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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States

      Madaguy 1955 Nomad Build

      After what feels like a long time (for me) without a car, I'm happy to be able to post a project update. My family and I moved from Upstate, NY to Charlotteville, VA in June for better weather and schools among many other things. Prior to moving, I sold my long time project car some of you may remember called the "Penny Pincher Camaro". It was a 1968 Camaro with LSA supercharged 6.2, 6 speed and full pro-touring suspension. I loved that car, but came to the realization that if I wanted to regularly cruise to car shows and Sunday drives with the family it was increasingly getting cramped with two growing boys. The catalyst for selling the car came when we decided to take steps towards moving south, which we have been talking about for years. We moved at the end of June and I had been casually looking for a new project ever since. I knew that I wanted something with more interior space and something that had more utility. Two door wagons were my first choice and I wasn't just looking at Nomads. There were Ranch Wagons from the 50s that were cool, 64-65 Chevelle 300 wagons came in a two door variant, 59-60 Biscayne/Brookwood's came in a two door wagon, and a few others like Nova's and Falcons. At the end of the day I kept coming back to a 55-56 Nomad. The trouble is I didn't want to spend Nomad money. Then I stumbled on this car, but it was in Cape Cod which was about 10 hours from me, and knew that it was too far. I saw it posted for a several weeks, then I reached out to the guy and the rest is history.

      We negotiated a little bit, and then I made arrangements to have the car shipped to me with a guy he does business with on a very regular basis. The shipper was from the west coast and kept getting delayed "a few more days", then after two and a half weeks of back and forth I decided that I was just going to make the trip. I did a ton of background digging on the guy and his business but truthfully, I was just getting nervous that I may be getting scammed. I've only ever bought cars in person with cash. Then I made the decision to just do it. GPS said it was 9.5 hours from my house, but that didn't include traffic delays or pit stops. I really thought that I'd be able to make the trip in one day. In my mind I thought that 19 hours total drive time will be hard, but doable...

      Here's a few pictures along the way.

      Started out at 3:30 AM and made it through DC with no traffic, then to NYC pretty quick on I95. I was slowed down, but not bad traffic considering. This was Maryland crossing the Susquehanna River



      Parts of NYC.





      Crossing the George Washington







      I knew that I would forget to take a picture once I got to the guys house, so when I was picking up the U-Haul I snapped a picture of my status. I was about 40 mins from his house, so I was really making great time and almost 21 MPG's! Not too bad for my 5.0 2015 F150. After NYC I didn't hit any traffic to speak of and it was really smooth sailing.



      Now, onto the car! It's a 1955 Chevy Nomad. In it's current form it's mostly stock with a 327, turbo 350 transmission, manual steering and 4 wheel manual drum brakes. The body is in great shape, but overall needs some TLC and panel fitment. It's missing some of the trim, but is mostly there. At one point in it's life it was a pro-street car and still has the giant rear wheel tubs, but thankfully the exterior was left alone and will be straightforward to remove them and reinstall stock metal and adding a few inches to stock tubs. The interior is mostly gone, but that is really ok as it will give me an opportunity to start from scratch and maybe do something more custom. It was really hard to find an "in between" Nomad for a reasonable price as a project, that won't need a complete restoration as a rusted out POS. Or on the other side of the spectrum a show car that's $80k+.











      Pro-Street Wheel tubs...





      After I took a few photos and talked with the guy a bit, we got it loaded on the trailer and heading back home!



      My 7 YO made the Magikarp decoration for my truck haha





      Took this as I was walking into a Starbucks to grab a powerful coffee around dusk.



      The coffee didn't work as long as I would have hoped. I made it another two hours and called it quits around 8pm and found a hotel in Norwalk, CT. I was about 6.5 hours from home at that point.



      Drove through Bel Air somewhere on the way home. Thought that was pretty cool.



      I figured I'd pull up FB Marketplace to see if there was anything interesting and sure enough there was a Gen5 L83 5.3 motor right on my way home in DC. I messaged the guy and met him right on the way home! The guy said his customer wanted it removed because it had a slight knocking, but I'm assuming that it was a DOD lifter as it's super common in those motors. But for an almost complete motor, I was willing to take the risk for $400 bucks!



      I didn't have the right straps to safely drive with the motor in the back so I ran quick to get some ratchet straps and found this guy checking out my car. He was asking all about the motor too. Lost track of how many people beeped and/or gave thumbs up on the way home.



      I knew that I was getting close when I could start to see the Blue Ridge mountains again.



      Then, home sweet home!





      I'm so excited and still in a little disbelief that I found one of my dream cars. One of the first model cars that I ever bought as a kit was a 1955 Bel Air. My boys are both really excited and when my youngest son (3) was telling me about how he can't wait to work on it with me he called it a Madaguy. We loved it and it stood out to me immediately as the new name for the car. My plans/goals for this car are going to be similar but different than my Camaro. First, the car won't be caught up on jack stands for long periods of time aside from the initial effort I will need to put into the car to get it roadworthy again. Anything I do will need to be done within a few weekends at most. Next is that the car needs to ride really smooth, not necessarily perform well on an autox. Comfort is the name of the game. As you saw by the engine, I'll also be swapping it somewhere down the road, but I'll need to collect a bunch of parts between now and then.

      Cheers,
      Ryan


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD


    2. #2
      Join Date
      May 2012
      Location
      Kansas City, Missouri
      Posts
      665
      Country Flag: United States
      Awesome congrats Ryan that looks like a excellent start. Looks like he had some old trucks too. Was he a collector or a flipper? Going to be a cool project. Looking forward to updates.

    3. #3
      Join Date
      Nov 2022
      Location
      La Center, WA
      Posts
      18
      Country Flag: United States
      Congrats on the project! A lot of potential here! Can’t wait to see the progress.
      Martin

    4. #4
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      Thumper, He was a flipper. He buys/sells old pick up trucks. He traded one of the trucks he bought for the Nomad. I think he was into the car pretty cheap, so he was more flexible on the price which is good for me.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    5. #5
      Join Date
      Oct 2017
      Location
      Eastern Iowa
      Posts
      10
      Looking forward to watching this build! Loved following both your TA and Camaro builds - I'm sure this one will be well executed as the others were!

      Dreaming of the day it's ready to drive!
      1975 Trans Am Resto-Mod work in progress
      LS1 4L60

    6. #6
      Join Date
      Nov 2006
      Location
      Mountain Springs, Texas
      Posts
      4,489
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice find. Looking forward to following along.

      Don
      1969 Camaro - LSA 6L90E AME sub/IRS
      1957 Buick Estate Wagon
      1959 El Camino - Ironworks frame
      1956 Cameo - full C5 suspension/drivetrain
      1959 Apache Fleetside

    7. #7
      Join Date
      Dec 2014
      Posts
      26
      Country Flag: United States
      I guess since I cross the susquehanna almost daily living in cecil county maryland I take its beauty for granted. Thats a beautiful pic of it!

    8. #8
      Join Date
      Apr 2021
      Posts
      103
      Country Flag: Canada
      Can't wait to see how this plays out! feel free to reach out with any trifive questions!

    9. #9
      Join Date
      Apr 2001
      Location
      The City of Fountains
      Posts
      15,971
      Country Flag: United States
      Nicely done Ryan! Looking forward to the build.

      Andrew
      1970 GTO Version 3.0
      1967 Cougar build
      GM High-Tech Performance feature
      My YouTube Channel Please Subscribe!
      Instagram @projectgattago
      Dr. EFI
      I deliver what EFI promises.
      Remote Holley EFI tuning.
      Please get in touch if I can be of service.

      "You were the gun, your voice was the trigger, your bravery was the barrel, your eyes were the bullets." ~ Her

    10. #10
      Join Date
      Jul 2010
      Posts
      18
      Looks like a nice car to start with.

    11. #11
      Join Date
      Jan 2020
      Location
      ORLANDO
      Posts
      23
      Country Flag: United States
      I have always loved the 55 and 56 Nomads. So what is the vision for the car? You going to do a custom chassis? you have had it for a few weeks now so i am sure the plans have been started.

    12. #12
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      Smitham, just like all of my cars I can see the Nomad evolving in stages. My short term goals are to get the stock-ish floors reinstalled and getting rid of the pro-street tubs. I need to reinstall the rear seat and get a the stock style fuel system back in the car. I want to keep the car in running/driving condition and do more driving in it than I did with my Camaro. I really got the 68 dialed in, and then I sold it. I was really missing my fun car this summer down here in VA. Long term goals for the car are doing the LT swap and running a Nerd Rods frame with front and rear C4 IRS. Time will tell how much of that gets done.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    13. #13
      Join Date
      Nov 2014
      Posts
      233
      Country Flag: United States
      Nerdrods is right up the road from me; are your plans to assemble the frame yourself? I visited with them about possibly doing a truck frame for my 1957 but ultimately chose to use Porterbilt dropmembers for adjustability. Note that you will have to run wheels with quite a bit of offset (think C4 wheels) with that frame. I believe that member tdishon used one of their frames on his truck build.

      As an aside, Art Morrison and roadstershop offer some really nice frames that will give you plenty of options on track width

    14. #14
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      Yes, I want to do the DIY frame. That cost entry point is nearly the same as me getting a full aftermarket front and rear frame, so that's the direction that I want to go. But first up is getting the sheet metal and interior back to a useable state.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      I finally got a chance to check out the car in detail a few times and really inspect what I got. I'm very pleased with the car overall. It's a really solid car that only needs a little TLC to get it where I want it. I wished that the car came with the original trim tag, but it's missing. I was able to contact the guy who I bought it from, bought it from haha. He was a really nice guy and told me that the guy he bought it from had if for about 30 years in the Kentucky area, and is pretty sure that he has the trim tag somewhere. I'm going to call him again to see if I can get a name and hopefully I can track him down and see if the tag is maybe in a drawer somewhere. Upon inspection, I am pretty confident that the car was a light blue with a white top. I found a few traces of color in hard to find spots.





      These pictures are more for my record keeping, but some pictures of the overall condition of the car when I got it.





      I was told that it was a 327 motor and 350 auto trans. I visually confirmed it was a 350 trans, but the motor was a mystery to me. So I snapped some pictures of the engine block casting numbers and the suffix code on the front passenger side of the block. Turns out the block is a 1968 only block, and shares the same block as a Z/28 of that year! The suffix code is HJ, which comes back to a full size body, 327 and powerglide with 250 HP and a 4 barrel. Pretty interesting.





      But then found out that it's topped with some poor flowing heads (3986388) with 1.72 intake valves and 1.5 exhaust that were made in the emissions era.



      Interior pictures.







      Love this dash! I'm hoping that I can get the gauges all working.



      Could be an original 4 speed car?









      Engine bay shot. Nothing special, but I do need to strip what's there and want to spray it semi-gloss black and fill unnecessary holes. Also need to upgrade the MC to something power and modern.





      Decent Perma-cool Aluminum radiator with built in fan and temp sensor.



      Missing the lower chrome trim pieces, but the grill is decent enough.



      I haven't done anything to really speak of, but I did remove and sell those racing bucket seats as they aren't anything I'm interested in. My youngest loves helping me in the garage so we removed the plywood floor that someone installed. Very happy to see that someone left the floor braces, so I'll just need the filler piece in the middle. I'm not sure if I'm going to delete the spare tire well yet or not.



      I also moved some panels around to help with the fitment of the hood and tried to play with the rear liftgate. I called one of the two guys in the country that will straighten the liftgates to see if mine was twisted and sure enough it is. It's very common with Nomads/Safari's as the tension rods tweak them over time. I'm going to remove mine in favor of some gas struts.





      Here you can see where it's not even close to lining up. I'm going to try and see if I can make it any better with adjustment, but I'll likely have to sent it off to MadMooks to get it straightened.



      Next up is ordering some sheet metal, tracking down seats and any missing interior pieces. I'm also going to order a fuel tank and modify it now for EFI so it will be that much easier for future me down the road. I have a lead on a local guy who has hundreds of old cars, and I'm hoping maybe there's a chance that I can grab some seats and other misc. parts I need.

      Cheers,
      Ryan


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    16. #16
      Join Date
      Jun 2018
      Location
      SW Florida
      Posts
      33
      Great project. I did a full frame off resto mod of a 55 2dr hardtop years ago, and yours is a lot better than what i started with. BTW chevy did not install 4 speeds in cars until 57, so if yours was an original manual car it was 3 on the tree only. Good luck

    17. #17
      Join Date
      May 2012
      Location
      Kansas City, Missouri
      Posts
      665
      Country Flag: United States
      Hey Ryan,are u wanting factory seats that you can custom cover or you wanting aftermarket stuff
      Quote Originally Posted by ryeguy2006a View Post
      I finally got a chance to check out the car in detail a few times and really inspect what I got. I'm very pleased with the car overall. It's a really solid car that only needs a little TLC to get it where I want it. I wished that the car came with the original trim tag, but it's missing. I was able to contact the guy who I bought it from, bought it from haha. He was a really nice guy and told me that the guy he bought it from had if for about 30 years in the Kentucky area, and is pretty sure that he has the trim tag somewhere. I'm going to call him again to see if I can get a name and hopefully I can track him down and see if the tag is maybe in a drawer somewhere. Upon inspection, I am pretty confident that the car was a light blue with a white top. I found a few traces of color in hard to find spots.





      These pictures are more for my record keeping, but some pictures of the overall condition of the car when I got it.





      I was told that it was a 327 motor and 350 auto trans. I visually confirmed it was a 350 trans, but the motor was a mystery to me. So I snapped some pictures of the engine block casting numbers and the suffix code on the front passenger side of the block. Turns out the block is a 1968 only block, and shares the same block as a Z/28 of that year! The suffix code is HJ, which comes back to a full size body, 327 and powerglide with 250 HP and a 4 barrel. Pretty interesting.





      But then found out that it's topped with some poor flowing heads (3986388) with 1.72 intake valves and 1.5 exhaust that were made in the emissions era.



      Interior pictures.







      Love this dash! I'm hoping that I can get the gauges all working.



      Could be an original 4 speed car?









      Engine bay shot. Nothing special, but I do need to strip what's there and want to spray it semi-gloss black and fill unnecessary holes. Also need to upgrade the MC to something power and modern.





      Decent Perma-cool Aluminum radiator with built in fan and temp sensor.



      Missing the lower chrome trim pieces, but the grill is decent enough.



      I haven't done anything to really speak of, but I did remove and sell those racing bucket seats as they aren't anything I'm interested in. My youngest loves helping me in the garage so we removed the plywood floor that someone installed. Very happy to see that someone left the floor braces, so I'll just need the filler piece in the middle. I'm not sure if I'm going to delete the spare tire well yet or not.



      I also moved some panels around to help with the fitment of the hood and tried to play with the rear liftgate. I called one of the two guys in the country that will straighten the liftgates to see if mine was twisted and sure enough it is. It's very common with Nomads/Safari's as the tension rods tweak them over time. I'm going to remove mine in favor of some gas struts.





      Here you can see where it's not even close to lining up. I'm going to try and see if I can make it any better with adjustment, but I'll likely have to sent it off to MadMooks to get it straightened.



      Next up is ordering some sheet metal, tracking down seats and any missing interior pieces. I'm also going to order a fuel tank and modify it now for EFI so it will be that much easier for future me down the road. I have a lead on a local guy who has hundreds of old cars, and I'm hoping maybe there's a chance that I can grab some seats and other misc. parts I need.

      Cheers,
      Ryan

    18. #18
      Join Date
      Nov 2006
      Location
      Mountain Springs, Texas
      Posts
      4,489
      Country Flag: United States
      Do you have the eyebrow and side moldings?

      Don
      1969 Camaro - LSA 6L90E AME sub/IRS
      1957 Buick Estate Wagon
      1959 El Camino - Ironworks frame
      1956 Cameo - full C5 suspension/drivetrain
      1959 Apache Fleetside

    19. #19
      Join Date
      Apr 2021
      Posts
      103
      Country Flag: Canada
      looks like a good start!

    20. #20
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by dhutton View Post
      Do you have the eyebrow and side moldings?

      Don
      I don't, but honestly for the price not even sure if I want to run them. Personally I don't feel that they make the Nomad look any better and I can spend $5-7k in a much better way haha I'll probably keep an eye out for a good price though and if I can find a decent set, I'll pick them up.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

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