well its too late to leave it alone. Someone already started down the road to cutomizing it.. the new engine. so spred the gospel and get that guy educated in the ways of the HAMB and build a mild cusom out of it.. sweet ride BTW..wouldnt mind seeing that parked in my drive way, and im not really a huge fan of tri 5's
What a beautiful car! Don't do anything you can't easily undo. Nice wheels. Maybe a Richmond gear 6-speed. That stock paint style is gorgeous as is. Now, if it were rusty and holey, I'd say turn it into a gasser. But this thing need no changes to be beautiful.
4 Speed, Full tank of gas, nice looking lady friend, and some cruisin' tunes. No particular place to go...
'Cause the OD gear is nice what with gas prices up to an arm and a leg if you want to cruise around the block more than once. Believe it or not a 700R4 will handle a fair amount of abuse. But outside of that I wouldn't mess with that car much, I'd find a rougher one to hack on, you can find roller project cars for $2500 or less to turn into gassers or whatnot.
I'd give it a slight altitude adjustment and call it a day, then proceed to enjoy the hell out of it.. I'm all for modifying car's, but sometime's it's cool to see them in as nice a shape as that one without being messed with.. I had a REAL nice low mileage black 63 impala a couple years ago, very much like that 55........i sold it because i just didn't have it in me to do anything to it.. i just found another one to 'play' with.. Tony
Ouch. That car is too nice to be tampered with, but someday I would like to build a clone of my father's '55... right after I win the lottery I guess.
dont listen to him ............. just filler up and enjoy it as it is. too nice to think about rodding or customizing.
I would leave it just as it is.....enjoy it for what it is. Or sell and get something else to modify.
drive it and enjoy it. That car is made for a good road trip the way it sits. It will cruise all day comfortably at freeway speeds now. As some of the others said, there are plenty of 55's out there to play hotrod with already.
Personally if it was mine I'd end up pulling the 350 and replacing it with a correctly date coded '55 265. If it's going to be stock, may as well make it correct. I agree with others in saying that it would be foolish to customize this one. Why buy a cherry low mileage original if you're going to build a custom anyway? I'm sure this car didn't come cheap, why pay for restoration work that you're going to undo? I could see a newer tranny, or a dual chamber master cylinder or some such stuff to make it a little safer/easier to drive. But not every car needs to be an all-out custom. Some are just fine as-is.
I'd leave it looking just the way it is right now..... But I'd stuff a 12 second engine under the hood! What an awesome 'sleeper' that would make, nobody would suspect it for an instant! Cheers, Glen.
That's where I'm at too. No need to mess with it, I wouldn't even mess with the spindles. Roll it as is or make correct, but it's too nice to modify..........and I'm not even a big fan of Tri-Five Chevys! Tim D.
It would have 5 spokes, 2" lowering blocks and a new set of lower front springs in it before the title came back from the state...all of which could be reversed in a Saturday but I don't think my changes would negatively affect the resale value in the least. Wheels make the car!
Unless someone just likes to throw money in the wind, it would be CRAZY to put a leather interior in that car. If it were mine, I would detail it back to dead stock and sell it to make money for other projects. That would be the ONLY smart move if the guy is intending to sell it in a few months... If deciding to keep it and spend yet more money, I would change the trans to a 5 or 6 speed overdrive (with a white 4 speed ball to maintain period looks), lower it slightly and swap out to Cad hubcaps or chrome reverse wheels with the right size whitewalls for the new stance. If that interior is factory original, I would not change a thing there. That would make a sweet long distance cruiser. A bare shell would make a great gasser, but this is the wrong car for that. Only about 10% of all 55 Chevs were Sport Coupe hardtops and I think a post makes a better looking gasser anyway...
Going out on a limb here but it's a new answer at least. Crush it. There's gotta be $400 worth of steel there. Just kidding. Leave it, looks great.
Well, first I would put a hit out on the dumbshit that swapped a 37,000 mile 265 out for a 350. I think I would leave a car like that alone, maybe put a 3 duece 283 in it, 4 speed would be cool but more likely a 700r4 If you want a gasser or a custom why not start with a 3000 roller instead of trashing a low mile survivor.
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