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!

Dave's comments:

What a great story. The guy is a 57 Chev nut and comes in to Boyd's office and says, "I'll take one". But I'm not jealous. I had a 67 Chevy Bel Air in high school I bought off my grandfather. I called it the CheSlug.