Gunnar Jonsson's 1933 Nash Roadster
This wild car was found by coincidence in an old edition of Wheels Magazine, Januari 1982.
According to author Göran Ambell, the car was built in the early 1950s making it one of the very first hotrods in Sweden, if not The first!
It resides in Delsbo in Hälsingland county where Lars Jonsson, born 1902, from the "Klinten" homestead, took a body from a Nash 1933 and put it on a frame from Chevrolet.
According to the story told by Gunnar Jonsson to Mats Wallander at Kustomrama, the Nash car was won in a poker game from people at a fiddlers' meeting!
(Delsbo is a well known place in Sweden for folk music and fiddlers meetings.)
The body was modified with the windshield tilted back and grille from Chrysler. Fenders from Citroën B11 where the rear one is molded to the body.
Gunnars father kept the Nash engine that was a straight-6 cylinder flathead. The rear and front end from a Hudson.
He drove it around the local area a lot during the 1950s but the home-built car never became registered. The local police didn't like the car and
so with a growing family to take care of, the car was put aside in a shed for many years.
In late 1970s, one of Lars' sons, Gunnar "Klinten" Jonsson, started a restoration of his fathers car. He swapped the engine for a Ford 429" Cobra Super Jet connected to a 3-speed Rug gearbox and
a 12-bolt Chevy rear axle.
The car has been shown on the first car exhibition MotorRevyn, in Bollnäs 1980 and also at the 30 years celebration 2010.
It has been re-painted a couple of times, and a top on the body built with parts from a Opel Blitz.
The rear end has been replaced with a Ford 9".
The car was registered in 1982 as "Nash Robster" , LME 206.
With the new regulations 1982 and SFRO it should have been possible to register the car as an amateur built.
Gunnar has talked to a SFRO representative about this so we'll see what happens in the future.
It is very fascinating that the car has been in the family for almost 70 years! It is named locally as the "Klinten car", and we hope Gunnar never sells it!
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