring I swapped out the mis-matched wheels for a set of OG 15" chrome reversed wheels I got at an auction for $140, along with a set of smooth faced blackwall tires. I really like this look better. I was only running the redline tires because I had them for another project that didn't get used and they were getting old, figured I had to use them up first on something.

I also got rid of what remained of the red window tint on the quarter windows, which had faded to light pink and started to de-laminate.

It's interesting to see how much the paint colors have changed in the 5 years I've had this on the road. In the pictures on the first page, the quarters almost looked bright red.



Another kinda neat thing that happened this summer is the local printing place sends out a refrigerator magnet every year with contact info for all of the local police/city stuff and they sell ad space on the magnet, like a m*** mailer thing. On the envelope they apparently picked out some local landmark buildings to have on the front and apparently they used the meat market with the '57 parked out front. I had no idea they took this picture, it just turned up in the mail one day. The '55 was at a local shop but no idea who it belonged to.

 

Great thread, car, and dang…that garage is boss.