The Setser's '57 Chevy
It’s not often that friends give an old junk car as a wedding present, but that is what happened to Mike and Pat Setser of Raymore. Thirty years later they still have their 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air four-door hardtop.

Mike and Pat, poor college students at Central Missouri State University in the spring of 1972, planned to get married later that year and needed a car. They found this ‘57 sitting in a junkyard in south Kansas City with a rod through the block. It was $50, but Mike and Pat had only $25 collectively. College friends in the music sorority Sigma Alpha Iota and music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha chipped in the other $25. Money in hand, the Setsers went to the junkyard and towed the car home on four bald tires given them by the junkyard owner.

The car sat at Pat’s house. “You can imagine how proud my parents were,” she said. And what they must have thought of their future son-in-law. Mike and his brother had a 265-cubic-inch Chevy V-8 from a failed hop-up project, and they installed it in the ‘57.

The following year Pat and Mike signed up for auto body restoration classes at CMSU, which shocked the school because Pat was the first woman to want to take the class. As she said, “I made it through, and by the end we had a running car with a new red paint job.”

Mike Setser drove the red Chevy every day for about 15 years. During that time he replaced the engine with a 350-cubic-inch Chevy V-8. Eventually, the old Chevy began to get less and less reliable. Breakdowns became more frequent. “Gas was only 30 cents, but tows were expensive.” Eventually they just stopped driving the car, and it sat at the back of their property. For 15 years or so. Mice ate the spark plug wires, and the body was just “rust holding hands,” Pat said. But the car “had a good spirit,” and they couldn’t bear to part with it, so about six years ago they decided to do a complete restoration.

Precision Restoration Service in Independence replaced the rusted body panels, which then got a coat of Tropical Turquoise and India Ivory paint. The interior is still a little rough. The seats have been recovered but the dash and steering wheel still need some trim pieces. Oh yeah, and the 1957 hub caps don’t fit right, which means the car needs a new set of wheels. But all in all, the Setsers’ ‘57 Chevy is like new again.

Pat said, “She's a beauty and still a wonderful car to drive. We'll keep her forever! I can't help but smile every time I see her out for a drive. Our college friends gave us quite an investment: That $50 car is worth thousands of dollars today. We're still married and we’ve still got that car!”

The rusty, original front fenders from the ‘57 hang from the ceiling of the Setsers’ garage. Pat eyes them cautiously and surmises they might make neat armrests for a couch.
“But they’re rusty,” Mike said.

“I can fix that,” Pat said. And someday she just might.
Mike and Pat Setser love their car for its memories.