55 Chevy Mild Custom

[catpack68]

i finished this about a month ago.built using the revell 55 hardtop kit.i lowered the suspension,the paint is testors hugger orange and duplicolor white.the wheels are from the revell 49 merc kit.the front and rear bumpers and tailights are from the amt 55 nomad kit.spotlights and tube grill are from the parts box

inspiration for this build was lyle willits 55 mild custom he did awhile back.thanks for looking.

[Darrell Gwinn]

She is a beauty! Awesome job

[cooltoys1]

MMMMM, very tasty in orange. I love it. I have been inspired once again and have already begun to collect parts to do one myself.

Jay

[Raul_Perez]

Very nice, clean build!!

The paint and the BMF work look right on the money!!

[RodBurNeR]

very sweet build! i am all about mild and traditional, keep up the great work!

[Robert81]

Very nice. Turned out way better than mine.

In my defense, I built it in 72 hours. And I started with an AMT kit.

[Willy Survive]

Thats awesome! Suprisingly it seems to me that you don't see a lot of kustoms with the tri five Chevies. Tons of gassers, hot rods, race cars, and stock but not so much kustoms. In our model world that seems to be the case at least. I think you've put the Kustom tri five Chevy idea in the back of a lot of our heads. Thanks Racer X. Or should I call you Rex Racer? Great job on the build man. She's a real beauty. -Will

[MrObsessive]

Very sharp and clean-------It's got a no nonsense look to it! The backup lamp delete is a nice touch too...........not all '55's had backup lights.

Love your handle Racer X............One of my favorite 'toon's as a kid in the '60's was Speed Racer!

[Lyle Willits]

VERY nice build. I really like it. Love the colors. I'm honored that my model inspired yours.

[luciomduran]

You should check this out. Your builds would be perfect for it. It is a club for traditional hot rod and custom models. We are having a build-off that ends in November.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=105

[Bobdude]

That's the way a '55 Chevy mild custom should look.

[Slim Louis]

Holy cow, that looks like my backyard! Great looking 55!

[Willy Survive]

Even "back in the day" in real life, there weren't a lot of customs based on the 55-57 Chevies. The Aztec was the most well known, based on the 55 Chevy & there were a few others, (several 56 Chevies, some 55's & some 57's as I recall), but the Tri-Five Chevies never attained the status among customizers as did the 49-51 Mercs or even the 58 Impala. One reason often stated for this is the fact that in the case of the 57 Chevy at least, there's not a lot that can be done with it, due to it's fins & all. Add in that the roofs of these cars were much harder to chop than the earlier cars & you had less of a "canvas" to work with Custom paint, some trim deletion, & grille & light swaps pretty much cover most of the mods that can be done to a Tri-Five Chevy fairly easily. There were custom Tri-Fives back then, but both due to the fact that it was a harder car to perform more radical customizing on successfully, & it's almost instant crowning as a good performing car with an engine that responded well to modifying, (due to Chevy getting the then young automotive aftermarket to invest money in providing parts for that, one of their advertising execs got Hot Rod to do an engine swap of the SBC in a 40 Ford, even had it on the cover, that was a big cause for the rapid growth of the car & engine taking off among rodders & racers), & that's pretty much why it never cuaght one as much among customizers.

Scott's 55, (which BTW is a beautiful & very clean build Scott. I like it a lot!!), is actually very representative of not only the easier mods one would fine on a Tri-Five Chevy custom, but is also very representative of what a large number of the customs of the original era looked like. While Barris, Joe Bailon, the Alexander Borthers et al, did major work, their "bread & butter" was milder customs like these. Nosed & decked, removal of the door handles, custom grilles, spotlights, (especially dummy ones), custom tail lights & often custom headlightrs, (such as by Lucas), were the norm back then.

Awesome info Mark. I feel like I've seen a lot of 53 and 54 Kustom Chevies too. The 55-57 makes a great hot rod and now I see why these were never really Kustom material. I'd love to see that article on the SBC swap with the 40 Ford. Another hot rod favorite of mine by the way. Like I said great information for future reference. And again great build Racer X. Thanks. -Will

[Nick F40]

I really like how this looks, love the colors and the wheels are perfect

[Starliner Kustoms]

Sweet! I love the look of this car. Simple but beautiful.

Bernie

[catpack68]

thanks for the comments guys

[8bahead]

Very nice traditional double nickle

[Chromecop]

Awesome looking machine!!!!

[RadRidesByDan]

The best thing about this build is that it is simple looking but extremely classy Everything done to it is in perfect harmony.

2 thumbs up

[W-409]

Wow, awesome! So smooth looking '55 Chevy! This is maybe my favourite custom style, no big body modifications, but low and smooth& clean, I mean that there are no anything no needed stuff. This is just perfect. The paintjob looks cool, it's so shiney and smooth. Colour combo is also perfect. Chrome Reverse wheels are just perfect to this, that grille looks good on it too. Engine detailing looks awesome, that engine is very nice all the way! I can't find any mistakes from it. :o

[Terry Sumner]

Scott...beautiful job! Hey..I'm interested in how you lowered the suspension...got any photos of the chassis you can post? Or in lieu of that...a description of what you did to accomplish the lowering?

Thanks!

Terry

[randx0]

I like it too!

[davyou5]

That has to be the most Awesome Build of the '55, Lovin it!!! :wub: .

[Lownslow]

i dig this its a clean custom

[DRG]

Growing up in Norwood Ohio there were quite a few of the tri-5 Chevys that were mild custom.

You have done this classic car very well,

It looks dead on the money.