Late 50’s Kentucky Kustom Found
57 CHEVY CONVERTIBLE
Another magazine featured Custom will be restored. This time it is an late 50’s Kentucky customized 1957 Chevy Convertible once owned by Jim Schamback
This is how Jim’s old 1957 Kustom sat in May, 2013. New wheel openings and an “updated” interior should not be to hard to fix to get it back to late 1950’s specs. The scooped headlights are a typical late 1950’s styling element. The theme is very well expanded into the hood leading edge and scoops.
Color photo and information by Ray Eckerle.
This car was built in Louisville, Kentucky in 1958-59 by a local builder by the name of Marion “Shorty” Coffey. The 1957 Chevy was a national top 10 car for one of the big Magazines in 1960.
The owner, Jim Schamback, was drafted in 1961 and sold the car to a friend. The car was originally Kandy Apple Red and had some side trim on it, as can be seen in the photos scanned from the Hot Rod Magazine, Custom Car Yearbook from 1963. The new owner changed the wheel openings, put a half top on it and painted it a Candy Pagan Gold with white fading in. He parked it in his back yard with a tarp over it in 1968…it stayed there until 2012. He passed away and his son now has the car…
Ray took these pics in May 2013 at a local traditional custom/ratrod/hotrod show in Louisville, the first time it has been out since 1968.
His son is wanting to restore it to the original Kandy Apple Red configuration. Surprisingly, after all those years under a tarp, the only rust is a small hole in the right front fender by the rocker. The original tuck and roll upholstered interior looks to be replace after Jim sold it. But other than that it looks to be a perfect candidate for a full restoration.
By the way this car is an original 283/270 3 speed with only 11,000 actual miles on it today.
The car was mistakenly named a 1956 instead of a 1957 Chevy in the title on the Custom Car yearbook.
Hopefully we will be seeing some progress on this one soon. And if we do, we sure will be share it here on the Custom Car Chronicle.
Great news! I remember seing this radical custom in the magazines! Glad to see that it’s still around
Still for Sale?
I recently saw the front end, hood, front fenders and grille offered for sale. Looks like it as been sold and the new owner had different plans for the main body. Sad.
The builder is my dad and his name is Harold “Shorty” Coffey. (not Marion) He refers to the car as “The Tank”. We ran across this article and his reaction was “oh Man, this brings back memories!” Thanks for the article and capturing a little history of my dad.