This pre panel beaten 57 Chev came to us for painting - I had nearly no hand in this one but have included it to show what else gets done here.

This is a 150 series very base model Chev - has a 1/4 panel mould like a 55 Chevy- This car was absolutely riddled with rust - resulting in the floors right through to the boot - the 1/4 panels, wheel tubbs and sill being replaced. Not much of the car was left and the sand blaster thought it would be scrapped after he finished with it- ( we got a phone call and the only words spoken were - 'This cars fukked!".....seven weeks of panel beating saw it like new agin... thankfully it was'nt me that had to do this one......

Finally after a lot of fine tuning to the panel work its in primer. Graham Carr our painter is a perfectionist when it comes to flaws in what the panel beater has left for him, so rest assured this is one very straight Chev...now.

The Chassis and numerious other minor parts received a coat of satin black two pack for that old school OEM look.

With the body on the hoist - all the underside was fully sealed and given a coat of stone guard and the fire wall was final painted at this stage also. All seams received a full going over with sika flex b4 this met the chassis again... shouldn't rust this time.

After six weeks of painting amongst the holiday season - the car emerges and is ready for delivery - but it dosent end here - Graham will go to the customers place and oversee the hanging of the panels... generous bloke isnt he? Mostly this is just part of the job- he would not want to see his hard yakka undone at all.

Now you can see the unusual two tone treatment of the 150 series - as these are rare cars it pays to keep the originality and not just add Belair trim like the other three million 57 chevs. These full sun photos barely do this car justice... the white is actually a off white and the sparkle in the mettalic turquiose is just brilliant - I will add more pics later of the finished car.

The carefully masked and prepared door jambs.

And another view - this should give an idea of what's involved for this sort of repair - all the doors have been painted off the car - and are carefully stored. the end result when we reassembled the car - was that other than shiny new paint - it looks pretty much the same as the opening shot - other than the rust and dents of course . Another very happy chappy - the doors were loaded with rustproofing and I dont expect this one back for this repair ever again.