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.
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.
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.
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].