Rick Rusk from Lanesville, Indiana, built this car a few years ago with the help of a few friends (Darrell Underwood, Clay Leak, and Buddy Rouck), and his intentions all along were to drive this car on the street. He found the car for sale online and went to Leitchfield, Kentucky, to buy it from Chris Clark. The car had passed through the hands of many gearheads, and Rick has spoken to numerous people who remember the car. He even spoke to the son of a previous owner, who was responsible for the car’s black paintjob. The car was all black, painted with Dupont Imron materials approximately 40 years ago. The paint still shined up nicely, but was showing a little age, so Mike Lowhorn spruced it up with a two-tone paintjob with gold and mixed flake into the clear for a cool look. The frontend is all steel and tilts forward, revealing a period-correct small-block Chevy. The aluminum Two-Lane Blacktop–style scoop gives the car a race-ready appearance, and the words “The Real Deal” is more of an inside joke among friends but it aligns with the period-correct parts used on it.

During the rebuild, he was convinced by Underwood to scrap the old front suspension in favor of a solid axle. Underwood not only convinced him to pull the trigger on the axle, but he also installed it in the car. It’s a Speedway 4-inch dropped round-tube axle put together with hairpin radius rods and a transverse leaf spring, all in chrome, of course. Rick upgraded to a 500 series power steering box, QA1 adjustable shocks, and disc brakes to improve the driving experience. Rear suspension consists of leaf springs moved inboard, combined with slapper bars and Monroe shocks. The rearend is a GM 12-bolt, narrowed slightly to fit 15×10 Cragar S/S wheels and Pro Trac 275/65-15 tires within the stock wheel openings. Up front is a pair of 15×4 Cragars wrapped in Firestone 560-15 bias-ply front runners.

Horsepower comes from an early 1970s LT1, which has been bored 0.030-inch over by Shively Speed Machine to bring displacement up to 355 ci. Underwood built the combination with 10.5:1 compression and Pro Maxx aluminum cylinder heads. A Summit Racing circle track camshaft offers a lumpy idle to go along with the vintage look. The outward appearance of the engine is dominated by gold anodized Moroso valve covers, an Edelbrock TR1X tunnel ram, and two Holley 450-cfm carburetors. Gold velocity stacks and Doug’s fenderwell headers are the icing on the cake. Rick installed an aluminum four-core radiator to keep it cool and upgraded to an MSD ignition system. Behind the rowdy small-block is a BorgWarner T-10 four-speed manual transmission built by Alan’s Transmissions. Highway-friendly 3.55:1 gears and an Eaton Posi hide behind the gold Moroso differential cover.

Inside, the car is full of great pieces, including a Mooneyes gold metalflake steering wheel, Stewart-Warner gauges, and a Sun tach strapped to the steering column. The seat was in the car when he got it and already had a cool notch, offering plenty of room for the Hurst shifter. The button-tufted seat and pleated door panels by Heineman Upholstery are the perfect old-school touches for the interior.

Rick has put thousands of miles on his ’55 Chevy street gasser, and enjoys going to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the Wally Parks Nostalgia Drags (formerly the Hot Rod Reunion), as well as the Tri-Five Nationals presented by CPP. While he has other project cars in his stable, the ’55 Chevy gasser checks all the boxes for this Indiana hot rodder.