Remember when American car design ruled the world? Here’s the lesser spotted Chevy Kingswood wagon in all its be-finned, nine-seat glory.
The year 1959 was peak excess in American car world. The fins, the ornamentation, the chrome and the sheer over-the-top size of vehicles rolling off Detroit production lines had got wonderfully out of hand. These things were mega yachts for the road. Exhibit A is Luciana Battel’s magnificent Chevrolet Kingswood wagon: three rows, seating for nine, and at almost 5.4-metres long, takes up more parking space than a 2024
Toyota HiLux.
Making this chrome monster look even longer is its custom air suspension setup, Luciana happily dropping her Chevy on its guts for maximum visual effect. When you consider the plasticky cookie-cutter SUVs swarming our roads today, it’s barely believable that 65 years ago car companies had the flair and freedom to produce such majestic beasts as family cars. Brilliantly, stylists had the upper hand over accountants in those days.
We Aussies may remember our old (and unrelated) Holden Kingswoods as decent-sized station wagons, but trust me, when you stand beside a ’59 Chevy Kingswood, our domestic effort looks comically inadequate. The Chev’s three vinyl-topped bench seats offer serious space – each giving off 50s US diner vibes – while a dash-mount swivel button drops the electric rear tailgate window to let the third-row rear-facing travellers enjoy an open-air road trip. Don’t tell me times weren’t better back then.
A flick through Chevrolet’s 1959 sales brochure shows just how evocative its inventory was. The Biscayne and Bel Air sedans, the Impala, the Corvette, and then its wagons. You could buy a two-door, six-seat Brookwood; the four-door six-seat Parkwoods and Brookwoods, then our Big Daddy – the Kingswood – with enough space for super breeders. Yep, if 50s mum and dad had produced seven offspring, there was still space for the whole brood. Sure, the boot was now taken up with kids, but as Luciana’s ’59 shows, that’s nothing a metal roof rack and rear mount bike rack can’t solve.
She’s one hell of an enthusiast too. Based on Queensland’s Gold Coast, Luciana’s owned dozens of significant American cars, personally importing many from the States. The Kingswood was one, an eBay purchase – sight unseen – from Colorado in 2017. “I’d bought a 1959 Parkwood wagon in 2014, but sold it to some friends in Victoria and had missed it so much,” she said. “I’d seen a Kingswood wagon at the Cooly Rocks On festival so had a quick look on eBay and this one was up for auction. I won it, then shipped it over with a ’52 sedan.”
Luciana and the Chevies
On arrival in Queensland, Luciana was pleased to see it was in good original condition, but the 235 cu in six-cylinder had suffered engine bearing failure. No matter, time to fit a V8 to better suit the excess-all-areas nature of the wagon. “I had a spare 283 engine at home that’d recently been rebuilt; it’s completely stock, no cam or anything, and with the three-speed column shift manual gearbox,” Luciana said.
Local specialist Chuck Fakes at Heavy Metal Garage was employed to conduct the bulk of the restoration and custom work, from the motor to the air bag suspension. But Luciana is always hands-on, thanks to her long history working with and around such cars.
“My mum and dad’s first car was a ’57 Chevy sedan – a great family car – and then sometime later a ’69 Dodge,” she said. “So we’ve always liked American cars, and my dad had tip trucks, so I learned to grease and change oil. I was that way inclined and just loved it. In my later life I started doing things on my own cars, and became more interested in the mechanical side of it.”
Luciana’s big into the ‘bomb’ scene – basically GM vehicles from around 1936 to 1954 which feature original engines, body lines, trim and accessories, but with the striking lowrider suspension drop. The look has been well translated onto her Kingswood, with a particular mention needed for the decorated swamp cooler (air conditioner) mounted above the right rear window. Other lovely touches included ornamentation for the radio aerial and beautiful Bellflower exhaust tips running the length of the bodywork behind both rear wheel arches.
She’s bombed her ’37 Chev, and also counts a 1960 Chevrolet El Camino and a ’57 two-door station wagon in her line-up, all stored in a large shed locally. “I have a hoist there and a turning circle, so can get at least three or maybe four in there at a squeeze,” she said. That’s the thing with these giant 50s Americans – owning and running them is one thing, but just finding space to keep them is quite another.
Everything from the motor back has been rebuilt in the Kingswood – gearbox, clutch and diff included – by Tino’s Classic Car Garage in Brendale, while Heavy Metal Garage sorted rust in the roof’s lengthy overhangs and replaced the rubbers – lots of them – in the wagon’s many windows.
Devil in disguise
Keeping the interior original was imperative, but Luciana’s first to admit it’s not perfect. Although she’s being too harsh. The seat material is a lovely blend of green vinyl and stitched cloth with white piping, and there’s a handy fold-down armrest in the front bench seat. Stickers adorn the colour-coded dash; the radio and instruments couldn’t be more 50s if they tried, while a steering wheel knob’s fitted to exploit the uprated power steering – blessedly it appears very easy to turn this old Chev – if you’ve got road space enough to do so.
Back to the style of this thing. Being the most family-friendly wagon with space for nine, Chevy made the Kingswood properly distinctive. The twin headlights were mounted as low as legally permitted in between the giant chrome grille, while the ‘cats eye’ rear lights were totally unique to the model, and only survived for the 1959 model year. By 1960 – the last year of the Kingswood – double cone rear lights (which were less spectacular) were fitted, and sadly the model was discontinued after this year. It’d be 1969 before GM resurrected the Kingswood name.
As if Luciana’s wagon isn’t visually arresting enough, it’s been her idea to fit the custom bicycle on the back. “I had to get the brackets for it from the States, and it’ll just sit perfectly on the bumper bar,” she explained. Even with the bike there, with rear glass dropped into the tailgate you can reach into the back seat – or a crafty kid could quickly clamber in without needing the rear doors opened.
It’s a car you can’t stop staring at. Note the deep-dish alloys with white wall tyres absolutely lost in the slammed bodywork; the intricate curved glass in the wagon back, and the magnificent sharp points of the fins, tapered side body trim and tailgate chrome. It is car as art, compete with giant three-metre wheelbase ready to transport most of the footie team in spacious comfort.
Luciana reports it’s an easy enough wagon to drive, and maintenance hasn’t proved troublesome. “The motor’s fine because you can easily get parts from here or the States, while the gearbox and diff having been rebuilt, they’re now good for another 60 years,” she said. “The wipers didn’t really work all the time, so an electrician friend pulled the motor apart, greased it up and now they’re fine. There’s much less involved than what you’d find in a new car!”
Only have eyes for the classics
It’s a proper time capsule. A car from a simpler time. Peer into the back at the rear-facing seat and – to hell with safety – you just want to go on a cross country trip back here, cold Coca Cola bottle in hand, comic book in the other, and a hot summer’s day outside. I’m not convinced three modern adults would have a chance at squeezing across the rear bench seat, but a trio of young kids could happily laze back here – feet in the neat cutout well – making faces at the car drivers behind.
Luciana points out the Kingswood – unlike the Parkwoods and Brookwoods – didn’t have the spare wheel mounted in the side panel, making packaging for nine possible. It meant a full-size fuel tank too – imperative with that thirsty V8 up front – rather than the smaller kidney-shaped ones in the smaller Chev wagons.
“You make a lot of friends with this car, that’s for sure,” Luciana said, explaining it’s a car people can’t help but come and ask questions about. It’s one of those rare cars that makes absolutely everyone smile. Beautiful, bold, daring and an unquestionable high point of late 50s Detroit design. Anyone else up for a road trip?