Baby Cadillac

hey Steven Johnny here doing the junkyard crawl at burniston Auto Wrecking in burniston Massachusetts the snow is gone and let's celebrate this 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air four-door hardtop I gotta remember there's no B pillar on this thing the doors don't have fixed door glass frames in 1956 was the first year for a Chevrolet four-door hardtop now you got to remember 57 right here the final year for the tri-5 Chevys and what started out in 55 is a way sportier version for Chevrolet and 57 became almost a baby Cadillac truly a revolution to have a four-door hardtop and again these are available this body style in Bel Air and the 210 not in the 150 those were strictly going to be four-door sedans now when I talk about four-door hardtops what am I talking about well this is speed age magazine right here one of the great magazines from the 50s March 57 with the big Chrysler 300C on the cover but more importantly for us now is there road test of a 57 Chevy now that's a sedan notice the fixed B pillar in the middle the door frames that are rigid and always there and again it's all new but again on the next page we see a little more about this that's the hard top right there no fixed B pillars in fact its own uh rear b-pillar if you will with the sort of Cadillac ESC shape right there so again Chevrolet was a low priced car but don't tell Cadillac these things were basically looking like a baby Cadillac now we see inside the 120 mile an hour speedometer right there went up from 110 of 1956 again as the V8 went from 265 to 283 cubes 120 was very possible the headlight right there interesting to see that sort of Grill effect let's move now under the hood to learn more about what that Grille was now before we open the hood we can see here on the cowl right up here in 55 and 56 right here would be vents stamped into this pillar up here and that would be something that went away for 57. now in 55 and 6 that's where air entered for the inside for occupants well for 1957 is that picture in the magazine shows over the passenger side headlight which would have been right here was that vent that was actually where air got in through a tube and then went into the passenger compartment let's open the hood for a better look at that and before we do it check out the bomb site hood ornaments right here 1957 only but you know was uh World War III just around the corner I don't know you tell me the end of a missile an ICBM getting ready to take out the ruskies anyway under the hood okay there we go yeah we look here and what would have happened here was the air would go into a tube come out here but it actually traveled through the fender and then into this this is where the heater would be and here's the heater blower motor like that and this is how people inside the car got fresh air but the only downside to that was you gotta remember 1957 there were no emission controls of any kind on cars so imagine sitting in like in a Los Angeles traffic jam yeah they had them in 57 and the big Lincoln or flathead Ford or still bolt six Chevy in front of you was belting out Blue Smoke yeah it came in through the headlight and right into your face inside of the car so that was one of the downsides of having the uh the entry for the air to be so low toward the front of the car but again it gave these things a lower profile than 55 and 56 and was meant one of the many steps including 14-inch wheels for 1957 which were new replacing the 15s of 1956. but this is a Motor Trend right here April 57 we all know the drill canceled but inside here's a full page ad right here Chevrolet touting five different engines look at this now notice it says here whatever whatever you want in the way of power Chevy's got it but good want Rock Bottom Thrift and sturdiness what could suit you better than the 140 horsepower blue flame 6 the world's best tested engine first came out in 1929 by the way V8 smoothness with maximum economy that's the turbo 4 Turbo Fire 265 with two barrel carbon 162. like more bottom end torque and solid go all along the line try one of Chevy's extra cost power options for example the turbo fire 283 with two two barrel 283 185 horse there's also the super turbo file 283 and even a fuel injected engine we see that on the bottom in green yes the Rochester Corbin engine could be had in a 57 Chevrolet and also that 265 a lot of people think that 60 or 56 was the last year not so in 57 you could still get the 265 for one final year in a full-size Chevy and those hands were painted yellow not orange that's how you can tell a 265 V8 in a 57 Chevy but again this one here there's nothing under the hood now but we can see the body on frame construction this was a manual steering car but again for 57 you could load out a Chevy Bel Air about as optimally as you could a Cadillac air conditioning power steering power brakes power wipers all those things very much available in 1957 as Chevrolet moved decidedly up market now let's get back inside this this hard top and again no pillar no nothing here the beauty of that is with the doors the windows down you had the open air of a nearly of a convertible now these cars were so popular that in 1963 AMT released a model of the 57 Chevy this is the original box right here and there's a drag version of the car right there and on the other side George Barris chimes in with his tips on customizing there's even a Chevy 409 engine option you could put in here if you wanted to but here's the thing 1957 Chevy was what uh was six years old or thereabouts when this kit was released who would ever make a model of a car that was that old well it was so popular that AMT decided to invest in the tooling form of these but here's the thing back in 57 AMT also made a promo this is the 57 Bel Air four-door wagon right here it's similar to the model kit but actually quite different it has a metal base and basically a little Friction Motor here these promotionals were designed to be given away at Chevy dealers so that little Junior would get a 57 Chevy and may be convinced dad to buy the Chevy instead of the Plymouth but promotionals what they say was the little ones help sell the big ones so again 57 Chevy not new in 63. you get these in 57 as a promo but the kit came along in 63 in fact this kit is still available today from around two now uh go around to the back of this one and again the four-door sedan has this unique cadillac-esque B pillar which kind of pinches in the rear window wrap around all the way this one's basically somehow been flipped upside down I don't want to move that but that's the tinted glass which was an option in 1957 and again the wraparound rear window also unique too the four-door hardtop big trunk on these things and this one was a V8 we can see right here the big V so we had either the 265 or the 283 and inside the trunk yeah very cool a lot of room here we can see the original red paint still not too shabby underneath there insulation seen on these things to help deaden the sound the 11 inch drum breaks here's one of them right here pretty big break these 11 inch drums were used all the way through the 1960s on full-size Chevrolets never used on the mid-sized cars Corvettes had these things but again the Chevelle never had 11 inch drums except for 1965 on the Z16 but not sure why Chevy didn't use the big brakes on the mid-sized cars but getting back into model cars this is a 57 Chevy by AMT Ertl this kit came out in the mid 1990s and it's quite a bit different from the original release in a lot of ways in fact we can see this is a two-door Bel Air and the beauty of this thing is the separate frame and just the massive detailing baked into this thing you can see the frames separate and it actually has an opening trunk what has a fuel injected motor if you want it but even cooler well even tooled up a 57 Chevy but the beauty of the Ravel one it's a black widow you can see it's a stripper it's a 150 it doesn't have the Bel Air stuff down the side and best of all under the hood there's that Rochester fuel injected Corvette motor which was totally available 1957 in any full-size Chevrolet not just Corvette but again the 57 Chevy a classic then and now if you can't afford a big one you can buy a little one but the great thing about these is the Cadillac styling the big tail fin scene for the last time right here in 1957 and how the rear bumper is designed to look like dual exhaust poking through and in fact some in some of these these did function but this is uh just cool V8 jet age styling the gas filler right here behind the driver's side fin the tail light would open there's we poured your gas right there to hide the door from the side of the car so again this is where Chevrolet kind of took on Cadillac in their own backyard for about half the price so that's the story of the 1957 four-door hardtop Bel Air not a commonly seen car now if you like this thing be sure to subscribe to the Steve magsy YouTube channel 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Channel: Steve Magnante

Views: 31,696

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Id: JBF1Uzcc-f8

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023