GO-MAD NOMAD by ROB RILEY

I got the idea to build a rear-engined 55 nomad after seeing the "Chevado" street legal, rear engined 55 nomad wheel stander. I got an engine, trans, and headers out of a tom Daniel Baja-beast kit to use as a basis for this car. the whole car was built around this engine/trans. set-up. I cut the chassis apart, and got rid of the molded in gas tank, muffler and spare tire. I made 3 cross-members out of plastic rod..2 to hold the chassis together, and one for an engine mount. getting the engine to sit right, and making the rear wheels end up centered in the wheel wells was a challenge. since the transmission has a reverse mounted quick change rear end, I was limited as to how much I could move the engine forwards or backwards without coming up with some other kind of rear end set-up. once everything was all lined up, I cut the rear of the interior floor out to clear the engine....

 I also had to radius the rear wheel wells for the slicks to clear the body. the firewall, and inner front fenders were cut from the body before the paint went on. the chassis, engine, body and dash are all painted testors comp. orange, and then clear-coated. the interior features a push-button automatic shifter on the dash under a bank of gages. and there are 2 brake levers on the trans. floor hump for independent rear braking to steer while doing a wheelie. I also cut out the floor right above the gas and brake pedals so the driver would have a window to see where he was going while doing a wheelie. the interior is painted aluminum, with a black seat. the roll bar was made from extra plastic rods. the Baja-beast headers were drilled out at the ends, and painted aluminum. they fit over the chassis rails like they were made for this kit. I used the kit supplied dropped front straight axle, and radius rods, and kit supplied American torque thrust wheels. the tailgate was left down to double as a wheelie bar. the stock 55 Chevy grill was replaced with a filler panel, and 3 chrome 36 ford bullet shaped headlights were glued on in reverse (so the look like bullets) I left the front bumper off, and used the kit supplied rear bumper, and Plexiglas style tail lights.