Hot Rods Original 555 Triple Nickel Roadster Body FOUND!

Oh the irony... I build an old car, put a 5 on the door, sell it... and then years later, another old car comes to me, and it had THREE 5's on the door! Striped by Von Dutch no less!!
So I'm on Craigslist, saw an advertisement for a Model T Roadster Body, recognized it as a Model A Roadster body, saw some familiar and distinctive things about it... did my research, woke up the next morning at 4:00am, my gears started turning like "I better jump on this, like NOW!". So, I poured three cups of coffee in my thermos, put 120 gallons of diesel in my truck, and by 4:30am I was headed out of state to go buy this thing! Since buying it, I've bought up all of the magazines and publications it's been in, I've done a lot more research, talked to the players that made this thing end up where it ended up, some of whom lied to me about what was done... but hey, in the end, who cares... it's here, and it's safe.

I mean... this body was the first successful drag car with a Smal Block Chevy and also won the first drag race at Lions.




This is what convinced me is was the original... how many similarities can you spot?




It was talked about years ago... but then interest kinda died off...

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/any-pics-on-the-555-triple-nickel-a-roadster.299665/

 

WOW!

 

What a score! Congratulations.

 

Ho leee chit!!! Congratulations dude!!

 

Bitchin!

 

nice score, get that primer off and see what may come to light !

 

Can't be. The other thread stated the recreators deemed the body too rough to use.

 

Awesome! Where did you find it?? Had it just been sitting since the 60s?

 

Sheezus' .. how is that body "too far gone" ?? Looks pretty solid from here.

 

Well dayamn! Thats a great score!

 

Easy going on the primer removal! Hope you can lift the original numbers.

 

Congrats @SamIyam...I'm suspecting your purchasing this is the best thing that happened to this Vintage Hotrod in its later life...

Fortunately its seemingly unfucked with so despite it's less than knowledgeable former owners they seem to have left what remains well enough alone...

Thanks for sharing this and that is very fortunate for us who will get to follow your adventures with it...

That's and incredible story...ya done good...

 

Congrats on your score! Excellent chunk of hot rod history.

 

You sir have hit the jackpot,( won the lottery that is, struck gold that is) great find.


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Damn, you must be grinning from ear to ear. Congrats.

 

That's bad ass. History in the re-making right here, guys.

 

Awesome score!

 

Sam,

Can you share any more of the history - the steps it went through to end up where you bought the shell? The history stories on these old race cars can be gold!

Edit: Did you only get the body? Do you know where any of the other parts are, and if so, are they obtainable?

 

strange they would build a clone and not use the original body.

 

Good on you for putting in the effort to save this piece of history .

 

Nice find, and thanks for tagging us along.

 

Will you be duplicating the tow rig also. ..?

 

Awesome, thanks for letting us join in the fun.

 

The history piece is completely documented by me, but I'm not putting it out on a public forum because I don't want people to get butt-hurt, nor do I want to slander dead people who made bad decisions… but man, it's interesting!

I just got the body... I'd love to buy other parts from it, but I'm not sure how to go about that at this point.

Also, I'm not sure what I will do with it. I think restoring old historic cars is cool, but it's not my thing... it's "restoring"... not hot rodding. I'm a hot rodder.

 

Also, I think the number of people willing to put in the time and money to correctly restore such a significant piece of hot rodding history is very small... and shrinking every day. That said, the people lining up to purchase such a piece after someone pumps all of the time money into it is shrinking as well.

 

Many of us were bitching about the changes in the HAMB, over the years, but this stuff is why I come here. I know you'll do something worth watching with it. Carry on...

 

Awesome score ! If you dont decide to do the restore I hope someone like Dave Shuten gets ahold of it.

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