The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Old Dominion Stovebolt Society (MD, VA, West VA, DC, DE and PA) Newbie with a 1957 Stepside in Central VA

Greetings,

New to the forums, introduced by a friend who shares similar interests. I just acquired a 1957 Chevy stepside shortbed with the 235 straight six and 3 speed column shift with overdrive. The previous owner told me about the overdrive and said that the OD is engaged by pulling a lever or handle in the dash.
The cab and frame (with engine and trans) sat in the elements for some time. I can see already that the left cab corner (probably inside and outside) and step, plus several sections of the lower firewall will need to be cut out and replaced.

I am new to body work. I will be working slowly to address the rusted out panels in the cab, but a good portion of the work that needs to be done on the fenders and hood is just surface rust.

I am hoping to obtain more information (or sources) for the following:

1. Information about rebuilding/maintaining the 3 speed w/OD trans
2. Local sources for possibly having the 235 rebuilt in the future (or resources that will help me do it myself)
3. Local sources for having the chassis and cab shot blasted and primered (so I know where to start and to buy time)
4. Recommendations for where to start...

My current plan is to perform a sorting-out restoration, starting with the brakes, then the drive train (the truck was started about 4 months ago, according to the PO, who I trust implicitly), then electrical, then rubber seals. I plan to do the body work in small sections at a time and take my time with it.

I do not want to return the truck to stock necessarily, but will try to maintain a stock appearance. I would like to add the following items to make it more "liveable:"

- 3-point seatbelts (my little boy, who will be helping me with this work, will be riding in it)
- A front defroster and new heater (would AC be too much to wish for?)
- Moving the starter from the floor to the dash

I would like to do the sorting to get it running well before deciding on a rebuild. Then, I will get the body work to the point that it can be assembled while in primer. I will then drive it for about a year to shake it down before disassembling again for paint.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

fourbrads

Welcome to the club!!

If your name matched the name given to me yesterday by my friend Steve, your the man who restored his newly purchased table saw right?

If so, you don't live that far from me. I'd love to come check out your new ride!!!!

That's me! You're welcome to stop by. I'll be picking up the remainder of the parts this Friday (and am busy with Honey-dos Saturday), but if you're free Sunday, it would be great to make your acquaintance.

Steve mentioned you to me as well. I'm in need of advice, so please come on by.

I'll try to PM you separately.

Jim

"I just acquired a 1957 Chevy stepside shortbed with the 235 straight six and 3 speed column shift with overdrive. The previous owner told me about the overdrive and said that the OD is engaged by pulling a lever or handle in the dash."

FALSE. You might have misheard him if he does know about these transmissions. Pulling the handle OUT in the dash puts you in DIRECT DRIVE. Direct drive is just like having a regular 3 speed, you get engine braking and just the three speeds. When the handle is IN that is the OD mode...if you have the truck set up like it came from the factory a governor switch engages and disengages at about 28 mph. If the OD didn't come from the factory you more than likely have a situation where an owner has either done a faithful true installation with all the wiring, kick-down and relay,etc. or installed it and left out a few pieces (like I have with mine). Use the search function and read pages upon pages of overdrive information to familiarize yourself. Learn as much as you can before using the OD because depending on how it was set up a person can unwittingly destroy parts that are harder and harder to come by.

Mr. President.

I am going to awake this beast this weekend. I will keep you posted............

Another one awakes.

Video coming soon............

Man that was fun. Went to Jim's place in the GreenMachine on a cool afternoon. Got spark from new coil, points, condenser. Changed fuel pump since the old one was frozen and installed one of my old carbs. Bypassed some stuck relays and BOOM. We have ignition.... Check here......

Good work.

Indeed. He has the touch, that's for sure.

Welcome aboard, Jim! Will you be joining us on the 20th?

Thanks to all,

Mr President, I did a search on the site and read up on the BW and how it works. Not quite sure now that I heard the PO right, but regardless, I have a starting point for understanding these things. A lot of the electricals for making the BW work are missing and there is no longer a cable under the dash (but I do see one going from the firewall down to the OD, so that may be a start.

I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to SWEET for spending two of his weekend days helping me get this truck back into running condition. I was truly amazed at his generosity with his time, and absolutely stoked when the truck came to life. It sounded GREAT!

The PO's use of a grocery store bag did not prevent the carb from filling with a nice gas/water mixture that corroded everything inside (pics coming later). Don't know how long it's been this way, but if SWEET hadn't brought his extra Rochester along for the ride, I'd still be wondering if the truck would ever run.

Thank you again, SWEET.

Best,

Jim

Welcome Jim, a ten minute ride in my truck and you'll have it all sorted out. Way to go Sweet!!!

Good job Sweet! and welcome Jim.

Sweet is still "The Man"!

Thanks all,

As promised, here are the shots of the carb that SWEET diagnosed as likely having issues during our attempts to start the truck...

Carb Top end

Carb Bowl

SWEET is, indeed, the MAN!

Jim

I have to say, Jim has made some great progress!!!!

He has rebuilt his carb and once he replaces a bad fuel pump, he will have a runner.

To make his truck as it was, he scooped up a '57 truck rear end that we dismantled last night. Overall I think its in good shape. Now he can hunt down the bearings and seals, we will put it back together and get the brakes on this puppy to ride around the yard!!!!!!

Hello, my name is margie I am in INDIANA. I just got onto the stovebolt sight about 3 days ago, was looking at every thing about the sight and noticed your story on your truck, how nice to find another guy who has a 57 chevy truck, I saw where you had it named BILL for us navy. My son bought a 57 chevy truck about 20 years ago, after driving it around for about 5 years, he decieded to do some body work and found a brass plaque in the door jam, it had NAVY DEPARTMENT on it and listed some info about the truck, being used as a cargo truck, I was wondering if you might have any ideas as to how I can find out any thing more about it for my son, I want to suprise him, the DMV would not tell us any thing because of the privacy act, which I can understand, so I am searching every where I can to get some help, any thing you can tell me would be appreciated, I am sure your truck turned out very nice. I am hoping for some one to take an interest in my sons truck , as he doesnt have any one to help him, so that is what I am trying to do, the truck was a lot of bondo from previous owner. thanks for your time and patience....GOD BLESS. MARGIE

Hi Margie!

Welcome to Stovebolt.

There's probably not a whole lot the DMV can tell you anyway other than who might have owned it between when the Navy surplussed it and now. You can enter the truck's VIN into our fancy VIN decoder to find out when the truck was built, where it was built and other things about it. That's pretty neat that it was a Navy truck -- the military has bought civilian trucks all through the years for general purpose duties around bases and what not.

And hopefully you can meet up with some of the gang -- we have a fair number of guys in Indiana. Peggy and I were stationed at Ft Benjamin Harrison for three years and we lived on the east side of Indy. We enjoyed our stay there.

I see the gang is helping you over in the General Truck -- You have some of the best minds around working on your case! Good luck with figuring out the history of the truck!

Regards,
John

Jim's progress continues to amaze me.

Yesterday morning, I receive a text for Jim. Its a photo of his truck WITH THE BED AND REAR FENDERS INSTALLED!!!!

Also Jim asks if he can DRIVE his truck over to my place with his youngest son Jack and perform a need valve adjustment.

Its great that Jim's son and my twins are so close in age and play well together. I said "absolutely! come on over!!"

So yesterday afternoon I cleaned up the Hot Rod Shop and his '57 pulled right into the service bay. Jim said the truck was rather sluggish on the way over, and since we are planning to convoy to Homecoming, he was concerned with crossing the Nice bridge into Maryland since it is a long grade up and over the bridge. We performed the valve job, tweek the timing (found the dizzy must have turned a little, it was 10 degress retarded).

We did a couple of other things and Jim says the truck is completely different. It drives like new! Once he got home I had a voicemail and I could tell by Jim's tone he was thrilled.

Brothers, Mr. Brad is ready for Homecoming.......

My eternal gratitude to Sweet and his bevy of skills.

Here's a snippet of him checking his progress in my truck...

On-road review...

See you guys soon!

Jim

Look'n good Jim...can't wait to see it at HC!

Mike B