History Channel's Pawn Star 1957 Chevrolet 150

[BobPalma]

'Anybody else see The History Channel's melding of American Pickers / American Restoration / Pawn Stars episode with "The Old Man" getting the restored/rodded 1957 Chevrolet 150 2-door for a 70th birthday present?

What a hoot from so many angles, but fun nonetheless. (I'd sure like to have upwards of $80,000 total to put in a 1957 Studebaker!)

Ironically, since they put a modern FI SB engine in it, they could have put reproduction Fuel Injection script on the rear fenders with the flags and made it a quasi-legitimate Black Widow clone. 'Kinda surprised they didn't...but those guys are so young <GGG> they probably don't know what a Black Widow is, much less where the Fuel Injection script would be placed. BP

[jclary]

The biggest surprise to me is that the so-called "Old Man" is only 70 years old!

Good Grief! I am 66 and hope I look more alert than that in just four more years!

[4961Studebaker]

I did watch the show. Who knew you could put a car together in 30 minutes!!

Actually had the DVR set to record all three as you mentioned.
It was a good concept to keep you watching start to finish. And nice to see a project
actually get finished. The seller, to me, looked like he really didn't want to let the car go, but his wife.....really wanted her Mustang....finished!

I see the trend of cross promoting one channels TV offerings with another. TLC, The Learning Channel did a lot of this. The one TLC cross promotion that I still can't quite understand to this day was American Chopper and John and Kate + 8.

[BobPalma]

We'll have to start a poll to see what everyone thinks was the most outrageous part of the sequence.

My vote is $5,000 for the subject 150 when the pickers bought it. Geeze, what a rat! <GGG> BP

[41 Frank]

I thought it was a hoot to pay that much money for a car it that deplorable condition. It was fun to see Mike squirm when Rick sort of started to back out of the deal. After the show concluded I checked e-bay and found 2 1957 210 models that could have been had for less and driven to Vegas, painted black and still have less money in it. But then there would not have been much of a plot for the show.

[4961Studebaker]

We'll have to start a poll to see what everyone thinks was the most outrageous part of the sequence.

My vote is $5,000 for the subject 150 when the pickers bought it. Geeze, what a rat! <GGG> BP

I vote for the Biscuits and Gravy birthday present breakfast clip where the Ol Man say's, you cheap S.O.B and then walks right into the garage where the 150 sat.


Not sure it's outragous worthy.......But what I picked up on was a comment Mike made (but may have been edited) When Mike started to make a comment about how the seller has so many projects .......and then he and Frank round the garage corner where the Mustang and it's owners were.

..(don't ever get done??)....Was that where that was headed? edited? Maybe they didn't want to upset the car restoration market and saved Mike from himself on TV.

[BobPalma]

I thought it was a hoot to pay that much money for a car it that deplorable condition. It was fun to see Mike squirm when Rick sort of started to back out of the deal. After the show concluded I checked e-bay and found 2 1957 210 models that could have been had for less and driven to Vegas, painted black and still have less money in it. But then there would not have been much of a plot for the show.

You're right, Frank; they were all possessed about having a 150.

Geeze, with all the work and modifications they did to it, they could have started with that same body in a Bel-Air or 210, filled the appropriate holes, and just put 150 side trim on it, for Pete's sake. It's not like it was going to be a 100-point OEM restoration as to authenticity or anything. BP

[41 Frank]

Exactly Bob. Since you can now even buy a complete new 57 Chevy body, purchasing and attaching 150 trim to any two door model certainly would not have been a problem. Why on earth start with such a rotted out specimen. Their reasoning was the time constraints they were under.

[JDP]

I don't think the purchase price, nor the restoration costs were out of line. Solid 57 150 2 doors are very collectable and the car came with some very rare NOS parts (i.e. the side trim) The 70K for the restoration seems cheap when you consider the expense of the driveline, suspension and brakes and 100's of hours of labor. If you recall, the PO of Sid, my GT Hawk and me were over 50K in even with me doing the engine and more myself.
I agree the time line was staged, and the shows producers probably paid for everything, but the costs seemed ball park based on my experience. Heck, I sold a 57 Desoto for a client that had recipients for close to 80K in a show restoration.

[Bill Pressler]

Bob, as you know, a One-Fifty is usually the only '57 Chevy that interests me--I like the no-fanned-out trim on the rear quarters.

[rockinhawk]

I seem to remember 150s with no trim at all,like a Scotsman. I thought they all came that way. What I remember were fleet models. Maybe they had the trim removed.
When I started dating Miss Edie, I was driving a 210 with belair trim. When I sold it and bought a Sky Hawk... Then she started talking marriage !! That was 43 years ago... My, how time flys.

[jclary]

Funny thing after commenting early on in this thread this morning. I had an errand that took me through the country towards Tryon N.C. About 15 miles from my home just as I was entering N.C., I came upon a drop dead gorgeous '57 two door post Chevy.

For some reason, the fins looked like they were more pronounced than the car seen on the Pawn Star show. I am not as knowledgable as some of you guys about the various model designations for the '57 Chevy's, but this was one great looking car. It was painted that classic white over green often seen on these models.

[plwindish]

I think Mike and Frankie picked Rick's pocket with that '57. That thing was in horrible shape. So much for cars out west being in better shape than one's from the rust belt, unless that guy had got the car from back east. As usual, everyone makes out from the transaction. Rick reinvested some of the profits from selling items he got from customers for a nickel on the dollar.

[BobPalma]

I don't think the purchase price, nor the restoration costs were out of line. Solid 57 150 2 doors are very collectable and the car came with some very rare NOS parts (i.e. the side trim) The 70K for the restoration seems cheap when you consider the expense of the driveline, suspension and brakes and 100's of hours of labor.

Agree on the cost of what they did to it, John; $70K was fair enough in today's money, as rough as was the car.

Still, $5,000 to the 'Pickers and then was it $7,225 (?; IIRC) to Rick FOB Vegas was even steeper yet. The resto-rod costs could be justified, but I would think you could start with a far better car for $7,225 FOB the Resto Shop. After all (I just looked it up), they made almost 80,000 1957 150 2-doors (79,074, to be exact), the combined total of 6-passenger sedans and 3-passenger "business coupes."

As others have suggested here, that core appeared to be seriously cancerous, from what little we were shown. Even though it came from the desert, it could well have been used in the rust belt for years before it made its trip west....and probably was.

Nonetheless, we all know better than to take any of those shows all that seriously, especially after The Pickers bought and sold that 1950 Champion F-body a while back for ill-advised [high] prices on both ends. <GGG> BP

[JDP]

I think we are forgetting we are talking about "reality" TV. They wanted to tie together American Restorations, American Pickers, and Pawn Stars. The Pawn Stars guy could have bought a done car off ebay or the net, but that would not have made a show. The producers probably came up with a idea from the birthday to the finish and paid for all of it.