Late in 1956, General
Motors introduced the 1957 Chevrolet as part of their special Labor Day Sneak Preview
of New Cars. Even though it sported nonfunctional tail fins and excess side trim like
most American cars of that era, it became wildly popular in Southern California — particularly the two door model with surfers. Its popularity was immediate and long-lived, with sales
of nearly 750,000 cars in its first year, and a 10 year manufacturing run.
Even after the end of its official
run a dedicated group of ex-Chevrolet stylists and
franchised used-car salesmen continued to turn out 1957 Chevrolets until 1967 in an assembly plant outside of Jacksonville, Illinois. They focused on the popular
2-door Bel-Air model. Interestingly, they were unable to finance the die molds and
giant steel presses used to construct the basic body, so they used the European
coach-building technique of pounding the body shape out by hand over wooden molds,
formed from fiber-glass replicas of the real thing.
