oe and Josh Bailey, a father and son team, are no strangers to hot rods of any make or year; when it comes to Chevys, especially Tri-Fives, these boys “stand tall.” Over the years they have built a number of them. Back in 2015 Joe’s 1956 210 took home the Tri-Five of the Year honors at the American Tri-Five Association’s inaugural event in Bowling Green.
oe and Josh Bailey, a father and son team, are no strangers to hot rods of any make or year; when it comes to Chevys, especially Tri-Fives, these boys “stand tall.” Over the years they have built a number of them. Back in 2015 Joe’s 1956 210 took home the Tri-Five of the Year honors at the American Tri-Five Association’s inaugural event in Bowling Green.
The Baileys’ day jobs are working at Alloway’s Hot Rod Shop. While the two of them perform a myriad of jobs, most days you can find Joe in the paint and detailing area working his magic while Josh is fabricating on a fresh build. Night, and all other free time, is spent working on their own projects. Turns out building a Tri-Five is the perfect father/son project and now that sufficient time had passed it was Josh’s turn to have his dream 1957 Chevy 210 Delray sedan. This time the “training motor” was kicked to the corner of the garage and in went the mack daddy of all Chevy big-blocks: the L88, or at least their adaptation.
All of us car types know that the L88 is the Chevy engine of mythical proportions. There were only 216 of these motors built for Corvettes between 1967 and 1969. (Although many motors/blocks were sold over the counter.) Horsepower rating from the factory was 430 but the real truth lies somewhere between 540 and 580. Mind you this was the ’60s and it could move a new Corvette through the quarter-mile in the 11s. That was epic performance for the day.
Josh also wanted to draw attention to the fact that the car is a 210. The license plate is obvious but look closely at the rear quarter-panels. Story has it a dealer in the south made the “Two-Ten” emblems and then installed them on the front fenders. Josh has seen photos from 1958 showing a 1957 with these emblems. A friend found a pair online, and while many people think they were for the 1953 or 1954 210 because of the logo similarity, the fact is they are not. Josh put them on the rear quarters in place of the factory emblems and it generates lots of conversations.
When any hot rodder embarks on a build it’s known it will be a long haul, especially when it’s your reputation for excellence that’s on the line—cutting corners isn’t an option. Time becomes the expendable component—it’s finished when it’s finished. To get Josh through 4-1/2 years of building he would often gain strength by looking at a particular photo on his garage wall.
Speaking of The Best Damn Garage in Town, one only has to look at the decklid to see a similar reverence in the “Bailey Built Garage … Best Detail in Town.” The Baileys pride themselves on quality of workmanship for sure but it’s their attention-to-detail that truly sets their cars apart. Before any bodywork was completed all trim and bumpers were fitted for tight clearance, and all door, trunk, and hood gaps were tailored. The PPG Surf Green basecoat/clearcoat was sprayed on by Joe while the two of them performed the hours of prerequisite bodywork to make the paintjob look as picture-perfect as it is. It should be mentioned that the entire build took place in the Baileys’ garage, never leaving for other work. The color was an idea that they tried on a 1955 Chevy pickup. Seeing how well it was received they opted to try the color once more, but this time a smidgen more green was added to tone down the “white” look when in the sun.
An American Powertrain (AP) kit is used to link the tribute L88 to the TREMEC TKO 600 five-speed, which includes the transmission crossmember and the hydraulic throwout bearing and a Wilwood hydraulic clutch master cylinder. The shifter is an AP White Lightning model while AP also supplied the steel flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate. An AP driveshaft is also part of the kit while Josh opted for an old-school Ansen scattershield used for its safety benefit but mostly to depict its period feel.
It’s pretty hard to beat this combination of a 1957 Chevy 210 packed with a tribute L88 and a five-speed. This is what a hot rod Tri-Five should look like.