THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR MY CHEVY FOR THE SEPT 24, 2007 SHOW OFF OF THE WEEK. IT MEANS A LOT TO KNOW THERE ARE SO MANY CRUZERS OUT THERE WHO APPRECIATE COOL CLASSY CARS. DOO WOP TIL YOU DROP!

This 57 is "sweet as candy". I waited a long time to have one of these babies and finally found this one in Columbia, SC and shipped it to Michigan in 2002. Most of my pics were taken at our local car show....the Monday Night Lakeside Circle Cruise in Sterling Heights, MI. We started our Monday evening event in mid-May 2005 & by September over 1,500 cars attended for an average of 100 cars every week. We give away sponsor coupons, restaurant food/drink discounts, 50/50 raffle for Mothers Against Drug Driving, plus many other prizes and awards are given to some lucky cruisers every week during our May to September cruizing season. Please visit our web site:.. www.funtimecruzers.com to view the fun and over 7,500 cruzer photos.

I love the thumbs up I get every day from other drivers that see me passing by. This car represents a lot of sweat, cuts, bruises & burns! We won't talk about the money invested, but at least my 57 is an "appreciating" asset compared with my other newer cars that keep losing their value year after year.

Over 300 cars were on hand for the October 8, 2006, United Street Machine Association annual Billy Sohn Memorial cruize-in in Royal Oak, MI. Best of Show - Best Of Class awards.

I removed the old aluminum dash inserts and replaced them with billet inserts from Danchuck. They look a lot better, but I had to remove the black plastic instrument labels (Wipers, Lights, etc) in order to get them to fit right. I recently added a 160W Custom Autosound stereo with a 10 disk CD changer hidden in the trunk. Also added 160W kick panel front speakers and Jensen speakers in the rear.

This photo was taken at the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE in 2003, which is the largest single day classic car event in the world with 1.5 million people checking out 40,000 classic cars in 9 cities covering a 32 mile round trip cruise area. Go to www.woodwarddreamcruise.com to learn more about this incredible event. Car enthusiasts drive & trailer their classics to this event beginning the week before from all around the country. Some car nuts come from Asia and Europe just to be a part of or to witness this unusually large extravaganza. It is such a huge crowd attraction that Homeland Security, the FBI, and hundreds of local police are on-hand to help keep things under control and safe for all the participating municipalities. August 2009 marks the 15th year for this event. If you want to actually drive your car, you may wish to come a few days early if you want to travel faster than 1 mile per hour in some portions of the 8 lane (4 lanes each way) cruise route.

My engine is a 383 Stroker with polished aluminum Edelbrock High Performance Air Gap intake manifold, water pump, HP heads, triangle air cleaner & valve covers, roller rocker arms, Hooker Headers, Holly 750 carb, 100 amp chrome alternator, MSD ignition, March polished brackets, Griffith alum radiator & trans cooler with a SS over flow tank, 350 auto trany w/lock up, B&M floor shift, Ford 9" 4.11 posi rear end wth air shocks & traction bars with 7" front & 10" rear Cragar wheels. I added front disk brakes in 2004 and I can now stop my "Candy Baby" on a dime! Since my 57 is no longer taken to the drag strip, I changed out the 4.11 in July 2008 with a 3.50 to save a lot of gas.

You can see in this pic that I placed the MSD ignition unit under the driver's side fender area where it fits very nice & is out of the way. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Note the newer stainless steel radiator hose with chrome end pieces. This dresses up this hose, but adds twice as many clamps & potential leak points. If you install these hoses, make certain they are clamped tight.

The left pic shows the old 16" electric pusher fan and the Griffith aluminum radiator in the original position behind the radiator bracket. The best update in 2005 was to remove the 16" pusher fan that was in front of the radiator, moved the radiator (right pic) from the engine side of the support bracket to the other side (bumper side) of the bracket, then added dual B-Cool 2700 Cu Ft per Minute puller fans. Now instead of overheating all the time in traffic, these new fans blow directly on the engine block, heads, intake and fuel lines to keep this engine very cool ALL the time. They automatically turn on at 160 degrees and stay on until the engine cools to 135 degrees. Find a good engine man to do this installation. It should take less than 12 hours to complete this fan upgrade.

I added a secondary aluminum trans cooler below the radiator that actually receives the trany fluid from the trany first and from this unit it then flows into and out of the internal trans cooler coils in the Griffith radiator before it travels back to the trany. The SS overflow tank is a nice addition that easily bolts in the same top two holes that attaches the radiator and bracket together. The side radiator panels are stainless steel & were purchased on eBay for less than $100.

Chrome oil and trany pans look great, but need extra sealant to prevent leaks and they will still leak a little no matter what you do. Your car's actual oil & trany pans were made to fit much better.

The chrome spare tire ring really looks good. These can be custom ordered for just $145. Go to ..... cs6@v-sales.com or call Dawn at 800=528=7953 to ask questions or place an order. You will need to measure the height of your spare tire from the wheel edge to the top of the tire, the diameter, the circumference, and the width of the tire before you call or email them to order a ring. When you get it, it must be twisted to the side before the tire can be fitted into it. If you don't want to buy an extra Cragar wheel for your trunk, you can order a flat round plastic insert for one side (or both sides) of the tire ring that can be painted to match your car color or place pinstripes or custom graphics on it.

After learning it would cost me $800 to $2500 to have the trunk professionally done, I decided to do it myself. I added a new Cragar spare wheel with a chrome ring that looks much better than an empty trunk...the more chrome the better! The 10 disk CD changer fits fine in the upper trunk area along with a floor jack that are hidden out of view by the back panel. Remember to add rubber pads and/or carpet spacers under the changer that the 4 hold down bolts go through so your music doesn't skip when you hit those bad spots in the road.

I made my own trunk panel templates using poster board from Kmart. Using card board, I cut out pieces to match the panel templates, then bought two 5X7 gray carpet rolls from Home Depot for $40, cut them to fold around the card board forms, then stapled & glued them together. No attachment screws or wires are needed to hold them in place since they are just pushed against the sides and are held in place just by the carpet edges. Cutting the floor was a little tricky so use your old rubber trunk mat as your template and add 4-6 inches on the back side where the floor goes vertical. I used the rest of the carpet to cover the indentations in the upper truck lid area. They are attached with velcro & the chrome tire iron also uses velcro to hold it against the side panel. This trunk really looks great and unlike your many other car projects, this one does not cost you an arm & a leg to complete. Total invested including the carpet, spare tire, chrome tire ring & Cragar SS wheel = less than $400.

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