My wife and some good friends who own sixties Chevs and Pontiacs have toured a good part of eastern Australia, and I thought I should get a station wagon and do more road trips.
We found going on holiday in our old cars – off-season – is a fantastic way to go. People go out of their way to talk to you and accommodate you. We prepare the cars so they’re quite reliable and have had cruises to places like Alice Springs, Queensland for the winter sun – all over the country.
I have several different cars and they tend to be coupes and convertibles, which aren’t really ideal for that sort of work. I thought wouldn’t it be good to have a station wagon.
So I started looking online and in magazines. It wasn’t long before I found this one in the Late Great Chevy Club magazine out of the USA. I’m a member.
What attracted me to this particular car was that it had factory installed air-conditioning. Chevrolet made several variants of this wagon, including the Nomad, the nine-passenger Kingswood (with a bench seat in the rear luggage area) a Parkwood plus a Brookwood. Nomad was the upmarket offering.
We asked the the seller to hold it till we could get a flight over to check it out – we did a deal and I registered and insured it. A friend of mine in Phoenix helped with that and it could all be done by phone. Very different to Australia! Then my wife and I toured through five states clocking up 2800 miles.
Of course we loaded the car up with parts that I knew we would need for a restoration, such as rubbers and glass. Then we delivered it to my shipping agent in Los Angeles.
The car was matt black with 10-inch Boyd Coddington wheels. It looked pretty mean, but the first thing I did when we got home was sell them – I got $2500 for them.
Then we began the long journey of restoring the car, I got home and dismantled it right down to the frame. When we took the body off, we found there was a lot of work to be done.
I had it sandblasted, which magnified any rust holes, mainly the floor which had some very poor welded patches. Plus there were rotten sills – both inner and outer. Fortunately I found a good supplier of an excellent reproduction complete floor in four sections. The sills we had made locally on a CNC folder and then hand finished.
It took a couple of years for it to get into the body shop, as they had a line of work to get through first.
The body work was done by Perry Bekker, who did it to the highest standard. His ability to fabricate intricate steel panels and parts is a skill that is now only seen in high-end restoration shops.
During the wait to get the car into the workshop, I restored the chassis by sandblasting, powder coating, rebuilding the front and rear suspension, and installing the engine and gearbox.
While Perry was working on the sheet metal fabrication, I would help out with grinding. sandblasting, cutting and restoring component parts.
The rollover frame made access to all parts of the car effortless.
An example of Perry’s work is the rear numberplate frame. Local plates are longer than the American ones and we decided to make a wider version. Perry took the original, extended it with new sections, smoothed it out with body filler and then used that as a pattern to cast new aluminium one. A lot of work!
The Nomad was running a 283 low-compression engine. I managed to procure a later (1966) 327 and have since upgraded it with better inlet manifold and carburettor, plus a cam. It performs better but I went to a lot of trouble to dress it up so it looks like the original. It was running a two-speed Powerglide transmission and is now running a four-speed 700R – that’s the hydraulic version of what went into the Commodores. The differential now has an LSD centre in it and has strengthened that area considerably.
The Initial plan was to restore the car and leave it left-hand drive but in my search for parts a RHD bulkhead complete with firewall and dashboard became available. These were incorporated into the body and the chassis modified to mount a late-model Saginaw steering box on the RH side of the chassis, dispensing with original antiquated ram-type steering.
That steering box has a story behind it. General Motors in its heyday had a Saginaw steering division which they sold to Warner, and then eventually ended up in the hands of Jeep via Chrysler. Jeep used this kind of geared steering box which was fitted to Wranglers. So I was able to procure a brand-new Jeep Wrangler right-hand-drive steering box.
The original steering boxes weren’t all that good when they were new, and spares aren’t available. Plus they’re by now worn out. So finding the Jeep alternative was a breakthrough. You need to run different O-rings and I made an adapter bracket for it. In fact, I made up five sets to share with some friends. It transforms the steering with much better feel and reduces the turns from lock to lock.
We’re running ventilated disc brakes all-round along with new suspension with heavier sway bars, and good shock absorbers. The wheels are different as we had to clear the discs – they’re from a HQ Holden. I managed to pick up a new set and they’re a little wider than the originals.
We also decided to fit four outboard retracting seatbelts. That combined with the change to right-hand drive meant we needed to get a sign-off from a VASS engineer. Jim Szabo did that for us.
Some other touches include amber turn signals, plus a high-mount brake light on the rear, which is blended into the trim in such a way that you have to look closely to find it.
The complete reproduction interior seat covers, door trims, headliner, carpet were supplied by Ciadella Interiors in the USA and were fitted by Chris O’Shea Motor Trimmers.
Sometimes you have to be extra patient and maybe a little inventive. For example the power window motors needed work. You can’t buy new replacements and no-one seemed to have the brushes, which had been worn down to stumps. No-one in America sells them. However, I found a Chinese offering online that was very cheap – something
like $3.50 for 100. I ordered them and discovered they weren’t a perfect fit, but carbon is easy to file or grind and I managed to rebuild all four electric motors. They now work perfectly.
A major step was of course the paint. I have a friend in the USA who converted the old paint numbers to modern PPG two-pack paint which gave us the colour we wanted: Suntan Copper – it’s the colour of raw copper before it oxidises. It was on the sales literature and grabbed my eye. It fits the period of the car and certainly stands out from most modern traffic.
What’s it like to drive? It works very well and the modifications all help to make it a proper touring car. It took a long time to complete and I was relieved when it was finished. But it was worth the effort.
If you would like to feature your car in a Reader’s Resto story, please email uniquecars@primecreative.com.au
