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.

 

Originally, I had covered my seats with an old aftermarket slip cover set, this is the only good pic I really took of it when it was finished.



This was the lid from the box the kit came in, you can see it's very old.



But after 6 years of use, they were really coming apart. The base of the front seat went first, I patched it up once and eventually hog ring'd a blanket over the top to keep it from coming apart more, a nativity scene blanket with baby Jesus I bought for 2 bucks. But then the seat back also started falling apart, and it was time to do something different.



This is what the base looked like under the blanket.

 

cliffhanger!

 

I got these random seat cushions at a rummage sale for $10 or $15, I don't remember, but it was cheap. Not sure what they were from but we ***umed some kind of boat. I liked the colors, the pattern reminded me of a cigarette carton, and it was a lot of vinyl for almost nothing.



Took them apart very carefully because I knew I'd need every bit of material they had.



Once measured, I figured I could make a complete new front seat base, and I could make inserts for the front seat backs, and have one piece left over to repair the top of the back seat which had burnt off in the sun. It would mean re-using the backs and sides of the front seat upper pieces, which aren't really vinyl, they're more like plastic and they don't have much stretch.

This is what I sewed together. The bottom is pretty decent, the tops are pretty baggy, but I'm hoping some time in their new shape will relax some of the wrinkles out. The pattern was 100% dictated by how much material I had to work with.



Not great, but it only cost 15 bucks, it was great practice with the sewing machine (which I need), and it does look like a home-grown custom upholstery job that an amateur might have done in the 50's or 60's.

The last remaining piece will go to fixing the top of the seat back, which melted in the sun (that red plastic material does not hold up like actual vinyl). Will start in on that one later this week or next week, should be a pretty straightforward repair.



I figure if these repairs last me a couple more years, I'll have more upholstery practice in by then and I'll do a new set of covers from scratch. This stuff was dirt cheap so I wasn't worried about wasting it. I used basically every s**** of the boat seats to do it, too.

 

There's the very last of the boat cushion material, sewn into the rear seat upper to replace the melted plastic part. Good enough.

 

creative.

 

Gonna keep an eye on this as I'm actively collecting for a two door conversion on my 53 Chevy lol

 

I'm pretty sure this isn't Squablo's first rodeo. You might want to do a search for other conversions. There are more similar threads on here. Some really really good information is available.

 

Sweet, it's not too terribly hard if you have the right pieces, I've done a bunch of these conversions. 53-54 Chevy is probably going to require removing the rear window gl*** for cutting and welding, although most of the pillar can stay in place so nothing should move. If you jump into this, let me know, I'd love to follow along, and I might be able to help answer questions, too.

 

I have about a third of the parts I need. Once I get everything the cutoff wheels and welder is coming out lol

 

Don't forget your safety gl***es!

 

I always have gl***es on