Bear with me here, as i'll be updating this as we go, and asking for advice from you mopar guys too. As you can see the car is a mess. My father bought this car a while back, and we pulled it out of a barn just north of Toledo, and towed her back to NJ. (yeah the dates say 06... it's been dormant in the garage until recently because of other projects) It's all there, but rough. The first part of this will be more on the nessecary fab work as it needs to get solid before anything else. Long term plans include mocha brown/champagne pearl two tone body, a bit of a shaving where nessecary, lowering atleast 2-3" (later we'll probably go with air ride but probably not yet), red ram hemi with lots of chrome and a few carbs up top, and we're undecided on wheel choice Also, as much as i wish i was the man behind the welding goggles, credit is do to my Fathers buddy Bobby, a very skilled and all around good guy.
first things first... handling the rot. The entire back half of the car was in pretty poor shap, so we got a rust free rear clip from MO. (unfortunately sometimes rust free means almost rust free, as you can see the tire well is bad) otherwise it's a nice piece.
The rocker portions of the clip were bad as well, it's hard to see in the photo, but anything that looks rusted is rusted through.
Cool car! I know where it's twin is. '55 CRL convertibles are extremely rare! Definitely worth restoring! This one has D500 flags but they weren't offered before 1956.
Also, not sure if you're looking for any '55 CRL parts, but this little honey showed up on forwardlook.net today, well worth the asking price! http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=&nid=443&tab=list/view&ad=1647861
Jesus, that is a good deal for one that clean, with a hemi as well! I'd say yeah, but he already has this one, which i think was the same kinda deal: Bought it as a parts car, and it turned out to be too nice to break up. I'll p*** along the info anyway though... thats a good find. thanks!
K, soooo... good looking out on the 55 coupe... he ended up buying it. -too good a deal to p*** up! Back to updates. Now that the rear clip is hung and the welding is done, it's time to do some stripping to see what the quarters look like. found some plastic work from an old repair job
Fabulous car! No wonder I can't find one; you've had this one tucked away! Keep up the photos as it is surely a worthwhile project. Seems like everybody puts wire wheels on these '55 up Mopars since they were reproduced by multiple companies. Resist! - then you won't have to keep them clean. Congratulations on this little RAM.
Great post !! You've inspired me to start working on my 62 Buick Special convert - original V8- 4 speed car, but VERY rusty quarters. You make it look so easy !!!
I always thought a '55 Dodge shaved in the right spots and dropped on the ground would be a great looking car. I never even considered a convertible, because you never see them. Great project. Good luck with it.
IMHO I think I'd actually leave that car stock Maybe just drop it a tad. That is a rare piece of tin, and it looks cool completely stock.
Yeah thats the general idea, but with some period custom (and some personal) touches. Take a look at my first post for a more complete set of plans for the car, but it'll basically look like a retouched version of a cl***ic. Also, thanks for all the positive coments so far! Much appreciated!
Congratulations and thank you for posting, and for your effort and expense in bringing a rare car back in the right way. Your plans are period perfect!
VERY nice work! Being a fan of 56's I'd have spliced the finned rear end on it , but hey, I'm nitpicking. Its gonna be spectacular!
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