Evans Sweet Patina 1957 Chevy

Not many of us get to combine our work and hobbies all into one.  Meet Blake Evans, a Physical Therapist from McKinney, Texas.  Blakes been through a handful of classic cars over the years.  Back in 2016 Blake sold a 72 Suburban and regretted it the moment he watched the tail lights head down the street.  Not long after that, this 57 Chevy 210 wagon was found in Ohio and under the care of the famed Boris of Street Machinery.  A deal was struck between the two and Blake had his new family cruiser.

In preparation for the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2016, the wagon went through numerous upgrades to make it road worthy and comfortable for the family.  Long gone is the original 283 c.i. engine, Vintage Air was added, suspension upgrades and many other things got the wagon ready for many road trips including several HRPT events.  A few years later while driving back from the Power Tour in 2018, Blake came up with the idea for the “Sweet Patina ALS Road Trip Challenge”.  In short, his mission was to spread awareness about ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) while driving the lower 48 states in his 57.  A fund raiser, awareness and seeing the U.S.A. in his Chevrolet all rolled into one. 

Numerous companies in the hot rod world took note of Blake’s mission and assisted with sponsorships in various forms from financial donations, to upgraded equipment for the wagon.  Dakota Digital was one of those companies, supplying him with an RTX kit for the dash of his wagon.  With the old school look of the RTX, this meshed perfectly with the originality of the patina’d wagon.  This unit mounts into the 57 dash pods and fills it with all the necessary information.  Speed, engine temp and fuel level are easily visible in the 3 openings.  Hidden within the gauges is our “dead faced” gauges for the tach, oil pressure and volt meter.  The large TFT message center in the middle gives Blake all sorts of extras you didn’t get in 1957.  Standard roller style odometer, 2 trip odometers, performance readouts and any extras a person decides to add into the mix.

In June of 2021 Blake and his family conquered all 48 states in their 57 Chevy wagon aptly named Sweet Patina by his 3-year-old daughter.  This doesn’t mean the mission is over, Blake plans on attending many more shows and continuing on with spreading the word.  Should you wish to donate to the ALS fund raiser, check out www.sweetpatina.com for more information and numerous pictures from his journey along the way.