Wade's Nomad Site!

I have been interested in cars for as long as I can remember. Before I was old enough to drive, I bought an old Rambler station wagon in hopes of fixing it up and making it drivable by the time I got my license. While I never got the car to actually move, I did get the engine running! About the time I turned 16, I was able to talk my Dad into loaning me $300 to buy a ragged-out 1956 'oval window' VW Beetle. By the time I graduated from high school, I had replaced everything on the car except the main body and the pan. I put a late model engine and transmission in it, painted it, and replaced the entire interior. Of course, the car also got a set of big wheels and tires too.

When I graduated from high school and joined the Air Force, the old Bug was no longer very useful. Uncle Sam stationed me in North Dakota; and the the lack of heat in the old Bug was not possible to ignore up there in the frozen tundra. However, the pan and drive train made great 'donor' parts for building a 1927 Bugatti replica in 1977. This was my first experience at actually building a car, but luckily it was not my last.

In the late 90's I began to notice advertisements in the Mustang magazines for Cobra replica kit cars made by a company called Factory Five Racing near Boston Massachusetts. Factory Five was offering a complete kit to build a Cobra, requiring only their kit and a 5.0 Mustang 'donor' car. At around $11,000 for the kit, I considered it a project that I might someday be able to tackle. I ordered a build manual and promotional video from Factory Five. In 2000 I built a Factory Five Cobra and documented it on the Internet with a web site.

It was in the early 70's when I first remember seeing a 1957 Chevy Nomad. Of course I was aware of the Tri-five Chevrolets, but had never seen a Nomad before that. I saw a Nomad in a shopping center parking lot and fell in love instantly. I remember the car having G60-14 rear tires mounted on Crager SS wheels. I was most amazed by the sporty lines of the car, and the classy interior that had more chrome in it than any car I had ever seen.

Thirty years later, I finally got the chance to own a 1957 Chevy Nomad of my own when the local mayor and fellow gear-head decided to thin his collection of "toys" and allowed me to buy the Nomad he had purchased earlier as a future project car.

My plan is to completely disassemble the car, and rebuild it from the ground up as a modern car under classic skin. The suspension, brakes, steering, and handling components will be taken from a mid-90's Corvette. The engine is a 2000 Corvette 5.7 Liter LS1. For a transmission, I will use a 4-speed 460LE electronically controlled automatic out of a late model LS1 Camero or Firebird.

As with the Cobra Project, I plan to document the Nomad Project on the Internet with a web site.

I invite anyone having any questions or comments about the Nomad to contact me via email.