canadiancatgreen posted shots of this pea-green bathtub Rambler at the Cohort, which he called “Canadian Rambler Custom”. I assumed he was just referring to the fact that it was sold in Canada. But no, it’s actually called that. Update: It’s actually Nash Canadian Rambler.
Oddly, the full name including “Canadian” is only on one side of the car. Maybe the other side’s emblem fell off. Or it’s just 50% Canadian?
This car was sold a while ago, and I also happened to find the ad for it, where it’s listed as Nash Rambler Canadian. Anyone know which it really is?
Either way, it’s a Rambler, as in the original compact from American Motors, which first arrived in 1951, and was made through 1955. Then it took a sabbatical and reappeared in 1958. I happen to like these pudgy early ones with their mostly hidden wheels; makes a nice change from today’s cars.
I believe it’s correctly a Nash “Canadian Rambler”. There was a Canadian Statesman as well.
I struck out twice. Thanks for the real answer.
Volvo assembled 122s from CKD kits for the Canadian market in Dartmouth, NS. These were likewise badged as “Volvo Canadian”.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41jQ-I70BKL.jpg
Not Canadian at all …..
https://youtu.be/-d6PZl4r8mk
Or maybe the owner was a fan of these other Canadian Ramblers?
Excellent!
Great find – Beautiful car. I’ve always loved these, and all Ramblers in general. I zoomed in on the passenger fender and there are holes where the “Canadian” script would attach. I imagine that piece is next to impossible to find today.
Interesting! Zooming in on the picture shows holes for the badge on the other side, so it was originally there on both sides.
This is a Nash Fact that isn’t mentioned in the usual articles and books. I wonder if there were meaningful differences?
Yup – a ’53 taken at a car show last August in Avonlea, Saskatchewan.
That emblem to the left of the name in 86er’s picture above is Farina as in Pininfarina, the Italian design house. They designed some of the most beautiful cars ever built.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2015-04-16/a-visual-history-of-pininfarina-the-design-house-that-helped-shape-ferrari
Does anyone know the story of their involvement in this car? I do know they did the styling for the Nash Healy, so it’s not a big stretch to believe that they did these too.
Pininfarina had a design contract with Nash. They did design the Nash Healy, and also submitted a concept for the ’52 big Nash (picture below). But Nash “Americanized” it quite a lot, so it ended up looking a fair bit different. JPC did a CC on that here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/car-show-classic-1953-nash-statesman-amcs-dna/
The 1951 Rambler was styled before the Farina contract.
The picture you posted is a proposal for a later Nash, not the 52 Golden Anniversary Nash. It would have made a nice 57 or later Nash if Romney had been of a mind to continue Nash production beyond 57. It still exists and looks fabulous.
Quite right you are. Unfortunately that prototype is misidentified as a 1951 prototype in numerous places.
Anyone knows if the rear window would have originally had chrome? It somewhat disentones with the rest of the car.
Which, BTW, looks great.
Can’t find photos even in the brochure, but base model cars around then were seriously decontented and some had black rubber naked of chrome on the windshield AND rear window. You might as well have walked around in sackcloth and ashes.
The book, Canadian Cars 1946-1984, by R. Perry Zavitz is the source, paraphrasing: Nash Motor of Canada Ltd acquired a plant in Toronto from Ford in 1946, outfitted it for production which started with the 1950 Canadian Statesman of which 1000 were built. 1951 saw production increase to 2,510 cars. In both years, both two and four door styles were built all with the ‘Canadian’ chrome nameplate ahead of ‘Statesman’.
With the Golden Anniversary 1952, only the four door Canadian Statesman was built. It was joined by a model not yet available in the U.S. a two door Club Sedan which would finally come to the U.S. Rambler line-up for 1954. The ‘Canadian’ script was added above ‘Rambler Super’, there was also no hood ornament. Perhaps the U.S. version was considered too risqué for Canadians?
The Canadian version should have had a hockey player for a hood ornament.
That plant has an interesting history. After AMC moved out, it was re-purposed into a shopping mall called “Shoppers World”. It still stands today as a Lowe’s.
Not exactly. After AMC moved out of the plant on Steels Ave., the buildings were converted to warehouse storage for Walmart for a time, then redeveloped into the current Lowe’s. The Shoppers World mall is at Hurontario and Steeles, and has been for four plus decades. I believe the reference to Shopper’s World you are using is the reference to “the old Danforth assembly plant (now Shoppers World Danforth)” (from Wikipedia).
Howdy Y’all , I have a 53 Rambler Custom , Canadian made with small rear window . I need parts , chrome trim etc. Thought you might be able to help. You sound like you must be Canadian b/c of your history about model. Thank You , John White Sr.
Wow, I had no idea these were ever built with Canadian-specific badging.
I have developed an odd fascination with the 55 model, but these are certainly cool.
You mean the restyled series 10, which was then reprised in 1958 as the American, or the other Ramblers? They’re pretty sweet. I’d gladly have a ’54 Cross Country wagon. The ’55s had the front wheels exposed; I rather like them covered.
Speaking of which, I’m not sure if the two events are truly related, but much has been written about how the exposed front wheels appeared on the ‘55s, almost immediately after George Mason died. If you believe what was written, Mason was insistent that the wheels be covered to make the cars immediately identifiable as Nashes, everyone else hated them, and there was a scramble to expose the wheels once he was no longer at the helm.
Nice story, but the reason for my skeptical tone is because Mason died on October 8, 1954. Wouldn’t the ‘55s have been in production by then?
Call me a skeptic too. It’s possible, but not at all likely. Tooling would have been ordered quite a while earlier. Undoubtedly Mason had to accept the reality that things change and times moves forward. The covered front wheel was well past its sell-by date.
Or could Mason have approved full wheel cutouts for Hudson versions of the 55 line, a design that got adapted for Nashes too at the last minute?
But a “design” is not the same as ordering tooling and putting it into production. There were two distinct Rambler lines that had their front fenders changed, the little Series 10 (later American) and the 108″ Ramblers. In the case of the Series 10, its whole front end was all new, as well as other aspects. That was not a “last minute” change. The revised ’55 Series 10 would not have ever had covered front wheels. It was designed that way from scratch, as I see it. Only the 108″ cars had just their fenders changed, as they were due for a complete do-over in ’56.
That all convinces me that Mason had accepted that the days of the covered front wheel were truly over, for ’55. They had to end sometime, right?
The only other data point I can point to is the large 55 Hudson that got full wheel openings while the Nash kept its mostly skirted ones.
The Rambler line both 100 and 108 wb, didn’t they share front end sheetmetal for 55? It wouldn’t seem that the tooling would be that tough, just cut a bigger hole and stamp a lip around it. I am curious if the dimensions of the big Hudson wheel opening was any different from that of the Rambler, because they look very similar. And AMC likely had some old school patternmakers who could have taken that big Hudson tooling and adapted the Rambler to match.
So there was time to do a unique front end for the 55 Hudson, surely there would have been time for a new front end on a Hudson Rambler too. Post-Mason they were stick with separate Nash and Hudson front ends on the big 55 cars because they were very dissimilar, but there would be no reason they couldn’t drop the Nash Rambler front end and go with the Hudson design. And it sure looks like a Hudson design to me with that eggcrate grille and hood scoop.
This is a very interesting detail however it came about.
Good thing they didn’t stick with this naming convention, or they would have had Canadian Rambler Americans.
Shortening it to CAN-AM would have helped, but I doubt they would have done very well in that racing series…
Considering AMC’s frugal ways, a Canadian Rambler American may well have led to an American Rambler Canadian because they could have re-used the same nameplates, just in a different order.
Uncover the front wheels and that’s almost an Austiin A55 Cambridge. Never noticed that before.
I always liked these early covered wheel Ramblers(and big Nashes), I get that it’s polarizing and probably was a bane to every driver who had to change a tire, but as a tool of brand identity it was brilliant. It’s weird from todays perspective, but when you take into account how in flux car styling was in the late 40s with envelope bodies this could have easily been the next natural evolution, if not for the aeformentioned functional negatives. But the overall styling was great too, previewing the bulk of the much loved 1955 Chevy 5 years early.
Almost there – Flying Cars! Wheels/tyres not needed.
Oh great, another one of our Canadian oddities that only reinforce all the stereotypical ideas of us to a broader world.
Seriously, what a great find! And in typical Canadian conditions with the snow.
After a bit of sleuthing…here’s the shop where this was parked. There’s a great of very cool stuff on the other side of those doors, too.
https://www.curiosityedmonton.ca