LEGENDARY COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

FIRST CAR


How many of you remember your first car - especially those of you who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s? I remember mine well. My father and grandfather went halves on it for my graduation from Wi-Hi in 1961. I wanted a ’57, either a Ford or Chevy, because they were more stylish with their rear fins. Being a wiser and more practical man, my father found this ’56 Ford at Oliphant’s Chevrolet. At the time, a ’57 was priced at around $1295. This Ford was priced at $895. The price was $200 higher than most ‘56’s were going for because it only had 19,059 miles and was in great shape. It had belonged to two little old ladies (honestly) from Fruitland. They had bought it for their nephew and he only had it for 6 months before he gave it back to them for the same reason I didn’t like it at first – four door, automatic transmission and not very fast at all. But as any 17-year old, I was glad to get anything to call my own.

In those days, there was a saying that was going around that “if it didn’t run, chrome it”. I then began the transformation of a dowdy Ford into something with which I could be identified. My father was very understanding and said I could do anything I wanted with one exception. I couldn’t put a name on the side. In fact, he was more than supportive. Being an engineer at Wayne Pump he loved coming up with ideas for my car. The first thing we did was remove all the metal that was removable from the inside of the car. This included all the window frames, ash trays and the metal piece around the steering column that housed the letters that showed you what gear you were in. He then took all these pieces to the plant and had them dipped in the acid tank in the paint department, reducing them to bare metal. I then took them to Peninsula Goslee and they chrome plated them all for the princely sum of $35.

Next on the schedule was a trip to Wilmington for a set of Rayco seat covers. I had them custom made so that they looked like rolled and pleated leather, but they were actually pressed naugahyde. They looked great. In doing this article, I couldn’t even find “naugahyde” in the dictionary, so I guess that is something else that has passed like so many other things into the great abyss of “long-ago America”.

One of Pop’s best ideas was the rear deck. Since most of them were made out of cardboard and suffered the effects of the sun, he decided that mine should be made of rigidized stainless steel. This material had passed the weather test on the side of many a Sunoco pump, so he took my wrinkled up piece of cardboard and had the engineering lab cut one out to the exact dimensions. It looked fabulous and I was very proud of Pop for coming up with that idea.

Several other additions were custom Dodge four bar spinner wheel covers, “lake pipes” behind the front wheels that really sounded great when the caps were removed, glass pack mufflers and several other cosmetic changes. The monogram pictured above was also made in the Wayne engineering lab and replaced the “Ford” emblem on the dash compartment door. Even though it never “ran”, it was my signature possession and I loved it for the five years that I owned it.