December 30, 2024

1957 Chevrolet 210 Was Left to Rot in a Junkyard, Takes First Drive in 50 Years

Keeping a classic car in long-term storage isn’t all that bad if it all happens in a heated garage. However, a few years out in the open will completely ruin a vehicle’s body, chassis, and underpinnings. But some are lucky enough to survive a few decades of exposure to the elements, like this 1957 Chevrolet Tri-Five

This (still) beautiful four-door sedan spent about 50 years in a junkyard. Yup, this Tri-Five was abandoned by its previous owner sometime in the early 1970s, after only a few 15 years on the road. And that’s rather shocking, because the Tri-Five is still in one piece after 50 years, meaning it was in pretty good shape when it was parked in the car graveyard.

And the inline-six under the hood doesn’t seem to be in terrible shape either, so it’s definitely a head-scratcher. There’s no background story to run by though, so maybe it was abandoned for reasons that have nothing to do with the way it ran.

But it doesn’t matter all that much now, because YouTube’s “Carolina Custom Classics” saved it back in 2021 and spent the last five months putting it back on its feet.

Come January 2022 and the Chevy 210 is running again. Sure, it might not be a perfect solid daily driver just yet, but it runs smooth and, as seen in the video below, it’s perfectly capable of handling short trips and not just a stroll around the neighborhood.

All while sporting a really cool patina that most owners would pay loads of cash to have it done on their custom rat-rod builds.

Sure, it’s not a loaded Bel Air trim, the kind that people chase more over the less 150 and 250 versions, but it’s just as pretty. And while the Blue Flame inline-six might not be all that potent at 140 horsepower, this 210 has plenty of room for a beefed-up V8 under the hood.

Hopefully, it will morph into a tire-shredding rat-rod soon enough. Meanwhile, hit play to see it look cool on public roads again. 

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