57,

Welcome to the club. First, I agree with Oldf100fordman, only you can decide if it is worth the investment. I have a 55 (similar to your 57) that I restored when I was younger and I have really enjoyed the truck. There are a lot of places to find parts for 55-59 Chev/GMC pickups that weren't available when I was doing mine so you will benefit from lower prices on some things and on others, because trucks have gotten so popular in the last few years, it will cost you. Do a few web searches and you are bound to find places like:

www.gspp.com (Golden State Pickup Parts)
www.truckandcarshop.com
www.brotherstrucks.com
www.chevyduty.com
www.oldchevytrucks.com (Jim Carter Truck parts)
www.nolimit.net (No Limit Engineering: Brakes and Pwr Steering)

These are just a few but there are plenty more. Ebay also has a lot of stuff on there most of the time for these older trucks.

One thing I would suggest is go take a look at the catalogues on the sites above. This will give you feel for how much parts will cost you. A note of caution though, in a lot of cases you get what you pay for. That doesn't mean that buying a part that is less expensive is bad, it just means that the quality might not be as good.

I would also suggest you start hitting the local car shows and pay real close attention to how other people have restored them. Talk with them, find out how long it took them to do it. Ask them the specific questions you might have about the way they did things. If they are part of a car club that you can join, do it, and then attend meetings to learn things. This will give you some kind of idea as to what you may be getting yourself into. Besides that it can make you friends who are "in the know" and I have found over the years that having somebody who knows a bit about these projects and have the required skills to do the work is invaluable. I know for a fact that it has saved me thousands of $$$ because they were able to point me to good deals on parts that I never would have found otherwise. Over the years, I also ended up getting good deals on re-chroming a lot of my parts, louvers I had punched in my hood, wheels & tires, motors & trannys, fenders & doors, etc. Like I said, having a few friends in the biz will make a lot of difference.

In the end, what it really comes down to though is you. What do you want it to look and drive like when it's finished? ie. do you want it to be a reliable highway cruiser with A/C or do you want it to go light to light really quick, horsepower robbing A/C be damned? Are you willing to put in the time and money required to get it there? If so, condolences and congratulations, your hooked....

Cheers,
Firechicken