why do you SO CALLED "hotrodders" hate 55-57 chevys???

i remeber a orange and silver metalflaked with BLUE flames,,,but cant recall the the orange and silver metalflaked one with GREEN flames one...

 

Loved them from birth- talked about them so much when I was 5 years old got my dad back into them and we looked at tri-fives almost EVERY day for sale in the mid-seventies. Finally found one nice enough to keep (a perfect one-owner '55 Nomad w/30K miles) in 1977- still has it. My first '56, bought when I was 15, is proudly in my shop today 25 years later. I love all cars- but definitely tri-fives THE MOST! I want to have a Sam Hollingsworth Nomad clone some day- but for now have to play with my 4 '55-'59 Chevy trucks (3 Big-Windows- 1 Cameo, 1 Fleetside, 1 Stepside & 1 Suburban).

 

Hell , I've alway's liked em , doin a 33 ply & 26 T, but would like a 55 to turn into a gasser . Fun Car's

 

Green, blue............ask Barnett, I can't spell, walk or tell green from blue.

But I can talk.

 

I love em - you dance with the one that brung ya, you know? I've had my 56 - 4 door since 74 - now theres a challenge to make a 4 door look good.....

 

I prefer the '55 over the '57.

 

I know what you are saying. My brother bought his 57 in 1978...the car was 21 years old. It was a gutted out race car...he bought it for $125 and built it into a car that he still has today...



I wouldn't even consider bringing home a gutted out 1986 anything and trying to build a car out of it now. Kinda wierd.

But anyway, I like tri-fives. 56 210 2-door sedan was my dream car for a long time. Maybe someday.

Neal

 

Sam. Talk to an old(er) guy who remembers when he first saw and heard a new 55 Chevy. In stock form with a 265 and a four barrel they could blow the doors off of most built flatheads at the time and they were affordable. I think some of the so-called hatred towards them may have started back then as kind of an envy type thing.

 

Unfront, I'll tell you that I'm basically a Ford broad. IMO, the '55-'56 Fords were much better looking cars than the Tri-5 Chevys. The '57 only turns me off because 'every gold chainer' has a red ragtop. But I don't hate them. As circle burners, they have a winning past and I'd give my left arm for a real Black Widow.

Jan

 

here's why I hate them...

 

..more cars I hate....

 

I think I hate this 57 the best...

 

I like the lines of all the tri-fives, but I'm most partial to the '55. Then the '56, and a distant third is the '57 (never been much of a fin fan myself). My old man is all about the '57 though. Red with a white insert and white interior. That was the car he wanted when he turned 16, and he's hung onto that image ever since.

It's funny how things change though, when he was a senior in high school he bought a '69 Camaro Convertible (brand new from the dealership), SS 396 4 spd, Hugger Orange with a White Interior. He still has that car, and I gotta say, in my mind that is the car every other has to live up to in order to be cool ('cause it's been here since long before I've been here).

I think a lot of how we look at cars has to do with what we were exposed to growing up. I mean, let's be honest here, every guy over the age of about 25 building a hot rod is doing something he wanted to do when he was 16 and couldn't pull off. When you get older and you have the time, money, and inclination, you can finally realize the dream you've been carrying around. IMO that's really cool, but everyone's dream is going to be different. I don't see the point of shooting holes in other folk's dreams. Maybe it's not my style, but it's also not my car. Live and let live, etc.

All that said, I'd kill eight or ten regular people and help hide the bodies for a solid 2 dr tri-five (any year) that hadn't been butchered yet, but then again, I'd do the same for a '67, '68, or' 69 Camaro, or a '49-'51 Merc 2 dr, or a '34 tudor sedan, or . . . . .

Man, I've got a lot of killin' to do.

BTW, happy Thanks Giving y'all!

 

"I Like Them All...Just Some More Than Others"

Gearheads we all need to wake up and unite.. $5.00 a gallon is coming and states trying to eliminate old car's and collector's as junk.. you dont have to want to own one but you damn well better start telling the H.A.M.B.ER with the Tri-5 that even though you may not appreciate what he owns, you'll still defend his right to own and drive it. So enough with the "freakin bashin".

 

I dont hate 55,56 or 57 chevys. I hate all chevy's. But then again, I'm a crazy Ford fanatic and that is nuts. However, I hate Mustangs too. So there.

 

Every time anyone asks about my hot rod or any 50's stuff they ask about 57 Chevy's and poodle skirts and I just got tired of it. Plus I think they're just ugly.

 

I love em... as long as they are not built by the poodle people or built like poodles.

When I was grow'in up, or at least pretending to be growing up, the 55's were the $50 junkyard cars that the REAL hot rodders would put a wrecked Impala engine into, quickly bondo+primer the outside, gut the insides, and blow the doors off the snotty rich kids with their new stock Super Bees, Roadrunners, Mustangs, Camaros.

You could lighten up those shoebox cars so much that even a six cyl would make them pretty peppy. The big torque of an overweight Super Bee was no match for a light car and a quick-revving little transplanted V8 screamer.

To this day, what a hot rod means to me is a $50 car that is stripped, primered, an gutted inside with a simple bench seat and a T-handle or pistol grip shifter sticking up thru a bare floor. No hubcaps or thousand-dollar pimp wheels, just a simple lightweight jump-up-and-git car on a high schoolers budget. Anything more than that is overdone.

Big budget cars were for poodles and posers.
The real hot rodders grabbed what they could and made the simple cars faster than the cubic-dollar people could with the fancy crap.

I don't want to belittle anyones special car that they put a lot of work and time into, and I like looking them over at the shows, but to me the stripped down simple cars built to jump and go without a lot of jewelry and glitter are the ones with real soul, and the perfect example of hot rodding at it's best.

 

I've never been a big fan, but I'm a ford and mopar man. Plus to me the belly button comment rings true, I have never understood why people go nuts over the poverty pack chev when there was way better ( options and styling ) cars like the olds and buicks??

Personal opinion on the styling i guess, but while I love 32's , I have seen my fair share of cars that make me cringe and I see the odd tri five that I think the owner has done a great job on. Presenting a car like a trifive that makes people stop when there are so many is a pretty hard job I would say.

but I did find one I'm partial too.

 

I like gasser versions, and the really chopped and customized versions, as for teal blue and white or salmon and black 2 tone with torque thrust wheels and Lincoln Mark IV interiors, the gold chanin fag hags can keep them all to there pretty little selves!! Don't get me started on the fiberglass bodied tri's, now those ONLY belong in the rainbow parades!

 

The only one I like is this '55........



"I aint nobody......dork! "

 

1955... My fav would have to be a 150... uh, like the one I got... to me, best one out of the three years.

1956... make it a stock Nomad... lowered... Americans... street roddered out...

1957... least liked out of the years... but I'd take a 150 or 210... eithe a black widow, or stuff a 409, 4spd into a stone stocker...


I dunno... I like them.

To see one driving down the street, they're flat stunning.

You can tell why they were so damn cool when they were new... and why they have a "following".

It's the following most guys here have disgust over.

But some day... even "Ratrodtraditionalhotrods" will be passe... and disgusting to the "sheep"...

So like what you like and fuck all the rest.

Sam.

 

I like'em. Love the one in Graffitti with all the high school kids hangin outa it,
first merican car I remember seeing, being from the inner city projects in England.......

this is my one owner CA car

 

To me the tri-fives are identical with hot rodding, prefer 55 and 57 though. A 55 is my dream and I will get one a sunny day.

 

So about 72 after much creek weed and pbr, having bought a 57 triple black convert equipped with the tissue dispenser for 75 bucks, drove it to the party field to beat the snot out of when it blew the seal in the power glide. We devided wisely to put a rock on the go pedal and watched it burn to the ground.To this day I have no regrets. They were 50 dollars than and still should be.

 

I too was raised in the era that the 55 thru 57 were the car to have,,,with that said I have never owned one,,,,,

I have always liked them but the money wasn't there when the cars were,,,,

My pick of the litter would be a 55 2-door post car and I would build it like the older guy in our neighborhood did when I was a kid.

Toss the front bumper,,327,,,4-speed,,,black tuck and roll,,,paint it yellow and add a set of old 5 spoke keystone mags that I have in the barn. HRP

 

I stopped coming to the HAMB because of all the BASHING. My 55 has been a racer since the 60's. Updated thoughout the years,,narrowed rear,,disc brakes,,blower,,some billet parts but mostly it looks like a 60's gasser. Anybody that doesn't like Jim's "Shakey Puddin" isn't a racer. I've owned Camaros, Chevelles, Mustangs,even had a Road Runner once. My first 3 cars were 57 Chevys. I didn't really like the 57 Boyd did but I respected the work that went into it. I think complete cars with a history are more interesting than catalog cars or rat rods thrown together with a bunch of left over parts. I always wanted one like my Dad's 56

 

I can't post pics so here's a link
Dad's http://dads56.mypicgallery.com/

Mine http://55chevy.mypicgallery.com/

 

No hate here..
My 57 was my first car and it'll be with me 20 year's in about 6 day's..Saw HollyWood Night's back when i was a kid and just went nut's for Project-X.new someday i wanted my own 57.
I do like them all though..And sure there's the one's that are done not to my own liking. I've become very partial to 56's over the year's as well...although my 57 will be with me til i croak..

Tony

 

Wife sent me out to buy a 55 and I came back with a 57.....there will be no billet,no tacky add on shit and no crying over scratches and dents.I.m building it to drive the shit out of. I had a plastic toy 57 wagon when I was little and vowed I would own one some day.Next one will be a 55 though....gotta keep the wife happy! I will also admit that I see many 57,s at car shows that turn my stomach at first glance. White walls on wire wheels,fuzzy dice and cry baby dolls.....there oughta be a law against that shit.

 

I don't like the billet trailer queens that show up at shows with their crybaby dolls and drive-in trays... as Ryan said it's cliche.... that kills it for me. I like Falfa's '55 and a few others. I don't like gassers. I don't mind the survivor from the gasser wars, but he clones and wanna bees are just silly to me.