WELCOME TO MY BLOG

This is mostly the story of the restoration of my 57 Chevy which I bought in Tucson, Arizona way back in September 1989. This two door hardtop was my daily runabout for many years until the UK weather finally took it’s toll and it was in need of a total restoration. What I thought was going to be maybe a two year job turned out to be 10 years work on and off. Start to finish here’s the story of how I got on – I hope it’s of help to any fellow Tri-five owners thinking of doing the same, I really wouldn’t want to do it again.

HYDROBOOST BRAKES

My brake set up after the restoration was an angled 8″ dual booster, a 1″…

NIGHT CRUISE

Me and Dave Meyer had a notion to have a night time cruise. A small…

FIRST SHOW

I’d sorted most of the initial teething problems and the sun was out so it…

PROBLEMS

Finally on the road. I can’t deny it was an unusual experience, it was a…

FIRST FIREUP

Crikey it’s finally alive. Paul joined me under the hood checking the fuel lines whilst…

FINAL CHECKS

With the steering done I’d now run out of excuses not to fire this thing…

ALIGNMENT

After a day googling the subject I tackled the steering alignment initially using a laser…

INTERIOR

I started with the headliner and the first job was soundproofing. There’s a ton of…

ODDS ‘n’ SODS

I finished the dash by installing a Retrosound radio as these had good reviews and they…

GLASS & SIDE TRIM

Most of the original glass was de-laminated and shot to bits so another trip to…

INTERIOR – SEATS

I’d recovered the seats about 22 years ago when I first bought the car and…

WIRING

After plenty of research on www.chevytalk.com I bought an American Autowire classic update kit. It’s hard…

PAINT

I’m scarred for life when it comes to the paint. After much deliberation I thought…

BODY ON FRAME

The main body was now straight and in primer and ready for having the firewall,…

100% DIGITAL

I finally went 100% digital yesterday when I reluctantly gave away by last stock of…

CHASSIS FINISHED

With the frame now painted in 2K satin black it was another long round trip…

BODYWORK BEGINS

With the frame brackets and mounts all sorted it was taken back to the paint…

ENGINE ACCESSORIES

I’ll throw in some colour pics from now on although I tend to see everything…

FRAME WORK

The old powerglide mounts had been burned off with a torch and the frame was…

ON THE ROTISSERIE

Once the strength was back in the body it was bolted up to the rotisserie,…

OFF THE FRAME

Once the bulk of the welding was done at the body shop it was time…

BARE METAL

Time to shed 40 odd years of paint. What a mess. Rocker panels and the…

RESTORATION TIME

After many years the UK weather had finally taken its toll. The rocker panels and…

BACK IN THE UK

November 1989, registered, taxed, MOT’d and home in London. My garage in Manor Park East…

FOUND MY 57 CHEVY

September 1989, fed up with driving a MK11 Ford Consul I took out two bank…