Pro Fusion 1955 Chevy Pro Street Meets Pro Mod

It would be hard to find a classic custom that has gained more attention than the Pro-Fusion 1955 Chevy Bel Air Custom from Massachusetts. Full feature stories published in Hot Rod Magazine and Street Rodder Magazine have elevated this classic custom to national attention and beyond. That place where Pro Street and Pro Mod cross over is where you’ll find it in American hot rod lure. 

This week the Pro-Fusion 1955 Chevy Bel Air has been listed for sale by Zoom Classic Cars in Hanover, Massachusetts. The over-the-top custom show car is featured with videos and links to several Hot Rod Magazine feature stories. (Click here to review the information in the ad and link to a photo bucket of photos taken at car shows. ) 

All great custom show cars have a theme that the builder and owner are interested in designing into the build. The fusion of Pro-Street meets Pro-Mod is apparent from the design levels incorporated throughout the build making it an extremely unique, one-off creation with an endless number of breathtaking elements. You see it right away in the photos, and especially in this video below:

Our Cars-On-Line photograhers remember it when it graced the show floor at the Detroit Autorama in 2017. It’s in your face rear rubber giving it the stance and look that Pro Street has come to mean, while the supercharged mill provides the ground pounding heartbeat of a true racing Pro Mod. Since then it has further evolved and has earned 1st place award wins wherever it has been shown. This would also include the prestigious Piston-Power Autorama in Cleveland, World of Wheels in Boston and Toronto Motorama where the car received a stream of awards including the Meguiar’s Award for Outstanding Paint. “Pro-Fusion” always gathers a crowd as well as admiration of the judging staff. 

The Story of the Build

An original 1955 Chevy Bel Air was stripped bare with the body being transported to Tube Chassis Designz (TCD) to have John Sandahl start the build. That was how the Pro-Fusion 1955 Chevy Bel Air was born. Sandahl first fabricated a custom 4130 chromoly double-rail Pro-Mod chassis certified to 6.50, meeting SFI 25.1E specifications. Out back he used a Strange Engineering 9-inch HD steel housing with their 9-inch Pro Iron and 4.30 gears. He used 40-spline gun-drilled axles. He fabricated a custom TCD 4-link incorporating a 4-link, sway bar and Panhard bar cleverly mated to a pair of Strange Engineering Ultra-Series Drag Race coil-over shocks. 

The front suspension features Santhuff’s tube chassis double-adjustable coilover struts, TCD chromoly lower control arms and Strange Engineering manual rack-and-pinion steering. 

The Chevy is shod with Radir Tri-Rib 15×4-inch wheels, front, and has Centerline Vintage 15×15-inch in the rear. Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials grip the road.

That monster big block engine was built by Camco Racing Engines in Weymouth, Massachussets. First a Dart Sportsman iron block was bored for 540 ci, fortified with a Callies Magnum crank with Ultra-I Beam rods, JE 11.5:1 dome pistons, and a custom-ground Comp cam for that ground pounding syncopation. Brodix Big Brodie 3 heads make the power with Kinsler Fuel Injection. Kinsler created a custom induction system converting the Dart dual-quad tunnel ram to EFI. Tubular Automotive fabricated a one-off set of headers exiting exhaust through custom fabricated 4-inch pipes to Flowmaster mufflers. 

Tuned by Jim Reid, Jr of Reid’s Automotive, the monster big block dyno’d at 725 horsepower. The Dart motor was mated to a TH400 transmission with ATI 10-inch converter. 

Wanting the car to have a signature look to separate it from the pack, a design consultation was set up with Paul Gamache of Gamache Rod & Custom in Freetown, Massachusetts. He crafted the signature hood scoop to embrace the Enderle butterfly’s as well as infuse the floating Corvette grille, new inner fenders and radiator filler panel. For the interior design, Gamache made a custom sheet metal dash using Auto Meter Ultra-Lite carbon fiber dials set into gauge pods by TCD. 

Once back at Perfection, the team metal finished the body, set all the gaps and blended a custom House of Kolor Brandywine Kandy gloss to bring it all to life. A custom steering column by TDC has a Grant steering wheel, and on the console a Hurst Pistol-Grip Quater Stick shifter squeezes power through the gears. For that old school racing look Crello Upholstery clad a pair of Kirkey Racing seats and all surrounding panels with a classic black vinyl diamond tuck. 

The resulting show car is a masterpiece, a blend of racing culture old and new. As time goes by, it will be an iconic piece of racing history, as beautiful as it is awe inspiring. For our Cars-On-Line readers, Pro Street is still alive and well. The evidence is here.  

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