Central Valley Corvettes of Fresno - April 2019

In building a Corvette Nomad from a full-size ’55 Chevy Nomad, about the only piece left of
the original car was the roof, “About the only piece left of the original car was the roof,” he
notes. The rest required fabricating a fiberglass and steel body to the proportions of the
diminutive Corvette by channeling and sectioning the sedan body, two and three inches
respectively.
While the nose is fiberglass, and mounted on a custom subframe, the rest of the body was
pounded out by hand from flat steel, right down to the molded exhausts—a distinctive feature
of the original concept car.
The chassis rides on a ’95 Corvette C4 suspension, and slightly enlarged wheel wells allow
for bigger rims. It runs a Ram Jet 350 crate engine, which is fitted with old-school touches
such as a side-draft intake and finned Corvette valve covers, and is backed by a 700-R4
transmission.
All of which makes this Waldorf-inspired rod a solid driver, an actual wanderer that the original
Corvette Nomad concept never became.