From the Greek, nomades, Nomads are pastoral tribes, people who roam the land rather than settling in one permanent home. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Nomad homage Malibu is coincidentally looking for a new home. Will its price however, have you saying, move along, move along?
Clocking in with an impressive 72% Crack Pipe loss, yesterday’s crazy custom Buick Roadmaster may have been a conversation piece, but apparently most of the talk was about how it was priced way too high. Also, the seats were best described as polarizing.
Today we’ve got another custom, this time from the bowtie brigade, and one that’s a lot more than just paint and Piñata party upholstery to boot.
It’s remarkable the number of body derivations mainstream American cars used to offer. Just considering Chevy's top of the line Bel-Air in ’55 - first year of the Tri-Fives - as example. It could be had in six body styles, including 2-door sedan, 4-door sedan, Sport coupe, Station wagon, convertible, and the coolest of them all, a 2-door slant-back shooting brake known as the Nomad.
Years later Chevy tried to catch that same cool lightning in a bottle with a special Nomad edition of the Vega, but man, it was a pale imitation to the awesomeness that was the original production car. The original, original Nomad was actually a Corvette Motorama show car that debuted in 1954 at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, and it was even more awesomier.
This 1980 Chevy Malibu attempts to become Nomadic by extending the roof of what was once a two-door notchback coupe, appending both windowless side panels and the rear hatch/tailgate from the same model’s wagon edition.That last bit gets a little tramp-stampy with some Von Dutch-like pinstriping.
Whether it evokes the original is open to conjecture, but the fact that it’s a two-door longroof at least captures some of the progenitor's intent. Also captured - and caged under its flame-painted hood - is 406 cubic inches of pushrod V8. That’s an engine that’ll ensure you get where you’re going in a hurry whenever the wanderlust strikes, whether or not you happen to care just where you are going.
The big fuel injected mill is mated to a THM350 and rides behind a custom headlight-hiding grille and bumperless bulldog chin front valance. The rest of the car is appreciably clean, and features shaved door handles, the aforementioned flames, and glass tinted darker than the inside of a well digger’s ass. The whole ball of wax rides hunkered down on billet Centerlines, and according to the eBay ad is warrantied by “SATISFACTION.”
This car isn’t so much someone else’s project as a fully conceived turn key custom. Regardless of whether you approve of the work done doesn’t detract from the fact that it seems to have been reasonably accomplished. Buying a ready to run custom has its advantages, including not having to be the one that pours all the money into its creation. At this one's $6,000 price tag, you can be assured that you are getting something that could not be easily replicated for the same amount of scratch.
The question though, is whether the vision this particular custom embodies is worth what the seller is asking. What do you think, is this a Nomad whose price makes you think it deserves a new home? Or, does that price mean this Chevy can just keep on walking?
You decide!
Philadelphia Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.
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