Art & Inspiration 57 Chevy chopped up for wall art!!!

I'm building a gasser out of a 57 Chevy 2-door hard top belair. I have a wrecked 2-door post belair parts car that I've taken all I can use from, but that also has (had?) a good driver side (pass side was t-boned and side swiped bad). So...I cut it off! I'm going to mimic my car with a wall mounted post version, as a gasser. I have an old set of US slotted mags and tires I'm going to cut down too. These ones shown are westerns for another project just to mock it up after I cut it. I'm going to build a ladder bar for the rear, hop up the front, the works and paint it before figuring out the mounting of it. I'm pretty stoked about it. I have a tall back wall and I thought it works be perfect up there. I even took the bumper ends..... Guess I might not use the front huh? But the rest of the car was trashed anyway. Should be fun...

Thoughts? Cool, or no? Color? Painted to match or go different? Decals, gasser markings?

 

Good idea to me…. It’s not like it’s a rare car.

 

Pretty cool !

 

Paint it, mount it and wrap it in neon like the wrecking yard in town did.

 

Right on! better to do this than see the whole car get crushed. I did the front end from a 50 Meteor (Canadian ford) and it ended up going on someone else's wall (at least I got paid for my work). I look forward to seeing your project completed. I'm making the back of a 28 Plymouth for my basement wall right now. Going to put my 3 kids looking out the back window as a picture.

 

Ha! That's a fun sign. I've been to All American Classics!! I love that place. Is it still around? I bought a bunch of parts for my 64 Impala from them several years ago.

 

Super cool!!! I have a 4-door 210 that's in pretty tough shape too and I think I'll cut the tail off that car and make one of those bench seats out of it. Grabbed a big load of usable parts off both cars though.

 

Your car and you can do as you want................but those puts would be great to help convert a 4-dr to a 2-dr.

 

I'm not against yard art or anything, and it was yours to do what you want with it, but it seems a shame to have cut the end of the dash off (the dash frames are valuable, and you wouldn't see that in your art piece anyway) and also those 2 door sedan interior garnishes are not reproduced so it'd be nice to see even the one remaining one get sold off (again, you'll never see it anyway). The twisted up passenger side one is probably worth someone's effort to straighten out.

I also hope you either are going to use those seats or get them to someone who can use them, they're incredibly difficult to find, I spent a ton of effort fixing some extra shitty ones for my own '57.

Also, were you able to salvage the window surround stainless from the passenger side? Obviously the lower rear piece is wasted but the door top and bottom look OK as does the upper rear quarter window. Complete sets of those sell for well over a grand, I'm sure someone would love to have those extras to help fill in the missing pieces from a set.

 

Absolutely, I understand all your points here. Yes although the car was pretty munched I salvaged every piece I could on that side too. Good point on the dash, I thought about taking the time to cut around all that but didn't seem worth messing with it that much. The rest of the car is going to a friend's place who will pick through it and use anything else. We've salvaged through a few of these cars and tried to keep most of the usable pieces in tact. This one is pretty far damaged the way it was hit, but I'm sure there are those that would take the time to try and pull it all back apart but to me it's definitely not worth it on this one. That whole side other than the front fender, which has been kept, is extremely damaged. Hard to see in the pictures really how bad off it is. The car also had a Dearborn 3-speed in it that will go in my gasser build car. Cool to see that in there. I'm giving everything else I don't use away.

 

Curious, nose up or, nose down?

 

Nice cut!
You have to make your own fun in this world.

 

Cool.....

 

Why cut up a good complete car when you can just buy most panels new

 

I like your idea.
Tall back wall, seems like a perfect home for half a '57...great wall art.

 

I’d of had a tough time cutting up a ‘57 Chevy!
I dig the use of it for sure.

 

I did one for a 50's themed bar and grill in Linden NJ. Back in 19 89 or so.

 

Had I ever owned a body repair shop, I always wanted to do a "before and after" thing outside the
building where people passing by could see it. Take two cars, one all shiny and restored, and put a sign on it that
says, "After", and park a identical car that was wrecked next to it with a sign that says, "Before".
A picture could be worth a thousand words, and maybe even a customer or two.

 

I agree. Looks like a fun project. Most people like looking at the Mona Lisa. But my kind of art would be that 57 Chevy hanging on the wall. Also a photo of my Mom taken in 58.

 

a guy a few towns over plays with old trucks and campers has an old panel truck cut like that and mounted above his shed's overhead door.

Bob L. mentioned about having 2 vehicles a before and after for advertising. In the early 80's we had a body shop here that had a company El Camino with one side restored and the other side was the original rusted out shell to represent what they could do for advertisement. split right down the middle half the hood was done, etc. Wally's Paint n Place if I remember correctly.

was a museum in Fl. that did the same thing that had a very old car like a 1903 or something and restore only half of it down the middle and had it on a turntable when you first enter the car side. Thinking it was Saratoga Springs area maybe?

 

Its a shame when good parts are destroyed

 

I’d drive the t-boned car.

 

"Fenders" on 1&9?

 

Saw this in a Memphis resteraunt a few years ago. Dont know if it's still there.

 

If you have the space cut them lengthwise as the OP did. . If your short on space cut off in the width front and back.

 

This is my version. I thought about another using this front end but I can't even finish the projects I have let alone start another.And nice job cutting the windshield.

 

Great.

 

We did a XJ6 Jaguar like that.

 

I can imagine that being the talk of the town and a conversation hit at any car show! Fun idea.