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Many times, a project car or two needs to be sold to finance a situation in life that needs remedied. Sometimes, one project car is sold to fund another, more interesting, project car. Such is the case with this ’55 Chevy.
Condon Radford of Knoxville, Tennessee, acquired and built this ’55 two-door sedan after a strange turn of events caused him to sell a few “other” rides he had parked at the homestead.
The fully dressed trunk really adds to the look of the car, and goes to show that nothing was left unfinished.
The car he was planning to sell, was a ’55 Chevy with a 383 cubic-inch small-block, and a Steve Holcomb interior. The car was nice, and when the buyer arrived to see the car, he also fell in love with Condon’s numbers matching, fuel-injected 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible and 1956 Chevy. “He made me an offer for all three that I just couldn’t refuse,” Condon said. “I said load’em up!” The buyer left with all three cars, and Condon was ready to start another project.
“I have a strong personal feeling for the ‘55.” Condon continued, “I’ve had them all, and I just liked the ‘55 better than the ‘56 or ‘57. It’s just an opinion. To me, the ‘55 always looked good.” Knowing exactly what he wanted made replacing the three cars an easy choice.
The body of this ’55 is an all-new steel body from Woody’s Hot Rodz. “Craig’s Hot Rods in Knoxville, Tennessee, did a lot of the fabrication work,” Condon explained. There are a lot of custom touches on this build – some subtle and some not – that make it such a cool iteration of a ’55 Chevy 210.
One of the coolest, and most unique features, about this car is the filled and smoothed rain gutters. Rather than being shaved, this modification retains the effect of the rain gutters and modernizes the appearance of the car without taking away from the classic style.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but if you look closely, you can see the filled and smoothed rain gutters.
In addition to the rain gutter modification, the rear bumper of a nomad was cut to fit flush to the body. They also installed halo-style headlights, a custom made, straight-bar front grill, and the hood and trunk have been shaved. The color is a Vibrance Candy Apple Red. “When you get it out in the sun, it has a real fine sparkle,” Condon said. The outcome of all that work is a classic looking, yet subtly modernized 1955 Chevrolet.
Even the underside of the car has been painted, and the driveline is chromed.
The interior is covered in leather, and has accent LED lights everywhere. The exterior paint scheme flows seamlessly inside, onto the upper portion of the dash and around the windows. The light and dark tan leathers, with silver welting, really compliment the entire package. In addition to all the custom work done on the upholstery side of things, the steering wheel is a one off custom piece, the instruments are from Classic Instruments, and the dash is actually out of a 1956 Pontiac. “It just bolted right in,” Condon explained.
The '56 Pontiac dash looks right at home in the cab of Condon's '55 Chevy.
Under the hood is an LS3 engine linked to a 4L70E automatic transmission, and a 9-inch rearend with 3.70 gearing. The body sits on a Roadster Shop chassis, and makes for a smooth and responsive ride for the best possible control over all that power.
The under hood area looks just as good as the exterior of the car, and it performs even better than it looks! all surfaces have been smoothed, and the Inglese Injection system is a stand out upgrade.
We can’t find anything we would change about Condon’s Tri-Five, and even at a quick glance, you can tell that a lot of work has been put into making this ’55 Chevy stand out at any car show or cruise night.
