I've always been a sucker for a wagon and I spotted this 55 wagon at a friends house, he had just bought it and was going to clean it up and sell it on. It had a good frame, at some point it someone had put an air ride system on it, power steering etc...not much of an interior, a tatty front seat and it's fair to say there was rust in the car, but it was all manageable. We had a chat and I bought it... Here are a few photos from when I first saw the car in my friends back yard to when I dragged it back to my storage unit and cleaned it up a little, just to see what I really had bought.
The next stage was to strip the wagon back to what I had actually bought, it it went off to the blasters. The reason we cut off the rear fenders was that they were badly fabricated and instead I wanted to go with Nomad style fenders...not to everyones taste I know, but I wanted the opening to reflect the front fender.
With the body off the frame it was easy to take it apart and see the condition...which was very solid. For now the frame is stripped and stored away until the bodywork has been done.
Now the bodywork, what do I have left of the wagon after the sand blasting...well surprisingly it wasn't as bad as it originally looked. Yes, there was rust and lots of Swiss cheese holes, but all repairable or can be replaced with new sheet metal. With the photos I've tried to show the worst of it
WOW! It's too bad you're in Denmark; I have a friend who deals in 55-57 Chevrolet cars AND parts, and I know he could help with a LOT of parts you're going to need. Has the car been in Europe for long, or did someone before you bring it in? I'm a Wagon fan, but I prefer 56's. My current long roof is a 56 Sedan Delivery; my TENTH 56 Chevrolet, with a few 55's and 57's tossed in, plus an ex Navy, 58 3/4 ton that was still painted Navy gray. And, 2manyseats avitar is beautiful; hope your's turns out as nice. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Hi Butch, thanks for the message. The car is actually in my storage unit in Brea, CA. I plan on keeping the car in the US and using it for long road trip across the US when it's done. I'll keep adding to the post today as we now have the body finished and in etch primer.
Nice!! I'll watch this one. The frame looks in very good shape. You don't need $500K to build a really nice car.
So I first saw the wagon back in the summer of 2018, I bought it in Jan 2019 and Rudy had it sand blasted as I mentioned earlier. I was back in August 2019 and that when I saw the stripped shell for the first time.
I like the Nomad quarter panels..those and that Pontiac side trim, will have some people scratching their heads. Thanks for sharing your build.
Seeing the trim on the car I can't help but think about colours and if I want a solid colour or 2 tone. Take a look at the IG page @madmooks_trifive page as there are some great cars and wagon there. I've taken to book marking a few colour combos to to keep in mind...now it's worth pointing out that my wagon was originally painted that 55 turquoise blue/green, I'm guessing similar to the first photo below. Yes, these are all Nomad wagons, but I'm just thinking about 2 tone for now. View attachment 4864746 View attachment 4864752
I like the Pontiac trim too, though if you would have asked me I would have thought it would look bad, but after seeing it I like it a lot!!
That's the idea...hopefully they will like the wagon and try and figure out what the trim is from...I did a rough mock up in photoshop to see how it might look...it's not perfect, but it gives me a good idea.
So with me no being able to travel this year has been a pain in the neck, but that hasn't stopped Rudy and his son Jasper working on the car. They cut out the rust, removed all of the old spot welds and gradually put brand new panels back in the wagon, so now it started to look like a wagon again. I don't want to bore you with too many photos, but there has been a ton of hard work done to the car in the last 6 months...here a few of the various stages of repair.
And finally this next post brings me up to date. All the rust repair to the wagon has been finished, the car is now in etch primer. Rudy will take a break from the wagon for a month or two jut to catch up on his other projects. Hopefully in Dec or Jan he will start on the frame and build that up, so we can mount the body and fit the fenders, hood and rear tail gate to get the correct fit before tearing it down to pre and paint it in the spring. Hope you have enjoyed the progress so far. I'll keep posting more photos as and when I have new ones from Rudy...or if we can find a cure or antidote for the virus and the travel restrictions are lifted, then I will come over and take photos of the wagon myself.
I forgot to mention that I bought an old 55 Chevy rear seat for the wagon and I have the front seat that came with the car, but I'm thinking of using my spare 65 Pontiac bucket seats in the front. I found a guy selling trim, so I now have a complete set of trim for the wagon (inside and out) and have had it all repaired, cleaned and polished up. The transmission is easy as I'm going auto, it's going to be easier to cruise the freeways on the various road trips. I'm going to have some modern creature comforts like power steering, cruise control, sat nav and good stereo etc. But the next big decision is going to be the engine, what do I go for...at first I did consider a LS, but the cost of an LS is huge compared to a stock 350 chevy crate motor. As this wagon is going to be a cruiser I want something trouble free, something I can jump in and it starts first time. The wagon is not going to be a trailer queen as I want to use and enjoy the car. With a crate motor it comes with everything that I need to plug and play into this wagon, a turn key engine from somewhere like Jeg's or Summit maybe. Any thought on the engine...at this stage I'm open alternatives, what do you have or maybe seen that you liked.
Beautiful car and it's still in primer. Rudy does brilliant work and there's lots of top-quality repro sheetmetal for '55's. One observation: The green/black hardtop's black wheels & tire sidewalls repeat the top color. Similarly, this Nomad's whitewalls repeat the top color: While planning your color combo, look closely at wheel color, whitewall tires, red taillights, etc. It's gonna be awesome!
Thanks for the comment, yes he does great work and I'm lucky to have my cars in storage opposite his place, so it's easy for him to work on my wagon. Thanks for the tips...with the green and black car I do like the poverty hub caps...don't know if they will work on a wagon, I guess it depend on the wheels I eventually go for.
>>"I'm going to have some modern creature comforts like power steering, cruise control, sat nav and good stereo etc." Love the build - please consider adding air conditioning to that list.
There are never enough photos. That wagon is going to be better than new when done. Can't wait to see the prgress along the way.....
The Handyman wagon is in my opinion just as cool as the Nomad and with the new Nomad quarters gives the wagon a unique look. I have a 1954 Ford Ranch Wagon and with all the patch panels we had to do I can appreciate what you guys have done. The 350 crate engine would be a excellent choice. HRP
Wow, really nice work going on here, looks like you got the right guy on the job and great detail shots for guys that need to see how to do it right. A purely unsolicited suggestion though......I'm not feeling the Pontiac trim. That's just the Chevy guy in me coming out.
Very nice metalwork throughout. I like the Nomad quarters, didn't realize they would fit on the handyman body so well. Based on this picture, I do not think you have the original front seat. Handyman has a split back front bench like a 2 door sedan/hardtop would have for access to the rear seat. This appears to be a 4 door front seat, which will not fold.
I drew out engine options on a whiteboard one day. Crate SBC, LS or rebuilt SBC pretty much end up costing the same no matter what these days. You just have to pick your poison. With GM Crates you do get a warranty in certain body styles. That Nomad was built by @cole Cole Foster
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