Just got me a 57 Dodge 800. Lucked out and it has a 354 Power Giant Hemi under the hood with a 4 speed and a 2 speed rear end! Too cool not to buy. Besides, I doubt too many people are doing a resto-mod on one of these beasts!

Plans are to keep the Hemi in it, go through the engine and the air brakes then drive it. Once Im happy with it mechanically I'll make it "pretty".

That said, I could use some doors.... anyone got a set of doors laying around in good shape?

Laine.

Cool, you super-sized it. As for the doors, good luck. All the ones I could find were rusted out on the bottom. I had to make new skins for mine.

Thats probably the route I'll take for this one too. Got any pictures of yours?

You have probably seen mine before on here. I went kinda pro-street with it. Stroked big block, narrowed rear and tubs.

Lookin sharp! Love the color. Now imagine it with duals a 5th wheel pullin a giant custom built 5th wheel tear drop toy hauler!

Laine.

I already call it the "Farm Truck". That usually gets a laugh.

Hey, I like the Pro-Farm idea. Hadn't thought of that one. I need to get a license plate with that on it.

Well, the good news about your door search is the big truck cabs are suppose to use the same components as the small trucks, and from mid 55 through about 60 doors should work. The bad news is its still going to be hard to find doors that still have the bottom in them yet. The window seals were pretty much useless on this era truck, and the shape of the bottom of the door did a nice job of holding the water that got into the door stay there until it rusted away. Fortunately, its not a difficult shape to form from scratch.

Truck looks pretty good, love this era Dodge trucks, and I have a soft spot for 1 year only body styles. Gene

Yeah, I agree on all of the above. Looks like we will probably get some sheet metal and get to welding. Nothing too complex about the shape of the bottom of the doors, so it shouldnt be too bad.

Laine.

Thanks Lee.

So, can someone tell me why I cant find ANY pictures of a 57 800? Its like there is zero info on this thing.

I did find the 57 "Metropolitan Convoy". That is about as close as I have come to finding anything on this beast.

Anyone have a clue how many of these things are out there?

Laine.

Not much information out there about any Dodge trucks between about 1952 and the 60s Sweptline trucks, unless your looking for military trucks, or the 57-60 Style side (or whatever it was they called those pickups with the station wagon quarters welded to the box sides). There is less information on bigger trucks then the very little there is on pickups. Not many big trucks were made, and there wasn't a lot of fan fair for big work trucks. When I get in the house, I'll see if I can find some production numbers for you. Gene

Yeah, that makes sense. Hope to hear back from you. I'd love to know anything I can find out about it.

Laine.

The book I have is titled: Dodge Pickups history and restoration guide 1918-1971 by Don Bunn & Tom Brownnell.

To this point, the book seems to be pretty accurate. As noted in the title, it covers mostly pickup or light duty trucks, but there is some info on the large trucks. In the book of 224 pages, about 20 cover the 57-60 trucks and covers things like options, changes from one year to the next, and a whole host of other interesting things. Hard production numbers are pretty veage.

That said, the 1957 truck production began on Sept 12, 1956 and the new models were itroduced on Oct 30, 1956. 1957 production was dismal, dropping 19.3% to 87,997 total truck production in a year the industry only dropped 3.8%. Market share dropped 15.1% to an industrial share of 7.3%, the lowest production share since 1932! Canidian production also dropped to its lowest level since 1939.

1958 total production numbers were 64,948, off another 4.1% from the 57 market share numbers. The numbers in 59 dropped as well. 1960 was the lowest truck production market share Dodge would have. After 1960, Dodge production and sales set off on a steady upward climb. Gene

Interesting. Now, if only there was a way to find out how many of these things were left running around. It dosnt have the lines of my 69 Charger, but it has a face that grows on ya. Looking forward to getting something done with it.

Laine.

I have always liked the one year only body styles. You can do like I did and remove all the badges. It is a lot of fun listening to people talk about what my 57 is, they are almost always wrong and get a real funny look when I tell them they werev wrong. Most call it an international.

I have found through the years that you can still have the name badges on the car or truck and many people still call it the wrong thing, especially if its something out of what they normally see.

Point of fact: My son owns a 54 Chrysler New Yorker Newport. 1954 was the first year for the Newport name tag and it designated the car was a 2 door hardtop. 1800 Chrysler New Yorker Newports were built in 1954. That car is sitting at my shop right now, and has been unaltered, body wise, for at least 25-30 years. It is very easy to see all the emblems have been there for a long time, and we have documented proof, pictures in a book about Chrysler history, that show the emblems are correct.

I constantly get people that come in and ask me about the big Chevy in the driveway, or want to tell me Chrysler did not make a New Yorker Newport, to the point of wanting to argue.

Seems everyone wants to think they are always right these days, regardless of what the facts say. All we can do is show them the facts, then smile and let them alone in their own little world.

My son is contemplating pulling all the emblems off the New Yorker as well, he thinks it will be fun to hear what people think it is. He wants to add fuel to the fire by opening the hood to show off the 4bbl Hemi and tell people his car was the fastest production car built in 1954. I'm going to park my 48 Plymouth, that doesn't have any emblems on it, next to him. Should be an interesting summer. Gene

Finally got the beast to the house. the day I bought it, I had put a battery in it and it would not turn. Locked up. No worries. I pulled the plugs, filled the cylinders with diesel and left it for a week.

Got it to the house yesterday, put the battery back in, hit the starter and the motor turns free now. All the valves are moving, so thats good. Even has nice hot spark! We figured we'd shoot it with some gas and see if it would pop off, but, no dice. No surprise there. Did a compression check, and its not making any compression. Rings are stuck I would guess and the cylinder walls may be in rough shape. Again, no surprise, but I had to try.

So, kept messing with things. All the lights work, headlights, dash lights etc... so thats cool. Hooked my air compressor up to the air system and 3 of the 4 brakes work just how they should. Again, pretty cool.

My neighbor has volunteered to help me rebuild the rusted doors out at his aviation school. The sheetmetal shop will have all the stuff we need. The work is the easy part, the tools are something else. Luckily, the doors are really the only bad part of the body.

Anyway, looks like a engine rebuild will be in the nearish future. I need to get my Challenger back up and running first, then I'll pull the truck in and get on it. Until then, it sure looks mean out beside the shop.

Laine.

COOL! Always nice to get the projects home, but then you get to look at it everyday. Makes it seems like forever before you can do anything with it. Gene