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Dad's 'Mad, The no longer hibernating 1957 Nomad.

tRustyK5 said:
Just say no to the fuzzy dice... :whistle:
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But I’ve got two sets. Silver with black dots and red with white dots. One for each. :haha:

I’ve said it before we got lots of extra stuff for the cars. But I think the dice will stay in the box I found them in. I’m not going for the poodle skirt/ doowop vibe anyway. It’s 60’s street bruiser all the way. No dice needed.
 
SPLATT said:
How'd I miss this thread?
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Flying under the radar I guess. Been a while since I had updated it.

This will get more interesting once I get the car under my roof. Getting it running will be the priority. I am going to try and document with more photos and video as I go. I’m not trying to go YouTube content creator but just another way of recording progress on the car to share.

I blame @tRustyK5 as he tipped me off to a Canadian Tri-five guy DD Speed Shop on YouTube. He’s more rat rod, less spit n polish and get it running despite how it looks. Right up my alley. Plus he’s got two Nomads. One he’s been building for a while and one I’m he just recently picked up that is a fairly complete, high option survivor ‘55 he picked up at a local auction. It had a National Nomad Club sticker in the back window too. So I’ve been binge watching his stuff for the down and dirty gritty tri-five knowledge.

I’ve recognized by watching his stuff I’ve got a steep learning curve on the little things unique to these cars. I sure as hell wouldn’t have known that dropping a fuel tank in a Nomad is so much more of a chore than the regular coupes and sedans. The tank is wedged between the spare tire well in the floor and the backside of the rear axle. And due to that unique bow tie pasta shape one has to at leas move the rear axle out of the way to get the tank forward enough to clear the spare tire well and then drop the tank down. Most likely option is to drop the rear leaf springs from the shackles and let the axle pivot and rotate down from the front spring mounts. Which is a giant pain, but a great time to replace springs since I need to and have not one or two sets but three complete pairs of springs for the car.

If the tank isn’t full of sediment I’m going to use it to get the engine going. It all depends on how it looks once the fuel is out.
 
I saw a video from Vice Grip Garage where he cleaned a fuel tank for under $15. A gallon jug of CLR and a couple bags of marbles from Wal-Mart. The CLR does a great job on the rust and goo in the tank, and the marbles help break stuff up. He just lifted and tilted the tank in all directions to let the marbles do their thing. Seemed like a decent method if the tank isn't rotted.
 
Big day tomorrow. I've been busting my ass making room to bring the Nomad over to my place. Ironically, it will be 10 years plus one day since we did a huge bit of organization in the front garage where the Nomad has been forever.

NOMAD GARAGE.jpg

That gives you a sense of the mess we were into. We spent that weekend pulling parts out of the pile between the cars and identified/sorted and boxed stuff we planned on keeping. It was a long two days, but we had fun discovering stuff that hadn't been seen in years.

If somebody would have told me then that in 10 years I'd be moving the car into my own garage I would have said they were crazy. It's certainly bittersweet as it squarely meant my Dad would be gone for me to get the car. A total range of emotions has come around leading up to this. I've been excited to finally get the car over to my place. I've also been annoyed at the mountain of parts and tools that we have moved that have never been opened or used. My Dad had a great space to work on the cars, tons of tools and parts, and he didn't touch the cars. I outlined earlier, why that was but it still sucks to think he missed out on enjoying any of the cars he had stuffed away.

I really can't do anything about that from back then so the best I can do is get it running and use it to its fullest. Tomorrow Bill is coming up from Pueblo with his trailer to move the Nomad. I spent today grabbing the spare 350, heads and crank as well as some other stuff. I came back and finished clearing out the space for it and fixed the cylinder for the engine hoist that we need to use to move the huge air compressor tomorrow too.

More feels to be had in the morning as probably going to run all over. But my own "barn find" revival starts then.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I've also been annoyed at the mountain of parts and tools that we have moved that have never been opened or used. My Dad had a great space to work on the cars, tons of tools and parts, and he didn't touch the cars. I outlined earlier, why that was but it still sucks to think he missed out on enjoying any of the cars he had stuffed away.
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I understand completely. One of these day I may tell my story. I’m thankful that you were able to keep the car. I still get a bit pissed…
 
Well, the Nomad has landed.

It went pretty smooth. I got there a little early so I could throw some skates under the front tires. That way I could punch the front of the car sideways enough to clear the door.

IMG_6606.jpeg

Take a hard look at that pic above and compare it to the first pic in my last post. Thats four months of work, 4 30 yard dumpsters and three 20 yard dumpsters to clear out the house and garages of 54 years of collected stuff.

My parents didn’t toss stuff. A couple months before Dad passed he regretted not getting this shit done before he passed away. Katie and I both let him off the hook as the stress to go through all the stuff would have given him an aneurism or stroke. He would have had to look at every box or part. At that rate it would have taken months. We told him not to worry we’d handle it. It’s sucked to go through but as promised we did it.

The skates made it easy to slide over a couple of feet. IMG_6607.jpeg

Bill got there and we lined up the trailer and hooked up the cable. It rolled up easy and surprisingly the brakes held as it started to go downhill on the trailer.
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First time the fenders have seen daylight in 25 years. IMG_6609.jpeg

I’m so used to seeing the other side. This is strange. IMG_6612.jpeg


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I’ve never seen this garage without any cars in it. IMG_6614.jpeg

Strapped down and ready to roll. IMG_6615.jpeg

It’s the fastest this car has moved for a very long time and despite it being on a trailer it’s still looks great doing it. Dust and all!IMG_6618.jpeg

Back in Englewood the car was ready to roll into the garage.


IMG_6621.jpeg

Fits with room to spare.

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There’s plenty of room behind and the side to get to stuff. IMG_6624.jpeg

We had to go back and pick up other stuff but we got it all knocked out. So I had to break out a silver bullet to celebrate another silver bullet and toast one to my folks.


IMG_6627.jpeg

I knew the day would always come. Sadly I also knew having the car would also mean my Dad wouldn’t be with us anymore. I’d trade all of it to get him back, but the next best thing is get the car back on the road and enjoy it like we did back in the day. Robbie’s never ridden in it. He and I are going to put some miles on it for sure.

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My best friend growing up and his family took me to Omaha one summer. I was 17-ish i think.
His uncle had a 56 Nomad, let me drive it like it was my own.
We went to work with Uncle Dickie, he was a garage foreman for the brewery there (Schlitz?).
Taught us to back up the beer trucks. The had coolers along one wall full of reject beer. It was great lol.

The July 4th family picnic/party was epic.
Our mission, take the one ton Chevy van, go the garage, take about ten cases of beer from each truck.
The van was struggling on the way back! We only hit half the trucks. Lol of course the tornado sirens went off on the way back.
What a summer.
 
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