By Jay Hirsch
Charles Nash started Nash Motors in 1916. Along with David Buick they began building automobiles in 1903. In 1912 Nash was named President of General Motors. Like many great automotive giants in the early 20th Century Nash wanted to have his own company with his name on the car. He realized at General Motors he could not achieve this dream
In 1916 that dream came to be with his purchase of the Thomas B. Jeffrey Company in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Jeffrey Company became Nash Motors and in 1917 the first car named Nash rolled off the assembly line. By 1928 Nash Motors production exceeded 138,000 cars.
The Rambler name, on the car that Jeffrey Company produced was retired. The Rambler name would appear again in 1950 on a-new-concept–of-a-car, the smaller but not cheaply made automobile, the Rambler.
In 1932 the Ambassador Eight name was added to the Nash line. There were several body styles riding on either a 133 inch or a 142 inch wheelbase with the big Nash 8 cylinder engine
These cars were sumptuously appointed. They were known for their quality, styling and speed and were called the “Kenosha Duesenbergs!”
In 1932, the height of the Great Depression, the only car companies to make a profit were General Motors and Nash.
The year 1937 saw Charles Nash acquire the Kelvinator Corporation, which made refrigerators and other appliances for the home. George Mason was the president of Kelvinator and Nash chose him to be the president of the new Nash-Kelvinator Corporation
In 1938 Nash introduced an optional conditioned air heating/ventilating system. This engineering marvel for the time period, was a direct outcome of the merger with Kelvinator. It was the first hot-water car heater to draw fresh air from outside the car, and is the basis of all modern car heaters in use today. Until then hot air was just recirculated inside the cabin of the car which resulted in the driver, more often than not, “cracking his vent window for fresh air.” The same year, 1938 Nash offered vacuum-controlled shifting, an early approach to removing the gearshift from the front floorboards. Until then, the gearshift was a long, cumbersome stalk that took up the center portion of the front floorboard.
Automobiles equipped with the Automatic Vacuum Shift (supplied by the Evans Products Company) had a small gear selector lever mounted on the dashboard, immediately below the radio. Studebaker and Graham also offered this revolutionary space saving option.
With the United States entry into WW II in December 1941, Nash along with all domestic carmakers shifted production to wartime machinery.
With the surrender of Japan in 1945 and the ending of WW II, the automotive industry returned to the production of automobiles for the car-starved-public. Nash, along with the other US auto makers turned out slightly updated versions of their 1941 and early 1942 designs.
To give its cars a fresh look and to lure customers back into dealer showrooms Nash turned to the use of wood to update their top of the line Ambassador series. It was no longer called an Ambassador Eight, since Nash did away with their inline 8-cylinder engine after WWII. Wood always gave the connotation of an upscale-estate-car-ride-comfort, and warmth. The upkeep was another story.
The Nash seen here was bought new in 1946 and kept by the original owner until the mid 1970s. It was always used as a “Sunday driver,” and had less than 75,000 miles when the current owner received it as college graduation gift.
He used it also as a Sunday driver, “not so much for the value, if it had any value then. No, I used it infrequently for what guy in his 20s in the 1970s wanted to drive a 1946 car on the highway?”
In the early 1980s Dave Kraus retired the car to his brothers barn/garage. In 1998 his brother said, “if you do not take this car out, I am going to take it and make a rod out of it.” With that Dave began what was to become an AACA Grand National First Place car. There was not much that the car needed, just a lot of time, patience and a good checking account.
Even though the car had never been wrecked or damaged, “it was never preserved with the thought it would be classic one day.” The wood, as in all woodies was the major obstacle. How to reproduce the original patina without being over or underdone, keeping that “warm-people-friendly-glow.” The trick was in the matching and cutting of the wood. Fortunately there was all that wood on the car to use as templates. As the wood strips went from front to back, their width’s got ever so narrower. Having owned a wooden boat, Dave knew the only finishing product to use after the correct woods were cut and stained was Spar Varnish…. many coats of Spar Varnish, hand brushed, with hand sanding between coats.
The original six cylinder inline 234.8 cid engine was rebuilt as were all mechanical components. Since the Nash was always a running car there was no frantic search for missing parts. Dave thinks this Nash was one of the last 1946 Ambassadors made for it has fifteen inch wheels and not the sixteen inch wheels that were on most 1946 Ambassadors. The fifteen inch wheel was on most 1947 Ambassadors and 1948s
In 2003 the car was invited to be shown at the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. The same year it was also displayed at the AACA’s fall Hershey Meet where it achieved its first Junior. It went on to win its Senior at subsequent AACA events. This all culminated with the car’s being invited to be shown at the AACA’s Grand National in June 2006 at Dover, Delaware. The next day the car was displayed at the Concours d’elegance of the Eastern United States, in Bethlehem, PA.
What began in the early 1970s as a fun-filled-college-thrilling-gift, has for Dave turned into a family unifying achievement. “For my wife, children, brother and his wife and kids there are not enough long summer nights and warm weekends to go for a ride in the car.” Dave never intended to make a “show car.” He just wanted the Nash to be “as correct as possible, to preserve a part of history and memories for me, my family and my very good neighbor who gave me the car.”
Since Dave was ten or eleven he loved this car with its burgundy paint and mahogany wood panels. It was valueless in the 1970s, except to Dave. Today, when people say “wow, great car, look at that dash, etc, those are the most thrilling words for my wife and me to hear.”
When you think about it, how many strangers ever say, “wow, great car, or anything great that you own?” Cars are emotional; they are more than steel and rubber. They are, at least some are, part of a family.
Nash produced only 1,000 Suburbans from 1946 to 1948. All were 4-door sedans. The interior has leather with Mahogany door panels. The rear seat folds down and converts into a sleeping area that extends into the trunk. This Suburban has been totally restored to the original specifications and details. “wow, look at that wood and dash.” If you never heard these words, you are not in a 1946 Nash Ambassador Suburban •
