'55 chevy radius wells + lowered?

i am building a '55 2 door sedan. the style is best described as post-gasser. it's kind of a late 60's style, no trim, lowered, but with lettering.

i like the rear wells on the '55 sedan just fine. but i really, really like the '55 nomad wells. i think those were the perfect. and i also like a modest radius on a modest gasser. which leads me to my point...

before i finish my body work and paint this far i'm thinking about cutting the wells, just a little.

has anyone seen a lowered '55 sedan with nice, modest radius on the wells? or maybe a lowered '55 sedan with nomad quarters?

 

Stance and color of this? Wheels and tire combo? Color/motor/interior? I can see a candy blue tilt front end, 15x4, 15x10 Cragars, white tuck-n-roll interior w/a chrome roll bar. Muncie 4spd. And the wheel wells hogged out, but done smoothly and a nice arc.

 

That sort of describes the Grafitti 55. It did not sit gasser high, and had radiused wheel wells.

Don

 

Is it the stockcar look you're after?

 

The rear wheelwells kept the stock shape but were raise just a little bit to clear the L60 tires. These pictures were taken in the mid '70's.

 

when I did my last 55 I used a set of wheel well repair panels for an early 70's Volvo.I bought them from Sherman & associates,they were cheep under $50 a side.They had a shape that was close to the Nomad.

 

Bob Bunker's Folsom Flash and Dave Rialo's Temptation come to mind when I read your title.
Sorry, I don't have pictures.

And I really like the way GassersGarage opened up his wheel wells and kept the quarter trim on the car.

 

I helped on one that had the rears shaped to look like the fronts, I did the initial cutting and shaping and the man that owned the car did the finish work. His wheel wells were finished with a rolled lip to look exactly like the fronts. He gave it a mild California rake and then just filled the rears with tire. The rear treads were completely under the body and only the tire bulge stuck out at all.

Very nice looking car when he was done, it was more of a street brawler than a "race car". I built him a stout 301 and he put a 4 speed muncie behind it.

I don't know if that is what you are after but it is an option and the car was timeless, you really couldn't tell when it was built it could have been built any time from the time it rolled off the lot to '70 when it was finished.

 

I like the volvo fender

 

Here's the way I did mine back in the mid 80's.

 

There's your answer right there - it looks damn good! (And would look just as good even sitting lower if that's what you have in mind.)

There were also plenty of customs built in the mid-to-late 1950s with radiused rear fenders; I'm sure some of those were '55 Chevies. Done right it looks really good.

 

Ahhh..... a black 55 with radiused rears and low and level-I think that's where they got the idea to build factory "muscle cars"........Badass for sure
Only difference from my childhood memories, is that front bumper was never on em back then.

 

Not too sure about you title?? Are you looking for the radius wheel well look with the nose pointing down???
There are many ways of doing this and you definatley have come to the right place to find lots of answers. One thing I can tell you is that you can't really radius it just a little and for it to look proper. If you are going to radius it then radius it. I would then just make it so that the car sits level or just slightly higher in the front. If I were you I would do a search on how to radius wheel wells. BTW it would be cool if you posted pics of your progress. Good Luck J

 

If your going for a late 60s look, I am not sure lowered would describe that look.

 

great feedback, everyone.

you guys helped me realize two big things:

1) like everyone, grew up on the '55 from american graffiti. and i always thought of that is kind of tall. but looking at it now, it's not really that tall. i guess current gasser builds have so much more height to them in the front. not level, as choprods pointed out.

2) you guys, starting with mrbelair, pointed towards stock cars and that's not even a direction i thought about looking. but what do ya know? that's exactly where the low ride AND cut wells came together.

the examples you guys gave are awesome. and the direction is perfect. i already have the car 2 inches lower than stock, and would love to go 2 more. we'll see as it goes. as for the wells... here's a photo i found that looks exactly how i'm thinking i go...



again, thanks everyone for the feedback and advice.

i didn't think of "stock car" but darn, that's exactly what it is.