With a production run of about 6000 units, the ’57 Chevy Nomad is the rarest ’57 Chev of them all (read more below). So, when it came time to give their treasured longroof a full rebuild, Donna and John McCoy-Lancaster didn’t want to start hacking it up.

First published in the July 2024 issue of Street Machine

Instead, they took the restomod route, maintaining their Nomad’s timeless styling while making it stop, steer, ride and accelerate infinitely better than it did when new. With three more ’57s in their shed, along with a host of other classic and collectible machinery, the duo know what they’re on about. Luckily, they had plenty of time to plan the rebuild, as the procurement process of the car they now call COOL took some 20 years.

“After landing in Australia in ’78, it had three owners before us,” John says of the car. “Doug Clarke to start with, followed by Greg Abrahams. When Greg put it up for sale in ’95, we couldn’t quite get our finances together and missed out. But we were determined, so we bought a replica Nomad keyring and bided our time.”

In 2003, third owner Adam Scard decided to move it on, at which point Donna and John were finally able to secure ownership. Over the next 14 years, the McCoy-Lancasters added a ton of mileage to the odometer. They drove it everywhere: to shows, during club runs and to ferry the kids to school as a cool cruiser loved by all. “We knew it needed a full rebuild,” John says, “but we were enjoying driving it too much. Eventually, rust started appearing in interesting places.”

Stripped to its undies, the Nomad was acid-dipped and sent off to a good friend of the McCoy-Lancasters, Greg Maskell. The team at Maskell’s Customs & Classics laboured for many hours eradicating all the cancer and replacing trashed sheet metal, which included the door skins and one quarter. After massaging the body into fine form, they laid on the gorgeous PPG black-and-white paint scheme live at Melbourne’s Motorclassica show!

Maskell’s also smoothed out the firewall, detailed the chassis, fabricated the exhaust and fitted up the 6.2-litre LS3 crate engine from US-based Delmo Speed, the business credited with pioneering the back-dated look for LS mills. Holley Sniper EFI hides under the factory-style air cleaner, with the ignition coils and associated electronics mounted under the dash. In keeping with the restomod theme, there’s a bulletproof 4L80E auto controlled by the Sniper, and a rebuilt Chevy 12-bolt underneath.

A Flaming River right-hand-drive power rack was added to help with steering duties, along with fully adjustable gas shocks all ’round. The front and rear suspension was comprehensively refurbished, with shorter coils and reset leaves dropping the ride height some two inches. The Nomad’s chassis was factory-boxed for extra stiffness, which helps tremendously with ride quality and handling.

COOL was initially upgraded with a four-wheel disc-brake kit from Danchuk Manufacturing. However, the certifying engineer felt the fronts were not up to scratch given the LS3’s hefty output, so ProFlo Performance came to the rescue with big PBR twin-piston calipers and 330mm vented rotors from Hoppers Stoppers.

If you’re thinking 330mm rotors won’t fit inside 15-inch wheels, you’re right! The wheels are actually tricky 20-inch customs by Deluxe Wheels in the US. These very special pieces have a wide lip around their outer edge, giving them the look of a traditional 15-inch whitewall, but the Nomad rolls on 215/45R20 radials all ’round. For another party trick, Maskell’s deftly welded the car’s original 14-inch hubcaps into 15-inch outer dress rings. The whole shebang snaps snugly into place, just like a factory hubcap.

Additional stainless-steel trim is something that sets Nomads apart from other ’57s. There are extra mouldings in the hoodlining, around the inside of the roof, on the tailgate and around the windows; they’re everywhere! Fortunately, Donna’s dad happens to be Allan McCoy, one of Australia’s most revered mould repairers. Though he’s retired, Donna and John coaxed him into working his magic to get the acres of stainless steel looking and fitting better than new. Yankee Chev specialist MadMooks was also tasked with tracking down a host of rarer-than-rocking-horse-dung interior moulds. “We were able to secure a full boot kit,” John says. “They really look great.”

John likes his audio gear, and COOL has plenty of it, the centrepiece of which is an Apple CarPlay screen that motorises up out of the dash top – another Maskell’s touch. “It all operates off a mobile phone,” John says. “We’ve got maps and a reversing camera that displays on the screen.” Image Conversions completed the frustrating job of getting all the whiz-bang technology to play friendly, before tuning the system for concert-hall sound. For John, the kick-arse audio system, central locking and Vintage Air a/c really amp up the overall driving experience.

Albury’s North Central Motor Trimming and Riverstone’s Hy-Tone Motor Trimming tag-teamed the interior fit-out. Everything was re-covered in period-correct, black-patterned cloth and silver vinyl, with Mercedes carpet on the floor. Two hidden storage boxes were built into the rear side panels, with an Odyssey battery in one and the windscreen washer bottle in the other. ADR-approved belts were added for all five seating positions while at ProFlo.

Being such a rare car, certain aspects of the build proved quite challenging. Parts varied from ridiculously hard-to-find to outright impossible, which meant many components had to be fabricated. Was it all worth it? John thinks so. “It drives fantastic and looks even better,” he says. “We get to drive a living, moving Harley Earl design exercise down the road. We’re also pretty happy about picking up a host of awards, including Top Wagon at the 2021 Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo, plus Top USA at Showcars Melbourne and Concours d’Mode at the Shannons Sydney Classic 2022.”

RARE FORM

With around 6000 produced, the Nomad was the rarest of all the body styles offered by Chevrolet in 1957. The model was introduced with the 1955 model year thanks to public demand following the debut of the Corvette Nomad concept at GM’s 1954 New York Motorama show. That early iteration of a ‘sport wagon’ was essentially a Corvette front married to a two-door wagon rear.

Due to their extremely low production numbers, all Nomad bodies were coach-built at Chevy’s Kansas plant, before being shipped to other plants for final assembly.

The Nomad had a lower roofline than a regular two-door wagon and used the shorter hardtop/convertible windscreen. Other differentiating features included a forward-sloped B-pillar; external ribs in the rear of the roof skin; stainless ribs in the interior hoodlining; wrap-around rear glass; sliding rear side glass; a forward-angled upper and lower tailgate with vertical stainless mouldings on the latter; longer rear quarters; and extra stainless mouldings throughout the interior.

DONNA & JOHN McCOY-LANCASTER
1957 CHEVROLET NOMAD

THANKS
Allan & Irene McCoy; Maskell’s Customs & Classics; North Central Motor Trimming; Hy-Tone Motor Trimming; ProFlo Performance; Image Conversions; Danchuk Manufacturing; Delmo Speed, MadMooks; PPG; Deluxe Wheels.