55 Chevy Build | Tri-Five Sedan Built from Scratch with Reproduction Sheet Metal

In this video we’ll show you how tri-five chevy bodies are built from scratch using Golden Star Classic Auto Parts. We’ve included tips and tricks for people looking to assemble entire bodies or simply a few pieces of sheet metal.

If you would like to purchase a complete tri-five body or piece of tri-five reproduction sheet metal, you can head over to our website: https://goldenstarauto.com/collection...

Or give us a call at: (972)315-3758

For the 24th Build on MotorTrend’s Week to Wicked Show, the Team had their eyes set on building a 1955 Chevy. The challenge was trying to find a 1955 chevy body that was in good enough shape to be within their budget and ready for some minor body work and paint.

With slim options within their budget, the Week to Wicked build team gave Golden Star Classic Auto Parts a call and inquired about building a complete 1955 chevy from scratch. We actually have every piece of sheet metal they needed to build their 1955 chevy from scratch and at a price that was within their budget.

We sent the Golden Star Classic Auto Parts 1955 sheet metal over to our friends at Real Deal Steel to complete the 1955 Chevy complete body build. Steven Rupp, Editor of Super Chevy Magazine and Writer for Hot Rod Magazine, was on site with Joe from Real Deal Steel to get some background on how tri-five bodies are built and tips / tricks for guys at home that don’t have fancy rotisseries, fixtures or heavy duty spot welders. The big difference between the way GM used to build tri-five bodies and the way companies are building them now is that the assembly line doesn’t move. Otherwise, the methodology of building a 1955 chevy sedan is very similar.

The vast majority of the sheet metal for this project came from Golden Star Classic Auto Parts but there were some modifications the Week to Wicked Team requested to make the body ready for modern performance parts. They requested mini-tubs to get some bigger tires underneath the rear of the car, a recessed firewall to create room for an LT1 and a larger transmission tunnel for the Magnum T56. The nice thing about building a complete body from scratch is that you are able to make those sheet metal changes as you are building the body as opposed to stripping down an original car and making those modifications.

To start building the tri-five sedan body, Jordan spot welded the main floor and trunk floor together to create the foundation. Before moving on, this was a perfect time to cut out a section for the mini-tub while there was still plenty of room to access this part of the floor.

Next up was using vice grips and clamps to mount the firewall to floor. Jordan used pins in the locate where the frame and body mount bolts will be to ensure the sheet metal was in the right spot. Now it was time to bolt down the sheet metal to the rotisserie lift and spot weld the firewall to the floor.

One of the most important tooling that professional body shops use are fixtures. These fixtures save time and help ensure that the sheet metal is being positioned and mounted correctly. On the fixtures are cam locks that help with positioning the roof bow, inner quarter panels and entire inner structure of the car. The nice thing about cam locks is that they have levers to easily remove tension once the sheet metal is secured in place and the fixture is ready to be removed.

If you are a guy at home building a 1955, 1956 or 1957 chevy sedan body, the best advice for someone without the luxury of a fixture is to do measurements off of an original tri-five body and then go off those measurements.

With the fixture in place, Jordan moved on to the most crucial step when building tri-five bodies, which is getting the inner structure into place. The inner structure included Golden Star Classic Auto Parts cowl shoulders, inner quarter panels, roof panel frame braces and other pieces of sheet metal.

Now that the shell of the 55-57 body was positioned and welded in, it was time to move on to fitting the doors. Jordan came up with a cool trick to use a rolling shop chair with a few pieces of stacked wood to support the door as he worked on fitment.

The key to mounting the doors correctly is to make sure the door is parallel with the cowl shoulder and parallel with the bottom of the floor and then check for good door gaps. With the doors in place and tightened up, it was time to bring in the rear quarter panels, tail to quarter panel section, trunk, roof skin and get them welded in.

A lot more work went into finishing the 1955 Chevy Sedan body, but all in all it took about 7 day’s with the right parts, tooling and professional working on it.

Golden Star Classic Auto Parts also produces sheet metal and restoration parts for classic favorites including makes: Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Jeep, Volkswagen and Models including: Bronco, Tri-Five, Camaro, 1949-1954 Chevy, T1 Bus, OBS, Mustang, El Camino, Chevelle, Monte Carlo, A Bodies, G Bodies, GTO and others.