383 stroker engine
Some car guys choose a path to automotive nirvana through the purchase of a car that someone else built or by having a shop build the car of their dreams, but Albert Alvarado is not one of those guys. Like many of us, he doesn’t mind getting grease under his fingernails and overspray in the garage. You see, Alvarado had completed this Bel Air once before. Back in 2004, it was a beautiful red-and-white car, but Alvarado was disappointed by the number of red-and-white Bel Airs he was seeing at all the shows, so he decided to make some drastic changes.
While cruising down an old Southern Virginia back road some 38 years ago, Ted Hayes, along with a couple of local friends, happened upon a well-worn ’37 Chevy Master Deluxe coupe. Now, mind you, it looked nothing like the gem here. It had original paint, and the interior had seen better days, but it was complete and running. At some time during its life, the Chevy had received a 327 and a four-speed trans, a familiar combination for a vintage car during the 1960s.
Gil Palmer just loves cars, trucks, and motorcycles. He’s owned more than 100 miscellaneous cars, ranging from ’40 Fords to ’55 Chevys to a ’70 Monte Carlo. He’s owned a few pickups, too, and this one originally came to him as the bonus gift, so to speak, in a trade of his ’32 Ford Cobo Hall winner for a motorcycle at the Detroit Autorama. The ’57 Cameo that he received in the trade had an entire ’55 front end on it, and because of that, everyone thinks it’s a ’55. But this truck was in pretty sad shape when it arrived at Palmer’s Southern California home. Just picture this one item in your mind for a minute, and you’ll get the gist of the kind of shape the truck was in: There was a hand-painted (we’re talking 4-inch-wide brush, here) Chevy Bow Tie on the tailgate. The 10:1 compression supercharged engine would overheat in a matter of a few blocks.
