Station wagons in general may never become cool because of the soccer-mom, grocery-hauler image. If there is one exception then it has to be the '57 Chevy Nomad

Words: Keith Harman, Photography: Mike Key

If you know anything at all about your American hot rod and custom history, you’ll know that with the exception of the early Sixties surfing craze and the popularity of old ‘woodies’ as practical and fun transportation to the beach, the humble station wagon has never been that high on the list of desirable vehicles as a basis for customising.

Station wagons in American culture have always been considered the staid family grocery-getter and kid hauler for the average suburban household, not an image to appeal to young hot rodders at all, though a few Chevy wagons were seen on the drag strips in the early Sixties in the Super Stock classes, the extra rear weight of the body aiding traction off the start line. Only the Chevy Nomad has ever bucked this trend, with its cool two-door good looks, it’s always been a sought-after car in custom and street machine circles by those with an eye for classic but stylish lines.
It’s not hard to see why either, ever since its unique design was introduced alongside the regular Tri-Chevy range back in 1955 it’s been a favourite, and with its sweeping ‘B’ pillar and panoramic rear glass area, it has often been described as the most aesthetically beautiful wagon ever produced. Its dramatic styling was originally based on one of several different concept Corvettes that were built for the 1954 Motorama by the GM styling studio and displayed to the public that year, and although only one Corvette Nomad was ever built, it was never completed as a running car.

Nevertheless, it was greeted with much enthusiasm by the public as a styling exercise, though low sales of the Corvette during its early years prevented Harley Earl from rubber stamping the design for the ’Vette range, instructing the studio to adapt the Nomad theme to a full size ’55 Chevy instead.

This time the project did go into production and incidentally, Pontiac also produced their own version, the Safari, although Chevrolet would have preferred it to stay as a Chevy exclusive, either way, both the Nomad and the Safari debuted at the January 1955 Motorama in New York City.

Although similar in appearance, the first Nomads shared little bodywork or interior trim with the regular ’55 range from the screen back, a fact that made the production costs soar, especially when compared with the actual sales figures for the car. This was taken into account with the following model year with ’56 Nomads sharing much more standardised side trim, interiors and rear bodywork with the regular ’56 range, in order to cut costs.

This trend also continued into the ’57 model year too though despite
its beauty queen looks, overall the Nomad made scarcely a blip on Chevy’s sales charts and a total of 23,167 units over all three years was peanuts when you consider Chevy built over half a million regular wagons in the
same period.

Perhaps the Nomad was ahead of its time as a stylish combination of sporty good looks and practical wagon functionality, or perhaps it was
the high price tag that kept the punters away. Either way, the Nomad has always remained a rare bird indeed and none more so than examples like Ray Young’s ’57 here, one of only 6500 ’57 Nomads ever produced, making it the rarest of the rare, and even more so in the UK where there have only ever been a handful of Nomads, so where did Ray find it?

Unfortunately, we can’t trace this particular car’s history any further back than the previous owner, one Peter De Solla from Exeter, who older Tri-Chevy fans might recognise as one of
the original founder members of the first incarnation of the UK Tri-Chevy club back in the Seventies. Ray bought the then rough ’57 from him, plus a bunch of parts in 1982 as Peter seemed to be selling up all his Tri-Chevy stuff at the time.
Ray was already well into 55-57 Chevys back then and already owned a ’57 Sport Coupe that was a regular at shows for many years and since the Nomad was in very poor condition, it was put to one side to await future restoration. The years rolled by, the millennium came and went and still the Nomad sat untouched in Ray’s garage until late in 2002 when friend and fellow Steel City Cruiser, Martin Nortcliffe suggested to Ray that it was high time that the Nomad was dragged out of storage for some much needed restoration work.

With Martin as the driving force, the pair spent the next three weeks cutting out rot from the Nomad and rewelding new panels in place, something Martin was more than familiar with as he also was part way through the rebuild of his own ’57, a convertible that had also been in the UK for a long time. Although Ray got stuck in along with Martin for those first few weeks, the body off restoration took considerably longer than that, with new floors necessary in the cargo area, new rear quarter panels, inner and outer sills, plus new door skins too.
The front wings were saved by way of some patch panels and another second hand tailgate was fitted, one that had been supplied as a spare when Ray bought the car. Once the metalwork had been attended to, Martin turned his attention to the chassis which was fortunately in much better shape and needed no significant repairs and so it was blasted and repainted in anticipation of the refitting of the running gear.
The rear axle, brakes and springs were cleaned up and reinstalled in the frame, this time hung on a set of air shocks to aid the caravan towing that Ray planned to do in the summer months. While the front end went back together, the added benefit of two-inch lowered front spindles and a disc brake conversion were added to the rebuilt stock components. These upgrades were supplied by UK-based Danny’s Chevy Parts. The steering is all stock and is the original manual non power-assisted set up. In ’57, Ray’s Nomad would have had the 283cu. in. V8 Chevy motor, but needing a replacement engine for the project Ray sourced a 350cu. in. V8 with four bolt mains to rebuild for the car. Alas, when the motor was torn down it turned out to be a two-bolt after all.

Disappointed but undeterred, Ray pressed on with the rebuild which retains all stock internals, apart from the Edelbrock street cam. Externally the engine has been fully dressed to include a fully polished Edelbrock intake manifold with matching Edelbrock four-barrel 600cfm carb. Interestingly, although Ray has upgraded the induction on the 350, he has retained the traditional points distributor and the stock type ‘rams horn’ exhaust manifolds for originality’s
sake. Another concession to modern driving conditions however is the US-made Desert Cooler radiator and although there are no deserts in Yorkshire that we know of, it’s always best to be safe! Finally, a four-speed Saginaw manual gearbox completes the running gear, this shifted by a Hurst floor-mounted shifter.
Apart from the performance-inspired four on the floor, the rest of the interior has been restored back to stock with all new reproduction parts sourced by the Classic Chevy Club in Florida. As you’ll know if you’ve ever owned one, Tri-Chevys probably have a bigger aftermarket support network for reproduction parts than just about any other Fifties models and have done for years. It's something worth knowing if you’re thinking of starting your first Fifties Yank project and are still wondering which model to go for. Oh, and a quick tip, don’t leave your rear seat at the trim shop for 19 years like Ray did!

Nice as 100 point restored cars are, look at any profile shot of a ’57 Nomad and you have to admit the stock wheels do look a little lost in those big wheel arches. Now we don’t know if Ray felt the same way, but either way there’s no chance of thinking the same about Ray’s car as his wheel arches are filled with what is one of the most distinctive features on this car. There’s certainly no missing the big-inch rolling stock in the shape of a set of Boyds polished five-spoke billet aluminium wheels. Ray runs some serious 20 x 8½ rims on the back of the Nomad matched with a pair of 18s on the front, these having a 7½ rim width, all shod with the appropriate low-profile rubber for a very contemporary custom look that actually really suits the car.
If the choice of custom wheels gives the car a distinctive modern hot rod flavour, then this look is compounded by the stunning choice of two-tone paint that finishes off this regular trophy-winning wagon. Again Martin has due credit for painting the Land Rover silver over BMW Calypso Red that sets this Tri-Chevy apart from the resto crowd in jaw-dropping style and turns the judges’ heads time and time again at shows up and down the country. It’s not hard to see why.

Ray now has two gorgeous ’57 Chevys in his garage to choose from, which is surely an enviable position for any fan of Fifties tin, plus it must be great to finally drive such a rare model after buying it so long ago, so what of the future we asked Ray? ‘Well, I’m planning to fit an air-ride system to the Nomad in the near future, and then of course there’s that ’57 four-door Hardtop that’s been lurking at the back of the garage that needs doing’. Sounds like we haven’t heard the last of Ray and Martin and their classic Chevy collection up there in Sheffield, could Steel city be the new ’57 heaven here in the UK? Certainly looks that way from here!