Stars in Rehab
THE 1966 DODGE CORONET 500 TRIBUTE PROJECT PART 2
The hunt for a project car can take you down many dead ends but, like that mythical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...you eventually find your project.
Todd Puzey's search took place over many months and most car guys will recognize the pattern of phone calls, bad advice, pouring over ad after ad and trips down far too many blind alleys. Alleys full of crooks and dreamers with high-priced junk or cars that "were just sold".
But like most motivated searchers, Todd's quest ended in success after following that final lead.
Read more: THE 1966 DODGE CORONET 500 TRIBUTE PROJECT PART 2
STARS IN REHAB:1966 CORONET PT. 1 - A TRIBUTE CAR FOR THE BEST REASON
Todd Puzey is a City of Calgary, Alberta Canada firefighter (a city of over a million people) so it's more than fair to say that he's seen a significant amount of action on the job.In fact, he's literally pulled people out of burning buildings during the course of his career.
The public at large recognizes the built–in dedication, training, mental and physical skills that firefighters bring to work every day.
We truly respect those traits as a constant in an occupation where life and death decisions are routine.
Todd decided to apply his dedication, training and organization to an outside activity-a car restoration.
It was a great decision...
Read more: STARS IN REHAB:1966 CORONET PT. 1 - A TRIBUTE CAR FOR THE BEST REASON
THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 5:THE END?
At this point Trevor is as close to “done” on the car as any car guy-in other words it’s “nearly there”
He wanted to upgrade the bodywork substantially from his earlier effort because the knew that things such as soft lower edges on the doors would be a future issue.
Read more: THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 5:THE END?
THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 4
Trevor 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.
Read more: THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 4
THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 3
Two years later, Trevor was in a position to upgrade the 57 Chevy but it wasn’t open season on his bank account. Like everything he did on the car this was a realistic approach that worked within the constraints of a young guy with a young family.
In the mid 90s the hobby began to gravitate toward the “resto-mod”. Resto-mod is a new term for something that hot rodders have been doing for 70 years-adding and combining car parts like engine, brakes and suspension to give a car better handling and a lot more power-
Trevor is a “young” old-school guy, so he dug up the 1976 Chevy Nova clip to give his 57 Chevy a new road feel and much better braking power-"A rebuild of the original front end would be expensive and still not have power steering! I still had the 76 Nova body that had all the good stuff = power steering, power brakes, and a anti-sway torsion bar. so in the winter of 1996 in my 20 ft x 20 ft garage I tore off the front sheet metal and grafted on the Nova clip"...
As most car guys know, this is a fairly standard swap and a number of guys take a ‘cost is no object’ approach.
Not Trevor.
Read more: THE 57 CHEVY PROJECT-A 50S LIFESTYLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY PART 3
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