Rambler was first used as a name for an (American) automobile way back in 1897, and that doesn’t count the Rambler bicycle made by Thomas B. Jeffery back in 1878. So, as far as transportation goes for two or more wheels, the name Rambler has been around since Thomas Edison patented the phonograph. The seller has this 1952 Rambler Custom Wagon posted here on craigslist in the San Jose, California area, and they’re asking $2,900. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Zappenduster for the tip!
Parked outside under a carport somewhere in California for years, or maybe decades, this ’52 Rambler appears to have been preserved fairly well, or at least, much better than if it had been parked somewhere in the upper Midwest or Northeast part of the country. There is rust-through on the front floors in spots, and the exterior isn’t perfect, but overall, it’s much more solid than it could be after 73 years. We always hear about the horrible turning radius (21′-2″) with the covered front wheels, but who cares? This isn’t a daily driver; it’s for blowing minds anywhere you take it, in relatively straight lines.
The interior is a shambles in this car, sadly. Heat is possibly the biggest culprit since the seller doesn’t mention rodent damage, and I don’t want to spread any fake news; there’s enough of that going around these days. Nash only made the Rambler from 1950 through 1954, and that was the year that Hudson and Nash merged to become American Motors Corp. AMC then offered the Rambler between 1958 and 1960. This has to be one of the coolest body styles ever. Here are some specs, shown in an old brochure.
SMS Auto Fabrics has samples of 1954 Nash cloth, but I don’t know if they have enough to redo the interior, or if it would be a match for a ’52. That doesn’t matter too much, since this car will likely end up with an LS or some other non-Rambler / AMC engine in it, along with 22″ wheels, and will be painted orange. These cars rarely get restored to bone-stock spec; they’re such cool restomods. You can see more of the interior mess in the photo of the rear seat. Hagerty is at an amazing $16,100 for a #4 fair-condition car, and $23,900 for a #3 good car. You can do a lot of work for $20,000 on this car if you do a lot of it yourself.
The engine is said to run well with a temporary gas can seen in the photo above, so that’s good news. There are no brakes, so that isn’t good news. The engine is a Nash 172.6-cu.in. “Flying Scot” L-head inline-six with 82 horsepower and 138 lb-ft of torque when new. This one is backed by a three-speed manual and column shifter, sending power to the rear wheels. They say it runs well, but with no brakes, some rust in the floors, and not much of the interior left, there’s a lot of work to do. The big question is: restore or restomod?
Restore! If it was closer I would buy.
This, to me, is worth every cent it needs to restore to showroom new. And for numerous reasons:
1. Find another `52 Nash Rambler wagon–anywhere. I’ve only seen one that was restored, and the end result is nothing short of stunning. It represents a chapter in car history most today know nothing about. It’s a great conversation starter at shows.
2. It’s economical to operate once rebuilt. I can’t balk at the $2900. asking price when any other 1952 car worth buying would be 3 times the price to buy.
3. It’s not overly complicated in it’s assembly. We all love simplicity in things and this Rambler redefines the term (to me anyway).
4. I wouldn’t drive this daily, but I would definitely drive it to car shows–after all, a car like this is meant to be driven, not a trailer queen.
5. The overall package of a small Rambler like this even attracts ladies! So everyone can take an interest in it’s rarity!
just curious as I am in SB area and was looking for a statesman but I am betting this is long gone…am I right?
I’d love to see this thing restored, in this color. With these white walls. Can you imagine how sharp it would look? This really needs to be restored. How many are even left?
So ugly it’s cute. Sort of like a bloodhound or a pug
Be careful. I bought the convertible version of this once. Went to a service station and asked it to be raised on their lift for inspection. The lift came up through the body and impaled the car. Quite a mess, I just signed the title over to the station and left. Nash did not do a good job of rust prevention on these Nash Rambler’s unit body’s, quite unlike the superior dipping of the entire unit bodies -up to the roofline-on later Ramblers.
Yeah, but remember, we weren’t supposed to keep our cars for ever and a day, we were supposed to trade them in for the new model and the next owner was expected to drive it until it died and was then scrapped. I laugh when I see a comment here about a car that’s been standing in a barn since grandpa died and people are horrified that the vermin have nested inside the seats etc. or complaining about the rust/paintwork from a car that’s been standing unloved for 50+ years. That’s what you get for $2900.
It’s a surprise to me no one has bought this to redo as a ‘surf wagon.’ Make needed repairs and patch the floor. Leave the exterior as is except for installing a roof rack and the obligatory surfboard (skeg forward). AFA the interior use Mexican blanket seat covers and make door cards to match. Replacement headliners are available at reasonable prices. After 17 days on the market an offer of $1k or $1.5k might be accepted. In theory it wouldn’t be a difficult flip.
Where’s Howard? This should definitely be restored by someone who respects it’s history .
I’ll be the dissenting voice… Chop the top, lower that suspension and “rodstore” it to lead sled, southern CA style…low and slow, baby!
Nice colors on this rather funny-looking car. That back seat give me claustrophobia just peeking in. In 54 they introduced a 4 door version, but also squeezed down the back portion of the roof that made it look really funny from a back view. They continued that squeeze even after AMC took over…until maybe 59. In this instance, if any car resembled a bathtub, this one did for sure. So ugly it’s sort of cute, kind of like the Citroen Deux Chevaux.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I was seventeen when this car was built and, as a result, its looks are “normal.” True, it didn’t look like any other ’52s but that was part of its charm and I prefer it to any other of that year… well, other than the senior Pinin Farina-inspired Nashes. To me the “tidy” dimensions of the Statesman are better balanced than the longer-nosed Ambassador.
Hey, what do I know? Just a retired industrial designer.
Restore or restomod? The answer is always restore.
The world has enough restomods for all time.
When I was in HS in the early-mid 60s I was just learning about different approaches to car mod’s and the magazine (Hot Rod?) had a ‘sleeper” wagon: this model with a hot rod engine, possibly a GM V8 and the only exterior sign was a bump-up in tire size. I’ve been enamored with sleepers ever since even though I never had one, so patch up the floor and then it is LS time.
I had a 1950 Nash Statesman a few years ago and the front fenders faded at a different rate than the rest of the car – like this one.
Strange how Nash decided to go with the awkward transition of the hood/fender/cowl area. Looks like they ran out of design money.
They were also making refrigerators then, perhaps quite stylish ones.
Some Kelvinator refrigerators were indeed stylish. I saw one at Rambler Ranch in Colorado that was as fancy as any 50s car!
you talk about ugly–WOW-but wouldn’t it be WOW if it was restored-would be the biggest attention getter at any car show
I once saw a Ford Pinto station wagon at a car show with a flathead V8 in it. Flathead had finned Offenhauser aluminum heads and triple Stromberg 98’s mounted on an aluminum intake. The owner, a retired machinist, did an excellent job! I wonder how a flathead V8 would look in this Rambler. Add a 3 on the tree with overdrive and away you go. Would it be a more “period correct” hot rod? Roof luggage rack with a surf board would really round out the street sleeper look.
I’ve seen much worse on this site tore up from the floor up sitting on trailers for 5-10x more money Cudas mustangs Camaros etc. This car needs a rotisserie resto with a simple late model coyote motor nothing too over the top horsepower. I would keep the esthetics original.
Wayne Careni bought one of these a few years back out of the AACA car museum in Hershey PA at the fall AACA show there. It was a fully restored one. He also filmed my 51 convertible for his then show. It’s on youtube if anyone wants to see a nice one.
LS? No thank you. A hemi maybe to keep some sort of family resemblance. But frankly a jeep straight 6 would probably be better. Too much work for a high horse motor and needing to upgrade the chassis.