NO MADNESS —
TASH COLLINS’ NOMAD HITS THE STREETS THE SMART WAY, COMBINING MODERN PERFORMANCE AND CLASSIC STYLE FOR THE ULTIMATE SCHOOL-RUN CAR
MODERN PERFORMANCE MEETS CLASSIC APPEAL
Have you ever met one of those types of people who decides to take up a new sport or hobby and, without even trying, is great at it? Tash Collins may be one such person. You see, despite having never built or modified a car before, she’s done exactly that with her first build — this stunning 1955 Chev Nomad. Sure, it’s hard to make these wagons look bad, and she’ll be the first to admit that she’s had some help along the way, but the reality is that the vision’s been all hers right from the get-go. On first laying eyes on a Nomad around eight years ago, Tash fell in love with the shape. While she didn’t know then how rare they were, or, in turn, how hard it would be to find a good one if the moment ever arose, the desire to own one stuck with her. Fast forward a few years, and Tash and husband Todd decided to take the dream one step further. They were referred by friends to a local hot rod shop to help source a car.
It was there that Tash met Kendal and Rachel Smith — owners and operators of Kruzin Kustoms. Beginning locally, the hunt for a Nomad was a tedious one; dead-end leads or basket cases were the only options that came up. After discussing the dilemma with Kendal and Rachel, Tash and Todd soon took the search global and came up with just the thing — after having it inspected overseas, of course. Sure, it looked like a Nomad and felt like a Nomad, but once Tash got behind the wheel of it, she was left feeling a little deflated. “It was in good nick but not at all our dream car. The exterior was yellow and the interior brown, and it just didn’t feel at all like it reflected our style,” she states. Little did she know at the time that this would lead her into the world of vehicle modifications — a world from which there’s little known escape, but one in which she’d meet a great bunch of people. With Kendal and Rachel already included on that list, they were the perfect ones to talk to about changing the colour and recommending an upholsterer who could sort out the tired interior. The second part was simple, with Chris Pocock at Classic and Custom Motor Trimmers having already performed plenty of work for Kruzin Kustoms’ cars — although there would be another year or so of changes to the Nomad before it got to him. With a solid plan that the car would be painted black, the Kruzin Kustoms team got to work stripping it down to get it prepared. Two major things happened during this time, the
first being that Tash started noticing just how much the black cars she passed on her daily commute failed to stand out, and how bright colours seemed to grab her attention more and more. Orange stood out above the rest, and soon she was on a mission to find the orange that she loved the most. From looking at cars on the street, she moved on to internet searches, and, in turn, that became colour-swatch paint-outs, before the choice was finally narrowed down to a Lamborghini hue. Everyone she told was concerned that her plan of mixing orange with white simply wouldn’t work, but she tackled the doubters head-on by ensuring that that’s exactly what Kruzin Kustoms applied.
While all this was going on, so was the second change — the decision that a later model motor would add to the car’s appeal. The LS family of engines was the obvious choice for this, and, before long, Kendal had tracked down a six-litre LS2 from a 2014 HSV Clubsport. There was no way that the newish engine could go into the car’s standard 1955 engine bay though, so a test fit showed what holes needed to be filled and what mounts needed to be made for it to work. Even the slam panel got cleaned up and smoothed out during the process. The test fit allowed the team to create some custom headers for the car and feed them into a twin 2½inch exhaust system, which was constructed to suit. This wasn’t quite as easy as it seems, as the desire was now also to run the car on air suspension, giving it the perfect mix of form — slammed out — and function — a sensible driving height. With this in mind, the chassis rails received a minor C-notch to allow the diff to sit up nice and high into the body. With the new engine putting out a bunch more power than the original, and the ever-present issue of C-clips in some Chev diffs, a Ford nine-inch was slid under the car at the same time. With a Posi head and 3.25:1 ratio, it was deemed the perfect part for the job. Chev’s design team must have had Tash’s vision in mind back in ’55, as the rear guards were happy to swallow up the 20x10-inch Foose Monterey wheels that she ordered. Likewise, the front end had no issues in accepting the smaller 18x7-inch items. Up front, a pair of Ridetech Shockwaves was bolted into place, while the rear end saw a move away from
the car’s factory leaf-spring arrangement to a fourlink supported by Ridetech airbags and KYB shocks. One of Tash’s favourite things about the car now is something you don’t even see — the RidePro-X controller, which allows her to control the system with an app on her smartphone. New brakes were added at the same time. The front ones, sourced from the Classic Performance Products (CPP) catalogue, include 12-inch discs, while the rears are from MBM Brakes. A shiny new MBM dual diaphragm booster was fitted up to the now-painted and smoothed firewall; it stands out in stark contrast to the black coating applied to the headers and blacked-out engine. Thanks in part to the wiring loom having being hidden during the build, the engine almost gives the impression that it is floating in mid-air. Finally, Tash got her chance to get the interior she’d been wanting. Chris at Classic and Custom Motor Trimmers understood her vision and delivered, with a full retrim of all surfaces and a new Glide seat to boot. The finishing touches were an Ididit steering column, complete with column shifter for the TH700 transmission, and a bunch of billet knobs and accessories. With plenty of school runs in the car’s future, a Retro Sound head unit was fitted in an attempt to either keep the kids happy or drown them out, depending on the mood of the day. The car was completed just in time for CRC Speedshow in mid 2018 and is exactly the car that Tash wanted to build — even if she didn’t quite know it to begin with. While it may be her first build, it’s certainly no rookie attempt, having avoided the madness that many first-timers suffer. Instead, it’s a high-class cruiser with just the right mix of new and old. Some may say that it’s a mix that even the pros sometimes struggle to get right, but this rookie has nailed it as a hole in one. Tash is aware that she can’t take all the credit, and sums it up like this: “The time invested in this build brought together some amazing and talented people in their field. It truly was a great experience for us, and we learnt a lot along the way. I will always be grateful for the team’s enthusiasm and creative minds, as that made this build a lot of fun and the outcome is truly something special.”