1955 Chevy Nomad (Episode No. 3) COWL TAG MYSTERY

[@monadking2761]

That's amazing, on your find! Your right the Nomad on the east coast came trough Tarrytown. On your vin number there is a T after 55 as well to prove that. I have had my 55 since 74 and im building another Nomad from a 2-door 210 wagon. Yes, It is changing everything from the rockers on up including the A pillers since the roof had to be changed too. What you have is a special one. Contact Don from Don's hotrod garage. He is very knowledgeable on Nomads and parts. I have worked with him and he has help me out with information or parts. If you pull off the paint code plate you will find the color under it too. Good luck with that car it is still in good shape and it sounds like you know what your doing.

[@donshotrodgarage1717]

Hey John. Your video popped up on my recommendation. I gave you a sub. I think you reached out to me on a comment before about the front fender trim. If you look at how your top fender brackets attach to the fender you can tell them are NOS Fenders. Both of your fenders are not regular assembly lines parts. NOS fenders come with no mounting brackets, you would reuse your old ones. There is also a little fender bracket that secures the inner fender. Your fenders do not have them. Speaking on the one door you showed it has had a complete door skin put on the door. You can tell by the ruff fit around the perimeter of the door and the shiney new metal on the inside. What i believe you have is a special paint color 55 Nomad. Tarrytown was the largest assembly plant building 55 Chevys Los Angeles was a close 2nd place. All Nomads left Euclid Ave assembled from the firewall back and put on a train to final assembly plant. Your frame front nose bumpers etc come from the final assembly plant. You indeed have a cool piece of Chevy Nomad history. But it certainly had the 6 piece 55 Nomad only frontend chrome new. I enjoyed the video. Good luck on the Build 👍👍

[@johnkelly6942]

@@donshotrodgarage1717 If I haven’t done it yet in recent videos I definitely need to change my position on what this car is. There is no doubt this car took a hard hit early in its life and at time all the original eyebrow trim got trashed. My fenders are in great shape and might have been the dealer (body shop?) replacements at a time when you could still get OEM GE fenders. My inner fenders are missing edges (rust) and the lower fender extensions were completely wasted. Similarly my hood (and front grill) is in excellent shape and has to be a replacement from the wreck repair. The door skin could have also happened at the time of the wreck.

[@greggonzalez7396]

Great video with lots of opinions. Trim and color, leave it to the experts they'll figure it out. When they do people will still disagree.

[@joefracasso5265]

To my knowledge, and I'm no expert by any means, the SPL paint code ment military color, primer to be painted later (i.e. to match a business paint scheme), or a factory paint color available from another branch of GM for that specific model year. That being said, I believe your Nomad came with a Cadillac color called Tangier Tan Metallic. Thanks for sharing, I found your video very enjoyable.

[@johnkelly6942]

@@joefracasso5265 Thanks for the feedback! Chevrolet definitely offered an orange (called Omaha Orange) for trucks, panel deliveries, etc. but was available for passenger cars. That’s my guess. Last week the president of the Nomad club came to look at the car. I believe he said he’s never seen one (he’s owned his ‘55 for 47 years). He’s going to share the cowl tag with other club members to see if we can learn more about it.

[@ezsgarage1766]

My 1957 chevy 150 cowl tag also says SPL on my paint on the cowl tag. It was a solid white one color car. As far as a nomad , especially a 55 had the top fender eyebrows chrome then down the front fenders then part of the door .the video you talk about was chevrolet Assembling a 2 door hardtop or a 2 or 4 dr sedan car not a wagon NOMAD

[@frankfurther3828]

If my friend's dad was still alive, he could solve the mystery. He was in the paint dept at Tarrytown.

[@johnkelly6942]

@@frankfurther3828 that would’ve been nice! As I’ve probably said previously this is not a restoration project so it’s not absolutely necessary to determine the original factory color. I still don’t know if the bodies left Fischer (Cleveland, OH) in some kind of black primer then, on a car like mine, it would have gotten its finish coat of gloss black single stage at Tarrytown.

[@frankfurther3828]

@@johnkelly6942 Maybe you could trace the ownership?

[@fluffyzia]

Omaha Orange is a school bus color.

[@robertkaler2152]

I would have to agree with you that that SPL is a special order vehicle.There's too much evidence that the car was orange.When it left the factory i'm gonna have to agree with you one hundred percent

[@garybuckridge9158]

I think it was gypsy red which has faded. I think it was all one color that the SpL stands for. My 55 gypsy red nomad looks orange after years of fading. disagree with the no nomad trim.

[@johnkelly6942]

If the car was Gypsy Red, would it not have indicated color numbers 596 (single color) or 617 (2-tone Gypsy Red/India Ivory)? Did you watch the entire video? While I agree the paint on the dash was faded the paint on the toe boards had never been exposed to sunlight since 1955. The same is true where the lift gate struts, weatherstrip, etc. were removed and the paint not exposed since 1955. As for the eyebrow trim I think that myth has been repeated so often people assume it to be fact. Until someone can produce a document from Chevrolet stating “100% of all 1955 Nomads shall be equipped with eyebrow trim” I’m not buying it based on the car I have in front of my eyes. Once again, doors that had definitely been on the since new with NO TRIM HOLES. The special order color (Omaha Orange) confirms THOSE DOORS were on THAT CAR since 1955.

[@garybuckridge9158]

my nomad was gypsy red and that exact orange color was under the trim when I removed it. as far as the eyebrows go, it would be amazing if they cut those holes after the car was assembled to mount the trim. anyway, good luck and I hope your project goes well. mine is in the body shop after 20 years of building. @@johnkelly6942

[@leebongirno9670]

The car was painted all apart inner fenders were not attached to fenders when painted at the factory. There have been some touch up work. Head light buckets were not in the fenders when originally painted at the factory. A customer picked their own color I would think for more money. Don’t know about door and fender moldings not being there. Interesting Nomad.