1956 Chevy Wagon

Doane Yawger: At car events, all rides are created equal

Car people are very tolerant and accepting. If that

description fits, give yourself a pat on the back.

I've been following the old car scene in the Merced area since the late 1970s, and I'm amazed at the sustained high level of interest locally in vintage vehicles. For a relatively small town in the overall scheme of things, Merced and its environs can boast of a large number of people who own cars and trucks spanning from the early part of the 20th century through the mid-1970s.

An even greater number of people apparently don't have any "vintage tin" in their garages, but they turn out in sizable numbers whenever there's an event in town.

One of the best old car gatherings around these parts is the one held on the first Friday of the month at Atwater's Sonic drive-in. The owners of about 100 old cars and trucks braved slightly questionable weather Friday night to check out the action at Sonic. Oh, what variety to behold!

A 1930s Ford street rod was parked next to an early 1960s Ford convertible, with a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro on the other side. Nearby was a Morris Minor panel van, 1956 Chevy street machine and a 1968 Dodge Charger. Another unlikely pairing: a 1969 Ford station wagon sitting next to a 1937 Chevy pickup truck, both facing a 1956 Chevy sedan done in vintage gasser-style with a nose-high front suspension, high-performance V-8 engine with injector stacks and tuned exhaust headers sticking out underneath the front fenders.

I'm amazed at the diversity of cars and trucks I see, but even more pleased to see that nobody criticizes his neighbor's car, even if it's not his cup of tea.

Take that old Chevy gasser, for example. It is painted in a flat-hued black primer with just a hint of shine. While the car was built for the dragstrip, it had very docile manners in a shopping center parking lot and obviously was driven on the street. The workmanship was top shelf.

Here's the point: That might not be the kind of car I would own and drive, but I can enjoy looking at it, appreciate it for what it is and congratulate the owner for seeing the project to completion. If people have negative comments, they seem to keep them to themselves, which is good.

Car guys and gals have narrow, specific tastes, for sure, but they share common interests in the mechanical aspects of their rides and what it took to get it to a particular stage.

I've noticed a specialized form of networking at cruise nights; people know where the cruise nights and swap meets are, who is good at working on such and such a motor, what place might do good work on upholstery, the last time they saw a particular type of car and what to expect in "behavior" from certain cars and trucks at varying points in their "lives.

The 1956 Chevy Nomad Wagon Review | Muscle Car Street

1956 Chevrolet Nomad, sometimes called “beautiful train has never happened,” is seen as a car full of charm. `56 Chevy Nomad”, a classic Chevy hardtop, then design and implement a touring frame. This creates a vehicle that looks very impressive and elegant.

Chevrolet Nomad birth

Chevy Nomad design is often attributed to Harley Earl of General Motors. Operator is actually Mackichan Clare, director of the study, Chevrolet and designer Karl Renner. partial model of the Corvette, one of the other popular Chevrolet models, sketches Carl Renner Corvette truck with a roof. The idea of ​​spying flowers, Harley Earl and the result is a Corvette Nomad prototype non-performance of the body is made of fiberglass in 1953 Chevrolet truck chassis.

Corvette Nomad is hitting the roof was quickly adapted to the style of 1955 Chevrolet cars and Chevy Nomad was born. 1956 Chevrolet Nomad retains much of the framework design Corvette Nomad roof, including front, side mirror back, seven vertical stripes accent the rear, the rear wheel cutout, wide B-pillar molding slash, rear quarter, forward-sloping roof and fluted.

Original Chevrolet, 1955-1957

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