oss (that’s what he’ll answer to), like most kids who grew up in the late ’70s, played with cars—Hot Wheels and the like—but as he got a little older, that toy car passion turned to real cars. “My dad always had old cars around,” Jonathan “Hoss” Nagel says. “We used to restore cars together, Corvettes mostly, which is how I got into this whole car thing.”
“The car drove pretty well when I bought it, but it had a few small issues, so my buddy Auggie Faris, who has since [died], and I went through the engine and addressed the leaks and freshened it up,” Hoss says. “For a vintage 283, [Faris] and I got it running pretty good.”
Sticking with the vintage mill, he added a ’57 Corvette dual-quad intake topped with a couple 385-cfm Carter WCFB carbs and found a couple stock Corvette air cleaners on a shelf under some other old Corvette goodies and put those on for some old-school flavor. Hoss painted the block and valve covers gold to bring the old engine a little extra attention then bolted on a set of Doug’s fenderwell headers to abide by the gasser look.
He took the car over to Candido’s Garage in Orange, California, to dial in a set of ball joint spacers and custom coilover shocks from Aldan American to jack up the front for the right look. “When we first raised the front end of the car, it had some ill-fitting, no-name-brand shocks on the car and it was outright scary to drive,” Hoss chuckles. “Once we bolted on the Aldan shocks and springs, the car took on a much-improved driving personality. A set of Williams Classic Chassis Works traction bars were added to complete the scene. “I was talked into taking the car on an autocross once and it did better than I thought,” Hoss laughs. “But that’s a story for another day.”
Hoss stuck with the TH350 transmission that came with the car and had the crew at Community Transmission in Bellflower, California, give it a good onceover. He backed it up with a 2,500 stall converter and used an old 4:10 posi rearend he had laying around from his stock of old Corvette parts.
Vehicle: ’56 Chevy Bel Air
Type: Gen I small-block
Displacement: 283 ci
Induction: ’57 Corvette dual-quad, two Carter 385-cfm WCFB carburetors, ’57 Corvette air cleaners
Exhaust: Doug’s fenderwell headers, custom collectors by Randy Miller
Ancillaries: Painted gold valve covers and block
Transmission: TH300 by Community Transmission (Bellflower, CA)
Rear Axle: Early Corvette 4:10 posi
Front Suspension: Ball joint spacers, custom Aldan coilover shocks installed by Candido’s Garage (Orange, CA)
Rear Suspension: Aldan shocks, stock leaf springs, Williams Classic Chassis Works traction bars
Brakes: ABS (Orange, CA) disc brakes and master cylinder
Wheels: Rocket Racing Injectors polished; 15×4.5 front, 15×8 rear
Tires: Vredestein Sprint Classic 165 HR 15 front, Pie Crust Cheater Slick 28×9 R15 rear
Upholstery: Black loop carpet, black vinyl pleated doors and seat covers
Installation: L’s Upholstery (Anaheim, CA)
Seats: ’63 T-bird bucket
Steering: CPP tilt column, Gold Flake Moon steering wheel
Shifter: Lokar
Instrumentation: Stock gauges, Moon half sweep tach, Moon underdash three-pod gauge set
HVAC: Windwing open
Bodywork and Paint by: N/A
Paint: GM Crimson King
Lettering and Graphics: Larry Fator (San Dimas, CA)
Bumpers: Deleted front, stock rear
The lettering not only looks vintage but was a fun way to represent his kids: The GRW Speed Shop lettering stands for his kids Garret, Ruby, and Wyatt, while the H&S graphic represents Hannah and Sonya. “While trying to come up with a name for the car, my wife, Stori, is a Misfits fan, so she came up with ‘Crimson Ghost’ as it ties in with the color of the car and is the band’s trademark,” Hoss reveals.
Hoss has a ’55 Chevy in the wings that he plans to give the full gasser treatment with big power and little street manners that will spend a good amount of time on the dragstrip. “But this ’56 is dedicated to [Faris] and my dad—[Faris] for all the help, and to my dad for being such a huge influence and introducing me to the car world,” he says.
So far, highlights include having the car being in the pinup calendar for Haus of Volta, his wife’s non-profit organization dedicated to help women affected by breast cancer; displaying the car at the NHRA Winternationls; Nitro Revival; and the Mooneyes show, and the camaraderie that comes along with being part of the Outlaw Gassers SoCal group. “Because of this car, I’ve made so many new friends and really enjoy how it’s been able to get the family involved,” Hoss says. “The Crimson Ghost might be a bit light in horsepower but to me it’s the journey not the destination. We’ll get there when we get there.”