Published: Aug. 30, 2017
Sparkling like a diamond
Grace Braeger’s 1957 Chevy Bel-Air still shines like it did
60 years ago
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
TOWN OF WEST BEND — Short in stature, the head of Grace
Braeger barely peers above the red dashboard of her black 1957 Chevrolet
Bel-Air.
The top of the large, red steering wheel is higher than
Braeger’s eyes and she’s sitting on a cushion that rests on the black and red
leather interior.
At 60 years old, Braeger’s ’57 Chevy — or “57 LADY,” as its
license plate reads — the car looks, sounds and smells like it rolled off the
assembly line yesterday.
That is courtesy of plenty of years of taking care of the
vehicle, changing the oil every 1,000 miles, and restoring it in the late
1980s.
The car’s original engine is still onboard, 121,000-plus miles
after it rolled out of the assembly factory in Janesville.
“It’s been a part of me for 60 years,” she said, smiling as
she sat on a chair inside a gazebo on the campus of Cedar Ridge. “We enjoyed
our rides together.”
Braeger is the only owner this ’57 Chevy has ever known. It
replaced a 1950 Chevrolet Club Coupe in 1957. She bought that car, which was
her first, in 1953.
Braeger grew up in West Bend and attended West Bend High
School. She said, with a smile, look for her graduation year when her obituary
is printed.
After high school, she attended Valparaiso University in
Indiana. There, she got a degree in religion.
After college, she moved to Albany, New York, and lived
there for two years, then moved to La Grange, Illinois. She was there for more
than a decade.
In 1953, she bought the Club Coupe because she needed a
means of transportation for her job. In 1957, while getting the Club Couple
routine repairs, Braeger was told by a mechanic that she needed a new vehicle.
The one she had wasn’t likely going to last much longer.
At that time, she was in Milwaukee on a job assignment and
went to King Braeger Chevrolet on South 27th Street. There, she fell in love.
A long, black 1957 Chevy sat in the parking lot. It was the
only car the salesman showed her that day. It was the only one she needed to
see.
“It was a good deal,” Braeger said, adding, “I thought it
was a beautiful car.”
Braeger paid $2,250 for that ’57 Chevy, plus her trade-in.
According to www.nadaguides.com, a website that offers classic car prices, her
car is valued at about $36,600 today.
It has a four-barrel carburetor with dual exhausts and a
turbofire 283horsepower V8 engine.
“It still purrs very nicely,” Braeger said.
When she drove it off the lot, she was in love with her new
car. It also has power brakes and power steering, which were items her Coupe
didn’t have.
“It’s very easy to drive,” Braeger said.
In the mid-1960s, she and her car moved home to West Bend.
She said she came home to “regroup” after a series of short-term jobs.
She stayed in West Bend for nearly two years before moving
to St. Louis.
Never married with no children, Braeger could get up and
move on a whim if she needed to. She traveled frequently with several jobs and
her beloved Chevy was her mode of transportation.
Braeger moved back to West Bend in the early 2000s and has
been here ever since with her ’57 Chevy accompanying her. When the 1980s
approached, it was time her car needed to be restored. Selling it or junking it
for a newer, more modern vehicle was never considered.
“I never saw anything I liked better,” Braeger said.
The Chevy spent several months in the restoration shop. When
it was finished, it was like the car was new, just like how it still looks to
this day. There are no dents, scratches or rust spots anywhere on the ’57 Lady.
In 2011, Chevrolet featured Braeger’s car in its 100th
anniversary collector’s book: “A Century of Chevrolet.” The headline for the
story about the car says, “Sleek Bel-Air becomes a symbol of changing 1950s
culture.”
Today, whenever she drives it, people walking on the
sidewalks often stop in their tracks and admire the ’57 Lady. Passersby on the
road with her nearly do the same.
“I always say, ‘I have my own car show,’” Braeger said.
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