1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door post.
(first posted 9/9/2012) My first car was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door post, with the Blue Flame Six and Powerglide. My dad had bought it in 1965, for $300, from a friend who owned a gas station. It doesn’t take a very discerning eye to tell that the front clip is not of the same hue as the rest of the car: At some point, the original sheet metal and trim had been wiped out and replaced with junkyard items. The prototypical first car of the times; but wouldn’t apply to my second one.
The frame on the passenger side of the engine compartment had been welded by someone who didn’t understand that welding was meant to join two pieces of metal. Despite evidence that welding had indeed been attempted, it still bore a huge crack. My budget to personalize the car did not exceed the cost of a spray can of flat-black paint, so the wheels and grille got the ol’ NASCAR treatment. I found that by jacking up the tire pressure to 40 lbs. rear/36 lbs. front (Sorry, international readers-I don’t know the proper designation the rest of the freaking world uses for pressure-Bars, Pascals, Furlongs per Fortnight?), I could actually get the pig to oversteer. In keeping with the times, the former owner(s) had installed seat covers on day one, so the interior was minty fresh when my dad took ownership. Perfect. The huge back seat was a great place for a 17-year-old to entertain invited guests. On second thought, let’s just say I was at least 18.
The Chevy had a top speed (indicated) of 87 mph (140 kph), regardless of whether all of the valve springs were actually functioning as designed. The first time I attempted a land speed record in the thing, it busted a valve spring. My uncle, who was an excellent mechanic, diagnosed the problem. We replaced the offending unit in his tire shop without having to remove the head. The second time a valve spring broke, my uncle, with prescience that amazed me, asked, “Another top speed run, huh (‘eh’, in Canada)? I confessed the sordid truth. This time, we removed the head and replaced all the valve springs with heavy duty units. That ended the valve train problems.
1960 Plymouth Fury four-door hardtop.
The Chevy began its long, slow death during Easter vacation, on a trip from school in Chicago to my aunt and uncle’s home in western Illinois. Some part in the engine, apparently an important one, let go and the thing began burning oil at a prodigious rate–three or four quarts (2.8-3.8 litres) every 200 miles (321.8688 klicks). I kept a case of the cheapest oil I could find in the trunk. I would know that the oil level was deficient when the rockers started rattling. Did the thing leave a blue-gray fog as I drove down the road? Is the Pope Catholic? He is, and of course it did!
After my parents returned from Paris on home leave in 1967, my father was able to indulge in his favorite pursuit in life: buying a used car. We looked at used cars all the way from Connecticut up to his hometown of Lowell, MA. Even then, pickings were thin when your budget was just $300 with a trade. We wound up at 1400 Motors Oldsmobile in Lowell, where we had once lived, and where my father had bought a new ’56 Olds 88. We made a suitable trade for a 1960 Plymouth Fury.
Note the absence of the dreaded Chrysler “trashcan lid”.
The delusional salesman, who was an old friend of my father’s, not only agreed to the $300 trade, but also removed the Chevy’s good tires and installed them on the Fury. I was ecstatic. I gotten rid of the Blue Fog Six and now had a 318 V8 with the best automatic ever made–the legendary TorqueFlite with pushbutton gear selection. Laying rubber and banging shifts was now an everyday reality. When we purchased the Fury it had 65,000 miles (104,000 clicks) on the clock. I put on another 65,000 miles over the next three years. Unfortunately, salty Chicago winters can have a deleterious effect on cars. The resulting major body rot is hard not only on sheet metal, but also on aluminum parts, including the front turn signal buckets.
De-badged grille.
The Fury towed my 1968 Bultaco 250 Matador from Chicago to Connecticut with no complaints, but there was no way I’d be able to register the car there. Apparently, that state had a thing about sheet metal penetration, so no-go. My beloved Fury began sinking into the tar of my parent’s driveway, and my mom said it had to go. I drove it to Lajoie’s junkyard, in South Norwalk, where they bought it for $5.00. From there, my friend and I drove to The Captain’s Pizzeria and got a big-assed pizza and a six-pack…and still had change left from the five bucks.
Nice. Not only an antidote to Brougham-itis but also Tri-Five-Chebby-mania. For someone born in the 70s it’s hard to see why those things are THE iconic 50s cars.
Perfect storm of styling and engineering for the money in its day. Plus immensely popular as used cars. 5 million were built over the three-year time span.
I drove a ’57 150 daily from 1979-85 and can’t wait for the opportunity to dig into my ’57 210 Handyman.
Because back in the day the 1955 was the desirable one. It was new. It was probably the best looking Chevy in the first 50 years of the company, and it was desirable. The ’57? Oh yeah, that’s the first time since 1937 that Ford outsold Chevy. And when the ’58 arrived, everybody was able to forget about that ’57 embarrassment.
I’ve never quite figured out when the ’57 became the hot stuff – I think the movie American Graffiti (ghod, I hate that movie for what it did to car collecting) had some influence. Even though the two real Chevy’s in it are a ’55 and a ’58.
57’s were popular Hot Rod cars on the street in the 60s, before “AG” was released in 1973. And Harrison Ford drove a ’55 in it.
One reason heard is the 57’s ‘had the bugs worked out” being the 3rd year, and were hugely popular used cars, and led to teen Hot Rodding.
1958 Chevies aren’t good looking. Presumably buyers in 1958 thought so too, since the bodystyle only lasted one year without even a mid-cycle refresh.
Of the tri-5 Chevies, my favorite is the 57, followed by the 55. Never cared much for the grille or taillights on the 56.
Originally, the 1959 Chevy was planned to be a slightly reskinned 1958 body with more chrome. But when designer Chuck Jordan tells Bill Mitchell about the 1957 Chrysler/Dodge/DeSoto/Plymouth, they returned back to their drawing boards.
There a view of the first draft of the proposed 1959 Chevy in clay model at
http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/07/SIA-GMsFarOut59s_02_1500.jpg
and more on Hemmings blog
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/07/15/sia-flashback-gms-far-out-59s-when-imagination-ran-rampant-part-i/
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/07/22/sia-flashback-gms-far-out-59s-when-imagination-ran-rampant-part-ii/
I`m no fan of the `59 Cheby, but after seeing the “reskinned” `58 version, and especially that`59 with the Cyclops like headlight in the upper grille-clip, the `59 as released doesn`t look too bad.
They picked up after the American Graffiti/Happy Days nostagia kick in the 70’s, though for years before they were like an old Chevy Lumina today.
Not true – at least in California. I remember when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (’62-’63) the ’57 was considered a very cool car (the pinnacle of the ’55-’57 era). Of course, that was a 7 year old’s perspective, but I devoured Hot Rod magazine and built model cars, and I think it’s a pretty accurate memory. With brief exceptions for the 409 Impala, ’65-’66 SS and then the final SS of the ’90’s, I don’t that’s been true for a full-size Chevy again. In fact I think only the first-gen Mustang achieved that kind of status within so few years of it’s build date.
Concur – in Northern California and Hawaii in the day, tri-fives were THE car to have . . . .
Yeah, but thats popular in the way an older Civic would be popular with kids today, or how a used 5.0 Mustang was popular with kids before, popular, but its still a fairly worthless old car, they were still a couple of hundred dollar car at best, they used to be abandoned in fields by the dozens by the mid 60’s in many cases.
Really? I don’t clearly see why they are so iconic, they look kinda dumpy to me, and that Plymouth is even worse, a design travesty………………….gimme a brougham anything, any day.
A wonderful way to start a COAL piece – “How I ditched a POS 57 Chevy and Came to Love a 1960 Plymouth.” 🙂
Your Chevy reminds me that I have a soft spot for copper cars. Actually, not a bad old Chevrolet. Plus, wherever you were was a mosquito-free zone. A win-win, I’d say. A friend had a car with an oil appetite only slightly better (a 71 Duster slant 6, if you can believe it). His father bought oil in 5 gallon cans from Tractor Supply. Overfilling was not a problem. What – it’s possible to ruin this engine? And it would slurp down any overfill in the next day or so anyhow.
Love the Plymouth. You were living the space age, sir. Pushbuttons Forever! Your 60 would have all the goodness of my 59, but without the body flex and water leaks. I can just hear the loud “crack” from the frozen leaf springs when you get into the car on a cold morning.
A great start – keep ’em coming!
I had a beater Valiant for as summer that burned so much oil I used to keep a 20 litre can of used oil from our garage to top it up. Late one evening ,while somewhat beered up after a day of fishing, my buddy and I forgot to add oil. About 1 km from home we realised it but already it was too late. I limped it home and when we got there, the engine was glowing red. It stopped and promptly seized.
I got that car for free and drove it for like three months. Total POS.
Before replacing the original engine in my ’71 Vega, it burned a gallon of oil every two weeks (don’t know how many miles – that was my Senior year of High School, so it was mainly back and forth to school). I bought anti-fouling spark plug adapters by the gross!
Kevin: At least you started out well. My 57 chevy 210, 2 door post was wiped out in the opposite direction. The welded frame is on the drivers side.
73imp, they became the iconic cars of their generation because they were light weight and benefited from Zora Arkus Duntov and his never ending quest for interchangeability. The “business coupe” was especially lightweight. The 58’s and later were fat pigs but the 348-409-327-350-396 etc will all slip right into a tri five engine bay. They can be backed up with a powerglide which we may badmouth but might still set the standard for being light and tough. All of this was cheap in a tri five.
In other words, it’s not the car that chevy put out but what folks did with the car that Chevy put out.
I would also argue that the Tri5s became iconic by default. The Fords were saddled with the miserable pig of a Y block engine and (particularly by 1957) were rustbuckets. The 55-56 Plymouths were sort of undistinguished and the Forward Look generation had so many problems that most of them died an early death. The Chevrolets survived and were cheaply upgradeable just as flathead Fords had been a generation earlier. So many more people owned the Tri5s than the others just because they suffered from so few fatal flaws. I remember a lot of teenagers driving these in the late 1960s-early 1970s.
Interesting, JP. I recently spoke at length to an uncle of mine who, in 1960, too khis driver’s licence on a loaded 1957 Chrysler. After three years, none of the power windows worked and even the power steering had failed. He had to put a pillow behind his back because the power seat had failed in the rearmost position. After three long years, Quebec winters had caused holes in it.
Ahh, the good old days…
in the case of the ’57 chevy, in the ’60s most kids would take off the front bumper to make lighter thus faster
Cool, this explains why my neighbour’s 1957 had no front bumper.
Is The Captains Pizzaria still there? Sounds like a good deal. take time to say goodbye to those tailfins.
In 67 my sister was given a 57 chevy, She Was InTO cars and a FORD Girl, but she played hooky and lost her keys it sat there till her 2 older siblings came home from college for breaks, then they drove the red/white bel air 4 door.
I haven’t been back to Westport/Norwalk in over ten years but a quick Google search indicates that The Captain’s is still there.
Note the absence of the dreaded Chrysler “trashcan lid”.
“Trashcan lid?”
NEVER heard it referred to as that…I always heard the term, “toilet seat!”
Or birdbath, because it was always full of water. Fortunately, not all of it would flow into the trunk when you opened the lid.
The sign in the window said “For Sale or Trade” only last remaining dinosaur Detroit made…
$700 was a heck of a deal…for a 400HP jukebox on wheels…
And that road rolls out like a welcome mat.
Thanks, I’m going to have Lonestar stuck in my head for the next week now.. 😀
I wish I had about 20 of those dreaded “trashcan lid ” trunks stashed away in my garage.
I spent many hours scouring Lajoie’s for ’67 Mustang parts… They sure knew how to haggle..
Looks like a Massachusetts plate on the Chevy? Maybe a ’64 (dated ’64 on the plate, used in both ’64 and ’65)?
Yes, it’s a 1964 Massachusetts plate. The car was bought in Lowell, MA that year.
It’s amazing how dated that ’60 Plymouth looked in seven years. After triumphantly announcing “Suddenly it’s 1960” in 1957, when Chrysler actually got to 1960 it was like they dialed the clock back to 1958 — doubling down on high fins and Buck Rogers gee-whizzery just when other brands were beginning to tone down all that excess.
Correct observation…
And yet for all that, today I find the ’60 Plymouth design more appealing that the ’57 Chevy. Looking at them both from sixty-odd years later, the fact that the Plymouth’s fins were dated for 1960 (undeniably true) doesn’t matter.
I never liked the 60 or 61 Plymouths. The 60 suffered from the ridiculous fins and the front end does look tired. The 61 had the manic front end and the tacked on bullet taillights that come across as cheap rather than stylish. Despite the unfortunate downsizing that wrecked sales and damaged Exner’s design, I still thought the 62 was a handsome car from many angles.
“In other words, it’s not the car that chevy put out but what folks did with the car that Chevy put out.” – starvingteacher
Perfect, I can see this. I never liked the styling of the 57 Chevy, not then or now and have been somewhat mystified at the prices they bring today given how folks felt about them at the time. The one thing I do recall quite well is that our neighbor’s 57 Chevy was way better built than my Dad’s 57 Ford thus creating a much larger cohort of survivors for the customizers, rodders, etc.
Actually I oversimplified. From the get go the 57 was popular with the “go fast” crowd and chevy worked that to death. The 1hp/cid was big. I have been told that Chrysler actually got there first but the 57-283 with the FI got there. The black widow 57 210 was a terror and the sbc was tearing up nascar. I frankly do not understand why ford outsold it although I had a 57 Ford and liked it. Left it with my parents when I went overseas and it didn’t work so well for them. Then old Zora with his interchangeability bit. You could drop anything in them and people did.
It started pretty fast with the new 283 and interchangeability allowed it to stay a cheap alternative. People forget how quickly cars became affordable. I owned a 55 ford in 61 with a job washing pans in a bakery. About the best I could bolt into that was the 312. I think the 360 was one of the FE engines and wasn’t a direct bolt in (although it couldn’t have been too hard). I don’t remember when the 409 came out but if I had a 55 chevy I could have bolted in a 283 or 348. Soon to come 327 and 409. It was a hot rodders heaven and they even rodded the blue flame six with things like split exhaust manifold and 2 or 3 carb setups.
Speed costs. How fast do you want to go? It was cheaper in a chevy but by 57 the sbc was already a popular engine replacing the flathead in rods. The 55, I agree, is a more desirable car (to me) but the 57 was and is a keeper. I have kept mine since 1972. Went to work on it last spring and just waiting for it to cool off again. No smog checks may make it a desirable driver again.
I like this story, and like that ’57 Bel Air 2-door post. As you mentioned, the previous owner added pieces to it after accidents, since the first thing that caught my eye was the “V” crest under the Chevrolet script, which, naturally would be absent on six-cylinder cars. Obviously, you found the fun in driving slow cars fast!
Billy,
The 1957 Chevy brochure shows a “V” under the Chevy script on the nose of the hood on all of their cars that year. The 210s and 150s had chrome “V”s, but I recall that the Bel Airs had a gold ones. My car had a chrome “V” indicating that it came from something less than a Bel Air. Also, my front fenders lacked the gold fillers in the fake louvres just behind the headlights that Bel Airs came with.
Love the ‘France’ sticker on the back. Anyone who drives a car like this obviously loves Jerry Lewis too 🙂
I had a ’57 210 with the 283 and it had the chrome “V” emblems letting the world know that there was a V-8 under the hood.
I do understand the general hate for tri-five Chevy’s here, but does the original Mustang get the same reaction, given its similar collector status?
I specifically wanted a ’57 because I actually like the styling. After all, the ’57 Mopars also had tall fins. The Mopars are extremely rare because they rusted out the worst. Fords, I dont know. My grandfather had a ’57 (low end trim) and I just found it boring.
Bought my first car in 1971, a ’57 Chevy Bel Air from the original female owner for $550.00 because it had a dented fender (she bought a Vega!) It was a 2 door hardtop with 32,000 miles, 283 Power Pack, turboglide, power steering , electric wipers and the original plastic seatcovers. Ran like a champ but couldn’t afford to store it and buy another car for everyday. Marriage & kids dictated I sell it four years later. I wish I had kept it longer but the memories endure.
If I had to choose between the two, I’d be all over the ’60 Fury. Love those cars.
And I’d do the opposite!The Chevy wins in the looks department,the Plymouth looked very old fashioned in 1960 compared to the GM and Ford opposition.Suddenly it’s 1957!
I’d prefer the 1957 Chevy over the 1960 Plymouth Fury. While I like the engineering underneath the Plymouth, I find its front end appearance to be uglier than that of the 59 or the 1961 Plymouth.
I’ve always been a big fan of the Forward Look Chryslers. It’s a shame their quality wasn’t better.
I just learned of Kevin’s passing. 🙁
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/kevin-martin-in-memoriam/
We’ll miss your articles & comments! I always enjoyed the visits to the Bonneville Salt Flats which you so generously shared with us.
Godspeed, Kevin
57s came with a 6, do tell not here they didnt it was V8 or go buy a Vauxhall, 57 was the first time my dads firm failed to sell all the Chevs they ordered after having no problems selling 55s & 56s, a school friend had a 57, 283 manual he understeered it into a tree it had far more power than front end traction luckily his fathers wrecking yard had more 57s laying around for parts and it was soon burning rubber again.
Lucky NZ! Across the ditch it was sixes only until IIRC 1960.
I grew up in a family that drove mostly Fords but there were a few Chevys and Plymouths mixed in.
If I were buying one of the “tri-five” Chevys it would be a 55 before a 57.
My sister wrecked her future husband’s 68 Sport Fury convertible, so it was replaced with a 57 Belvedere or Savoy 4 door sedan. As a 12 year old car, it was a typical clunker. The transmission’s pushbuttons would stick often. I actually like the 61 Plymouths, but I’m biased as friends owned one.
If I was buying any car from 1955 through 1960 it would be a 57 Ford…maybe a lower trim 2 door wagon. My alternate choice would be a 59 Mercury…somber, yet sporty, and VERY jukeboxy in styling.
BTW, all GM brands had a new 58 model followed by a new 59….sales success or failure wasn’t involved in that decision.
My first cars were a 67 4 door cutlass, followed by my dads 68 Buick Electra 225 2dr. The big Buick was decidedly a brougham with its white vinyl roof and leatherette tan seats and power everything, not my taste but beggers cant be too choosey, the first car I paid money for was a 67 Chrysler 300 with its 440, what fun, not a letter car, but also not a brougham, I want that one back! currently, my anti brougham is a 1965 corvair 500 2dr, striking to drive because there is not even a radio, no option car with exception of the 110 engine hooked to a 3spd with non synchromesh 1st gear, a time capsule!
Ahh, the 1957 Chevy, immortalized by a pop-culture film, and worth absolutely zipploa before said film. As the Official Canukistani correspondent for CC, I can report this never really happened in Soviet Canuckistan, at least not where I lived in Quebec. The roads in Quebec at the time were absolutely beyond horrible, with ruts, cracks and potholes everywhere. To cheapen out in ploughing, the highways department poured on literally millions of tons of road salt to melt the snow. By the time I was into cars circa 1970, there were no tri-5’s left. I can’t recall ever seeing one. Any car more than five years old was ancient and full of holes.
The first tri-5 I saw was when I was a teenager on Vancouver Island, a neighbour was a fisherman and a really cool guy, looking back. He had a 1955 Belair with Stovebolt and Powerglide. He used to give the kids rides home in it all the time. I recall it seemed like a really clean and solid daily driver. In fact, it shocked my dad and I that there were so many clean, old cars on the West Coast. In Quebec, it was very rare to see a ten year old car, while on the coast we saw twenty years or older all the time.
The popularity of the Small Block Chevrolet isn’t hard to understand. At the time, it was simply the most advanced engine out there. Light, small, powerful, durable and expandable, it was a brilliant design. Compared to the Ford flathead and even the Y Block, it was a cosmic light year jump and it was cheap horsepower, too. There were loads of cheap go fast parts for them almost immediately and they were simple and easy to work on. No wonder they became the default cheap speed engine. Heck, they are so good they are still in mass production today. Mercury uses GM engines almost exclusively and most are SBC or derivatives like the 4.3 V-6. Marine use is the toughest you are ever going to get since there are extended periods at wide open throttle.
Finally, go in peace, Kevin. Your work at CC was wonderful and we are all the better for it. It is a fitting tribute that we can enjoy your work at CC again to celebrate your really cool life. You had a very full, rich and interesting life and many of us are for the better because of this. Go in the grace of God, and may this farewell be but a brief interlude ’till we meet again.
The sign “F” on the back is imaginative… Could be a R’dam made Euro-Fury… 🙂
Having once owned a ’59 Plymouth, IMHO the ’60 was one of the least successful styling updates ever. Not bad cars to drive, for their time, but I thought the ’60 especially ugly.
BTW, did you know that if you took the buttons that controlled the transmission out of a MOPAR of that time period’s dashboard and installed them in a different order, they still worked as intended? If you moved the reverse button to the middle, you had to press the middle button to back up. Each button had a different length fork on the back that sat on the cable actually controlling the transmission linkage. The longest form made the cable move the most no matter which hole in the dash you put it in.
That’s a fascinating bit of trivia about the ability to move the transmission buttons around to the liking of the driver.
The ’61 Plymouth gets ragged on for being hideous but, frankly, I think the ’60 is worse. The ’61, even though it’s outrageous, has a much more cohesive appearance. I’d love to have a pristine ’61 Plymouth Fury convertible. But a ’60? Not so much.
That is a very interesting mechanical oddity!
Could be optimized for rocking ones vehicle out of the snow!
Never owned a push button, have got plenty of old dodges stuck and un stuck. Vague shift indicators can be a witch (or something that rhymes….).
On a side note, I am born and raised Yukon, are you up here? A sourdough? Is sgt. Military or police?
We have a pretty good classic scene up here. I don’t have the time to detail it.
We (I) push our rigs to the limits!
Did you hear Black Mike passed last month?
Hope you have a good woodpile!
The colourful five percent is getting smaller all the time.
Our 1957 Chevy was “blessed” with the Blue Flame Six. It punched out three valve caps and broke a valve spring before we retrofitted an add-on upper engine oiling kit. After that kit was installed, we actually saw OIL when we removed the valve cover, not just dry sludge. There were no more valve problems from then until the car was sold. It departed due to a door rusting out from the inside. The drain holes in the bottom of the door were blocked by debris and it actually held water after a storm.
Ah, the water-filled door trick. My Malibu used to do that after the weatherstripping started to crack and gaps appeared, until I figured out that the drain holes would clog with crud and I had to poke at them with a screwdriver to get the gunk broken up and the water running through again.
Haven’t done that in quite a long time now that I think about it, but there’s no sign of cancer on the outer door skins. Inner might be another story.
Shoebox Chevies were the cockroaches of the road in the 60s and 70s. Plenty were produced, they were robust and lasted a long time and were cheap to buy, run and modify. You could easily drop almost any automotive engine in one, (but running anything non Chevy was sacrilege). The Exner mopars had a very short shelf life from a styling standpoint and were pretty undesirable by the mid 60s.
Some family friends of ours used to buy a lot of Power Wagons from a nearby Dodge dealer for their oil business. The owner of the dealership used to give their kids some of the trade ins that were deemed unsalable. Things like 59 Plymouths, 58 Royals and De Sotos. We all learned to drive and fix cars by tearing up and down the lease roads in those old Mopars.
My personal shoebox Chevy was a 55 convertible that I bought at a junkyard for $50. Spent a couple of years getting it drivable and another three years thoroughly enjoying driving it. My second favorite of all the cars I have owned.p
The ’60 Plymouths may have been a debatable styling step, but I absolutely love them. How can you not love those tailfins? Dripping with character. Plus, it’s a hardtop.
Nothing at all wrong with a ’57 either, but I’d take the Fury.
Back in the early 1960’s the ’57 Chevy was always the hands down winner amongst Tri – Fives .
Me , I did and still do , vastly prefer the balanced look of the ’55 , the ’56 has too much glitz to suit .
Of course , everyone likes something different , that’s part or why Automobilia is so much fun .
Damien’s big memorial was last night , R.I.P. Big D. ~ a very good man if far too young to have left us .
Castle Green full of MotorHeads ~ whod’a thunk it ? .
-Nate
First car a 57 Ford. A dog. A rusty dog. A 312 cubic inch, 245 hp (they certainly weren’t race horses but more like road wagon horses) dog. Getting married I bought a $300 1960 Plymouth. Cheap because it certainly wasn’t pretty or desirable. Nothing you want to be seen in. Not what 20 year old wants but it turned out to be stone reliable. Failed Va. state inspection for rusted out headlight buckets. All the junkyard ones were rusted out too.
That side on photo of the Plymouth really shows how modern it was in profile, if you look past the fins and fussy detailing.
I absolutely love 60 Plymouths and came very close to getting one in the mid 1980’s. This one was a black 4 door Fury sedan. I was married to the wrong person at the time and she said that if I bought the car she’d divorce me. Since we split up anyway 2 years later I should have just went ahead and bought the Fury. After the divorce, I went back to see if they still had it and someone had bought it. If I had married the lady I’m with now, the only fighting over the Fury would be who gets to drive it.
Speaking of tri-five Chevys, I come across this amateur video, but sure somebody had a good time making it 🙂
I think that the 57 – 60 Plymouth’s went from a beautiful car in 57 to ugly in 60. The 57 looked perfect for its time. The 58 got a little fussier with stuff tacked on. The 59 got heavier looking and had the trash can / toilet seat. The 60 added bigger fins and a weird front end. You couldn’t see the beautiful 57 hiding underneath.