FEATURE CAR
November 2020
Rick Secord
1957 Chevrolet 210 Sedan
Mesquite, Texas




 

This is my second time around with DACC.  35 years ago, I joined with a restored original 1956 Bel Air Sport Coupe in Harbor/Nassau blue paint.  It placed a Silver Award (911 points) at the 1991 Classic Chevy International Convention hosted by DACC at the DFW Hyatt.  A job change included a move to Pennsylvania, but retirement brought a return to Texas.  

I found my current Tri Five Chevy in Garland over 30 years ago and if memory serves, I paid $3000 for it. I drove it for a year or so until the worn out 327 engine gave up.  It sat for some time until I was able to buy a newly built Wayne Calvert 400 small block.  The plan was to install it and a 4 speed transmission, paint the car and go cruising.  As you all probably know, one thing leads to another and after 4 years of tinkering, we called it done (maybe!).  Since it wasn't an original car when I got it, the plan was always to make it a mild custom.  We wanted to make the changes as subtle as possible where most people wouldn't even notice, but Tri Five folks would say "wait a minute".  Some of the changes made are a one-piece bumper, ‘57 Buick grille, louvered hood, removed the Chevy emblems and V bars, the hood "gun sights" along with the fender "gills", vent windows and door handles - all removed.  Bel Air crown moldings were added to rear fins, recessed license plate housing from an old panel van was added to the decklid.  The most visible change in the engine compartment is the crossflow radiator with custom made mounting brackets to make it look like it came from the factory.  The firewall was smoothed and all the holes not needed were welded closed.  The battery was relocated to the trunk.  We lowered the car 4 inches in front and 2 inches in back.  Then anti-sway bars and disc brakes up front were added.  It is painted with PPG Deltron black paint and it now has an off white rolled and pleated leather interior that I added a few years ago.  Air conditioning was added about 10 years ago to deal with these Texas summers.  I'll admit to trailering it to shows the first year, where it got lots of attention.  Since then I've driven it on several road trips of 1000 miles or more and its never let me down - unless you would call running out of gas a let down!


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