TAC Spotlight > Projects & Restorations
Madaguy 1955 Nomad Build
ryeguy2006a:
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
FormTA:
Wow! Great story and car! I didn't know you ended up just going to get it. That's awesome! Car looks great!
5th T/A:
Ryan, congratulations on your new to you Nomad. Like a lot of people my age I like tri-five Chevys and love Nomads. After all the work you put into your home you deserve some R&R working on the car of your dreams.
roadking77:
All I can say is WOW! What a find. Great car and it really looks like its in great condition. Looking forward to seeing your build. I know you were in a hurry but I could have offered you a cup of coffee. I am literally 5 minutes off of 95 as soon as you cross the Susky. Bel Air is another town I frequent all too often. Glad you made the trip safely.
jonathonar89:
Glad you finally got this thing home man. You’ll have this thing whipped into shape before next summer.
I still have my vote for using the Gen 1 5.3 haha
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