LOLA Parker Lindow’s ’57 Chevy Half-Ton Pickup

On their very own website, Chevrolet has this to say about their “Task Force” generation of work vehicles manufactured from 1955 to 1959: “There’s a Legend behind every Chevy Truck. Built for the toughest of jobs for generations, Chevy pickups have become part of the fabric of our country, conduits of shared experience, and vehicles of common memories.”

It wouldn’t be a stretch to think GM webmasters had Parker Lindow’s ’57 long bed in mind when they wrote that testimony to their trucks’ ability to move not just tools and materials, but also hearts and minds. Parker Lindow works at Biltwell, and his daily driver is a Motor City monument to what’s possible when men get greasy during the shared quest of a common goal.

Parker was 20 years old in November 2012 when his search for a vintage truck began. After accepting the fact his green wrenching skills probably weren’t sufficient to keep an old truck rolling, he found his dream rig on Craigslist: an all-original ’57 Chevy long bed with an inline six and three on the tree for five grand in Huntington Beach. Eight weeks later he blew up the inline six screaming down the highway. Grandpa’s friend had a 283 small-block Chevy engine, so the three of them did a motor swap in Gramps’ airplane hangar. Parker remembers those days among the best of his young life. Fifteen months later, things would turn grim.

On August 28, 2013, Parker took Lola on a liquored-up joyride that ended in the side of the neighbor’s house. He woke up in the hospital with a shattered sternum and shoulder blade, two broken collarbones, 12 broken ribs, two fractured vertebrae, lung contusions, multiple lacerations, and a cast on his arm from a skateboard injury he sustained before the boozy one-car pileup. While Parker healed from his monumental cockup, Gramps towed the busted truck back to his grandson’s driveway. After a lengthy recuperation, life returned to normal for Parker but not for Lola. Another girl—one who shall remain nameless—convinced Parker to move to San Francisco, so Lola languished under a tarp in his parents’ side yard. “So young and dumb,” Parker lamented about those dark days. “The accident left me with a weird voodoo about the whole thing… my drinking career in those days always held me back.” It would take six more years of drunken dumbness followed by 12 months of sobriety before Parker gave Lola the loved she deserved.

In spring and early summer of 2020, Parker got his truck running and registered again. The following October, he shoehorned a 350 crate motor under the bonnet of his Bowtie survivor. Last year, 28-year-old Parker and his 64-year-old Chevy hauled that mystery girl from San Francisco to Kernville Kampout for a weekend of sober camping with co-workers and friends. To this day, Parker continues to scour YouTube for maintenance how-to’s to ensure his faithful ’57 remains, clean, classic, and ready for action.

Visit Parker's apparel start-up here: www.theoldfiendcompany.com