Stafford’s Garage Goes Above and Beyond on a 1957 Chevy Pickup Retirement Project
When Odie Hughes retired and sold his machine shop a few years ago, he had a little concern about what he was going to do with all his newfound spare time. His wife of 53 years, Deborah, mentioned that he needed a new hobby or a project, which got Odie to thinking about the 1957 Chevy pickup he sold when they’d just got married and were starting a family.
Her reply should garner her a Wife of the Year nomination: “Then why don’t you build a new one.”
When Odie commented about a budget, the reply was even better, “Just build it the way you want it.” Winner!
Enter Chris Stafford of Stafford’s Garage, located in Tylertown, Mississippi. Odie and Chris had chatted a number of times about trucks, projects, and the work ethic and passion that are required of any high-quality endeavor. Odie trusted Chris and his vision enough to give him a short list of must-haves for his dream 1957 Chevy pickup: It had to be a step side, it had to be blue with four-wheel drive, and had to have split seats so Odie could reach the pedals.
With that, Chris set off with a vintage canvas and poured hundreds of hours into perfecting the sheet metal. The drip rails were tapered and formed, panels gapped, wrinkles removed, door edges radiused, Kindig handles added, and the entire bed was smoothed before Scooter Modica applied the required PPG Clearwater Blue finish.
Inside, the dash was shaved and smoothed before being updated with Coach Controls wiring by Mike Swan, RestoMod Air, and Dakota Digital RTX gauges. Once Stafford’s was done with the cabin mods, the interior was turned over to Sully Stitches to wrap the Buddy Buckets in Apex leather and suede, giving Odie and Deb a comfortable, cozy cabin to enjoy.
Rather than work with a nearly 70-year-old industrial chassis, a Roadster Shop RS4 chassis was called in to action. Two Currie axles are secured by a four-link setup with Fox coil-over shocks and brakes from Little Shop Manufacturing. For wheels, Odie was all-in on a one-off set from Greening Auto Company wrapped in beefy BFG Mud-Terrains.
The power to turn those 20-inch wheels comes from a 6.2-liter LS engine making 525-horsepower backed by a Gearstar 4L70E transmission. The engine was smoothed, painted, polished, and warmed over with one-off air cleaner and valve covers.
When Chris handed over the keys, Odie could not have been happier, and he’s been thoroughly enjoying his 1957 Chevy Pickup retirement project at a variety of events, including last year’s SEMA Show, the Goodwood Show in Baton Rouge, and the LMC Truck Spring Lone Star Nationals, where the Chevy became a finalist for LMC Truck of the Year Early.
Photos by John Jackson
