The 1957 Dodge Sweptside is one of the rarest pickups on the planet.
They built less than 200 of these trucks and the best guess is only 75 survive to this day–that means the ’57 Sweptside isn’t something you’d see at every car show.
Jerry Sutherland
Ian Herring is the proud owner of this red-and-white beauty. He knows how rare these trucks are so he’s happy to be part of a small club. Ian said he’s the fifth owner, but the last owner was “the second and fourth owner” of this classic truck.
Ian has an adventurous streak, so he and a buddy flew down to California to pick up the Sweptside, instead of having the truck trailered home. That’s a riverboat gambler move because an old truck that you don’t know can be a risk beyond most car guys’ limits—they leave that to the YouTube car guys.
This trip was successful because Ian and his buddy had an uneventful journey—the kind of road trip car guys dream about. Ian admitted it “only took four days and sixteen tanks of gas”. He called it “the trip of a lifetime”, because the old Sweptside came through in a big way.
This is not a stock 1957 Dodge D-100 Sweptside. There’s a stroked 400 cubic inch Mopar V-8 under the hood and it’s wearing a spectacular carb system. There’s also a dual-four barrel long cross ram intake system from an early 60s Chrysler. Those massive tubes barely fit in the engine compartment, but they sure look cool—and intimidating at the same time.
Ian said the engine “needed quite a bit” so he redid the heads because it was burning oil. The transmission was also rebuilt plus it now has a functioning transmission cooler.
He admitted there were “a whole bunch of other little things” so he rebuilt the radiator from 3-core to 4-core and added a seven-blade aftermarket fans, new high-flow water pump and thermostat. Ian said he also got the aftermarket air conditioner working—it was charged in 1991. The brakes were all “gone through” to the point where Ian completely trusts them now.
Ian added halo lights to give the Sweptside modern running lights in today’s traffic. He hooked them into the electric choke system, so they don’t stay on after the truck is turned off. The Sweptside came with an aftermarket steering column, so it has tilt and four-way flashers.
Ian said the one thing he didn’t have to worry about was the body because this was a rust-free California truck.
He was concerned about how the truck “wandered a bit on the highway” so he tried a few things to solve the issue. Ian said the steering box failed a safety inspection, so it was part of the problem, but the real solution came when he increased the camber from two degrees to seven degrees. Now the truck tracks like a new car on the road when it’s doing 55 miles per hour or better.
There’s a 3:23 rear gear on the Sweptside so it runs between 23-2400 rpm at 65 miles per hour. These are all important numbers because Ian drives this truck—it’s not a trailer queen.
That’s because it wasn’t a trailer queen when he bought it—the four-day road trip proved that.
Jerry Sutherland
y: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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