Do you remember when you were a kid and you got to ride in one of your neighbor's trucks? Or better yet when you actually got to drive for the first time? We all have some sort of fond memory and when we think about it, it's as if it happened yesterday. Norm Correll has plenty of memories with his '57 Chevrolet Cameo. His first recollection of the truck was when his friend David Harris' dad picked them up from school in December of '57. David's dad purchased the truck as a family gift the previous year and used the truck for hauling trash to the dump and building materials to the new home they homesteaded in the desert near Yucca Valley, California.
In high school David drove the truck. Norm was always fond of the Cameo, but right after high school the Vietnam War was ramping up, and a lot of his classmates were spread all over the world. Norm and David went their separate ways, but Norm still had this increasing interest in the truck. David continued to drive the truck until the desert roads and heat took their toll on the Cameo. So, like most trucks in the desert, it was parked and forgotten about for 20 years.
By chance Norm ran into an old friend and asked for David's phone number. This was sometime in the early '90s. He called David to see if he still had the truck. David said he did, but that it had been sitting for a while. Norm went to see the old Cameo but when he laid eyes on it, it was more work than he wanted to tackle. "I went on with my life but never really forgot about the truck," he says.
"In early 2006 I contacted David to see if the truck was still for sale. By this time David had a long-term medical problem and his desire to sell the truck became more of a reality. Luckily, David had taken most of the chrome and hard-to-find parts and stored them in his garage before it was parked. After getting it home my girlfriend, Bobbie, and I started the disassembly of the interior. Even though David had pressure washed it, there were mounds of debris that the generations of rats had brought in. When I was removing the interior a rat decided it was time to come out from the headliner. Bobbie, was vacuuming out the cab corner and the rat ran over to her. They met eye to eye, inches away, and both took off running in opposite directions. I'm still not sure who scared whom the most. Fortunately Bobbie, carefully and reluctantly, came back before the rat did."
During the two and half years it took to build, Norm and Bobbie stripped the truck down to the frame and every piece was painstakingly refurbished or replaced with N.O.S. parts. Some of the rare N.O.S. parts came from The Truck Shop in Orange. Norm used Brothers in Corona to replace the wire harness that the rats chewed up and also the replacement wood bed. The instrument cluster needed to be rebuilt, so Norm commissioned Precision Speedometer in Anaheim to tackle the delicate job.
Norm wanted the classic Cameo to appear as close to showroom stock as possible, and he's surely accomplished what he set out to do.
Norm Correll & Bobbie Adrian
Joshua tree, California
1957 Chevrolet Cameo
| CHASSIS |
FRAME: stock |
|
MODIFICATIONS: stock |
| REAREND / RATIO: stock / 3:38 |
| REAR SUSPENSION: stock |
| REAR BRAKES: stock |
| FRONT SUSPENSION: stock |
| FRONT BRAKES: stock |
| STEERING BOX: stock box |
| FRONT WHEELS: stock steel |
| REAR WHEELS: stock steel |
| FRONT TIRES: BFGoodrich whitewalls |
| REAR TIRES: BFGoodrich whitewalls |
| GAS TANK: stock |