57Hardtop
02-14-2011, 04:02 PM
Hi All! My name is Mason and I'm located in Central Kansas. Been lurking on here for some time getting ideas as we start rebuilding my dad's '57 210 hardtop for the 2nd time.
A little (long) history: Dad bought the car in the late 80's at a repo auction. Had been mildly rebuilt, poor quality yellow paint, new grey cloth interior, 327/4-speed. I was 6 or 7 at the time and it was my first experience with old cars.
Dad had a black '57 hardtop with a corvette 327 when he was in highschool in the late 60's and his dream was to have another.
A couple years after purchasing the '57 a good friend told him he was converting his numbers matching 427 '69 vette to a crate LS-6 454/5-speed combo to do some drag racing. Dad thought that was an intriguing idea and purchased a second LS-6 for his car.
They disassembled both cars in his friends shop at the same time but all the focus went into the vette. The vette was built in a year or so and the '57 sat gutted. About that time my parents purchased an older home to remodel. So the '57 was basically forgotten for 8 more years.
Fast forward to 1998 (I was 16!): The '57 had been sitting outside in the country in southwest Kansas (My dad's friend had moved on to other hobbies and needed the shop space so dad told him it was okay to stick it behind the shop). Sand had blasted the paint, rats ate out the interior. Finally my mom asked a mechanic friend that did all the work for our farm business if he would get the '57 going for my dad's birthday. They moved everything into his shop. It wasn't even close to running before his birthday, but dad did start getting interested in the car again. By this time the '69 vette had been in the 10's and then converted back to original so all the go-fast goodies from it were available for the '57.
The mechanic took several years to get the car built in his off-hours. A '73 firebird subframe was grafted on the front, 9" ford with springs swapped inside the frame was put out back. The crate LS-6 was reassembled with a hot hydraulic roller cam, holly DP850. The richmond 5-speed and mccloud hydraulic clutch from the vette were set to go in but the mechanic was having a fit getting the master cylinder mounted and lined up with the peddle. He talked my dad into putting a TH-400 in instead!!
Car was at least running by 2001, and sent to my dad's best friend's collision shop for body work and paint. Both rear quarters and one front, one door skin, and both rockers had to be replaced. Floor was solid! The car was obviously in a wreck and patched back together at some point. In the body shop for 6 months, but it was finally sprayed in a black cherry pearl with pearl white fin insert. I polished all the stainless over a christmas break. The car was sent to the best upholstery business in town (That doesn't say much!:_paranoid ) where '96 mustang fronts and original back seats were covered in burgandy vinyl and black tweed.
The '57 was pretty awesome for awhile but we soon started getting all the gremlins. The wiring was a mess (stock harness was modified and added onto), dash lights would blink in a disco-like fashion, electric windshield wiper conversion would come on unexpectedly (most likely grounding issues). One taillight was brighter than the other. Ontop of that, the timing was way off on the LS-6 and it would overheat easily and never start when hot.
I was away at college but dad continued messing with the car to get it running correctly. The mechanic that built the motor swore up and down that everything was put together correctly but noone had time to work on the car to verify this. I was busy going to school and building a pro-street '68 chevelle SS clone with the old LS-6 out of the corvette and my dad had other priorities. The '57 just sat in the garage.
Since 2002 the '57 was driven probably 2-3 times a year, usually when I was home for the weekend or my dad had a wild hair. As time went on it was driven less and less. Most recently it hadn't been driven more than a block in the last 2 years. No AC, no Heat, rear suspension wasn't set up correctly, timing issues, and THE DANG AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION totally made my dad disinterested in the old car.
I finished school, finished the chevelle, started a career, got married, started a family, sold the chevelle:( to buy a family hauler in the time since the '57 was built. And it never accumulated more than a couple hundred miles on it.
Several years ago I suggested that Dad get a pro touring style frame built and a LS/T56 installed to make the car a fun driver. He loved the idea but retirement was much to busy for him to build it himself. And I didn't have the room or time to do it at my house.
And now the future for the '57 we call Thumper... I'll post up details on what we are doing and where it is at later.
Thanks for reading!
A little (long) history: Dad bought the car in the late 80's at a repo auction. Had been mildly rebuilt, poor quality yellow paint, new grey cloth interior, 327/4-speed. I was 6 or 7 at the time and it was my first experience with old cars.
Dad had a black '57 hardtop with a corvette 327 when he was in highschool in the late 60's and his dream was to have another.
A couple years after purchasing the '57 a good friend told him he was converting his numbers matching 427 '69 vette to a crate LS-6 454/5-speed combo to do some drag racing. Dad thought that was an intriguing idea and purchased a second LS-6 for his car.
They disassembled both cars in his friends shop at the same time but all the focus went into the vette. The vette was built in a year or so and the '57 sat gutted. About that time my parents purchased an older home to remodel. So the '57 was basically forgotten for 8 more years.
Fast forward to 1998 (I was 16!): The '57 had been sitting outside in the country in southwest Kansas (My dad's friend had moved on to other hobbies and needed the shop space so dad told him it was okay to stick it behind the shop). Sand had blasted the paint, rats ate out the interior. Finally my mom asked a mechanic friend that did all the work for our farm business if he would get the '57 going for my dad's birthday. They moved everything into his shop. It wasn't even close to running before his birthday, but dad did start getting interested in the car again. By this time the '69 vette had been in the 10's and then converted back to original so all the go-fast goodies from it were available for the '57.
The mechanic took several years to get the car built in his off-hours. A '73 firebird subframe was grafted on the front, 9" ford with springs swapped inside the frame was put out back. The crate LS-6 was reassembled with a hot hydraulic roller cam, holly DP850. The richmond 5-speed and mccloud hydraulic clutch from the vette were set to go in but the mechanic was having a fit getting the master cylinder mounted and lined up with the peddle. He talked my dad into putting a TH-400 in instead!!
Car was at least running by 2001, and sent to my dad's best friend's collision shop for body work and paint. Both rear quarters and one front, one door skin, and both rockers had to be replaced. Floor was solid! The car was obviously in a wreck and patched back together at some point. In the body shop for 6 months, but it was finally sprayed in a black cherry pearl with pearl white fin insert. I polished all the stainless over a christmas break. The car was sent to the best upholstery business in town (That doesn't say much!:_paranoid ) where '96 mustang fronts and original back seats were covered in burgandy vinyl and black tweed.
The '57 was pretty awesome for awhile but we soon started getting all the gremlins. The wiring was a mess (stock harness was modified and added onto), dash lights would blink in a disco-like fashion, electric windshield wiper conversion would come on unexpectedly (most likely grounding issues). One taillight was brighter than the other. Ontop of that, the timing was way off on the LS-6 and it would overheat easily and never start when hot.
I was away at college but dad continued messing with the car to get it running correctly. The mechanic that built the motor swore up and down that everything was put together correctly but noone had time to work on the car to verify this. I was busy going to school and building a pro-street '68 chevelle SS clone with the old LS-6 out of the corvette and my dad had other priorities. The '57 just sat in the garage.
Since 2002 the '57 was driven probably 2-3 times a year, usually when I was home for the weekend or my dad had a wild hair. As time went on it was driven less and less. Most recently it hadn't been driven more than a block in the last 2 years. No AC, no Heat, rear suspension wasn't set up correctly, timing issues, and THE DANG AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION totally made my dad disinterested in the old car.
I finished school, finished the chevelle, started a career, got married, started a family, sold the chevelle:( to buy a family hauler in the time since the '57 was built. And it never accumulated more than a couple hundred miles on it.
Several years ago I suggested that Dad get a pro touring style frame built and a LS/T56 installed to make the car a fun driver. He loved the idea but retirement was much to busy for him to build it himself. And I didn't have the room or time to do it at my house.
And now the future for the '57 we call Thumper... I'll post up details on what we are doing and where it is at later.
Thanks for reading!