Employee Rides: 1957 Four-Door Hardtop - Steve Wickizer

Being a typical teenage kid in the Midwest, I grew up liking cars. My brother bought a parts car for his 1957 Chevy two-door hardtop for $50 and a Craig's 8 track tape player. Needing the windshield and front bumper for his car, he drug it home to my parent's house. My dad would not let him part it out. Dad bought him a front bumper and a windshield for his car, gave him a few dollars and kept the car.

As a 14-year-old kid who liked cars, I sat in class imagining the possibilities for the car. I started cleaning it up to get it going. My dad and I got it running and he gave it to me for my first car. I drove it through high school and started really fixing it up. Then my dad brought home a 1967 Chevy short box C-10, that I had to have. With my dad having a four-door hardtop in 1963, he wanted the ‘57 Chevy to fix up, so we traded.

Through years of disassembling and rebuilding the ‘57 Chevy, we built it into the car that it is today.

My dad had the interior stored in a shed. My brother and I took it out of the shed without him knowing and had the seats redone for Christmas. For two weeks he thought someone stole the seats out of his shed. The car still has the original windshield. When we decided to paint it, we did it in dad's two and a half stall garage with a gravel driveway, hoping for the best. Dad and I enjoyed driving it and taking it to cars shows. He was pretty proud to drive and show it and loved talking to people about it. Driving down the road, we used to get a lot of looks, as people know the ‘57 Chevy.

I think for me these are still the reasons I love driving and showing this car. In my mind, I don't think there is anything better than being a part of the car community. Working with my dad through the years has had a great influence on me and is a large part of the reason I enjoy working on and talking about cars. Working side by side with my dad on projects that were always older cars I acquired a lot of knowledge about cars in general.

Now I really enjoy being in the Kingsmen Car Club that has several cruises and shows a year, and driving it down the highway, through lots of small Midwest towns. I really like the paint scheme on it—silver and black with a silver, red and black interior. My dad's original Chevy that he had in ‘63 was silver with a black top with red and black interior. Adding the black to the lower half, which was dad's idea from a die cast car, really gave the car a unique look. Other than the power brakes, air conditioning, wheels and seat belts, it is pretty much a stock car. Those things were added so I could comfortably and safely include all of my family in car rides. I plan on updating to power steering and switching to an alternator in the future to complete the car. Even having air conditioning, I still like to drop the windows and cruise the highway.

I think I am as proud of the car as my dad was. I will forever enjoy the memories of cruising it in high school and taking it to the drive-in movies. I am very glad my dad had the forethought to not let my brother part it out. It has been a great experience for a lot of years and more to come.