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Project "Bruiser" 55 Nomad by HotRod Dynamics

323K views 961 replies 95 participants last post by  Vetterodder 
#1 · (Edited)
This latest creation from the HotRod Dynamics shop is a Restomod 55 Nomad that will feature the very first Art Morrison production chassis with independant rear suspension for a TriFive Chevy. It will be powered by a L99 6.2L engine backed by a 6l80E trans. We are very excited about this project and hope that you guys and gals stay tuned and enjoy the show!
A few months ago I was contacted by Dan aka Vetterodder on the forum about building a customized Nomad. Dan is in Florida, but he found time to make it up to North Carolina to check out the shop and some of our work. We started hashing out a preliminary plan to bring his vision to life. After some internet searching and checking out a few leads, Dan came across this 55 Nomad in Kentucky. The purchase was made and a few weeks later we had a Nomad roller setting in our shop. Dan waited patiently as we were in the process of moving into our new facility and also trying to finish up some other customer projects. Well the time has finally come for us to get started on this latest tri-five adventure, "Bruiser". Dan came up with the clever name based on his vision for a Dark blue/black color scheme. The car we have to work with has its fair share of sheet metal damage and amateur patch jobs, but overall is quite solid with little rust. As you can see, the passenger side is pretty decent, but the driver side has been pretty beat up. On top of that it looks like someone started removing the quarter with a can opener. Now I've been very busy with trying to get the new shop situated, so forgive me for not having taken as many detailed photos as I normally do, but as you can see, the metal work is well underway. We shaved the gas door as we plan to do the same hidden fuel fill behind the tail light as we did on the Prestwood 55 convertible. The driver door skin and quarter were replaced. the drivers door jamb was straightened. We had to fab a new B pillar as one for a Nomad isn't currently being reproduced. On the passenger side, the door skin around the handle and lock had been butchered so we fabbed a new patch panel. We've also been finding and removing some old lead patch jobs covering some sheet metal damage in the lower passenger quarter. Of course the car is receiving our smoothie firewall. A previous owner had fabbed up a crude firewall recess. In the process they had cut into the bottom of the cowl area so we also had to patch that up. The new chassis should be here in about a week so we can transplant the body and start fine tuning fitment and gaps.

























 
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#899 ·
Congrats Dan. Now the fun is coming to you after all the waiting in Paint and Interior jail.

I say it was all worth it.

Glad I could be have a small part of the build
 
#904 ·
It is not everyday that you get to see a 1955 Nomad around town, much less a fully custom RestoModded 1955 Nomad. Today however was a rare day as I ran into another "Dan" who has a Street Rodder Magazine featured 55 Nomad with AME chassis and LSA engine! The other Dan is from Maryland and happens to have this incredible build in FL for a few weeks.

It was a picture worthy moment!











 
#910 ·
What a special day with the Nomad (Bruiser).

I took Bruiser to the Super Chevy Show today and was awarded not only with the Best Tri-Five Award but was selected as one of 4 vehicles as a Super Chevy Magazine Editor's pick!!!!!!!!! Pictures of the Nomad will appear in the magazine sometime in the future. The nicest part of the day was to talk to the other TriFive owners at the show - what a bunch of nice folks to spend the early part of the afternoon.






The real treat for me was to later take Bruiser to pick up my son and his date for the Junior Prom. I chauffeured them to City Place (downtown West Palm Beach) for pictures and then dropped them off at the Prom location.
The kids thought it was cool to pull up in the Nomad versus a limousine.






 
#914 · (Edited)
My family and I had a big weekend watching Bruiser on TV. We have thanked AJ and the Velocity crew for their kind words and great show.

In addition, this weekend, Mike Kelly's Cruise News came out with the June edition of their Magazine which features Bruiser on the cover along with a feature story! Thank you Mike Kelly and staff for choosing our Nomad to appear in your magazine !!!






 
#921 ·
At the moment Joe says he is too busy at the shop to break free and join the show. While that is a good reason, I do hope he changes his mind and finds a window of time to come over. We shall see.

I plan on driving the Nomad up to Joe in a couple of weeks to give it a once over and reconfigure the exhaust as it is a bit too loud for my family and me. My friends love the rumble but it does get a bit annoying on longer trips.
 
#924 ·
I just drove the Nomad over 10.5 hours straight from Florida to Joe's shop in NC without any issues. The main reason for dropping off the Nomad at Hot Rod Dynamics is to make a couple of adjustments to quiet down the exhaust as it is a bit too loud for our family and still has a little drone to eliminate.

After over 2500 miles I can certainly say that Joe builds a bullet proof ride and that I do like the combo. While I hardly use the manual mode, it is connected.

I plan to drive it from Joe's shop to Bowling Green next month and then back to FL in August.
 
#925 ·
Joe and his team at Hot Rod Dynamics strike again!!

As I stated in my previous post, I drove the Nomad to Hot Rod Dynamics last week to prepare for the TriFive Nationals in August. The goal is to soften the raspy sound and minor drone away from the exhaust.

The task began about a month ago researching what products to incorporate that could achieve my goal without starting from scratch. We thought about shorty headers to give us more room but found it difficult to find something off the shelf that would properly fit with the AME chassis unless HRD were to fabricate custom ones (no time and expensive route). The token muffler location is limited in terms of what you can fit so I focused on resonators.

I found the reviews of the Vibrant resonators to be consistently positive so Joe installed these as the first step of the process and to his surprise, they really did work to reduce the raspy edge of the exhaust. Look at the pictures below - the resonators are as large as the mufflers !!

Next - the Catalytic Converters:
Joe figured out a clever way to shoe horn the Hi-Flow Magnaflow Cats right behind the existing long tube headers - so that was completed. While it can be argued whether or not this contributes to sound reduction was not the primary driver, but I do like the clean burn or lack of that "smell" albeit there was not much of one truth be told.

Finally, as an experiment, Joe - at my request - connected an "H" pipe toward the back. Again, the H or X is typically located before the mufflers - not after, but I figured - could not hurt either.

Mission completed. The Nomad still has a nice mellow rumble but domesticated.




 
#926 ·
Trying to learn from your experience, it looks like from the picture that there is space for a bigger muffler, or that the resonator could be in the space with the muffler if the frame had been designed that way. Is that something you could have done during construction? I think my frame is set up similar to yours with a center inlet and offset outlet. I plan on putting electric cutouts for when I want it loud, but want as quiet as possible for driving down the highway.

Just thinking ahead, I have got a few years before I need to worry about mufflers, lol.

Have fun at the Nationals! Is your son going to be able to go with you?
 
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