THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 4

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57 chevy trev 57 19

57 chevy trev 57 19Trevor had his first car adventure with the 57 Chevy in record time I had the car ready to roll by the Fathers Day weekend. That weekend we hooked on to the tent trailer and went camping west of Rocky Mtn. House. On Sun (Father’s Day) we headed back home, so we are cruisin’ down Hwy# 11 doing about 85kms with 4 adults and 3 kids in the car, all of a sudden I felt the right rear wheel give way. Thinking all the time it was a flat. When I got pulled over to my horror I discovered that the wheel studs had broken. The rear wheel was jammed up inside the quarter so much that it bowed out the quarter enough to pop off the tail fin stainless trim. It also wore off about 1 inch of the brake drum as we skidded to a stop. What was a guy to do?”

Trevor is a true blue car guy so he did the natural thing car guys do-he started walking towards a solution.

I started walking towards Rocky and soon someone stopped to offer me a ride into town.(after a car load of people in a 67 Mustang whizzed by honking the horn, laughing) I was dropped off at a pay phone, I only knew one person in Rocky, a good friend I met when I was part of the 55-6-7 car club back in the 1980s. I made the call to Dennis Bateman, he came and picked me up in his beater 55 Chevy pick up. I told him my problem and we were soon digging through his tool box looking for wheel studs, We came up with 5 studs but now we needed 5 lug nuts”.

This section points out two obvious things in old car world-the ability to solve a problem is really important and club connections are priceless. One other thing-“ Back in 1996 no stores were open on Sundays. Dennis told me his daughter’s boyfriend worked at the local Kal-Tire, so he met us down there, popped 5 lug nuts on the counter, I said what do I owe you? He said ‘you just get your car fixed and get your family home”.

That sums up the philosophy found in this world. It’s all about helping a fellow car guy out,

Even more evidence is found hereBy then the rest of my crew had the 57 jacked up and the tire extracted. To my relief the quarter panel popped back into place but this is when we realized the brake drum problem. Dennis took off in search of a drum while I installed the new wheel studs. About 1 hr later Dennis returned telling me that he could not find a spare drum, but when he told my story to a friend of his with a 57 Chevy, his friend ripped the tire off of his car took off the rear drum and loaned us the drum so we could get home. About 3 hrs after the studs broke we were back on the road. I do not know what I would have done with out the help of my buddy Dennis Bateman. Thanks again Dennis. After that, the car gave us 9 trouble free years of cruisin’,

Trevor’s other mission at this point was to find a period correct trailer and he had one in mind-a buddy of his had a non-gently used Shasta. The exact model he wanted but it needed a ton of work so he looked a little further and found a much better candidate. However, his wife surprised him by making the first trailer a surprise gift. This was after Trevor had done some exceptional PR with the family of the other trailer-even showing up in a 57 Olds to demonstrate his commitment to the era.

57 chevy trailer a

So Trevor had to break the news to his wife that the present was greatly appreciated, but he had a better trailer lined up. It worked out fine, his buddy gladly took the trailer back and Trevor learned the fine art of accepting the intent of a great gift from his wife without actually accepting the gift.

At this point, the car and the trailer were due for a serious cosmetic upgrade.

57 chevy  trailer g

 

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