Awesomeness!
CK5
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Dad's 'Mad, The no longer hibernating 1957 Nomad.
- Thread starter ZooMad75
- Start date
That’s outstanding, Rob. Congrats on getting it into your workspace. It’s going to be a great and worthwhile project.
David
David
Epic!!
No kids yet, but it’s exciting just reading about this. Awesome car and history!
It's crazy how good a Torque Thrust-D looks on an old car, and how equally bad a polished version of the same wheel looks on the same car. Glad to see you get it out.
Martin
Martin
It’s funny my entire life I thought these were Torq-Thrust wheels. The early straight spoke (no D in the name) version to me is cooler than the curved spoke (D) version.
They aren’t Torq-Thrusts though. I discovered they are actually Ansen Top Eliminator wheels. I found boxes with the original center caps with perfect badges on them. Dad had a thing for knock off style spinners so he had swapped on some of them shortly after buying the car.
Upon discovering the old caps I immediately put a pair on and I was sold.
I had never heard of the Top Eliminator wheel. Dad had a set of Ansen sprint wheels on the Impala which I loved. So upon the discovery of these caps my Google-fu went into overdrive looking for info. The Sprint and Top eliminator wheels were the main two designs Ansen sold in the mid to late Sixties. The American Racing Torq-Thrust was the original design that everyone copied, but these were a short lived version that were rarely seen.
The wheels fall in line with the sprit of the car being a late sixties hot rod. I like the fact they are not the standard Torq-Thrust wheel in my mind it just is cooler that way. I love Torq-Thrust in all varieties (the TBSS has 6 spoke Torq-Thrust ST Whees too) but they have reached belly button status. That is, everybody has them.
I was going to throw some vette Knock off finned wheels as I have a set of 7” wide reproduction wheels and 8” wide reproduction they made for the C3 generation vettes. That would match the other ‘57 my sister kept but I think it would loose the street machine/hot rod vibe the car has always had.
Who knows what I might do later. The Ansen wheels stay for the foreseeable future now.
Those Anson's are almost worth their weight in gold.
Not sure how I missed this, but glad I found it. Glad you're able to take this on, and make new memories.
Just old farts will pick up on it. Less if they can’t bend over far enough to see them.
Yep I agree! They aren’t going anywhere
Even cooler. You know the "D" is for disc brake, right? The spokes were curved to clear the caliper. Not an issue with drum brakes.
Martin
I was aware of that. Speaking of disc brakes keeping these little 14” wheels makes finding a kit to fit a challenge. Though I have found one that works with the 14” wheel and it can be had with a 2” dropped spindle.
Keeping on the lesser known facts train, of the tri-five Chevys did you all know the ‘57 was the only year to come with 14” wheels? ‘55 and ‘56 came with 15” wheels. I’ve read the idea was to visually lower the car and accentuate the longer lines of the ‘57 style.
The Nomad needs some help in the ride height department. Right now the nose is high and the tail is low. It’s very “low rider-esq” to me and just doesn’t look right.
I’m thinking out loud, the rear leafs are very relaxed causing the tail dragger stance. Do I put the 2” drop spindle kit on and just keep both ends low? Or do I put the rear springs in and raise the rear and still drop the front? Or do I leave the front alone and put the rear springs in?
Option one will be low. Like really low. Option two would provide max forward rake I’m thinking. To me 57’s look most aggressive if the side trim is on a downward slope from the rear high rake. Think of the old hi-jackers adds in the car mags back in the 70’s. Except not as radical. The third option would be most stockish and at minimum loose the “dog-with-worms” taildragger look.
The second option is the leader in my brain currently. There is 4” of gap between the front tire and top of the fender opening that could be cut in half by the dropped spindles. The rear springs will help with letting the tires clear the inner wheeltubs more as it’s close right now. The change will be more dramatic since the existing rear springs are so roached. But I don’t think it will be too high.
If you wanted the stock look, the wheels would have to be out. Since they are on the car, slight mods are needed.
Back in the day when those wheels went on, everyone cut or heated the front springs to get rake. So I vote, leave the back alone an lower the front with the disk brake upgrade also.
DO NOT PAINT THE CALIPERS RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the day when those wheels went on, everyone cut or heated the front springs to get rake. So I vote, leave the back alone an lower the front with the disk brake upgrade also.
DO NOT PAINT THE CALIPERS RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yellow is better...lol
I was thinking Chevy Orange on the calipers, thereby officially pissing off Bent and Wade at the same time.
Honestly as cast or black will be the way it goes when it’s done.
I’ve got hundreds of pictures from the National Nomad Club and the Mile High Nomad club as I ended up with the photo archives from both clubs. There are many sitting low with a rake.
My only concern right now is rear tires rubbing. It was a problem before with a full load of passengers and or luggage. Enough of a problem Dad put air shocks out back to juice it up a little.
I’ll know soon once I get it on the road if it’s rubbing or not. It might be more for tire life than how it looks to bring the rear up.
I doubt the air shocks still hold air. I might try it one night this week. The only sketch think about using air shocks on a tri-five is the upper shock mounts don’t bolt to the frame. They have pockets in the floor that the shocks bolt to. I’ve had enough of the old guys in the club tell me that the arrangement is no bueno and likely to have a shock poking up through the floor.
Thankfully somebody makes a bolt in crossmember to take the mount off the floor.
Honestly as cast or black will be the way it goes when it’s done.
I’ve got hundreds of pictures from the National Nomad Club and the Mile High Nomad club as I ended up with the photo archives from both clubs. There are many sitting low with a rake.
My only concern right now is rear tires rubbing. It was a problem before with a full load of passengers and or luggage. Enough of a problem Dad put air shocks out back to juice it up a little.
I’ll know soon once I get it on the road if it’s rubbing or not. It might be more for tire life than how it looks to bring the rear up.
I doubt the air shocks still hold air. I might try it one night this week. The only sketch think about using air shocks on a tri-five is the upper shock mounts don’t bolt to the frame. They have pockets in the floor that the shocks bolt to. I’ve had enough of the old guys in the club tell me that the arrangement is no bueno and likely to have a shock poking up through the floor.
Thankfully somebody makes a bolt in crossmember to take the mount off the floor.
Honestly air shocks would be the easiest path if I wanted the adjustable side of things. If I did want to run a new set I’d definitely want to put the bolt in shock mount for sure. I don’t think there’s room to run even a narrow sleeve bag.
When I had the wheels off the other ‘57 I noticed Dad had put “load leveler” rear shocks on it. Those are the shocks with an added coil spring n the outside to boost the capacity a little. Again it’s an issue to support weight with the floor that way just like the air shocks.
I checked the car in the garage when I got home from. Work just now to locate the air lines. I don’t remember where he hid the fill valves. I didn’t see anything in the spare tire well or under the rear bumper. Nor is there anything in the fin where the gas filler neck is.
I know he had it fairly easy to access so we didn’t have to unload the back of the car on a trip to get to it. But the damn car is so low I can’t get my big melon under it to look without jacking it up.
