Thread: 1956 Chevy 210 Handyman Wagon

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Brought this home tonight.









It's a nice start. Needs rockers and floor pans, rear wheel wells and there is some rust in the passenger door. Not good but nothing I need to worry about right now. There are some issues with the front suspension. Clunking and rattling and the lug nuts wont stay tight... (had it roll backed home).
The engine is a 350 (haven't verified that yet). Runs good, has a QJ on a stock intake, HEI, headers and Flow Masters from what I can tell. 350TH trans with a big cooler in front of the radiator.
Billet pulley brackets, Vintage Air that works, Digital dash cluster, B&M Star Shifter and a nicely covered bench seat with grey door panels.
Issues are: Have to prime the carb so it will start. The suspension problem and a funky park neutral switch that is jury rigged down on the trans...
I had a '56 150 two door sedan that I never got running and had to sell so this is kind of a dream car for me. I traded the '02 Collector Edition TA for it.. Sounds like a raw deal for me but I had very little money into the TA and even with the work that needs to be done to this one I came out well ahead...
Mark
Has a billet front drive

That's a nice wagon, and with your skills it'll be an awesome wagon when done. Congtrats!!

Great find! I like it..

that is a very nice looking wagon and from the three pictures you posted, its hard to imagine it has the problems that you listed.
looking forward to the progress reports on this


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Lookin good.. You gonna have some fun,,playing with that.. Looks like a good one to start with..

Good find Mark! Tri-Fives are always a good investment! Not just the Chevy's, though they are the most popular all the brands seem to hold (or increase) in value!

Ok, educate me please. Why isn't it or perhaps, what is different from a nomad?

Looks nicer than its problems.

My favorite long roof in the tri-5s. Good thing you've got to mess with the suspension..................it needs to come down just a bit more.

clone, when I had mine people were often referring to it as a Nomad. I don't understand why given that the only commonality is the two door layout. But here goes. The Nomad is a completely different body from the windshield/A pillar back. It has a hardtop style door rather than the sedan type with the upper framework for the window. The upper B and C pillars slant forward very noticeably rather than being straight up. This in turn causes the side glass to be shaped accordingly which is different. The roof panel has lateral channels in it on the Nomad, the regular wagon does not. The tailgate has ribs with trim on them unlike the regular gate. All of the trim would be very different also because the Nomads are trimmed like Bel Airs whereas this one, for example, has much less trim. Handyman wagons should be 150 which this on looks like with a piece missing on the quarter, and the 210s have more trim but still less than a Bel air. Nomad interior would be quite a bit more deluxe as well, but you can't tell that in comparison here. There are more differences but that should be enough for now.

In the vein of a picture being worth lots of words....


and for the back.....


They still kept the Nomad name into the early '60's but the '57 was the last of the two door models. The "Handyman Special" was earmarked more as a utility vehicle, built to provide the painters, electricians, plumbers and the like a closed vehicle to keep their tools & parts dry, but with enough room to carry things job to job.

Nice TRi-6 -- - looking forward to watching the build. Congrats on the find.
meller

Oh man, I like it!

Astroracer, very nice trade off. I'd say you came out alright for sure. I really like the looks of the car. Thanks for the info guys on the differences. I kind of had an idea, but wasn't real sure. It definitely makes it easier to spot with the roof and pillar lines.

Looks great, glad you got the hood open.

Jack.

Thanks a ton guys! Appreciate the kudos! Like I said in my first post this car is a dream come true and trading the CETA for it was no brainer... That car was fun and fast but this one got me three thumbs up before I had driven it a mile. THAT is kool...


I figured out the suspension issue today. It boils down to a WHEEL issue more then suspension though.
The wheels just don't work. They have slotted lug holes and are NOT hub centric. That means there was NOTHING centering the rims to the hub. They were slopping up and done on the lugs as they were rolling...
This is what I found when I pulled the left front wheel off:
1) Three lug nuts with mostly stripped threads.
2) Two broken studs..
3) ALL of the studs were loose in the rotor! The wheel had been knocking around enough that the lug studs had worn their respect lug holes to an egg shape! ALL of them!
4) The spindle nut was loose by almost a full turn.


I pulled the caliper, removed the rotor and knocked the lug studs out with some very light taps from a ball peen. Not a BIG ball peen either.
I took the rotor to my local CARQUEST to figure out what I needed.
We matched up to a 1969 Camaro or 70 to 73 Nova (X body). I ordered two...
A set of R-2 and R-6 bearings.
Brake pads for a '69 Camaro.
The rotors will be here tomorrow.
Now I need wheels and tires! I want to stick with the Torque Thrust look... What do you guys think? 15's? Or go 17 or 18?
Thanks for looking!
Mark

I talked to Lawson's Carb Service in Flint today also. Monday I will pull the Quadra jet off and drop it off to them Tuesday after work. I expected a bad accelerator pump and that was their best guess also. I decoded the carb and is a '69 QJ off a truck with a manual trans. The carb is pretty grungy and I'll let them do a rebuild on it. I expect the motor will be the one the carb has lived on since it was born but I'll have to pull the block numbers first.
We'll have this beast up and running in no time...