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″…
57 YEARS OF THE 57
Well this was the big one that spurred me on to get the car finished…
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…
AXLE – STEERING – COOLING
My Ford 9″ rear axle housing needed centring so this went down to Zane Llewellyn…
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…
STAINLESS RESTORATION
Hi Folks, this one’s a bit long-winded but I made a lot of mistakes on…
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…
383 ENGINE BUILD
When I bought my 57 it had a 1967 350 HP small journal 327 and…
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…