Home-Built Hero: Vincent Paradiso

Home-Built Hero: Vincent Paradiso’s ’55 Chevy Gasser

When it comes to classic rides that garner attention, the ’55 Chevy is one that tops the list. If that Tri-Five is a gasser, it’s off-the-charts cool. Vincent Paradiso agrees, and tells us he found this car while perusing the Internet. “I was told the car was very nice, but when I got it home, it needed pretty much everything. I took it apart and sent the body out to be painted.” Vincent said.

55 chevy

Big block? Check. But, instead of the usual blower and twin carbs, Vincent kept it simple and reliable with a single 850 cfm Holley fuel squirter.

The body features a smoother-than-glass black paint job – which is no easy task – and the obligatory tilt front end. It’s a gasser, what else would you expect? What the pictures don’t make easily visible is, that flip-up nose is not a single piece of fiberglass. The one-piece tilting engine cover is made up of metal body parts that have been melded to create a single – albeit large – portion of the body.

55 chevy

You would be hard pressed to find a more comfortable gasser-style car to drive.

Under that front sheetmetal is a 502ci engine with a serious hydraulic flat-tappet camshaft. Perched atop the iron heads is a single-plane aluminum intake and 850 cfm Holley carburetor. That mill has also been set-back in the chassis 10 inches, which – as you can imagine – made firewall modifications necessary. Behind the big block is a Turbo 400 transmission and an Olds rearend with 4.11 gears.

Vincent told us that until he purchased the Chevy, it had been a race car since it was received by its first caretaker. He also let us know that with all of the work he has done, it is basically a new ’55 Chevy. “I have put about 5,000 miles on it and I drive it everywhere,” Vincent stated.

55 gasser

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].

About the author

Randy Bolig

Randy Bolig has been working on cars and has been involved in the hobby ever since he bought his first car when he was only 14 years old. His passion for performance got him noticed by many locals, and he began helping them modify their vehicles.
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