As featured on
Classic Chevy International magazine cover March, 2001
Anyone who has ever done a full frame-off restoration knows the impossibility of keep to a time schedule. More over, if you are doing a custom vehicle each modification seems to lead to thoughts of more. Well, in the early spring of 2000, with over 4 years already in to it, we were committing to all our friends that our 1957 ¾ Chevy Custom Pick-up Truck would be ready to drive to the International Convention set for July 5, 2000 in Cleveland, Ohio.
That seemed reasonable at the time. Most of the mechanical work was done. The stock 235 6-cylinder had been rebuilt and we kept the stock heavy duty 4-speed transmission with the granny gear. We mounted the emergency brake assembly to the back of the transmission. We had the carburetor rebuilt and re-colored. We installed the carburetor and used a cable idle set and cable choke. We installed a heavy duty 4 core radiator. The 10 bolt rear was from a ’79 Camaro and has 2.42 gears. We installed power disc brakes in front with 5 lug rotors. The intake and exhaust manifolds were sent to Jett Hot for coating. My husband, Marvin designed a custom mounting for the third brake light we put in the rear window. We still had waiting for installation in boxes: the Ron Francis wiring harness and fuse panel, the direct drive 2 speed wipers, the Billet rear taillights which were to be set in the rear sill panel, all of the parts for our custom polished stainless steel exhaust system and muffler, and a variety of small odds and ends. (By the way the “we” I refer to above was 95% Marvin, I was the extra set of intelligent hands.)
At my insistence, we lowered the truck 3 inches by installing front and rear mono leaf springs. We replaced the 17 inch wheels that were on the truck with 15 inch original corvette rally wheels painted to match the body and completed with polished stainless steel beauty rims and custom center caps. This truck was never farm equipment and I was determined it would never look the part. Our truck had originally been built as a utility vehicle to be a part of the service fleet of our local power company. I was going more for a streetrod look but I don’t think the 6-cylinder qualifies. Maybe sometime in the future we’ll flip it for a Chevy small block.
The bodywork was also complete, it was painted (a beautiful deep ’57 tropical turquoise), and Marvin had just finished reassembling the body. We kept the cab stock. The front fenders were replaced with fiberglass; everything else is steel. We removed all the trim, had the bumper bolts blinded, and used a monotone paint scheme – no chrome. Virtually every bolt on the truck was replaced with stainless steel and the visible ones are polished stainless steel. Anyone want to guess how many bolts you need to hold a truck together? The glass is tinted and we installed key locks on both doors. We flush blind mounted the bed to the frame. The bed looked great with it’s lacquered oak wood and polished stainless steel bedstrips and bolts. It was actually looking like we might have a truck to show this season. For the past 4 years, our friends in the Heart of Maryland Classic Chevy Club, of which we are charter members, have asked every year… “So, is the truck done? Are we going to see it this year?” Well, this year we were actually saying “yes”. It finally looked like a truck instead of a warehouse shipment. Sure we still had a lot to do, but hey, we had several months before the convention. So, when Marvin and I began talking about the upcoming car show season, I was ready to believe the time schedule he laid out. We planned to have the truck 100% complete and ready to show by June 1st. We wanted a good month to put some mileage on the engine and take her to some local shows before we drove the 500 miles to Cleveland.
Yes, our intention was to drive our beautiful new ’57 Pick-up to the convention. We had planned to travel with our friends in the Heart of Maryland. The club and it’s members take pride in the fact that we all drive our vehicles everywhere we go and still manage to take home numerous awards. As always when the Heart of Maryland attends a convention we show up in force. This year we had 17 vehicles going to Cleveland. We were going to make one awesome caravan. Not only are we members of the Heart of Maryland, but Marvin is the current club President. So yes, we did intend to drive our pick-up. But, everyone knows where to road to good intentions leads…
Well, June 1st came and went and no truck to drive. By now the running joke among our friends was that if Marvin didn’t have the truck ready to go to Cleveland he’d be divorced. We were getting closer to finishing. The paint still needed to be touched up and buffed out. The interior needed to be done. The exhaust system needed to be installed. Additionally, Marvin had designed a custom removable tow hitch, so we could attach a luggage platform to use when we traveled, as not to scratch up the bed. He designed the prototype and his cousin was going to fabricate it for us out of steel. This too needed to be done. But, hey, we still had another month.
We were still very much planning to drive the truck to the convention in Cleveland. There was a local convention about 50 miles from our home that was doing major point judging scheduled for the end of June. We had already pre-registered the pick-up for that show. That would at least put some miles on the engine and give us an idea of how she would do in a judged show. Well, the paint shop took longer than they said they would (gee, didn’t see that one coming, huh?). The upholsterers were running a week late and the tow hitch hadn’t been completed either. We gave up and attend the local convention in our ’55 Chevy Sedan driver.
It was now two weeks before we were to leave for Cleveland and reality began to set in. We were not driving 500 miles to Cleveland on an engine with only 2 miles on it. Plus, it was still going to be a race to the wire if she would be ready to go at all. The upholsterers had her and were moving very slowly, the custom exhaust system still needed to be installed, and we were still waiting for Marvin’s cousin to complete our tow hitch for the luggage platform. At this point, Marvin began muttering that dirty word… “trailer”. He started looking at ads trying to but an inexpensive one and called around to various rental companies to get prices to rent one for week. Remember, we were building this truck to be driven, but if it was going to Cleveland it was not ready to drive. We also had to figure out what vehicle did we own that was strong enough to tow a 1957 ¾ ton extended long bed pick-up truck and where could we get a tow hitch to fit it. Well, we decided against buying a trailer; and the prices for renting one for a week would have cost us as much as the convention itself was. Never mind that no one seemed to have a tow hitch that would fit anything we owned. We did have several offers to custom design one for our ’55 at ridiculous prices. I love my husband, and would not divorce him over a truck, but it was looking pretty doubtful that the pick-up would be going to Cleveland.
Well at the last minute, a friend from the Heart of Maryland called to tell us someone he worked with owned a trailer, practically new, that he hadn’t used for a while and the tags were about to expire. If we would give him the money to renew the tags he would loan us the trailer to take to Cleveland. What a deal! Marvin’s cousin who was fabricating the custom tow hitch for the ’57 owned a dully pick-up and offered it to us to tow the ’57 with. Ready or not we were going to Cleveland and so was the truck!
The convention started on a Wednesday, but everyone with the Heart of Maryland was traveling up the Sunday before to do some site seeing before the convention started. Marvin has family just outside of Akron that we were going to visit instead if site seeing before the convention. We figured that would be a good safety net for any last minute work that needed to be done on the truck as well as seeing the family. It was a good thing we had those extra couple of days. Three days before we were suppose to leave for Cleveland the upholsterers still hadn’t finished. Two days before we were to leave we took the truck from the upholsterers, leaving them the overhead console with them to complete, and brought it to the shop doing the custom exhaust system installation. Thank goodness they were ready for us. Once the exhaust was installed we went back to pick up the console and finally brought the truck home. Marvin still had a number of things he needed to do on the truck. Additionally, 4½ years of assembly and modifications will accumulate a lot of dust and dirt even on brand new parts and paint. The truck needed to be cleaned, polished and detailed before the show. Four years can amass a lot of dirt.
Now, any of you who do trailer your classic, think back to the very first time you tried to load your beautiful, perfect vehicle with not so much as a road ding, onto that trailer. Now think about doing it in the dark by only the light of street lamps. Now also keep in mind the engine was not quite 100%, the timing wasn’t even set, the transmission was still a little stiff, and even with the truck pulled as far forward on the trailer as possible, it still hung off the back another 2 feet. The dully we borrowed was a Silverado SS and from end to end, with the trailer, we were almost 50 feet long. This was going to be an interesting trip. We had never trailered a vehicle (at least not one that wasn’t junk) let alone driven something almost the size of a semi. As this was an open trailer, I convinced Marvin we needed to put the cover on the truck for the trip. So we used ropes to tie down the cover and blankets to cushion the paint from rope burns. When everything seemed good and tight we felt ready for the trip in the morning.
We were to meet up with the rest of the Heart of Maryland about 20 miles from our home. No one in the club has seen the truck completed yet and all but one had no idea we were trailering it. We were both excited to show off our new baby and a little embarrassed that she was on a trailer. We knew we were in for a teasing. No one in the Heart of Maryland trailers their vehicle; let alone the club President. Well we got about 15 miles from home when the “fun” started. The whole time Marvin was driving I was keeping my eye on the truck through the side view mirror. At the same instant I momentarily looked away, Marvin all of a sudden slammed the breaks and pulled off to the shoulder of the road. My heart sank. I thought “oh god, the chains came loose or something”. He jumped out of the truck and I jumped out of the truck after him yelling “what?!”. The road wind had pulled the truck cover and blankets out from under the ropes. A couple of the blankets were just gone and the cover was streaming off the back of the trailer like a parachute. Thank god it was early in the morning and no one else was on the road behind us. We gathered up the cover and remaining blankets and threw them in the back of the Silverado. We then had to unlash all the rope we had used to hold on the cover; which was now rubbing our unwaxed paint. So it seemed for the next 500 miles the big red Silverado we were traveling in was to be followed by a big turquoise ’57 Pick-up Truck. We were a site all by ourselves.
Well, 20 minutes late, we met up with our friends who “oooed” and aahhed” at our new baby and then gave us a load of crud for trailering her. We were made to bring up the rear of the caravan as our punishment. As it turned out that was a good thing. The route we took from Maryland to Ohio went up and down a dozen mountains. With the weight of the ’57 and the trailer, everyone else in the club pulled a good couple of miles ahead of us on the way up each mountain. And we had to ride the breaks, as to not slam into them, all the way down each mountain. We were driving a semi! The trip to Cleveland though uneventful was torturous. Every bump in the road seemed to make the trailer rock from side to side and I prayed the chains would hold. Every sharp turn we made coming down each mountain I was muttering… “breaks, Marvin, breaks”. The Silverado was a big truck itself to drive. Bigger than anything we owned. The ’57 and the trailer behind us added another 25 feet. That ’57 represented over 4 years of our life and savings. Please don’t let the trailer flip over. Marvin kept he cool outwardly, but inside I knew he was thinking the same things I was.
That afternoon we all made it to Ohio safe and sound. At the Akron exit we said a temporary good bye to our friends and headed to Marvin’s relative’s home were we would spend the next three days. We planned to work on finishing the truck by day and visit with the family after dark. As we drove through the neighborhood where Marvin’s aunt and uncle lived, it occurred to us where were we going to park these trucks let a lone have room to do any work on the ’57. This was a nice quite community, with small streets and homes nestled closely together. When we arrived at his aunt and uncle’s home we were relieved to find they had a large backyard and a driveway that extended into it. Marvin wanted to back the trucks into the driveway to make it easier when it came time to leave. How many of you have ever backed a 50 foot semi that breaks in the middle into a single car driveway? After a number of attempts the two trucks were now crosswise blocking the entire road and we discovered that the grade of the driveway off of the road was too steep to back into with 2 feet of the ’57 hanging off the back of the trailer. The bumper would have scraped the driveway. Now what? Luckily, Marvin’s uncle owned an old brand X pick-up that had a tow hitch much lower than the one on the Silverado. If the front of the trailer was lower the back would be higher. About 1½ hours after we arrived the trucks and trailer were finally parked. For the first time in the past week we relaxed, not worrying about the truck. We were in Ohio, less than an hour from the convention hotel and had 2-3 days to finish, clean, polish and detail the truck for the show. No problem!
That was Sunday. Monday it rained … all day it rained. We got absolutely nothing accomplished on the truck. Our thought for the day was whether or not the glass and the doors were sealed properly. The truck had never seen rain before let alone an all day downpour. The interior had only been sat in a few times. We were half expecting to find the cab filled with water. The interior that had taken way too much time to finish came out great. The original bench seat had been stripped down to bare metal. We had the cushions designed as bucket seats – very well padded. Before the upholsterers covered the seat they had us come and give it a “tush test” for comfort. We were after all building this truck to be driven. The seats were covered in two-tone gray. The headliner was designed with a recessed bowtie and the overhead console Marvin designed to house the radio and speakers were covered to match. The carpeting was silver gray trimmed with smoke gray vinyl. The door panels were done in the same silver gray tweed and smoke gray vinyl as the seat was. Going for comfort we added matching armrests. Future plans are for boxing in under the dash and building a custom designed cover for the gas tank.
Well, Tuesday morning bright and early we went out to check the truck. The cover had formed a pond in the truck bed but the interior was dry as a bone. Thank goodness! We really had our work cut out for us that day. Marvin still had quite a bit to deal with under the hood. My job was to start the cleaning and polishing. We were going for our first judging in a few days and this was a big truck with a lot of dirt and dust to clean off of it. We spent the better part of that day working on the truck. We stopped late afternoon to spend the 4th of July festivities with Marvin’s family.
Wednesday we were to leave for Cleveland that morning. We had about an hour ride ahead of us and planned to get the hotel in time for lunch. That way we would have the rest of the afternoon and the next day to wax and detail the truck. Well, we packed up the Silverado and said our good byes. We hooked up the trailer. But when Marvin went to start the ’57 to drive up onto it; the ’57 wouldn’t start. After a number of attempts he determined the battery was dead. Why? Apparently the ignition had been left in the on position overnight. As Marvin explained it to me, he had temporarily hooked the dash lights up to the ignition while he worked out some electrical problems and that caused the battery to drain. Well as luck would have it we did not have a set of jumper cables with us and Marvin’s aunt could not find any either. We called his cousin who lived nearby and she came to our rescue. The battery really was completely drained and the jump wasn’t working. We decided to leave the vehicles hooked up for a slow charge. This made sense except that Marvin had never actually filled the brand new gas tank he installed with more than a couple of gallons. The truck ran out of gas as it sat in the driveway waiting for the battery to recharge. (Not bad for a trailered vehicle, dead battery and running out of gas.) Fortunately, Marvin’s uncle had a full gas can in the garage. We put some gas in the tank and continued to charge the battery. By now it was early afternoon. The battery had enough of a charge to turn the engine over and stay on, so we loaded the ’57 on the trailer and made ready to leave. By this time we decided not to take the main highways as rush hour was almost upon us. We got directions for an alternative route and headed off.
Small roads are great until you find construction or an accident or traffic. By highway we were only an hour away. Our route took us twice that. It was late afternoon when we finally pulled into the host hotel for the convention. We were tired and frustrated and did not even bother to unload the ’57 off the trailer. We basically had resolved to work our butts off all day Thursday.
The next morning we rolled out of bed and headed straight to work on the ’57. Marvin still had some work to do on the electrical system before we put the pickup through “tech-check”. There were also spots on and around the engine where the paint needed to be touched-up. The under-carriage was also Marvin’s responsibility. I spent the morning cleaning and waxing the wheels and tires. I wanted to get a couple of coats of wax on the body; one in the morning and again in the afternoon. As we worked, Marvin was still having trouble with the accessories. We had until 5pm that afternoon to get the truck through “tech-check”. Evidently the battery did not get a full charge the previous day, because again it wouldn’t start. Again we hooked up jumper cables and let the engine run … forgetting completely that there was only a gallon or two of gas in the tank. You guessed it, we ran out of gas again! How many trailered vehicles run out of gas twice on the same trip? Fortunately there was a gas station right next door to the hotel. This time we filled the tank full.
That afternoon I positioned myself in the bed of the truck for the duration. The walls of the bed needed to be polished and waxed. The polished stainless steel bedstrips and bolts needed to be cleaned and clear coated. The oak needed to be cleaned and polished. As I worked it began to drizzle … you can’t do this stuff in the rain. I remembered we had an E-Z up tent with us and had it set up over the truck bed so I could continue to work. I was in the back of the truck for hours while Marvin finished under the hood and went about detailing the engine compartment and under carriage. About 4:30pm we were finally ready for “tech-check”. A good thing because it closed at 5 o’clock. The bed was still not complete to my satisfaction. So I stayed in the back as we got on line for the check and kept cleaning and polishing. I was still in the bed when we pulled in front of the photographer to get the formal pictures taken that were to be used in the convention coverage. I was lying down out of sight as the picture was taken. The mandatory judges’ and drivers’ meetings were beginning and I attended while Marvin finished the “tech-check”. We passed 100%.
Friday morning the judging was scheduled to start at 7am. We were up and out in the parking lot for some last minute detailing by 5 o’clock. Not even the sun was up yet. There were a few other crazy participants out there with us … only one other dutiful wife. We had opted not to judge that day out of total exhaustion. If I had things my way I would have been out there working until the judges showed up. About 7:30am Marvin said enough. It will be what it will be. So we packed up all the cleaners and polishes. We put away all the rags and towels. Now, for maybe the first time, we stepped back and looked at our baby. The morning sun was streaming across the deep turquoise paint, all the polished stainless steel was glistening and suddenly all the aggravation had melted away and was replaced by pride. Pride of a job well done and done the way we wanted it. I remember something Marvin and I had joked about months earlier. We had seen a new Chevy S-10 at a dealership and noted an emblem saying “Extreme”. Well, we would like the reintroduce Chevrolet to the original meaning of extreme … our 1957 ¾ ton extended long bed (all 102 inches) pickup truck. It hardly seems fitting to compare.
Does this story have a happy ending? You bet it does. The truck took 1st Place for 1957 Trailered Custom Trucks and scored a 991 out of a possible 1000 points. (Not bad for a first show.) One final laugh, one of those 9 points we lost happened as the judges were checking the alignment of the doors. The alignment was fine however when one of the judges went to reopen the door the interior door handle fell off. Gee, I guess we forgot to tighten one that up. Anyway the judge made a diving catch for the handle before it hit the ground and caught it before the chrome was ruined. It was only fair that cost us a point and new door handle would have cost more.
We want to thank CCI and our friends from Ohio for a great time. We also want to extend a big thank you to all our friends in the Heart of Maryland for their encouragement and support. You all are great friends and we promise … no more trailers! The next show the pickup attends she will drive to.