1955 Chevy: The Chameleon

Owned by Larry Hays, Cape Coral, FL

1955 Chevy: The Chameleon. One day while I was driving my ’57 Chevy, a fellow classic Chevy enthusiast driving a ’55 asked me if I would be interested in trading cars. He sweetened the deal with a Wonderbar radio and some cash, and the deal was made.

Since then, the car has gone through a number of phases. Back in 1993 at the Winter Nationals in Orlando, the car, then with candy apple red paint, gray tweed interior, and a smooth firewall, won first place and best engine in the driven modified class.

Two weeks later the car was completely dismantled. I had a lot of ideas and changes I wanted to make. So I started at Holtz Welding with the chassis and suspension. Bill at Holtz fabricated a full cage, custom headers, rear tubs, a full racing suspension, a nine inch rear with a 4:10 Posi gear, and motor plates for a supercharged small block.

When I brought the car home from Holtz, I put on a set of Heidts A-arms and 2 inch lower spindles. To give the heavy, high horsepower car some more braking power, I upgraded the brakes to Baer’s 13 inch cross-drilled and slotted discs. Going with the more modern look to my classic, I chose race line wheels, 18 x 7s up front with 20 x 12s in the rear. The front and rear Mickey Thompson radials also added to the performance on the track or street.

When I traded for the car, I wanted to build a supercharged motor for it. A polished BDS blower with a pair of 650 Holley carbs mixes the racing fuel. An Isky cam sets the valve train in motion with roller rockers and over-sized valves on the ported and polished heads. An MSD box distributor and coil spark the fire to the Hooker headers and the 3.5 inch X pipe Magnaflow SS exhaust. Power from the motor is shifted with a paddle- shifted TCI 400 trans and converter with a 3500 stall. Under the hood, the engine is accented with a smooth fire wall, and I also fabricated a set of custom inner fenders. A polished Be Cool radiator with chrome fans keeps the temperatures down.

The next step was the suicide doors. At this time I had never seen a classic Chevrolet with this modification. It turned out to be a huge learning project!

During the next phase I tackled the bodywork. The outside panels were all smoothed with the removal of all handles, locks, side trim, gas door, and air inlet. I commissioned Johnny Smith at Custom Taillights to make some rear taillight lenses for me, which I molded into the rear fenders for a smooth look. I did the same with the front turn signals. I had made over 20 body mods, and was starting to need some help!

I solved that problem with a trip to Auto Paint and Piston to finish out the body, fiberglass hood, and tonneau cover. Dale there helped make all my ideas come to life and expertly applied the 2-tone House of Color paint with ghost flames. Over a year later, Dale brought in Fred Shutrump to paint the amazing air brush work.

Next, I completed the dash with Auto Meter gauges, an ididIt steering column, a Billet Specialty steering wheel and a Kicker stereo system. Then, on to the power windows and door poppers.

I made an appointment with Left Coast Trimmers. Joe Ruelle took some drawings I did and created an amazing leather interior sculpting the door panels, headliner, and trunk. He also made sure the seats fit the contour of the tonneau cover.  His true craftsmanship of the interior led to two Best Interior awards: 2012 Music City Show and 2013 Winter Nationals.

My dream was close to reality after completing the remote trunk, hidden license plate, etc. To wrap up the project, I took the car to Performance Plus where Jeff and Darryl took care of all the final details and put a super tune on the motor.

I was very happy to again win a best engine award at the 2012 Music City Show after nineteen years, but the real thrill is building classic Chevys and meeting all of the great people at the shows. I have a notebook full of more ideas for the next build.

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