Joe Tuckey’s love for 1957 Chevys started way back in High School, when his dad bought him a white ‘57 Chevy convertible at the age of 16. Joe had it painted candy apple red, dropped in a 327 with a 4-speed, and enjoyed many good memories....including cruising to his favorite fast food hangouts on Friday and Saturday nights. When he got drafted in the mid 60’s and went into the service, his dad had to sell the ‘57. It was hard to part with his first car, but Joe always hoped to one day have another ‘57 Chevy.
Joe returned from service, married his High School sweetheart, Connie, and had two great children, his daughter Vicki and his son Joe. Then 44 years later, in 1986, he purchased his second ‘57 Chevy. Although it sat in the garage for almost 25 years thereafter, Joe was able to start a complete frame-off restoration in 2003. Over the next 5 years he worked with Mike McGarvey at McGarvey’s Custom Restoration Shop in Tallahassee, who did the body and paint. Mike McGarvey let Joe assemble the car in his shop, which took the majority of the time, as well as cash flow being the most major holdup from time to time. Using Spies Hecker paint, a European Mercedes silver metallic was applied, which combined with the Budnik rims (17x7-inch up front, 18x12-inches out back), really make the exterior “pop” in the Florida sunshine.
Under the hood you’ll find a 350 Chevy small block, which has been stroked to now displace 383 cubic inches, and fitted with many coated, plated and polished parts to make it beautiful. A pair of Edelbrock 4-barrel carburetors sit atop an air-gap manifold, with the combo supplying the air/fuel mixture through a set of GM high performance heads. The Comp Cam gives the motor a muscular thump, with the sound accentuated by the ceramic coated Hedman headers, 2-1/2 inch exhaust system, and Flowmaster mufflers. The power is transferred through a 700R4 overdrive automatic transmission with a Genie shifter, and ultimately to the positraction rear end with 3.70:1 gears.
The interior is simply outstanding, and in fact earned the car Best Interior honors at our own Beach Blast 19 car show on May 17-19, 2013. It was done by Ed Schreck of Schreck’s Rod & Custom Upholstery in DeLand, Florida. It features red ultraleather, billet dash inserts, billet trim items, and a half-wrapped billet steering wheel atop a tilt column. The seats are from Glide Engineering, and the very attractive center console is a modified Monte Carlo unit.
While there is no replacing your first car, and Joe must certainly have fond memories of his first ‘57 Chevy, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who could disagree that his second one is absolutely outstanding. The closer you look at the car, in every area, the more you appreciate the attention to detail and quality craftsmanship that went into making it so special. This car was a long time coming, but it certainly turned out great! Joe and Connie have now been enjoying showing the car over the past 5 years since its completion, meeting new friends along the way. We are glad they made the trip down to attend our Beach Blast 19 car show in Cocoa Beach, so we could share their car with you here in our magazine. CN |
