1955 Nomad ProTouring Build "Gone Mad

[arkbuilder]

Always lurking, but I thought you guys would appreciate some of the work on this build we are doing. So I'm going to throw up some pics. We bought the car out in the desert in AZ. The second owner had wanted to restore it, but never got started and passed away a few years ago. It then sat in the driveway for a few years and the kids decided to get rid of it.

[wfo guy]

Good start.

[Motown 454]

Nice I love Nomads!! Subscribed!!

[sdg0080]

Now this is what I'm talking about. Glad to see you post this up.

Shawn

[minendrews68]

I'd take that car!!! I know all that paint looks bad, but just think, you're not seeing bare metal and rust.

[RMMiller]

Good grief there's a lot of bright work on those! I love the 55's, my favorite tri-five. Dad was a 57 guy, had two and as a kid I always wanted one because he had one....that was until I saw a 55!

[arkbuilder]

Good grief there's a lot of bright work on those! I love the 55's, my favorite tri-five. Dad was a 57 guy, had two and as a kid I always wanted one because he had one....that was until I saw a 55!

The amount of brightwork is overwhelming and really expensive to replace if it is not all there!

[arkbuilder]

So we got it soda blasted and the results were not really what we had hoped for. The body, although having lived in AZ since new still had some rust, and it had also been hammered really hard on the passenger side. Old body shop repairs are the worst, so we ordered new rear quarters, new doors, and kept the front fenders. Also, totally wasted were the floors, so we got new floors as well. So much for rust free and accident free, but...I've seen way worse and this was totally workable. So onward!

The original firewall left a lot to be desired, so shown is the newly installed updated firewall.

[Twentyover]

Born the same year I was. I've been hammered and wasted, and am a bit rusty, but I still have my original firewall. The 'mad looks better than me.

[arkbuilder]

Here's a pic of the new doors and new quarters on the car. We had ordered a new tail gate but it had not come in yet. Someone had totally sliced up the inside of the trying to repair the mechanism.

Those are not the wheels for this project, but rather wheels off another project to keep us rolling around.

[sdg0080]

Beautiful car. Isn't it funny how people's definition of rust free varies?

[arkbuilder]

"rust free" is thrown around as loosely as "matching numbers" is in my world With the rust factor, you never know until you have it total bare naked.

[HotRod47]

I Love 55's, this is gonna be a fun one to watch.

[arkbuilder]

We have the new floors installed in this photo. Later on, we made a custom transmission tunnel to make room for the 4l80E. You can see how hacked up the metal is on the passenger side right behind the door where the car was in an accident.

[minendrews68]

Man, this is going to be nice!!

[Motown 454]

That tunnel looks nice and wide, maybe you'll be OK with the main connection on the rear drivers side of the trans. My Camaro floor needs to be worked on to make it fit. Your making nice progress.

[arkbuilder]

That tunnel looks nice and wide, maybe you'll be OK with the main connection on the rear drivers side of the trans. My Camaro floor needs to be worked on to make it fit. Your making nice progress.

Well, that didn't exactly work with that big transmission, so then came this custom fabbed tunnel.

[Motown 454]

I figured my post might let you know what you were in for. lol You did a beautiful job on the fab work. Have I mentioned I love Nomads !!

I forgot to welcome you to P-T in my first post. Welcome!

[sdg0080]

Man that is beautiful work. Love that tunnel.

[bmbrzmn101]

Welcome, and looks like this will be a cool build to watch. Using the Kugel under dash brake pedals/vacuum/mc mount. I have been looking at them for my 67 Elky build. What are your opinions of them pro or cons?
Thanks, Chris.