In 1955 (when I was 12), the first Nomad came out and I quickly fell in love with it, thinking it was the coolest car I had ever seen. Then, when the ‘56 came out, I thought they had ruined it; but, I quickly learned to love it even more. A guy who lived on the street behind ours bought a brand new Dusk Plum/India Ivory ‘56 Nomad and would often take a shortcut down our street. One day, after he had just driven by, I said to my dad, “Why don't we get one of those Nomads? They’re so cool.”  But he said, “No way; we’re Oldsmobile people.” Well, I never forgot that car.

After my retirement, I decided I wanted another Tri-Five since I had had a ‘55 Del Rey that I raced at Lions Drag Strip through the ‘60s. While battling a bad case of the shingles in October 2005, I was up at 4:00 AM, waiting for my pain pills to take effect so I could sleep, when on page 44 on eBay, I ran across a ‘56 Dusk Plum/India Ivory Nomad. It was just like the one the guy had on the block behind me. Over a two-week period of biddings, I made no bids but waited until 10 seconds before the bidding ended and put in my bid plus $0.57 extra cents. I won the car and, after double pumping all over the house, I woke up my wife to tell her we were now the proud owners of a Nomad. I then looked at the bidding history and saw that someone had bid the same amount as me minus that extra 57 cents and that that 57 cents won me the car.

The Nomad was pretty rough around the edges but was a good restorable car. I built and installed the 427 cu. in. small block along with the 2004r4 overdrive trans in 2009 and did a complete body restoration in 2015 - 2016. I did most of the work myself except for the bodywork and paint.

When I bought the car, I had no idea of all the great people and friends I would meet and make over the years. That has actually been the best part of all!

Photo from Mike & Terry