why dont people Kustomize 57 chevys

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hey studedude, is this your chevy in the corner of this picture from Roundup?

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Hey PBR...
Yep, that's my '57...and the Caddy a couple cars behind is my brothers...and the'57 retractable in between is our friend Ron that came with us...(don't know who's '63 Galaxie that is tho!). We had a good time in Austin!!! AND I did DRIVE that '57 all the way from Denver and all the way back home...the new crate motor produced a best of 20.9 mpg...don't think that's too bad, huh?

Did I meet you while down there?
R-

 

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Am I the only person who thinks the '56 is wayyyy better looking then the '57? They have too much crap on the quarter panels.

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I've always loved the '56 the best, as long as it's not a Bel Air. I prefer the 150 or 210 alot more.

 

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Am I the only person who thinks the '56 is wayyyy better looking then the '57? They have too much crap on the quarter panels.

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Nope, '56 is the best year out of the Tri-5s

 

What? I think you're mistaken, its the 55 of coarse

 

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'57's are gay. My opinion is formed by all the stock jobs that show up at rod and custom shows. WTF?!?!? The cars are fine it's just who they are so popular with that gets me. Fuck the 50's and doowop and drive-in trays and timeout dolls and fanny packs and comb-overs and fat guys in hawaiian shirts and old rich guys who get rooms at Paso Robles Inn and poodle skirts and ......well you get the idea.

The typical 57 owner seems to think the 50's was one big sock hop.

So, in conclusion FUCK UP THOSE 57's (cut, weld, chop, section and shave it all off!)and piss off the soon to be dead old fucks.

Oops..sorry.

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Ha ha ha! Sounds like you have a nostalgia thing for the long gone punk rock years. In fact it sounds like what the hip hop generation says about you guys. ha hah ah HAH! Some of you folks are your own cry baby dolls.

Punk Nostalgia! It's going to be next big thing. "Fuck, dudeman, I remember when punk was punk" "Yeah, man, Sex Pistols still RULE" "Yeah, man, I'm not going bald, it's an INVERTED MOHAWK" …ha ha

Doing a real fine job of reviving the original definition of a PUNK!

Oops, sorry for that. But you have a poopbutt attitude.

 

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"Yeah, man, I'm not going bald, it's an INVERTED MOHAWK" …ha ha

... you have a poopbutt attitude.

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Yes I do and yes I do.

 

If you look through old issues of R&C, there is a mild custom '57 Chevy on the cover of one of their early sixties issues. I can't remember exactly what issue (my collection is in storage). But maybe someone here can dig it up. The car is candy blue with white or silver scallops. It's been nosed, decked, shaved, and has a '57 Buick grille. All black tuck and roll by Tony Nancy. Chrome reverse on www's. I've always wanted to clone that car. Oh, by the way, I hate deuce roadsters, '40 Fords, '34 three-windows, and t-buckets 'cause everybody has them and the cars are just so damn popular. Yeah, I hate timeless style, too. Get a clue, some of you tough guys, a car model is not defined by its clueless fan group. Why would you reply to a post about a fellow hamb'er with a '57 Chevy by telling him you think his car sucks?

 

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Get a clue, some of you tough guys, a car model is not defined by its clueless fan group. Why would you reply to a post about a fellow hamb'er with a '57 Chevy by telling him you think his car sucks?

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Somne guys simply love to stir the shit...see what rises...

R-

 

My buddy's dad had one back in the day. I'm always trying to get him to show me pics of it but he always forgets. I think it's something with the lake's evaporation and us breathing it in..this entire town is effed up. Anyway, from what he says it was nosed and decked with a Buick grill. I don't remember if it ran spinners or wires. There was a smoothed off '57 in a Barris calender in 2000 or so that was just plain bitchin but I have no scanner so I'm just wasting space.
IMO, if it's not gonna sport 'vette teeth, it's gotta have a buick grill. They look better in the Chevies than they do in the Buicks! That green on green '56 at the top of this is good insiration to draw from. That can easily be applied to a '57 and look great.

 

Same reason they don't add extra tits on blondes. You really can overdo a good thing...

 

Amen^

 

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Always liked this one





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Thanks for posting that Ron;I was looking for a pic of that car.For those who don't know,the black 57 belongs to Dave Jenkins from Ypsilanti Michigan who bought it new in 57 and promptly started customizing it.It was in several little books in the late 50's.Dave still owns the car and still drives it to cruises and car shows.It has been re-done a couple of times but never changed and it is still one of the NICEST looking 57's ever and Dave is a hell of a nice guy.

 

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Am I the only person who thinks the '56 is wayyyy better looking then the '57? They have too much crap on the quarter panels.

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I've always thought the '56 was the best looking tri-five.In fact I think it was their "main" design and they "un-styled it, made it dowdy, for '55 so some people would trade in the 55 for the 56, and then heard about the coming '57 Plymouth with the super-fins and freaked out on the '57.
The thread author doesn't make it clear if it's a 4 dr post sedan or a 4 dr ht but if it's a 4dr ht and "restorable" with an original 283 etc. then it's very "collectible and he could sell it to a "restorer" for enough to buy a very customizable '50 Merc or Buick, but if it's a 4 dr post sedan it's a "nice old car" and he should have whatever customizing fun he wants to with it and then drive the shit out of it.
If it was mine, and a sedan, I'd do the trick that was in Hotrod Mechanix and shorten it to about a 102" wheel base, (same as a Corvette) thru the back door weld up what's left of the back door. Section it about 3" loose the top all together and graft on a shorter "sportier" looking windshield and drive ! or don't weld up the back doors, but "trick them out" like on those three door Saturns.
Also,
I think they need the flashy side trim to keep people from mistaking them for shoeboxes.
Other than that shave and roll and slam to your hearts content.
just don't put any mud flaps, visors, or continental kits on it!

 

This greatly surprises me, I have heard so many people say the 56 was the ugly duckling of the 3 years. I like em all, but when I see a 57, I fall in love every time. Wish we could get our 56 done . I remember some guy walkin past a 56 and sayin they were an old ladies car, I bet he owned a chitty ford 4 door and was jealous

 

I've had this disscusion a few times with friends.
There's only been a few i've *personaly* ever thought looked good , both being posted above..
That baby blue one, and the black one are killer.
Both on different levels..full tilt and mild.

I've had my '57 for 16 years, and the only stuff i did was the typical nose and deck job.
I just think they look pretty damn good without a lot done, providing what was done was done with taste.

And as far as the '55 vs '56 vs '57 and whats the best looking one....
To me, there isn't one that i wouldn't like to have..
Not an ugly one in the bunch..

Just my 2 cents

Tony.....

 

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This greatly surprises me, I have heard so many people say the 56 was the ugly duckling of the 3 years. I like em all, but when I see a 57, I fall in love every time. Wish we could get our 56 done . ...

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Yep, the '56 is my favorite by a wide margin.
It's funny, I like the '56 Bel Air 2 DR HT as a shaved and lowered mild custom with chrome wheels and skinny whites or Olds fiesta hubcaps and WWWs or bone stock trim with a mild lowering and stock wheel discs and WWWs.
But I don't care for the 2DR sedan in the Bel Air trim...I prefer the 210 model single side spear trim on the 2 DR Post Sedan and I like it "sporty"
with a set of American torque thrusts and black walls or painted wheels and dog dish hubcaps and cheater slicks. The Bel Air HT needs two tone to set off that double chrome spear when it's two tone, but the 210 looks good either two tone or one solid color.

 

i love the tri fives i dont like many that are customs though..

when i was 4 my cousin who was 18 at the time had a 57 150, primer red, 450 horse 327 m22, no front bumper kinda gasser style, that car is what hooked me ...in the 80s with all the mullet machines this car was definatly a throw back form the 60s, now its a pro street car its still nice , but nothing compares to the way it was

when i think of 55-57 i think street machine.......

project X rules!

 

When I bought my hardtop, it had a 6" high scoop on the hood, made out of a 64 Olds trunk lid, it had radiused wheelwells, the front bumper was removed and a molded in scoop thingy attached underneath. It was covered in heavy blue flake, done in 74. Not really customized, more of a 70's street machine. I thought it looked great at the time, now I have stock 1/4's on it and it is getting a stock front end. The hood scooped front end is probably going on my two door wagon, along with a mid 60's Chevy van front axle.

If I was going to do a customized 57 it would be a four door hardtop 210 with modified trim like the one above, Appliance White with teal blue or purple Watson/Jeffries scallops, chrome smoothies, lowered, with filled front louvers, a 57 Pontiac hood skin, and a 57 Buick grill.

Anyone ever see the big Lee Lenses made for a 57? The ones that replace the whole taillight housing? Sure would like to see something like that other than an old small magazine ad. Anyone have any pics??

 

I built a really sweet one back in '84. It hwas shaved, nosed and decked. It had a '57 Buick grille in it. I had a pair of tits machined from billet for the bumper guards, this was long before they were commercially available. It had blunt export model hood bullets that are rarer than hens teeth.
I painted it in Tropical Turquoise lacquer with pearl on top.
It had tribar aftermarket flippers and chrome fender skirts.
It was a beautiful car but it drove the local 'Classic' Chevy guys nuts, they all thought I'd raped the pope or something.

Do I miss it?

No, not really, it was still a '57 Chevy afterall.

 

The funny thing ia that we think of 57s as being so overdone but as I sit here and think about it,I cant think of more than 10 chopped custom 57 Chevs ever. If I ever had one I would want a mild cut with all the roof trim in stock form.By the way, does anyone have have pics of that gold chopped 4 door hard top with the hooded quad headlights and the 58-69 T-Bird grill shell??

 

I meant 58-60 T-Bird grille shell

 

Huuu? Any more pix of this?

 

Sorry...of this.....

 

Well for me I like the 55 out of the three, of course my favorite by far is the 58. I dont think there are alot of customs because there values are so high in stock form that most people wouldnt want to drastically modify one. But if you havea wreaked one then go for it. I am doing some minor mods on my 58 but nothing that I cant easily return to stock. I have seen pics of dechrome ones and they look great, but I just cant get myself to do that, I love the chrome too!

 

The two coolest I ever saw: One was a mildly customized '57 150 2-dr station wagon. It was red, baby moons, nosed, tail gate shaved, hood bullets removed, I think it had a Buick grille (the coolest custom mod you can make to one), and what really set it off was a '55 Bel Air side spear with a red painted center. The car was super clean, and just looked really good. It was just the horizontal piece of trim, and didn't include the angled "barb" behind the door.

The second was a stocker from the outside: '57 210 hard top wearing India Ivory paint. Lowered in the rear maybe 2 inches, with a stock front height. Even had the cheesy spinner full wheels covers on it. But the engine was a fully built 6 cylinder with dual carbs, Fenton headers, and a finned valve cover, backed by the manual 3 on the column. Personally, I like the '57 210 quarter chrome and short top crown molding over the Bel Air piece. I just think they look better with paint between the stainless than that aluminum piece.

To me, I don't think the proportions look right when the top is chopped. I did see a '55 with a chopped top, and he sectioned it, too--that made the proportions look right, but it also just made it a scaled-down '55 Chevy, so it seemed like a whole lot of work for a result that was the same, just smaller.
-Brad

 

Here's a picture.

 

'nuther

 

How she started

 

Nice job on that Nads, looked real good for sure.

Greg

 

Here is an old picture of my 55. I posted it before, but maybe some did not see it.