VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1958-1960 1959/60 wagons, a 2 1/2 - part question

Pt. I - it is my understanding that '60 wagons were badged Brookwood, Parkwood & Nomad. A colleague has suggested that those corresponded to Biscayne, Bel Air & Impala but I'm not convinced, as all Parkwoods I've seen are 9-passenger. Comment?

Pt. II - In Canada, wagons seem to be badged Biscayne, Bel Air & Impala; no other designation. Comment?

Pt. 2 1/2 - There was a discussion some time ago that wagons required considerably more fiddling than sedans and for that reason were only assembled at a few US plants. What about Oshawa, Canada? Any Oshawa veterans here?

My Canadian book lists 1960 wagons By the wagon names you have listed. The Parkwood was a 6 pass. wagon and the Kingswood a 9 pass in the car Bel Air series..
The wagons are listed as being assembled at the Oshawa plant, possible that the bodies were made at the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland , Ohio as all US wagons were with the bodies shipped to all the other assembly plants..
Also says the only full sized car model assembled at the Flint plant and delivered to Canada were the 3 paassenger 2 door business sedan. A very low production model.

The Cleveland plant was not the only plant to build station wagon bodies. Between '59 & '63, I have 6 & 9 passenger wagon bodies recorded from Baltimore, Janesville and St Louis. These are BODY builds as well as final assembly.

The Cleveland body plant also built convertibles, sedan deliveries & El Caminos
Verne

Thx for that. Does your Cdn. book also list the 6-passenger Brookwood?

Sttation wagons were all 6 pass. except for the Kingswood.

So four wagon trim levels, being Brookwood, Parkwood, Kingswood + Nomad were available in model year 1960?

The Parkwood and Kingswood were the same trim level, equal to the Bel Air trim level in sedans.
The 9 passenger standard equipment included a power rear window, the third seat, bumper steps, etc. Interior trim and exterior trim same for both.

I agree that's true for '59 & '60 only. '61s offered 9-pass wagons in Brookwood, Parkwood & Nomad models. For '62 they were offered in the Biscayne, Belair and Impala lines.

Verne

There was also two versions of the Brookwood, a two door and four door.

In 1961 all wagon series could be 6 or 9 passenger
Which would be most rare? A 1960 2 door wagon or a 1961 Impala 2 door post?

Off the top of my head I would say the 61 Impala two door sedan is the least rare of the two, Many traditional buyers did not care for the lower rooflines of the 59 and 60 Impala's only offered as a two door hardtop but also enjoyed the longer door opening of a two door without compromising head room. A lot of men still wore fedora's. I have seen a lot more of the sedans then the wagons in the past 35 years of poking around these cars in yards all over the northeast. Two door wagons were a special use vehicle with a niche market, offered in fleet sales catalogs as well. I would speculate that the two door wagons were consumed and disposed of, numbers were small. The advantage of the front door being almost a foot longer on the two door. The platform was used for the full size El Camino's which ended in 61 as well as the full size two door wagons. I have seen only one 59 and one 60 two door brookwood wagon ever, and they were pretty run into the ground before they made it to the yard they were in. Sad part was they were pretty much complete cars, seemed like nobody needed anything from them

1960 6cyl 2 door Brookwood: 11,675
1960 V8 2 door Brookwood: 2,988

1961 Impala 2 door Sedan: Total: 11,719

Verne

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