My 1957 Chevy Panel Van Restoration

This has been an on going project that I started back in May of 2009.

But acquiring the truck was a 2 year project before May 09. I use to drive pass the truck every day on my way to work.
It was sitting in the back yard of a storage facility. Finally one day I drove up to the storage place and asked the lady behind the count
if she could tell me who owned the old truck out back and if she could tell me their phone number.
She couldn't (wouldn't) help me, a privacy thing.

While I was leaving the office a men came up to me and said he over herd me talking to the lady and told me it was his brother's truck and that he was paying to have it stored here. I then asked him if he knew if his brother would be interested in selling it.
He told me his brother lived in BC (British Columbia Ca.) and the next time he called he would ask him, if he wanted to sell the old truck.

Well to make a long story short.. It took 2 yrs of communicating this way until he finally gave in and said yes He would sell it to me.
It took 2 months to finalize the deal

it doesnt really look that bad, shold be a fairly easy project for you. take ur ime and dont mess it up.

Finally when I received the paper work I noticed the ownership (title) wasn't completely correct.

The ownership said it was a 1957 GMC 3105 which was close.
It is actually a 1957 Chevrolet 3105

Int he pictures you will see the hole in the front of the hood. This IS a GMC hood but the rest of the truck says is a 1957 Chevrolet, with the exception of the grill which is off of a 1955 or 56 Chevrolet.
I couldn't live with this. So while I was at the MTO (Ministry of Transportation Office) or DOT I asked them to correct it for me. He said he couldn't unless I had a letter from an authorize classic car authority. possibly from a car club stating in fact that it is a Chevrolet and not a GMC.
I'm wondering were the heck I'm gonna find somebody like that up here.
Then I remembered I had a friend at the local Chev dealership. But I had to go in ARMED with the information he is gonna need to help me. So I took some pictures then had them printed at WalMart.



When I went in to True North Chev Olds I laid the pictures down on the service counter and started telling the service manager my problem.
As I was telling him my story, other sales people and customers started gathering and looking over my shoulder. One guy said Hey!!! There's the old milk truck. LOL I smiled and nodded my head. He said No.. I'm serious. That's the old milk truck that use to deliver milk door to door in Corbeil (a neighboring community to North Bay) you can see the original milky white paint under the red paint in the pictures.

While I was talking to the people about my truck my friend made a call to Corporate Chevrolet Classic Div. and all they wanted was the VIN# over the phone. The person on the phone said Yes indeed it was a genuine Chevy and he also had all the other information, like who ordered the truck, which dealership it sold at, and all the original options it came with. but I had to pay $40 for all that other stuff.

My friend was still more then happy to make a letter for me to take to the MTO office.
Now my ownership was true.

Now that the paper work was correct, it was time for me to get more familiar with my new truck.

It was some what of a surprise when I opened the doors

Garbage bags, plastic, an old mattress, not to mention the smell

Well I had to get to work or I wasn't gonna sleep that night. Everything had to go.
Even that diamond tuck upholstery all of it had to go. It was everywhere and the green indoor outdoor carpet had to go too.

After a got deep into the clean out I found out what the smell was.
Mice.. Mice droppings and all that other stuff the mice do.

Funny thing was I didn't see one mouse... But when I took the floor mats out in the front I found a Garter Snake. A very happy and Fat Garter Snake.

Now that it is cleaned up I can asses the rest of the truck.

gnarly gas pedal man lol

After careful consideration and hrs of online research I've decided to pul the truck off this original chassis and drop the truck onto a later model 1989 chevy short box chassis.
This way the truck will have more modern front disc brakes as apposed to the 1957 four wheel brake drums.
And a front say bar.

johnboggs21 wrote:

gnarly gas pedal man lol

HaHaHa Cool eh? LOL Flash back to the 80s for me. And the Diamond tuck upholstery, The torque chain on the engine is something out of the 70s LOL

you should re-do the upholstery. nice find man. it looks sweet. good luck with everything.

Very, very cool Glenn. Thank you for sharing. Your off to a great start and I cant wait to see updates.

Good luck with the restoration.

Thanks guys. Here is what I'm hoping it gonna look like in a few years.

at least tuck n roll it. that interior makes me sad. but its your beauty. again good luck.

I don't Know?? I really like it. It must be nice, It's an award winner.

For the past few months (winter mths) I've been working on the frame.
-I grinded, sanded, and painted the bare frame.
-All the brake lines and fuel lines have been replaced and reinstalled with new clips.
- I dropped the rear suspension 3" I did this by flipping the front leaf spring mounting bracket.
- I did the frt leaf spring bracket flip the same time I moved the rear axle forward 3.5" from a 118.5" wheel base to the 1957 wheel base of 114"

FRONT LEAF SPRING BRACKET. UPSIDE DOWN




REAR SHACKLE MOUNTING BRACKET. Moved forward 3.5"


All this chassis work is being done in my single car garage

Wow Glenn, getting down and dirty. Looks great. Slow and steady wins the race.

merlin5577 wrote:

Wow Glenn, getting down and dirty. Looks great. Slow and steady wins the race.

10-4 LOL I'm learning a lot... If I did rush throw this I'm sure I would have forgot'n or missed a bunch of stuff.
Thank goodness is the savings account that keeps this project at a snail's pace

Before I sent the body away to storage I started on some of the rusty spots. The wurst was the driver's side rock/step.

They last picture up above shows why I wasn't able to weld the replacement panel in place. I have to pick up a replacement panel for the hinge pillar first then I'm have a spot to weld the front of the step.

I'm still saving my Loonies and Toonies to by a new Power Steering Box and pump, but yesterday I picked up a new Outside Tie Rod Link to replace the bad right one I have.

But before I put it on I replaced the grease zerk that comes with it, with a angled grease serk. I did this cause I'm going to be putting some rims on the truck that are gonna have some serious + positive off set.
This way I can still grease my tie rods with out having to take the wheels off.

wow all in a 1-car. looks like your doin great! keep savin those pennies, or whatever you guys save. it really looks good. is that the worst rust? if so you are lucky.

Thanks Andrew LOL They're Loonies and Toonies Hahaha $1.00 and $2.00 coins
Hey. I'm trying to do all this work in a single car garage I rented a storage container to store all my parts that I don't need right away. And I parked the truck body at the storage facility to while I get the chassis ready.
This kinda helps me keep this project well choreographed. This way I won't get ahead of myself and start doing something stupid like getting the body work done before the drive train is finished

thats good. im a country boy with a huge garage, but its messy cause its my dads. but my '66 is in there and so is the buk (Buick). this makes me wanna mess with some rust. but yeah havin little space can help you get organized. i'm bad about workin on the frame, then buy something for the body or engine. and all i got is a car that isnt finished with 1500 bones spent. keep it up man!

I miss those days out in the country. My wife and I raised our kids out in the country. My boy grow up in our 3 1/2 car garage. He went to school and became a licensed welder. He did that for a few yrs and didn't like it. Now he's doing his apprenticeship for auto mechanics. A big garage is a Must when raising boys
My kids are grown and moved out with families of their own. So my wife and I sold the big house in the country, and bought a lil house in town.
darn !!! I miss my garage.

get it back. i will never settle down without at least 20 acres. we got 140 now. and a 1/4 mile driveway that my truck bottoms out on. i gotta get a vid up of it. these motor companies should test their trucks out here. lol. you get them tie rods on yet?