Dave Shuten's '57 Chevy Bel Air
You might expect someone steeped in custom car culture to drive a wildly altered car of their own, but Dave Shuten, who manages the menagerie of vintage custom cars housed within the Galpin Speed Shop in Van Nuys, California, also appreciates a car’s history. Shuten has helped restore a dozen or more show rods including Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Orbitron along with Roth’s personal shop truck, and has also built lauded customs of his own design. He now curates the Galpin collection that includes the recently acquired Hirohata Merc and one of the original Barris-built Batmobiles among many other historically significant customs.
When the opportunity arose to buy a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air with just 10,000 miles on the odometer, Shuten couldn’t turn it down. The car had been owned by a Los Angeles native who purchased it new. After the original owner passed, his family approached Shuten, knowing that it would receive proper care. Considering the car’s low mileage and the fact that it was built just down the road at GM’s Van Nuys assembly plant, it seemed that the car had never strayed too far from Los Angeles. It was only appropriate that is go to such an avid fan of ‘50s and ‘60s cars.
Despite its age, the car’s original Sierra Gold color still has quite a bit of luster although the white paint on the top is getting a bit thin in places. The bumpers and trim are also in fantastic shape. Note that at the rear the backup light delete plates are in perfect condition, and the bumper guard delete plates up front are as well, although the surrounding bumper does have a slight blemish. Perhaps the original owner should have opted for those rubber bumperettes after all.
This car now serves as Shuten’s daily driver and with so much of the car surviving virtually unscathed, Shuten didn’t want to alter its looks too much. While he did make some modern upgrades to his Bel Air, they’re mild, and even those that aren’t technically period-correct for a ‘60s hot rod manage to look the part. The first order of business was getting the old iron roadworthy with a simple suspension rebuild with new ball joints and new shocks. The rest of the suspension remains intact.
The bumpers and sheet metal survived this long, so Shuten invested in front disc brakes to keep the old cruiser from any brake-fade-induced fender-benders. Speedway’s Deluxe Disc Brake Kit came with drilled and slotted brake rotors that are a major improvement over the factory drums. The brakes are applied with help from a Speedway brake booster kit made especially for Tri-Five Chevys.
With the car steering and stopping better than new, it was time to address the powertrain. The original 283 and Powerglide two-speed automatic were still running, “It was just tired,” Shuten told us. Besides that, Powerglides have a rather steep first gear and a 1:1 second; not ideal for street driving.
Shuten pulled the powertrain and opened up his Speedway Motors catalog to find a suitable replacement. A BluePrint BP3501CT1 Chevy 350 long-block was selected to seriously increase the fun factor without looking too out of place. The engine comes with 9.1:1 compression so its pump-gas friendly with its iron heads, but the center-bolt valve covers just didn’t look quite right under the hood. Shuten used an adapter to mount perimeter-bolt valve covers he had hanging on the wall of Galpin Speed Shop showroom. “These were the only ones I had that didn’t have staggered bolt holes,” Shuted admitted. A collector of vintage speed parts, he amassed quite a stockpile of rare bits and pieces, but his inventory of small-block Chevy parts favors the early production stuff. Chevrolet began switching to evenly spaced bolts on small-block valve covers in 1959.
Helping turn the long-block into a complete engine are a short water pump and a high-rise intake manifold, both in cast aluminum, and both from Speedway Motors. The addition of a Holley 750 double-pumper carb, an alternator, and a Speedway HEI ignition completed the engine. To replace the two-speed auto, Shuten chose a Turbo 350. The simple three-speed doesn’t require any computers so there’s no need for a throttle position sensor or complicated tuning, just a kickdown cable mounted to the carb.
To get the 350 V-8 and Turbo 350 transmission into position, Shuten removed the center portion of the radiator core support and then welded it back together once the powertrain was in place. The engine and transmission are bolted to the chassis thanks to a Speedway crossmember and engine mount kit made specifically for ’55-’57 Chevy frames that allow for later small-blocks and their relocated engine mounts. It also positions the engine a bit lower and a bit farther back in the chassis. Because the new 350 produces almost exactly twice the power as the original, two-barrel 283, Shuten installed a DeWitts direct-fit radiator. The radiator is a single pass, downflow design, just like the factory piece, but its aluminum construction greatly improves its performance.
Shuten also went with Speedway Motors for the exhaust on the hot-rodded small-block, with a universal 2.5-inch stainless exhaust kit and a pair of stainless chambered mufflers creating a deep, muscle car rumble at part throttle without droning on the highway. Speedway Motors supplied the block-hugging chrome ram-horn manifolds as well. They clear the car’s original steering box and allow for plenty of ground clearance even now that the engine has been slightly relocated.
The only issue Shuten ran into when swapping the engines came from the factory fuel system, which quickly clogged the fuel filter for the new carb. A Speedway fuel tank and sending unit, along with 3/8-inch fuel line solved that issue and according to Shuten, “It’s been running bitchin’ ever since.” Even with the factory 185hp small-block, a shorter first gear would have really changed the character of the car, but combined with the stout 350, the transformation was staggering. When we followed him to our photo location, the car had no problems merging or keeping up with Southern California highway speeds, and yes, we did manage to find a highway without traffic.
While most of the car’s modifications were under the hood or under the floorboards, Shuten did modernize the interior, but just a bit. You may have noticed that another concession to period-correct under-hood appearance was an air-conditioning compressor. A Vintage Air kit uses a modern compressor for improved performance and the controls integrate seamlessly into the factory dash, with the vents located below the dash in the center. If you’re familiar with the San Fernando Valley, you’d know that air conditioning is not just a luxury, it’s practically a necessity for the entire summer and then some.
The rest of the interior remains original except for a simple dual-gauge mount that houses Stewart-Warner gauges to monitor the 350 V-8. Even the characteristic ’57 Chevy upholstery, with its gold-patterend accents, looks like it’s hardly seen any use, just as it did the day it rolled off the assembly line, roughly a mile and a half from Shuten’s post at Galpin Speed Shop.
With the new powertrain that doubled the power and an extra gear to get the Radial TAs spinning with authority, this Bel Air is ready to rack up the miles and have a lot of fun doing it. Just as important, Shuten seems like the perfect custodian to ensure the car survives for another generation.
