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One of the universal dreams in the automotive community is the idea of a long road trip in a classic car. Nothing but open road, good tunes, and your vintage steel. We’re no different, and we have always wanted to do something like that, so we prepped out 1957 Chevrolet and took off on a nearly 800-mile trip from Kingston, Washington, to Spokane Valley, Washington, and back – with a few stops in between. We did it the right way too, and for the most part, used the old US highways rather than the interstate—two lanes, wheat fields on either side, and stoplights in every little town along the way.
Our 1957 Chevy: it's got small-block power, a new Ciadella interior, and floats like a boat.
We took the car to Spokane Valley, because we bought it from a friend of ours that lives out there, Dave Leigh, and we thought it would be fun to show him the progress of his old car. Not only that, but we recently learned that the old Brown and Holter Chevrolet dealership, where the car was sold brand new, is still standing in Pullman, Washington. So we thought, what the heck, let’s visit out car’s old home and make a couple hundred-mile detour on our way.
Here is a map of the route we took. If you’re ever planning a trip like this, we recommend the route wholeheartedly. If you go on a weekday evening, you’ll have Highway-2 almost entirely to yourself.
Our 1957 Chevy is powered by a small-block 350 cubic-incher, a cast-iron two-speed Powerglide, and the stock rearend. We’re riding on drum brakes all around – no brake booster, relying on the old generator, factory power steering, and the 1957 date-stamped radiator. The temperatures were forecast to be 100 degrees on the way out, and our only air-conditioner is available in the form of rolling down the windows. We crossed our fingers, loaded the trunk, checked our fluids and tire pressure, and hit the road.
Here we are getting on the ferry. First time we took this old car on the boat.
We started with a ferry ride across the Puget Sound, and landed in Edmonds, where we headed straight for good ole Highway-2. Sure, it’s a slower road than I-90, but it’s also a heck of a lot more scenic. We passed through little towns like Gold Bar, Leavenworth, Cashmere, and Wilbur, and didn’t pass by very many gas stations. Our small-block Chevy drinks gasoline like it’s going out of style.
We stopped at nearly every gas station on the trip.
We made it to Spokane without any major issues, but the inline fuel filter started plugging up and caused us it to choke a little when accelerating to highway speeds. We knew Dave had a lift we could use, so we bought the $5 part and headed over for our visit. What was meant to be a 10-minute part replacement turned into a five-hour ordeal when we pulled into Dave’s driveway, put the car into reverse, and started moving forward.
The immediate assumption was that we’d just blown our 60-year-old transmission, but once it was up on the lift, we found that some bushings had fallen out of the linkage and caused things to go out of whack. Dave sat in the car while we tried to adjust things from below. When he shifted into reverse, the linkage just wouldn’t push it far enough to click into gear and it stayed in low, which is why it went forward instead of backward.
It may not look pretty, but it works!
After hours if adjusting and readjusting, we got Park, Neutral, Drive, and Low to line up, then we used some well-placed springs to assist the linkage in pulling the selector into place on the transmission. It was a temporary fix, but that’s part of owning and driving a 60-year-old car. You’ve got to roll with the punches and make it work with what you’ve got. We made it home alright and we’re going to fix it the right way over the next weekend.
One spring pulls up and around the transmission, while another pulls the linkage tight so there is less left-right slop. We added a few washers to help tighten things up, but that wasn't quite enough. The picture on the right is our shiny new filter!
After visiting Dave and making our repairs, it was time to head down to Pullman. We took a couple pictures in front of the old dealership building where the car sold new, and headed over to the new dealership building where Brown and Holter is still operating under their new name for the last couple decades: Chipman and Taylor Chevrolet.
The image on the far right is the old Brown and Holter building, now known as Market Square. It houses a few shops and some apartments.
After that, it was time to head home and we made our way back via highway 195 from Pullman to Colfax. Then, from there, along Highway 26 until we hit Vantage and merged onto I-90 West. All-in-all, we spent roughly 15 hours in the car and made our way across more than 750 miles of road. The Chevy takes to the highway better than anything modern, and even in the hot temperatures, we couldn’t have been more comfortable. If you can take a road trip in your classic car, and the car can handle the strain, we recommend that you do it.
