'57 Vette, What Would You Do With It?

Stuart Wall

Member
It is a real question, because my brother has one sitting in his shop that has not run in 30 years. The car is far from numbers matching, but is complete and was "nice" in the '70s. It has an old 12:1 327 and a muncie 4 speed, but the rest is 1957. Removable hard top, soft top, hubcaps, all chrome parts and interior...all there and all in one dusty piece.
My brother is sixty-nine and has not touched it since it entered his shop after our dad died in 1997. He lives 1500 miles away from me; if he was close by, I would be twisting his arm to fix it and drive it......he used to love to drive that thing. I would love to fix it with him, but it just sits for now. I think it still has a 1957 master cylinder in it.
 
step one put it up on a lift, take the time to clean the cars exterior and interior and under carriage/frame/ suspension,
Id try to get the title in my name if I could, before you put time and cash into restoring it,
or at least , make some arrangements to carefully document and legal recover all the money you might put into the project, if the corvettes sold ,if you choose to rebuild it.
and do a careful inspection, of the brakes, wheels etc. and take a lot of clear pictures
manually rotate the tires/engine/ drive train /differential to make certain nothings frozen in place,
Id sure do an oil change, coolant , differential, trans oil or fluid change and brake fluid change
that corvette even in its current condition might be worth a good deal more than you think.
once thats been done you can get a better grip on the cars potential and cost to refurbish it if thats your desire.

 
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for the younger guys who don,t have a clue what a 1957 corvette might look like

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Well, the car is not mine. It belongs to my oldest brother....who was probably the father figure in my life at 11 years older than me. Every interest I have in cars was planted by him. But, back to his vette.....If you start doing things like a disk brake conversion, maybe some suspension upgrades ( I have no clue what these things get), and a mild v8 that can run nicely on pump gas, do these things create value in a driveable classic....or does a person need to put in a fuel injected 283 and leave it stock? He has a vintage block and fuel injection set-up laying around. I think the tach is still distributor driven too. Google searches seem to lead to old sales and non relevant stuff, but I have not tried very hard. If it were mine, I would be shamefully fixing it up with good junk until it was a driver.....but that is not the car to park in a back yard under a sheet of 6ml plastic like my current toy gets. So, opinions from here carry some weight, would it be restored, restomoded, or become a 500-1000 mile per year toy? I think as long as it has been in my family it has been the drivable toy, ahem, before it became the dusty garage emperor.
 

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the route you take depends on your wallet and skill and research, and intended result or goal,
you could install an impressive ls series engine with a 6-speed manual trans ,
disc brakes etc. and while it would be a great daily driver , and much more fun to drive,
it would not add a great deal of value. compared to the potential financial result,
if you have the numbers correct 283 and old school fuel injection,
re-installed, during a very precise numbers correct restoration,
if that restoration are done right, it will add considerable value,
provided you find the correct market and buyer,
but keep in mind that's going to be rather more expensive, that the other route,
unless you have the vast majority of the parts already in good condition,
but it will not be nearly as fast, or fun to drive etc.

btw keeping a car outside under a plastic sheet tends to collect moisture and condensation and results in extensive rust,
and corrosion to electronics like wires and gauges and relays,
and its generally bad for interiors and paint,
yes I know, room in your garage is likely at a premium,
but the car would be better off , with the frame up on jack stands in a garage,
one of my friends dad kept a 1970 charger out behind his shop,
under plastic tarps for 20 years, and when he brought it inside to work on,
its was basically a pile of rust and mold in the shape of a charger,
yeah that was in florida where we get a good deal of moisture
 
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You have one big advantage in it is together and with some TLC possibly running and that is a far cry as to how I bought mine in pieces and boxes from someone who should have never been allowed to own a screwdriver its together and running now and looks good but I would never do this again had I known then I'd have been better off paying a LOT more to have a better start but on the flip side I learned a hell of a lot and accomplished something that I don't think most would
 
yeah, I must have run across that same guy several times

"from someone who should have never been allowed to own a screwdriver "
 
I bought mine in pieces and boxes from someone who should have never been allowed to own a screwdriver its together and running now and looks good but I would never do this again had I known then I'd have been better off paying a LOT more to have a better

I bought my Comet on the cheap that was not a shell + boxes, but was missing many parts and had a partial v-8 conversion, partial small bumper conversion, and was a mish-mash of Comet and Maverick. One piece beginnings are special, especially on older cars. That vette was just a smashed, stripped body that my dad bought in 1972 for $150.00. My brother put it back together, and my dad bought the parts. I wish I had some pics. It used to go to the vette meets at Orange county Raceway, or Ontario (I think it was a Fathers day event). It would get flogged pretty hard ....with hub caps removed of course. That seems like another lifetime ago. I used to watch. It was a blast!
 
btw keeping a car outside under a plastic sheet tends to collect moisture and condensation and results in extensive rust,
and corrosion to electronics like wires and gauges and relays,
and its generally bad for interiors and paint,
yes I know, room in your garage is likely at a premium,
but the car would be better off , with the frame up on jack stands in a garage,
one of my friends dad kept a 1970 charger out behind his shop,
under plastic tarps for 20 years, and when he brought it inside to work on,
its was basically a pile of rust and mold in the shape of a charger,
yeah that was in florida where we get a good deal of moisture

You are absolutely correct Grumpy. The moisture is a thing....I covered the ground with exterior plywood and I make sure the plastic goes no lower than the bottom edge of the body, and that helps a great deal, but condensation under the hood is still a problem. I will not paint my Comet until my situation improves. I could not subject a Corvette to this treatment....I just couldnt. Portland, OR has moisture issues as well.
 
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