This was my first car I received on my 16th birthday in 1970. It was my dad's work car from 1960 to 1970.

The 57 has gone through some tough "Kid's first car years". When I got the car in 1970 it had the original "Hot water" six cylinder with a three speed in the floor. The three speed on the column finally had worn out and dad had put it in the floor. Well the first thing that had to go was the six cylinder. I bought a 1950 Ford that had a Corvette 327 in it. I pulled the 327 and junked the Ford ( ! like Fords but only needed one project at age 16). Dad and I rebuilt that 327 and dropped it in.

The combination of 327 and heavy teenage foot resulted in several years of 3-speed transmission carnage. And after nearly exhausting all area junkyards of three speed transmission parts, a Muncie 252 4 speed came to the rescue.

The problems moved back a little. The stock rear end was next to be torn up repeatedly. Back to the good ole junkyards for 57' Chevy rear ends. It didn't take long to clean out the junkyards of 57' third members. I tried a 55' Pontiac rear end and it lasted only a few weeks. Next it was a massive 57' Pontiac rear end. It was huge and worked great but it always leaked grease out the ends so I didn't have any rear brakes most of the time. The Pontiac rear end was a little wider than the stock unit so I ended up cutting the fender wells out to clear the tires (ouch). After the cutting started a functional teardrop hood scoop was added on the hood.

Finally after a few close calls with bad brakes, a friend of mine sold me a GM 12-bolt.1 ran the stock single track 12-bolt for many years without problems in the rear end. The problems moved back up to breaking transmissions and clutches.

In 1974, I married my beautiful wife and a family soon followed along with me going to college and working full time, The mean 327 was replaced with a mild mannered 350. Now it was my work car. I drove it to work off and on for the next few years but it was too expensive to drive all the time. So it sat in the garage almost forgotten for the next 15 years and moved with us from house to house. The car was really a part of me so I could not sell it over those years.

About 1990 I started coaching little league baseball with Mr. Sonny Bransom and he was over at the house one day and happened to see the 57' in the garage covered up with junk. Soon the old kid spirit was alive and well again. I started driving the car again and really enjoying it.

First I had the under side and firewall of the car media blasted. Then I lifted the body off of the frame and painted the under side and the firewall. I replaced all of the body mounting rubber. I painted the frame and patched up old street battle scars.

The 350 was bored .030" over and Keith Black Hypersomething pistons were installed. The engine internals have been balanced. The block was decked to increase compression with the flat-topped pistons. Big valve heads, Edelbrock intake and cam were added. This was topped off with a Holley 750 double pumper carbo. The headers are ceramic-coated Micky Thompson headers that are the only headers I have ever had on the car. I bought them in 1971 and they have been on there ever since. I had them ceramic coated last year. I built the 3" exhaust system that dumps into the 3" Flowmaster mufflers. A Hurst Super Shiffer is used on the Muncie 4 speed.

After a year of playing with the car again it was time to take it apart for paint. The car was completely disassembled and the body was media blasted. I welded new rear quarter panels on the car to replace the cutouts that I had done years ago. A new old hood was found and used to replace the hood with the scoop. A lacquer-based primer and then lacquer-based sealer were applied. The urethane base coat was put on. Then about 30 man-hours of flames were masked off and then shot with a pearl tinted clear. The masking was then removed and more clear was put on. The paint was wet sanded with 1500 grit paper and then buffed.

The interior headliner and seats were done at a local upholstery shop. Then a friend and I made the tweed door panels. A friend put in the wild carpet with inlaid flames and an inscription all with carpet. I welded up the hack job I had done as a kid on the dash for various radios it had over the years. I also closed in the clock cutout. My painter and good friend shot the dash and window trim.

All of the engine compartment sheet metal except for the radiator support have been powder coated. The radiator support had to be repaired from the "Kid good idea" of hood pins and they being mounted with large holes.

Vola! The car is done time to play.

Not so fast, in steps - BLEED through. The beautiful paint that had been applied just like the manufacturer had said, reacted with the Bondo bodywork and turned yellow wherever there was any Bondo. Well, with the quarter panel replacement and so forth it was bad.

That was a year ago, it looks like the problem is gone. So on with playtime.