Madaguy 1955 Nomad Build
12-01-2022, 09:51 AM
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Madaguy 1955 Nomad Build After what feels like a long time (for me) without a car, I'm happy to be able to post a project update. My family and I moved from Upstate, NY to Charlotteville, VA in June for better weather and schools among many other things. Prior to moving, I sold my long time project car some of you may remember called the "Penny Pincher Camaro". It was a 1968 Camaro with LSA supercharged 6.2, 6 speed and full pro-touring suspension. I loved that car, but came to the realization that if I wanted to regularly cruise to car shows and Sunday drives with the family it was increasingly getting cramped with two growing boys. The catalyst for selling the car came when we decided to take steps towards moving south, which we have been talking about for years. We moved at the end of June and I had been casually looking for a new project ever since. I knew that I wanted something with more interior space and something that had more utility. Two door wagons were my first choice and I wasn't just looking at Nomads. There were Ranch Wagons from the 50s that were cool, 64-65 Chevelle 300 wagons came in a two door variant, 59-60 Biscayne/Brookwood's came in a two door wagon, and a few others like Nova's and Falcons. At the end of the day I kept coming back to a 55-56 Nomad. The trouble is I didn't want to spend Nomad money. Then I stumbled on this car, but it was in Cape Cod which was about 10 hours from me, and knew that it was too far. I saw it posted for a several weeks, then I reached out to the guy and the rest is history.
We negotiated a little bit, and then I made arrangements to have the car shipped to me with a guy he does business with on a very regular basis. The shipper was from the west coast and kept getting delayed "a few more days", then after two and a half weeks of back and forth I decided that I was just going to make the trip. I did a ton of background digging on the guy and his business but truthfully, I was just getting nervous that I may be getting scammed. I've only ever bought cars in person with cash. Then I made the decision to just do it. GPS said it was 9.5 hours from my house, but that didn't include traffic delays or pit stops. I really thought that I'd be able to make the trip in one day. In my mind I thought that 19 hours total drive time will be hard, but doable...
Here's a few pictures along the way.
Started out at 3:30 AM and made it through DC with no traffic, then to NYC pretty quick on I95. I was slowed down, but not bad traffic considering. This was Maryland crossing the Susquehanna River
Parts of NYC.
Crossing the George Washington
I knew that I would forget to take a picture once I got to the guys house, so when I was picking up the U-Haul I snapped a picture of my status. I was about 40 mins from his house, so I was really making great time and almost 21 MPG's! Not too bad for my 5.0 2015 F150. After NYC I didn't hit any traffic to speak of and it was really smooth sailing.
Now, onto the car! It's a 1955 Chevy Nomad. In it's current form it's mostly stock with a 327, turbo 350 transmission, manual steering and 4 wheel manual drum brakes. The body is in great shape, but overall needs some TLC and panel fitment. It's missing some of the trim, but is mostly there. At one point in it's life it was a pro-street car and still has the giant rear wheel tubs, but thankfully the exterior was left alone and will be straightforward to remove them and reinstall stock metal and adding a few inches to stock tubs. The interior is mostly gone, but that is really ok as it will give me an opportunity to start from scratch and maybe do something more custom. It was really hard to find an "in between" Nomad for a reasonable price as a project, that won't need a complete restoration as a rusted out POS. Or on the other side of the spectrum a show car that's $80k+.
Pro-Street Wheel tubs...
After I took a few photos and talked with the guy a bit, we got it loaded on the trailer and heading back home!
My 7 YO made the Magikarp decoration for my truck haha
Took this as I was walking into a Starbucks to grab a powerful coffee around dusk.
The coffee didn't work as long as I would have hoped. I made it another two hours and called it quits around 8pm and found a hotel in Norwalk, CT. I was about 6.5 hours from home at that point.
Drove through Bel Air somewhere on the way home. Thought that was pretty cool.
I figured I'd pull up FB Marketplace to see if there was anything interesting and sure enough there was a Gen5 L83 5.3 motor right on my way home in DC. I messaged the guy and met him right on the way home! The guy said his customer wanted it removed because it had a slight knocking, but I'm assuming that it was a DOD lifter as it's super common in those motors. But for an almost complete motor, I was willing to take the risk for $400 bucks!
I didn't have the right straps to safely drive with the motor in the back so I ran quick to get some ratchet straps and found this guy checking out my car. He was asking all about the motor too. Lost track of how many people beeped and/or gave thumbs up on the way home.
I knew that I was getting close when I could start to see the Blue Ridge mountains again.
Then, home sweet home!
I'm so excited and still in a little disbelief that I found one of my dream cars. One of the first model cars that I ever bought as a kit was a 1955 Bel Air. My boys are both really excited and when my youngest son (3) was telling me about how he can't wait to work on it with me he called it a Madaguy. We loved it and it stood out to me immediately as the new name for the car. My plans/goals for this car are going to be similar but different than my Camaro. First, the car won't be caught up on jack stands for long periods of time aside from the initial effort I will need to put into the car to get it roadworthy again. Anything I do will need to be done within a few weekends at most. Next is that the car needs to ride really smooth, not necessarily perform well on an autox. Comfort is the name of the game. As you saw by the engine, I'll also be swapping it somewhere down the road, but I'll need to collect a bunch of parts between now and then.
Cheers,
Ryan
We negotiated a little bit, and then I made arrangements to have the car shipped to me with a guy he does business with on a very regular basis. The shipper was from the west coast and kept getting delayed "a few more days", then after two and a half weeks of back and forth I decided that I was just going to make the trip. I did a ton of background digging on the guy and his business but truthfully, I was just getting nervous that I may be getting scammed. I've only ever bought cars in person with cash. Then I made the decision to just do it. GPS said it was 9.5 hours from my house, but that didn't include traffic delays or pit stops. I really thought that I'd be able to make the trip in one day. In my mind I thought that 19 hours total drive time will be hard, but doable...
Here's a few pictures along the way.
Started out at 3:30 AM and made it through DC with no traffic, then to NYC pretty quick on I95. I was slowed down, but not bad traffic considering. This was Maryland crossing the Susquehanna River
Parts of NYC.
Crossing the George Washington
I knew that I would forget to take a picture once I got to the guys house, so when I was picking up the U-Haul I snapped a picture of my status. I was about 40 mins from his house, so I was really making great time and almost 21 MPG's! Not too bad for my 5.0 2015 F150. After NYC I didn't hit any traffic to speak of and it was really smooth sailing.
Now, onto the car! It's a 1955 Chevy Nomad. In it's current form it's mostly stock with a 327, turbo 350 transmission, manual steering and 4 wheel manual drum brakes. The body is in great shape, but overall needs some TLC and panel fitment. It's missing some of the trim, but is mostly there. At one point in it's life it was a pro-street car and still has the giant rear wheel tubs, but thankfully the exterior was left alone and will be straightforward to remove them and reinstall stock metal and adding a few inches to stock tubs. The interior is mostly gone, but that is really ok as it will give me an opportunity to start from scratch and maybe do something more custom. It was really hard to find an "in between" Nomad for a reasonable price as a project, that won't need a complete restoration as a rusted out POS. Or on the other side of the spectrum a show car that's $80k+.
Pro-Street Wheel tubs...
After I took a few photos and talked with the guy a bit, we got it loaded on the trailer and heading back home!
My 7 YO made the Magikarp decoration for my truck haha
Took this as I was walking into a Starbucks to grab a powerful coffee around dusk.
The coffee didn't work as long as I would have hoped. I made it another two hours and called it quits around 8pm and found a hotel in Norwalk, CT. I was about 6.5 hours from home at that point.
Drove through Bel Air somewhere on the way home. Thought that was pretty cool.
I figured I'd pull up FB Marketplace to see if there was anything interesting and sure enough there was a Gen5 L83 5.3 motor right on my way home in DC. I messaged the guy and met him right on the way home! The guy said his customer wanted it removed because it had a slight knocking, but I'm assuming that it was a DOD lifter as it's super common in those motors. But for an almost complete motor, I was willing to take the risk for $400 bucks!
I didn't have the right straps to safely drive with the motor in the back so I ran quick to get some ratchet straps and found this guy checking out my car. He was asking all about the motor too. Lost track of how many people beeped and/or gave thumbs up on the way home.
I knew that I was getting close when I could start to see the Blue Ridge mountains again.
Then, home sweet home!
I'm so excited and still in a little disbelief that I found one of my dream cars. One of the first model cars that I ever bought as a kit was a 1955 Bel Air. My boys are both really excited and when my youngest son (3) was telling me about how he can't wait to work on it with me he called it a Madaguy. We loved it and it stood out to me immediately as the new name for the car. My plans/goals for this car are going to be similar but different than my Camaro. First, the car won't be caught up on jack stands for long periods of time aside from the initial effort I will need to put into the car to get it roadworthy again. Anything I do will need to be done within a few weekends at most. Next is that the car needs to ride really smooth, not necessarily perform well on an autox. Comfort is the name of the game. As you saw by the engine, I'll also be swapping it somewhere down the road, but I'll need to collect a bunch of parts between now and then.
Cheers,
Ryan
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12-01-2022, 10:34 AM
#2
Looks like a great car to start a project with, You just don't see them around much anymore.
A Nomad was also a friend of mines dream car (He bought and sold project/finished collector cars) He finally found one and brought it home. Several of us were teasing him and asking how long before he sold it and he was adamant he was keeping this one.....a few months later it was gone. He liked the hunt for rare cars more than actually owning them.
A Nomad was also a friend of mines dream car (He bought and sold project/finished collector cars) He finally found one and brought it home. Several of us were teasing him and asking how long before he sold it and he was adamant he was keeping this one.....a few months later it was gone. He liked the hunt for rare cars more than actually owning them.
12-01-2022, 02:17 PM
#3
Staging Lane
Well done on getting a car that you yearned for, and it looks to be in pretty good condition. Those are pretty meaty rear tubs, which will limit what you can do with rear seats for your kids. A great project though, and I will follow the build with much interest.
12-02-2022, 08:45 AM
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12-05-2022, 11:55 AM
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12-09-2022, 01:33 PM
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I finally got a chance to check out the car in detail a few times and really inspect what I got. I'm very pleased with the car overall. It's a really solid car that only needs a little TLC to get it where I want it. I wished that the car came with the original trim tag, but it's missing. I was able to contact the guy who I bought it from, bought it from haha. He was a really nice guy and told me that the guy he bought it from had if for about 30 years in the Kentucky area, and is pretty sure that he has the trim tag somewhere. I'm going to call him again to see if I can get a name and hopefully I can track him down and see if the tag is maybe in a drawer somewhere. Upon inspection, I am pretty confident that the car was a light blue with a white top. I found a few traces of color in hard to find spots.
These pictures are more for my record keeping, but some pictures of the overall condition of the car when I got it.
I was told that it was a 327 motor and 350 auto trans. I visually confirmed it was a 350 trans, but the motor was a mystery to me. So I snapped some pictures of the engine block casting numbers and the suffix code on the front passenger side of the block. Turns out the block is a 1968 only block, and shares the same block as a Z/28 of that year! The suffix code is HJ, which comes back to a full size body, 327 and powerglide with 250 HP and a 4 barrel. Pretty interesting.
But then found out that it's topped with some poor flowing heads (3986388) with 1.72 intake valves and 1.5 exhaust that were made in the emissions era.
Interior pictures.
Love this dash! I'm hoping that I can get the gauges all working.
Could be an original 4 speed car?
Engine bay shot. Nothing special, but I do need to strip what's there and want to spray it semi-gloss black and fill unnecessary holes. Also need to upgrade the MC to something power and modern.
Decent Perma-cool Aluminum radiator with built in fan and temp sensor.
Missing the lower chrome trim pieces, but the grill is decent enough.
I haven't done anything to really speak of, but I did remove and sell those racing bucket seats as they aren't anything I'm interested in. My youngest loves helping me in the garage so we removed the plywood floor that someone installed. Very happy to see that someone left the floor braces, so I'll just need the filler piece in the middle. I'm not sure if I'm going to delete the spare tire well yet or not.
I also moved some panels around to help with the fitment of the hood and tried to play with the rear liftgate. I called one of the two guys in the country that will straighten the liftgates to see if mine was twisted and sure enough it is. It's very common with Nomads/Safari's as the tension rods tweak them over time. I'm going to remove mine in favor of some gas struts.
Here you can see where it's not even close to lining up. I'm going to try and see if I can make it any better with adjustment, but I'll likely have to sent it off to MadMooks to get it straightened.
Next up is ordering some sheet metal, tracking down seats and any missing interior pieces. I'm also going to order a fuel tank and modify it now for EFI so it will be that much easier for future me down the road. I have a lead on a local guy who has hundreds of old cars, and I'm hoping maybe there's a chance that I can grab some seats and other misc. parts I need.
Cheers,
Ryan
These pictures are more for my record keeping, but some pictures of the overall condition of the car when I got it.
I was told that it was a 327 motor and 350 auto trans. I visually confirmed it was a 350 trans, but the motor was a mystery to me. So I snapped some pictures of the engine block casting numbers and the suffix code on the front passenger side of the block. Turns out the block is a 1968 only block, and shares the same block as a Z/28 of that year! The suffix code is HJ, which comes back to a full size body, 327 and powerglide with 250 HP and a 4 barrel. Pretty interesting.
But then found out that it's topped with some poor flowing heads (3986388) with 1.72 intake valves and 1.5 exhaust that were made in the emissions era.
Interior pictures.
Love this dash! I'm hoping that I can get the gauges all working.
Could be an original 4 speed car?
Engine bay shot. Nothing special, but I do need to strip what's there and want to spray it semi-gloss black and fill unnecessary holes. Also need to upgrade the MC to something power and modern.
Decent Perma-cool Aluminum radiator with built in fan and temp sensor.
Missing the lower chrome trim pieces, but the grill is decent enough.
I haven't done anything to really speak of, but I did remove and sell those racing bucket seats as they aren't anything I'm interested in. My youngest loves helping me in the garage so we removed the plywood floor that someone installed. Very happy to see that someone left the floor braces, so I'll just need the filler piece in the middle. I'm not sure if I'm going to delete the spare tire well yet or not.
I also moved some panels around to help with the fitment of the hood and tried to play with the rear liftgate. I called one of the two guys in the country that will straighten the liftgates to see if mine was twisted and sure enough it is. It's very common with Nomads/Safari's as the tension rods tweak them over time. I'm going to remove mine in favor of some gas struts.
Here you can see where it's not even close to lining up. I'm going to try and see if I can make it any better with adjustment, but I'll likely have to sent it off to MadMooks to get it straightened.
Next up is ordering some sheet metal, tracking down seats and any missing interior pieces. I'm also going to order a fuel tank and modify it now for EFI so it will be that much easier for future me down the road. I have a lead on a local guy who has hundreds of old cars, and I'm hoping maybe there's a chance that I can grab some seats and other misc. parts I need.
Cheers,
Ryan
12-09-2022, 03:58 PM
#14
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My friend Dennis has a YT channel and he's been fixing his '55 coupe: https://www.youtube.com/@cavemangarage/videos
12-19-2022, 08:52 AM
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I've been doing a lot of research and didn't realize that a lot of those panels will interchange. Or will work with slight modifications. I also found a 4 door station wagon locally that has solid sheet metal and the guy is willing to let me cut it out. 
12-19-2022, 10:11 AM
#17
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Just mostly been researching what parts I need and how I want to approach the project. I started tinkering on the car here and there. I moved some of the front metal around to get the hood to open and close much better and fit a little nicer. I started to adjust the fitment on the rear tailgate and realized the hinges needed to be rebuild badly. I pulled the tailgate off and realized that the bolts holding the hinges to the body were completely frozen in place and likely been there since 1955... Also, the hinge pockets need some attention. So first I had to carefully drill out the hardware.
Pockets are gone on the backside and need to have a patch panel installed too.
Glad that I pulled the hinges off, looks pretty bad under here... Nothing that can't be fixed though.
I found this local junkyard that was full of cars and many of them had been there for decades. I found that he has a 56 4 door wagon, so I grabbed these spring pockets from the car. They are a little pitted, but much better shape than what I've got and appear to be solid. I'm going to clean them up and see how they clean up.
Once I got the hardware drilled out it allowed me to get to the plates that sandwhich between the body and the hinge. I got them on my mill and drilled out the centers of the bolts. Since I had a good amount of the bolt on the backside, I was actually able to get a vice grip and spin them out! I want to clean them up, paint, build new cages, and get them reinstalled.
I also picked up a steering wheel because it was cheap and I don't like the one that came with the car.
That's it from a car standpoint, but I also have some cool parts updates. I was checking around on FB marketplace and found a guy through another guy who had some 2wd 4L80e's for a good price. They came from a fleet of express vans that had the drivelines pulled for low engine oil pressure. He had a few to choose from, and this one looks like a newer Jasper Trans so that's what I got.
He also had a complete set of engine accessories from an LS motor, so I'm going to see if I can adapt them to the GenV motor. I saw there was a Holley accessory kit, that you could use on gen 3/4 or gen 5 with the right spacers. Got them for free so worst case they don't work and I'm not out anything.
I needed a new intake for the L83 motor as I found it had a crack in it, so I figured since I need a new one I'll upgrade! I was reading about the LT1 guys who were swapping LT2 intakes on their cars and picking up 20+ HP, so I thought that would be the one that I should go with. I won't see that kind of gain especially with my stock cam, but I'll be upgrading down the road so it's a good upgrade. I picked it up on a Corvette forum and the guy threw in the Throttlebody, PVC hoses and hardware too!
I put it on the motor just to see what it looked like. Since the LT2 has the intake 180* out, their will need to be some ribbing removed on the rear side of the intake to clear the high pressure fuel pump.
Pockets are gone on the backside and need to have a patch panel installed too.
Glad that I pulled the hinges off, looks pretty bad under here... Nothing that can't be fixed though.
I found this local junkyard that was full of cars and many of them had been there for decades. I found that he has a 56 4 door wagon, so I grabbed these spring pockets from the car. They are a little pitted, but much better shape than what I've got and appear to be solid. I'm going to clean them up and see how they clean up.
Once I got the hardware drilled out it allowed me to get to the plates that sandwhich between the body and the hinge. I got them on my mill and drilled out the centers of the bolts. Since I had a good amount of the bolt on the backside, I was actually able to get a vice grip and spin them out! I want to clean them up, paint, build new cages, and get them reinstalled.
I also picked up a steering wheel because it was cheap and I don't like the one that came with the car.
That's it from a car standpoint, but I also have some cool parts updates. I was checking around on FB marketplace and found a guy through another guy who had some 2wd 4L80e's for a good price. They came from a fleet of express vans that had the drivelines pulled for low engine oil pressure. He had a few to choose from, and this one looks like a newer Jasper Trans so that's what I got.
He also had a complete set of engine accessories from an LS motor, so I'm going to see if I can adapt them to the GenV motor. I saw there was a Holley accessory kit, that you could use on gen 3/4 or gen 5 with the right spacers. Got them for free so worst case they don't work and I'm not out anything.
I needed a new intake for the L83 motor as I found it had a crack in it, so I figured since I need a new one I'll upgrade! I was reading about the LT1 guys who were swapping LT2 intakes on their cars and picking up 20+ HP, so I thought that would be the one that I should go with. I won't see that kind of gain especially with my stock cam, but I'll be upgrading down the road so it's a good upgrade. I picked it up on a Corvette forum and the guy threw in the Throttlebody, PVC hoses and hardware too!
I put it on the motor just to see what it looked like. Since the LT2 has the intake 180* out, their will need to be some ribbing removed on the rear side of the intake to clear the high pressure fuel pump.
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12-20-2022, 07:01 AM
#19
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Great work Ryan.
Make sure you clearance the ribs fully, because if you don't, the intake will seal poorly and you'll have a vacuum leak that will cause a hanging idle. My friend Tom had this issue and it took forever to find it.
Andrew
Make sure you clearance the ribs fully, because if you don't, the intake will seal poorly and you'll have a vacuum leak that will cause a hanging idle. My friend Tom had this issue and it took forever to find it.
Andrew
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ryeguy2006a (12-21-2022)
