this is a classic!

[michael dazzo]

1955 chevy nomad two door station wagon! was there ever a 4 door version?? and size don't matter anymore as long as it fits between all 4 corners of the page? the car is very tricky to make it looking good! the fins and more! anyway it's not my car project I got this on the internet by search engine? it's here

1955 Chevrolet Nomad Paper Model - Free Paper Toys and Models at PaperToys.com and there's a black and white one also you can color yourself! just click on this and find out more!

[kenlwest]

55 Chevy had a 4 door version, but is was not called Nomad. I'm not sure when the term "Station Wagon" came into the vocabulary.

Ken

[Don Boose]

According to on-line sources, it appears that the term "station wagon" replaced "depot hack" ["hack" from Hackney] or "station Hack" as a vehicle for transporting passengers and luggage to and from train stations sometime between 1923, when Star (a division of Durant) produced the first purpose-built depot hack and 1929, when Ford used the term.

A station wagon history.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_(automobile)
1929 Ford Model A Woody Station Wagon

Don

[pdmccool]

I always liked the name "Estate Wagon" which was used mainly by Buick, who sold the cars as a vehicle to be kept at the owner's country house.

[Uyraell]

The '55 Chevy "Nomad" as a 4-door vehicle actually received the name "Ranchwagon" or at times "Ranger" or "Rancher". Of these, the "Ranger" name was seen most rarely, "Rancher" about 40% of the occasions, and "Ranchwagon" was seen with the greatest frequency.
This applied in Australia and in New Zealand during the relevant era, and I can only guess that similarity would exist within the North American (meaning Canada plus the USA) market during the same timeframe.

I have this info from my father, and my late uncle. I hope it is of some help.

Kind and Respectful Regards My Friends, Uyraell.

[whulsey]

Uyraell, interesting information. Here's in the US, Ranch Wagon was a Ford name and Ranger was also used as a trim level name on various vehicles until it became the mid-size Ford pu series.
Chevrolet offered 2 door and 4 door wagons under several names (Beauville, Townsman are ones that come to mind) in their upper 2 levels of trim: 210 and Bel Air. On the cheapest series 150 they only offered a stripped 2 dr called the Handyman. The Nomad was considered a Bel Air series car, but had the different roof panel then the standard station wagons.
Studying automotive history over the years I've been fascinated by the way the bigger corporations switched names around and used different ploys to keep the rights to certain names. Now in these days of ultra brand and copyright protections, it makes it rather difficult for the model manufacturers to even do some cars without having to pay so much for licensing that its not economically feasible for them to produce some.

[Uyraell]

A most interesting comparison, Whulsey my friend.

My father was a Funeral Director for over 40 years, and the first hearse he ever drove was a Willys Knight Sleeve Valve straight 8, which would move off from standing in 2nd gear and show no sign of worry over doing so.
Later, he drove Packards, Plymouths, Ford Galaxies, and finally Chev Impala wagons.
No proper hearses as Americans would recognise them existed in NZ until the very late 1970's to mid-80's, basically when import restrictions etc were lifted.

However, the result was that in the early days of his career my father drove an amazing variety of vehicles adapted as hearses.
Some of those tales are unrepeatable, but I was left with fragments of memories about those now classic old vehicles.

Kind and Respectful Regards Whulsey my friend, Uyraell.

[whulsey]

Willys Knight sleeve valve, I'm impressed. Those are really rare now with the production of most sleeve valve engines ending in the mid-30s so poor parts availability and being big cars very few survived past the scrap drives in WW2.