ELDER STATESMAN CERTAINLY HAS STYLE
Beautifully restored 1951 Nash Canadian Statesman Airflyte seeing regular use
Along the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia between Revelstoke and Sicamous there’s a small community called Malakwa. According to the town’s website, Malakwa is noted for its recreational opportunities, such as sledding in the winter and camping in the summer.
Ken Stainsby remembers Malakwa for a different reason. In the early 1980s, he moved from Salmon Arm to Calgary, then spent plenty of time driving back and forth along the Trans-Canada. And apart from the spectacular mountain scenery, something always stood out.
“For six or seven years, we saw an old Nash parked at the side of the highway at Malakwa,” Stainsby recalls. “It was always a point of conversation between my girlfriend Theresa (now wife) and I.”
Out of sheer interest, Stainsby stopped to ask if the 1951 Nash Canadian Statesman Airflyte was for sale. It was, but for $5,000 — and that was more than he could afford at the time.
“I got some of the car’s story, though,” Stainsby recalls. “They were the original owners of the Nash, and I was told a large dent on the passenger side happened when he’d backed his tractor into the car.”
Then one day in 1988, Stainsby drove by and the car was gone. That was it, he figured, he’d missed his chance to own the car with an aerodynamic body style Stainsby says, “Only an owner could love.”
But all wasn’t lost. In 1991, he spotted the four-door Nash in Sicamous on a used car lot. A sign in the window suggested a $2,500 price tag.
“I stopped in and offered $2,000,” he recalls. “The dealer accepted, and the price included having it towed on a flatbed truck to our house in northeast Calgary.”
Nash introduced the Statesman in 1950, and it was powered by the automaker’s 184 cubic inch (3.0-litre) in-line six-cylinder engine, a power plant that had been in use since first designed in the late1920s. With fully skirted front and rear fenders and a fastback rear, the Statesman featured technologically advanced unit-body construction, meaning the chassis and body were incorporated together. In addition to the Statesman, Nash offered the larger Ambassador and the smaller Rambler.
Stainsby’s car, a Canadian Statesman with a three-speed column-shift transmission, was built at the Danforth Avenue Plant in Toronto and would have been one of the 3,808 Nash cars built for the 1951 model year at the Ontario factory.
“The car would start and run, but the tires were perished,” Stainsby says of the car’s condition when he took delivery. “And, the tires were the most significant issue, as they’re a specific size to fit under the fender skirts.”
He finally found replica whitewalls at the Coker Tire Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
With only 49,000 miles on the odometer, the car was in relatively decent, but tired, condition. Stainsby could still pull it out and drive it while attending to simple mechanical tasks, such as lubing the chassis, changing brake shoes or fixing electrical wiring issues.
The paint was all original, and although it would take a shine, there were areas where the finish had weathered away from the panels.
Stainsby moved a few times, including within Calgary and then to Canmore. The Nash always followed. He wanted to do the car justice with a complete restoration but couldn’t afford to until he’d sold his IT consulting business — which was named Nashco, in honour of the Canadian Statesman.
Late in 2016, with some funds set aside for the Nash, the car was towed to S & S Custom Automotive in Canmore. There, the first stage of the car’s transformation began with a complete mechanical overhaul that included new rings in the engine.
Next, in the autumn of 2017, the Nash was delivered to Ronnie Smith of Custom Rides by Ronnie, in Didsbury, Alberta. Smith took the car and straightened out the large dent on the passenger side and stripped the original black paint to reveal bare metal. Then he sprayed the car a two-tone scheme, using a dark cherry for the lower panels and a Mercedes grey on the roof.
After the body and paint work, Stainsby took the Nash to Barry Mills at Stampede Upholstery in Acme, Alberta. Mills stitched and installed fresh carpet, headliner, seat fabric and door panels.
Over the years, Stainsby purchased many spare parts from a Vancouver Island wrecking yard. They had an identical Canadian Statesman, with a very rusted body, that Stainsby picked for parts while on family camping trips. That’s where the Nash “flying lady” hood ornament came from. An $8 option in 1951, Stainsby’s car wasn’t originally equipped with the decorative item. He made sure it took pride of place on the restored car.
In late October last year, Stainsby’s wife, Theresa, dropped him off at Smith’s shop, where the car had been taken for final assembly. From there, she followed him on the Nash’s maiden voyage to Edmonton, where he’d promised to show the car off to a friend, and then back home. The trip up the QEII Highway and back along the Trans-Canada Highway went off without a hitch.
He happily reports, “On the road, it’s quite happy to cruise along at 65 to 70 miles per hour.”
The Nash is Stainsby’s only collector car, and with the restoration complete, he says the Canadian Statesman he first saw at the side of the highway in Malakwa will now see regular three-season use.
Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.ca. Driving.ca