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Can't understand the tri-five craze

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by RatPin, Sep 8, 2012.

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  1. chevy3755
    Joined: Feb 6, 2006
    Posts: 1,055

    chevy3755
    Member

    regret selling mine........will look for another..........if needs explanation......you dont get it...........just my 2 cents worth
     
  2. Larry T
    Joined: Nov 24, 2004
    Posts: 7,875

    Larry T
    Member

    If you were around in the 50s-70s:
    55-57 = Hot Rods (yea, I know about all the definitions)
    49-54 = Granny cars.

    I guess they are still popular because there are still folks around that remember those days.
     
  3. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    One of my first cars was a '55 Nomad, since then, I'm partial to '55's. My next car was a '56 Wagon, so my second favorite is '56. Never owned a '57 and don't care one way or the other.
     
  4. Bad Eye Bill
    Joined: Sep 1, 2010
    Posts: 841

    Bad Eye Bill
    Member
    from NB Canada

    That pretty much sums it up. I don't like them but if I had to choose one, it would be a 55, I think they look far better than a 56 or 57.
     
  5. 345winder
    Joined: Oct 27, 2010
    Posts: 1,059

    345winder
    BANNED

    i like 'em pretty good....emmm hmmm...

    [​IMG]
     
  6. outlaw256
    Joined: Jun 26, 2008
    Posts: 2,022

    outlaw256
    Member

    i wasnt going to post on this, as i think if you dont understand you never will.period.but having owned many 55s in my day i feel i should.i remember the first 55 i saw as a kid that was built by the hometown tenage hotrodder. i was about 12. it was built like a 60s buildlate 60s anyway. i still think about that car and im 57.it had cragars all around.kicked up in tthe back and dual exhaust with them shiney round tips.painted silver. god what that car did to me....lol when i was 24 i bought my first one.kept that car for 20 yrs and cried when it left.really cried.like a little girl.to me that style of car IS HOTRODDING.at one time i had 5 55s all of them 210s. all built for streetracin.wife drove one everyday i drove one everyday.they were just cool.good looks easy to work on. its been a long time since i sold my last 55. ive bought another one a few months ago.just a basket case but it will be cool again.nothing cooler than i tri five built for runnin wild. nothing.well maybe a 41 willys but thats it. by the way i love all old cars i have a few fords as well but its the tri fives that get me going.tell us OP,what cars get you fired up?
     
  7. Chaz
    Joined: Feb 24, 2004
    Posts: 5,016

    Chaz
    Member Emeritus

    Yes!
     

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  8. bgblk40
    Joined: Jul 7, 2012
    Posts: 20

    bgblk40
    Member
    from Midwest

    Some like the color red, some like blue. I like tri-fives a lot and LOVE '55s. For me, it goes all the way back to about 1960. My mom owned a neighborhood soda fountain hangout/grocery store. Our house was directly behind the store. In the store there was a juke box that was constantly playing, counter with stools, soda fountain, magazines (especially hot rod/custom car magazines), model car kits...you get the idea. Largely because of this environment and the kids with hot cars that frequented the store, I was a gear head (and rock and roll guitar player) from a very early age.
    Then there was this gas station about half a block from my mom's store. A guy that worked there had a very well known, red hot '55 Chevy, widely reknowned as the hottest car within 100 miles. He'd earned a rep as the "Mr. Chevy" of our town. We had lots of really hot cars in town and this guy's '55 Chevy was king of 'em all.
    I'll never forget it. Through the eyes of a 10 y/o kid in pre-musclecar 1960, this car looked and sounded all hotrod. The car wasn't anything special to look at by today's standards. It was a white 2 door 210, black rims and white walls. But there were 2 things about that car that assaulted the senses instantly...1. when you opened the hood and 2. when you heard it run.
    It had a 283 mouse, punched to 301 (later a 327 punched to 336), after market crank, rods and pistons, Shiefer clutch and pressure plate, scattershield, Duntov cam, a 4 speed and...DUAL QUADS!!! Just like in the magazines in my mom's store! I had never seen dual quads before...in real life. They were soooooooo cool looking. Real dual quads!! To this day there is just something special to me about dual quads. In those days a single 4 barrel carb was considered very hip. But dual quads?? VERY cool.
    And the sound?? Heavenly!!! When you heard that car run, the radical, rumpity, rumpity, cam... and especially when you were in it, that '55 became a living, breathing thing. It vibrated through the seat. You could genuinely FEEL the power that pulsed through that machine. You could feel it in the ground around it when it was idling. Made a massive impression on me that I've never forgotten. There were also lots of really cool '56 and '57 Chevys around, but that '55 was king in my mind. Did I say it had...DUAL QUADS!! LOL!!!
    As a 10 y/o, I used to ride my 3 speed Schwinn Corvette bicycle and imagine I was shifting gears on that '55 Chevy. I lusted for that car as a 10 y/o, a 20 y/o, a 50 y/o, and even now as a 62 y/o. Needless to say, the impression that car made on me has lasted a lifetime. Well over 50 years! That's why I love tri-five Chevys, especially '55s.
    I currently own a real badass, chopped, twice "Z'ed", channeled, tilted "B" pillars, laid down back glass, slammed, 8 stack Hilborn electronic fuel injected, full roller 496'ed aluminum headed, BBC, 700R4'ed, 3:70 posi-Ford 9 inched, '40 Chevy, Tudor Sedan...driver. It's being painted as I write this. Cannot wait for it to be done. Waiting on it is agonizing. I bought it because most of my friends have street rods and I wanted to be able to participate in car shows with them. And I absolutely love it.
    Had to sell my full rollered, 383" stroker'ed, '66 Nova street machine to get it. But, guess what I'd like my next car to be? Yep...'55 Chevy with a 4 speed and dual quads! It might be awhile since I've dropped all my hotrod money and then some on my '40 Chevy. But, it'll happen someday. Bet on it.


    Tom
     
  9. Found this article interesting. Should help explain they are so popular?

    General Motors sold a little over 1.5 million of these cars in the 1957 model year--outselling everything except the full-size 1957 Fords.

    Even with all that, why did the '57 Chevy become such a cultural icon and not, say, the competing '57 Ford? Niedermeyer attributes it to the basic "rightness" of the car, and that undoubtedly is a large part of the explanation. I suspect a few other factors may have contributed.
    Automotive styling went through rapid changes in this period. Circa 1955, most Detroit iron had the squared-up, flat-faced look of the "shoebox" body--which itself was shared by four GM divisions. Chrysler introduced Virgil Exner's "Forward Look" that year, and suddenly the race was on in Detroit. In the matter of two or three years, cars became, as the saying goes, longer, lower, and wider--with an unfortunate tendency to accompany this with increasingly garish styling and ornamentation. Sales fell precipitously in the 1958 recession, and Detroit belatedly realized that perhaps its stylists had gotten out of step with public tastes. Designs evolved through frantic annual restylings in 1959 and 1960 and 1961 in the direction of cleaner, sharper lines and much-reduced ornamentation. The basic look of American cars went through such a rapid evolution that by the time a '57 Bel Air was four years old, it looked rather dated next to the newest models. I've not had the time or the facilities to do the research, but I suspect that meant that these cars depreciated rather rapidly, and a good used '57 could be picked up pretty cheap in about 1961 or 1962.
    [​IMG] This would have been right about when the musclecar era was coming into full flower. For a hot-rodder on a tight budget, a '57 Chevy likely would have made a very cost-effective project car. You could hop up the existing small block engine, or swap in a more modern Chevy V-8, without too much trouble. Upgrading to a four-speed or a Turbo-Hydramatic would also have been relatively easy as such things go. This, I suspect, led to a relatively high percentage of V-8 '57 Chevys surviving beyond their normal lifespan.
    Finally, there was the emergence of 1950s nostalgia among "Baby Boomers" in the early 1970s. For a "Boomer" looking for a car that looked like the cars of his childhood, the '57 Chevy would be a natural choice--its styling was closer to 1955 than to 1959.

    Whatever the reason, the 1957 Chevrolet truly is an icon, an indispensable element of pop culture's mental picture of the late 1950s. Having learned quite a lot about them in the course of writing this essay, I will cheerfully admit that they are very interesting and lust-worthy cars. When I see a nice one at the cruise-in, I can appreciate the love and craftsmanship that has gone into it, and if the owner is nearby I'll make a point of saying that out loud.
    Emotionally, I'm still not there. The '57 Chevy is an object of car lust, but not for me.
     
  10. SuRfAcE_RuSt
    Joined: Sep 22, 2010
    Posts: 608

    SuRfAcE_RuSt
    Member


    x2 EXACTLY
     
  11. traffic61
    Joined: Jun 15, 2009
    Posts: 1,545

    traffic61
    Member
    from Owasso, OK

    I was about ten years old (1970) when we moved to a new town. Across the alley from us was a guy who had built a wicked '55 210 sedan powered by the remnants of his wrecked Chevelle. A nice 327 with a Muncie 4 speed. When he fired it up, it rattled our windows, much to my mom's chagrin and to my delight. It had chrome reverse wheels, Cheater slicks and no front bumper. I have been hooked on them since. I drove a '56 for most of high school and college and regret selling it many years ago.

    I know that doesn't explain why they are so popular with the general populace, just with me. It's like whien people ask me why I prefer redheads, I just say I just do. Just like I prefer Fleeetwood Mac's version of "Black Magic Woman" to Santana's. As it has been said before, if I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand it.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2012
  12. Model T1
    Joined: May 11, 2012
    Posts: 3,309

    Model T1
    Member

    Kinda like that latest motorcycle thread and the stupid puppy hangin out the car window. If it has to be splained you just don't git it!
    Had several 57's. Too much added crap from the factory.
    Love the 55's, even those ugly wagons.
    Never owned a 56.But this car below is my all time favorite tri-five.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Chaz
    Joined: Feb 24, 2004
    Posts: 5,016

    Chaz
    Member Emeritus

    Tri fives are nice. They're pretty cars and lots of them were made. so we remember seeing them EVERYWHERE when we were kids. Huge nostalgia factor. The 57 is quite stylish- 55-56 not so much.
    But if you look at the auctions for 55-57 cars, The Chrysler fin cars are the ones that bring the BIG money. Who can argue the styling of the forward look exner cars, coupled with the 325 horse 392 Hemi

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2012
  14. bgblk40
    Joined: Jul 7, 2012
    Posts: 20

    bgblk40
    Member
    from Midwest


    Sweet, sweet, ride!


    Tom
     
  15. CRH
    Joined: Apr 30, 2006
    Posts: 554

    CRH
    Member
    from Utah

    I personally like '53 & '54 better, but I am almost positive that I think less of "Tri-five" Chevys because of the options I was raised around. I always thought they were too common, like Camaros and Mustangs, even though we never actually had one.

    About five years ago I found a '55 Pontiac 2 door hardtop for a DEAL and drove it home. (I am a Pontiac nut, and was raised that way). I remember viewing the roof line from inside the '55 and being just amazed at how cool it looks, flowing from the windshield post along the top of the door and back to that tasteful point where it wedges down and then back up gracefully under the 1/4 window.
    I also realized myself wishing the headlights looked a little more recessed like the '55 Chevy!
    Basically, I found myself appreciating the '55-'57 style like I never though I would. I guarantee if dad had one of those Chevys while I was at home I would love them now!
     
  16. Have you actually ever driven one?? That, and everything everyone has said up to this point.
     
  17. Model T1
    Joined: May 11, 2012
    Posts: 3,309

    Model T1
    Member

    When I drive my 55 Chevy wagon and whenever I drove the two 55 2-doors and 57-2-dr HT I forgot I was in an old car. Still do.
    Getting the WAVE sometimes makes me wonder if it's just because I'm so darn cute. Then I remember I'm in a 55 Chevy!
    But I still think it's cause I'm cute! I enjoy driving any old car, stock or otherwise. Anyone can drive a Mustang. :D
     
  18. gir431
    Joined: Mar 25, 2007
    Posts: 70

    gir431
    Member

    I have never understood the appeal of the '57 Chevy. While I find the '55 and '56 attractive and even sporty I don't feel the same way about the '57. The earlier two were very popular not so the '57. The '57 Chevy was not well received when new, in fact Ford outsold Chevrolet in 1957 yet today you can buy two or three '57 Fords for the price of a Chevrolet. It's not a performance thing either because both the ford and Chevy offered a two four set up and though Chevrolet offered fuel injection, Ford offered supercharging. In my opinion the '57 Ford in a more handsome car than the same year Chevy. Okay, that's enough from me.
     
  19. Engine man
    Joined: Jan 30, 2011
    Posts: 3,480

    Engine man
    Member
    from Wisconsin

    Do you like women?
     
  20. brewster55
    Joined: Sep 2, 2010
    Posts: 149

    brewster55
    Member

    if you have to ask, you wouldnt understand.
     
  21. The good and bad associated with the tri-fives is the same as the good and bad associated with the 32 Fords.

    The good:

    - The styling was very well done....good, clean and pleasing
    - They both were the platform for iconic engines
    - There was a lot of them made and that made them good fodder for hotrodders
    - Parts have been easy to find

    The bad:

    - Their popularity has made them too common. The old adage says, "Familiarity breeds contempt"
    - Despite big production numbers, as time goes by, raw material has skyrocketed in price.
    - Fair-weather car guys see them at shows (because they're at all the shows) and want one for themselves, and this creates a fairly significant pool of owners that my dad always described as "Corvette Pricks".

    I'm not running them down. In fact, other than a Model A, the first car that I had an absolute gaga, crazy, teenage, obsession crush on was a very clean, bone stock 55 210 tudor that an old lady who lived next door to my grandmother, was selling. She wanted $1500 for it in 1983. I was only 14, but had most of the money earned from sacking groceries. My dad told me that it was way too much money for a damned old fishing car.
     
  22. ShortBus
    Joined: Dec 31, 1969
    Posts: 916

    ShortBus
    Member

    This was my first thought.

    If you don't like, don't look. Don't bitch, just go about your day.

    I don't ask a hamster in saggy pants to convince me why their tuner cars don't suck when I already know they do.

    The answer to your question might be the SBC.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2012
  23. RatPin
    Joined: Feb 12, 2009
    Posts: 574

    RatPin
    Member

    Like I said, I didn't mean to stir the pot. No need to take stabs at my taste because your feelings get hurt. I like IH because they are unique. In my opinion
    It sucks to show up at cruise night and be one of dozens of the same make/model. By the way i do like the look of the late 50's chev trucks.

    I think the trifive's visual appeal has just been so watered down from seeing them everywhere, that I no longer find it attractive. There was a time when I liked them and even almost wanted one.

    Regardless this has been an insightful and informative threIad for the most part.
     
  24. When I attend a show or a cruise night with my brother, he makes it a point to not stop at any 55-57 Chevy as we walk the show. If you have seen one over-restored 55-57 Chevy you have seen them all is what he says.
     
  25. Where in Oregon are you?

    If you are in the Washington Valley and no some old timers yyou may have to ask them to understand my answer, they are sosch cars. It is a status symbol.


    Find someone oldere than say 55 in Forest Grove and ask them about soschs and hoods.
     
  26. Dane
    Joined: May 6, 2010
    Posts: 1,351

    Dane
    Member
    from Soquel, CA

    There's something wrong with a person that doesn't like a 55 BelAir convertible. :D
     
  27. onlyonthurs62
    Joined: May 18, 2011
    Posts: 117

    onlyonthurs62
    Member



    I''ll chime in on the Mazda thing. I am a Mazda lover my self and its because of the Wankel Rotary engine. I had an rx-7 for a few years (like the one in my avatar that shot out flames in stock form becuase they run hot as hell) and those engines are something else (nothing else like them...3 moving parts in the engine and that's it!). A thing of beauty if you ask me. Even chevy considered using these engines in a corvette once (they put it in in a corvette concept in 1973)
     
  28. olscrounger
    Joined: Feb 23, 2008
    Posts: 4,770

    olscrounger
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Have two that I have owned for 35 yrs. Our 55 was our main car for many years when funds were tight-why?? very solid platform,easy to work on and very reliable-and parts were easy to find if problems arose on the road--wife drove it for many years with minimal maint.-looked good and drove great--and she ran it occasionally at the drags as well--still a very solid and sound car with 200K miles-3 engines and two trans over the years-never let us down. See them both in our album.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2012
  29. Those Wankels are cool. I've always wanted an old Mazda (from like the early 70s) with a rotary....just to play with and buzz around in.
     
  30. 296 V8
    Joined: Sep 17, 2003
    Posts: 4,666

    296 V8
    BANNED
    from Nor~Cal

    56 for me - better lookin than the 55 and not as gawdy as the 57

    Coolest photo of one ever!!!!!!!!!!! ..... cant see whats not to like
     

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