CheZoom
Altered
57 Chevy Bel Air
- Original year: 1995
- Company: Testors
- Scale: 1/24
- Designer: Boyd Coddington & Thom Taylor
"Rod Magician" Boyd Coddington has done it again
with the retro-contemporary CheZoom! A study in what a 1957 Chevrolet
Bel Air would look like if were designed by today's engineers. It began
as a sketch by freelance automotive stylist Thom "Frankenstude" Taylor,
eventually finding its way into the hands of Boyd. It would still be
on Boyd's wall if it were not for Joe "Mr. Gasket" Hrudka. Boyd had
remembered how Joe loves '57 Chevys' (he owns around 20), so during
a visit to Boyd's shop one day, Joe was shown Taylor's drawing. Immediately
hooked, "I'll take one," was Joe's response.
Boyd began by locating and completely stripping
a '57 Bel Air. Boyd decided not to use the original Chevy frame since
new seats had to be lowered to clear the lower profile roof line. Obviously
this meant fabricating a custom tubular chassis and grafting onto both
front and rear, suspension systems taken from a donor '85 Corvette and
engineering to OEM specs so it could be serviced at any local Chevrolet
dealership.
Body also selected a stock LT-1 crate motor, and
mated this to a Chevy 700-R4 tranny. In all, only a guesstimated 10
percent of the original body skin survived this radical metamorphosis.
And of course, it would not be a "Boyd Rod" if it didn't have Boyd's
17" inch billet Aluminum wheels on all fours...CheZoom!
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Click image
above to see a close-up
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