Marlyn Englert’s ‘56 Chevy

In June of 1956, an 18 year old, Marlyn Englert of Rosemont, Minnesota, stopped down to the local Chevy dealership and purchased a brand new 1956 Chevy Bel Air convertible. What would happen in the next 59 years is a great little story, and I’m going to tell you it.

While in high school, Marlyn got his hands on a ‘51 Chevy hardtop. He drove it around and then got the custom bug. Marlyn enlisted the help of local body man Phil Anderson, who would work on the car while Marlyn was at school, and have it ready for him to pick up after classes…pretty amazing right? Try to find someone to do that in this day and age. Unfortunately, the ‘51 Chevy was involved in a traffic accident, which fortunately was not Marlyn’s fault. But the Chevy was totaled. It was then decided that Marlyn would purchase the ‘56 convertible previously mentioned. Marlyn again took the car to Phil, but to his dismay he said he wouldn’t touch it; he didn’t want to mess with a brand new car. However, Marlyn was persistent. After 3 months, he was finally able to sway Phil to do some work on the car. Still, he only did a few of the smaller jobs like nosing it and decking it, but he didn’t want to get into the extensive stuff.

Read the rest of this article in Issue #41 Mura Brothers’ Willys