I had stumbled across a mention of "Rambler Ranch" a few months back and looked them up online.
I mentioned to Amber I thought this would be a fantastic thing to take her oldest, Henry, to visit since he's car obsessed.
So today I met up with all the Malinovsky's after Amber called and arranged a private tour for us.
Ben met me with Kracker, his white shepherd cross, when I arrived first and we waited for Amber and family who were only a few minutes behind.
Our first museum was the Nash Rambler building.
Inside is a photo of owner Terry, who also met up with us in spots along our tour. In the 80s Terry's brother was going to sell their Dad's old Rambler, that had sat out in the elements for decades, for scrap when Terry decided he couldn't let that happen.
That was the start of what is now the largest collection of Nash Ramblers in the world.
Nash knew he couldn't compete with the big Three, so he chose a niche and stuck to it.
The Rambler was marketed as the traveling vehicle, with seats that would lay down and, with the optional air mattress, functioned as your very motel on the road.
There is also the only one of its kind in the world Pinin Farina (the Italian designed of Ferrari fame) concept car designed for Nash in 1955.
Jan, Amber's hubby at left, talks to Ben, while Amber herds the boys. Andrew, not a car kid like brother Henry, was much more interested in going back outside to play with Kracker.
Nash only produced the big trucks for dealers to use on service calls
The Flying Goddess hood ornament on Lois Lane, the only vehicle in the museum with her battery and a tank of fuel. She sits closest to the garage door, as they take her out and about the area from time to time.
the museum is absolutely packed with Nash memorabilia and dealer paraphernalia
this is a replica of the first version of the Nash Rambler, 1903
and this is their oldest original, from 1919
They are only lacking 8 vehicles to make their inventory complete of every Nash and AMC vehicle produced between 1917 to 1999. Two of those are the 1917 and 1918 Ramblers.
Most everything on the 1919 is original, down to her wooden wheel spokes
I loved the clever design of the headlamp/rearview mirror combo
Ben had me sit in this beauty
Andrew joined in the back seat ;)
Thie Studebaker has a removable back roof, so if you're stretched out to sleep at night, you can also star gaze!
the Straight 8 Engine with 2 spark plugs per cylinder
I love this one's headlights. Terry said he hadn't been able to ascertain whether these were an option through Nash production or something added later.
that's a "golf door" for the gentleman to store his clubs!
Nash had agreed to a merger with Kelvinator Appliances in the 30s, and the Nash-Kelvinator company bought Hudson Motor Car company in 1954, which then became
American Motors Company. French Renault acquired a controlling interest in AMC in 1983 and sold to Chrysler in 1987. The final year of any AMC badge was on the Eagle Sports Wagon in 1988.
I had suggested Ben take a photo of the Malinovsky's while I stayed out of it.
I didn't quite stay completely out of it. You can spot my head as I crouched down supposedly out of sight.
This car functioned as the coroner's vehicle for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
this 1966 car's owner moved to Switzerland, and promptly had his AMC converted to the right hand driver
The final building was one still under construction. It will house a lot of the vehicles we saw under the covered area behind the Nash museum building. Currently, it has a small handful of odd little vehicles, including this Bricklin, which was only in production from 1974 - 1975. It features gull-wing doors and an acrylic resin/fiberglass body shell.
There's also a cute little blue Bianchina!
we popped back to the AMC building to check out the 50s diner
There's one last room of Kelvinator appliances behind the diner
And they've created a couple of little bungalows to house some more of Terry's collection from the era.
Ben showing the boys how a rotary phone works
We wrapped up the tour in the Sinclair gas station (gift shop and ice cream shop) and then headed for our cars. We were the only two there when we set out, but in the interim a Studebaker club had shown up, some 50 people, so suddenly my boring Honda CRV was sitting next to the like of these:
