My long term 57 project

[ChuckDriver]

Well she's in SOLID!! Finished it up late last night. I completly welded it in along the edge and plugged the screw holes. Followed by A LOT of grinding and smoothing of the welds. The hardest part was fabbing a very small patch to fill in the corners by the A pillars where the windshield trim ends.

Today I spent time fitting the Chevrolet trim above the glove box. Had to drill 3 holes for the mounting studs. I like it!

My painter says he will be ready for it on Thursday!! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Here's the pic's!!

[Kim57]

Looking good.
Kim

[dennis57]

Looks nice JJ!

[chev3600]

Looks Great! Keep up the good work.

[ChuckDriver]

With the steering column not coming through the dash I needed to fill the hole in the bottom of the speedo housing. All I could think of was some type of mesh that would hold some filler. So I went to the hardware store and came back with some window screen and epoxy. My painter said it will be fine after he covers both sides with "All-Metal". What do you think??

[nickp51chevy]

I think as long as you don't hit it hard with anything it will do just fine. It's looking good btw.

[ChuckDriver]

I picked these little gems up today, should have the truck back in my garage tomorrow! They were painted with "Hot Rod Red" from the Hot Rod Flatz line of pre-flattened paints. More pics to follow!!

[ChuckDriver]

Well I got her back home today!! Made a little progress getting it back together. I think it's going to turn out nice.

[nickp51chevy]

That turned out nice.

[OrrieG]

Lovin' the dash, looking very cool.

[dennis57]

WoW!! That looks great JJ.

[ChuckDriver]

Making progress getting it back together. All that's left is to wire up the new gauges!

[ChuckDriver]

Finally it's done! I can't believe it took me so long to complete this mod. But I really think it was worth the time and effort looking at it now. It really changed to look in the cab. Now I've got to do something with the seat and carpet. I was thinking of cutting the back of the seat down a couple of inches so its out of view through the back glass.

I wanted to keep the look of the dash some what original looking so I reused as much of the 59 parts as I could and some from the truck line too. I used the 59 ignition switch and bezels for the lights and wiper switch. But I put the truck knobs on the switchs. I also put the vent pulls back under dash close to their original locations.

The gauges are from Classic Instruments and they look great! I had the signal and high beam indicators installed on the face of the speedo when I ordered them. It follows the orginal theme and keeps the clutter down.

The steering wheel is a cut down version from a 55 Belair. I really like this wheel and I think it fits the overall look I was going for. What do you guys think?

Thanks for all the positive comments and encouragement from all of you! Enjoy the pics!!

I took these at a local Tile store that has this old style gas station built beside it here in Charleston. The owners actually moved it several blocks when they relocated their business.

[ChuckDriver]

Here's a few more from the Station.

[dennis57]

My hats off to you that really looks nice JJ

[napaaaron]

looking good!!!! really like the backdrop for the pics.

[Kim57]

The dash looks great.
Kim

[JML55]

Really nice work.

[Kateaux]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!! Lookin' good!!

K8O

[ChuckDriver]

Thanks again guys for your kind words!!!

[nebdrummer]

UGGH! man that engine bay looks so clean. love it. great build! you might wanna turn them turn downs on the exhaust outwards or 45*. they sure do like to kick up the dust in a parking lot.

plan on giving her a coat of paint or not?

[nickp51chevy]

The dash looks awesome. It really turned out nice.

[GRIMSS]

Nice work on the dash and the very clean engine bay.

[OrrieG]

Yes, it did turn out nice. Rest is great too, especially the engine compartment.

[lonelywanderer]

dash came out super nice and your engine bay is so clean