1957 Chevy Big Window 3100

	Owned by Chris Aurit "Desert Buick" Bolter # 12305 Mooresville, North Carolina Talking about this truck in the DITY Gallery

More truck pictures of my old truck

From Chris :

Well, all the heavy lifting is done and the truck is pretty much presentable (at least in two dimensions).

When I originally posted in December 2006, I thought I was going to have a few patch panels done, a valve job and a new coat of paint. The body shop I was going to have do the work started to make me nervous, so I thought I'd do it myself.

I got myself a mig welder and a whiz wheel and went to town. By the time I was ready for primer, all of the sheet metal from the knees down was replaced.

I contracted a bad case of the "might-as-wells" and ended up changing out the entire drive train. I spent the better part of '07 taking care of the sheet metal; 2008 was spent assembling and 2009 was the year for paint and interior.

The first round of bugs have been worked out, but the rest of the work involves substances that require warm temperatures. So I'll have to be content dusting and polishing until spring.

Chris

20 December 2006
# 1749

From Chris

           Here is my 1957 Chevy big window 3100. After searching high and low and looking at way too many overpriced wrecks, I came across this Chevy Task Force gem in Burbank, California in January 2005. It came home pretty much stock (this is how it looked) save for a 327/350 combo and a GM 10 bolt posi rear end.

           First things first, I had a TCI MII front end (P/S, P/B) put in by Bill Kenney (Kenney's Garage in Orange County) and a new set of Cragars. We moved, lock stock and barrel, from Los Angeles to Mooresville, NC (Race City USA) and I just drove the wheels off the thing until this month when I decided it was time for baby's makeover.

           The wiring loom has been replaced, the battery box relocated, the wires re-routed and the firewall stripped in preparation for smoothing it. My goal is to have nothing in the engine compartment but the engine. I like to think of the truck as an elaborate jewel box with the lump being the jewel.

           The only really significant change to the truck will be a new 400hp small block, a 700R transmission, full length headers and an aluminum radiator with an electric fan. There are the usual rust issues (hinge pockets, cab corners and floor pan) that I'll let a professional repair and replace.

           From the outside, it'll look just like it did when I got it home. I've got most of the sheet metal off, and I'm in the process of cleaning up the frame and repainting it. (Time and budget constraints prohibit a full sandblast/powdercoat adventure.) Once that's done, I'll loosely reassemble the truck and flat bed it to the body shop for rust repair and paint. After considering just about every color in the rainbow, I settled on leaving it the same color. There's just something about a '57 and turquoise paint.

           In a perfect world, I'll have it done in time for next years' Goodguys at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

           I have a lot more pictures on my Picasa (Google) web album. More to follow . . .

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