Rick Inserra's
1955 Chevy

last updated 05/15/2004

Rick Inserra of Austin, Texas, owns this '55 Chevy.  He'd already had the back-half chassis done when he brought it to me.  I did the front-half cage, wheel tubs, seat mounts, headrests, and all the aluminum.


Work done by Big Wig Race Cars:
click any image below to see full size

 

Arriving on the trailer...

Here's where it all happens.

 

Below, some pictures of the completed work.
Aluminum panels still have white plastic on them from scratch protection.

This car is street legal, so it gets two seats and swing-out door bars.

Front half cage - hugs A-pillar then turns forward toward floorboard.  Barely visible from outside the car - a tough feat with such a big wraparound windshield and vertical A-pillars like these cars have.

Headrests drop down from main hoop.  Lowback seats with the floating headrests - too cool!

Rick wouldn't let me put the standard chili pepper push/pull knob on the cut-off switch, so we went with the bowtie.

Big Wig Race Cars battery hold down.  Machined by Davey Crow.

 

 

Few pictures below from the construction phase:

Inner steel wheel tubs.  There's about a 1" gap between these and the aluminum tubs you see in the interior and trunk.  This way, the steel ones get dinged up during burnouts (or just normal driving) and the aluminum ones that are visible stay safe from flying pebbles.

 

Tires are so wide, no off-the-shelf steel tubs would reach all the way to the fender.  I fabricated the outer pieces of each tub, along with fender support struts, such that each wheel tub can still be broken down into 3 pieces and removed from the car at any time.

 


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