So this olelongrooffan is still hanging out in the pits and the garage area and with a little free time on my hands here in “Tree City USA,” Florida, I thought I might head a couple burgs over to see if that old muffler man was still on duty keeping an eye on things. Well, sure enough he was still there. Alas, it appears today’s muffler systems may be just a tad too complicated for him, yeah you know, catalytic converters and all, as he switched up that age old muffler up for a good old fashioned combination wrench similar to those found in every Hoon’s tool box for that last century or so. Well, my fellow Hoons after seeing that muffler man, the third one spotted in as many weeks for this olelongrooffan, I decided to head back to Tree City on the most back roads I could navigate as located in that bible road atlas I have in my possession which shows every country road, but not one damn city street, in the Sunshine State. And was there ever a sighting to be seen on one of those back woods roads.


Yeah, this olelongrooffan was cruising in my longerroof down County Road 571 or CR 572 or maybe even CR 579, anyway, it was an old road with no road stripes, which are the best roads, in my experience, to find some cool old shit…well anyways…As usual I am cruising at an easy 10 below the non posted speed limit keeping one eye in the rear view for big ass Bro trucks while using the other eye to scan each side of that roadway to see if there is anything interesting that might strike a fancy for this olelongrooffan enough to share with my fellow Hoons when the subject of today’s Long Shots was discovered.

The item I spotted that I thought all ya’all might enjoy? A 1957 Chevrolet longroof. And I am not talking about your standard variety high faluting Nomad. No-sir-e-bob, this one is a plain Jane 1957 two door station wagon of either the 150 or 210 variety. Chevrolet built four different two door longroofs in 1957. The top of the line Nomad with it’s distinctive hardtop roof line and two door coupe doors, the 150 Handyman, the 210 Handyman, and finally the Sedan Delivery, all of the latter with the front doors sourced from a 4 door post sedan. The Sedan Delivery was marketed as a truck and, as far as this olelongroofan can ascertain, was not included in the longroof’s sales numbers for that year. The 150 was the entry level while the 210 racked the trim level, the only visible difference between the two, up a notch.

Now this olelongroof has certainly seen much better condition than its current state but, apparently, someone felt it is worthy enough to save. Yeah the rusted out original roof for this sweetie is overlaid by a second roof harvested from a donor longroof, presumably even worse off than this one. I appreciate the fact someone would be interested in saving this as most of these 150 and 210 tudor longroofs were workhorses used by carpenters, painters and the like during their heyday and any thought, at least at the time, of their value in future was not much considered. These were grunt mobiles. Although, I am certain there are exceptions to this conclusion, most of the tudor ’57 longroofs saved are of the Nomad variety.

And on this old longroof the rust runs rampant, even gathering hold in this unlikely location on the hood and front fender. This olelongrooffan must say, I don’t recollect ever seeing that much rust located in that location on a vehicle previously. But then I could be, and probably am, mistaken.

One of the things this olelongrooffan noticed about the donor roof was the length of the “A, B, C, and D” pillars. It appears the dude who cut those pillars had not seen the condition of the lower “A” pillars on the recipient longroof. Unless the thought is to create a chopped longroof, the builder will need to utilize a huge, almost magical, metal stretcher to get those donor pillars to work on this Long Shot of a restoration project.

Ah, The Zephyr Hills Winterfest. Held here in Zephyr Hills for the last time in 2014, this year it moves down to Lakeland, if what thehorsefarmer tells me is to be believed. TheKenMan and this olelongrooffan spent many years attending this Winterfest and enjoyed checking out all of the cool rides and automobilia this “small” town event had to offer. “Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end.”

And as much of a basket case as this longroof is, if this olelongrooffan needed a project car, it would far out surpass that Jeep Liberty or Dodge Dakota seen lingering around usurping the coolness of this 57; passenger side “A” pillar be damned.

And I just had to add another image of front of this longroof with the clam shell rear window hanging there out front of this longroof.
Now, the real crust of this post is would any of my fellow Hoons attack this restoration project? This olelongrooffan, at my advanced stage of my development cycle would have to pass on this one. As my brother, Bus_Plunge, has said many times recently, “No more Projects.” But I do have this to say about that, the challenge would be just that, a challenge, but in the end, in about 15 years time, that restoration may just be worth it.

But, then again, checking out the damage the tin worms have done throughout this vehicle, this olelongrooffan is not sure even that satisfaction would be worth it. Oh yeah, did I mention an entire drivetrain will need to be sourced?
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan