1955 FORD IS A FIRE-BREATHING CLASSIC
Calgary tattoo artist paints his hot rod masterpiece on Customline canvas
After spending time and money creating a ‘bolt-on’ modern car, Kris Chisholm paused to evaluate the experience.
“At the time, the idea of owning or building a traditional hotrod or a custom car seemed out of reach,” the Calgary tattoo artist says. “But after I added up how much was invested in the ’98 Pontiac I’d just finished, I realized I could have done that with something I loved.”
Chisholm is a talented artist, and his skills with a pencil and a tattoo machine were his foot in the door with a local car club known as the Diablos. This is an invite-only group of people focused on building and running pre-1964 cars and trucks, and Chisholm was asked to join. All he needed was an old car.
In 2008, with some help from friends in the Diablos, Chisholm began searching online for the ideal car. There were trips to Edmonton and Red Deer to look at “projects,” but none of them were right. Then, early one morning while perusing the HAMB, an online hotrod and custom forum, a poster in Northern California put his 1955 Ford Customline up for sale.
“We emailed him some questions and he came back with all the right answers,” Chisholm explains. “And, it was a great deal. This was 2008, and it was crunch time in the U.S.”
Chisholm asked him to hold the car and booked a one-way flight to the West Coast.
“I told him I’d have cash in hand on such-and-such a day and asked him not to sell it out from under me, because it was my only way back home,” Chisholm says. “It all turned out OK.”
The ’55 Ford was a mild custom that was lowered and rolling on wide whitewall tires. It was equipped with its original Y-block engine and three-onthe-tree transmission. Body modifications included a subtle nose and deck job, and a custom interior had been installed.
What Chisholm thought would be a four-day drive back home turned into an eight-day adventure. The V-8 was prone to vapour lock because of how the fuel line had been routed in the engine bay, and at one point the car caught on fire, destroying the paint on the hood.
“I had to get a buddy to rescue me from Longview (about 100 kilometres south of Calgary) with a spare carb,” Chisholm says. “It was the best trip of my life; it was such an experience.”
Chisholm fixed a few issues and then drove the Ford for five years before deciding he’d take it to the next level.
Working in his garage, the Ford was stripped down and gutted. While the floors were a little soft in spots, Chisholm says he didn’t have much money. One day he told a group of the Diablos who were helping in the garage that he’d wait to fix them.
“I went in the house for a minute, and when I came back out Spock, who’s a fabricator at Highwood Rod and Custom, had half the floor cut out,” Chisholm says with a chuckle. “He stuck around to help me get a new floor in the car, though.”
While mechanically inclined, Chisholm had never taken on many of the projects involved in a custom car. He’d work on as much as he could by himself, and when he got in a pinch or didn’t understand the next step, someone from the Diablos would arrive to offer some guidance.
With that mentorship, Chisholm replaced the suspension, installed Wilwood disc brakes up front and put a 302-cubic inch engine paired with a standard shift C4 transmission under the hood.
Although the body was in relatively good shape, some shortcuts had been taken in the past. For example, there were a couple of areas of Bondo and the trim hadn’t been removed when the car was painted. Chisholm rectified
the problems, and blocksanded the car with his friend Jay Provenzano, who also sprayed the two-tone paint.
“Because the heater wasn’t working in my garage, we wetsanded and polished it in my mom’s garage,” Chisholm says.
After installing new carpet, Chisholm simply put the custom upholstered interior back in place. New Rocket Racing wheels, fresh tires and some pinstripes by Colin Schultz finished off the project.
“I’ll drive it anywhere,” Chisholm says. “There’s no power steering and no power brakes; it’s still an old hotrod, but that makes driving it just so much more a visceral experience.”