CK5
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Dad's 'Mad, The no longer hibernating 1957 Nomad.

I’ve owned a 350z and Infiniti g37s. The tuner crowed is different but don’t discount the love of cars. The stuff they do with those cars is insane.
those cars sound insanely awful, like a trombone being blown by a crack whore with no teeth...just sayin. :haha:
 
those cars sound insanely awful, like a trombone being blown by a crack whore with no teeth...just sayin. :haha:
Stock manifolds with an X-pipe and a Borla and they sound pretty nice. Swap the manifolds or remove the cats and it’s buzz city.
 
One of the few cars guys at my work has an Audi. I never took a look at it as most late model stuff doesn't really do it for me. Was talking one morning a few weeks back and he asked about my car I was working on. I gave him the cliff notes, not pumping it up too much though. Dude suggests we race one day. I said sure why not?

Got a better look at his car the other day, it's a tuned RS3. AWD, 400 hp stock. Tuned (which it is) it's a high 11 second car. At least I was smart enough to say I'd race him...at the track. I've since seen the car launch on the street...and damn! The 5 cyl sounds pretty mean. Too bad you'd lose that car at the mall.
 
You don't see Nomads anymore because, they are all tucked away in museums or private collections. Never to be driven again.
Totally true statement. I plan on bucking that trend. Though, it's a product of scarcity driving up values.
Yeah, I get how some stuff gets shuffled to the back (these zoo family cars are prime example)

The "I bought it to park here" or "its ok if it takes 15 years before it running again, as long as it's perfect" are both selfish ideologies


Its why the younger generations don't drive classics.
See also why I make a point to talk to them when they ask questions about a 55 year old car
Dad's mothballing of the cars had multiple reasons. But the most of which was as long as they were tucked away in the garage they were safe and sound. Was it selfish? Sure, but as we went forward, Dad's anxiety about the cars was the overriding factor. He would get pretty upset over the idea of even just getting one running. I'm lucky to say I really never had a major argument with my Dad, but there was a couple of occasions I really pushed the issue and could tell he was getting upset about it. I pulled back and dropped it as it wasn't worth getting him mad over it.

I agree about talking to kids who have an interest in cars. Without kids being interested the hobby dies.
Rene’ …Thanks for the examples and description of the models. I never realized there was a different height to the roofline either.

Rob …what fantastic historical photo collection. Please post up more, cuz who doesn’t like to see those cars in abundance?

Wade … although they're nicely preserved, its a shame people don't get to enjoy the feeling brought by driving them.

Mark … I think it's pretty cool when a kid takes interest in the classics. I too encourage them to ask questions, and I like to get them in the car at times to get a feel of old school coolness!
I got more. No doubt there.

I took another crack at the car today. I wanted to try to be a bit cleaner priming the carb so I ran over to the local drug store and picked up a ear syringe. This was my Dad's favorite way of doing it. Much more accurate.

Like last night it would run long enough to run out of fuel in the bowls. I tried different ways of getting the pump to prime to no avail. I blew air from the tank to the front and from the pump to the tank with the line off at the pump. I even put a miti-vac on the line at the pump and tried to pull fuel up, still nothing. I went back and picked up some fuel hose, barbs, and clamps to attempt to run off a fuel can. That was the ticket. I primed the carb and gave it a shot and it settled into running for the longest stint it has so far.

I like the noise..


I could see fuel pushing into the fuel filter so I knew the pump was finally doing its job. Though I could see and smell the new problem. The Holley is leaking like an absolute sive. It was rich enough with the choke partially on my eyes were burning. It was also leaking into the manifold as well as onto the outside. It ran long enough to build some heat but eventually stalled out. I let it sit to clear the garage of fumes and attempted to start it again and it would not pop. I'm pretty sure by the fuel sitting in the intake it is acting like the plugs are fuel fouled. Just cranks, no fire. So I put the tools away and let it air out.

I need to pick up a carb kit at a minimum. I'm certain the last time Dad went through the carb was after we had a backfire and blew out the power valve on our way to a club outing to have brunch at the officers club at the USAF Academy. That was in the 80's so I'm sure I've got my work cut out for me cleaning up ancient Holley gaskets.
 
If a carb has sat for more than 15 or so years, it gets rebuilt before I try to fire the engine.
I fully expected this issue as well. I just needed to hear it run.
Especially with this modern gas. It’s garbage
I don't think I would have called this fuel modern, it was from the last millennia. It will be great weed control.
retorque the float bowls. Did ya check the dwell ?
I'll try that. Fuel was coming out around the middle of the throttle body. I'm not sure those leaks will be fixed with the bowl retorq. I do have a couple of dwell meters, but didn't break them out yet.
 
No worries on the examples Rene. All good!


Trust me, the car would normally be unobtainium for me too. That fact is not lost on me. This car has been in the family a year longer than I have. Having grown up within the club around these cars I’m very familiar how rare they are and the crazy values they hold. I’ve wanted my own Nomad since I was a kid. We’d been looking since then too. Even 40 years ago Nomad shells were going for silly money. Nothing really fell in place even when I shifted my focus to any ‘57 short of a 4dr sedan or hardtop (because I couldn’t stomach a more-door unless it was a wagon).

Giving my Dad credit, knowing we probably wouldn’t find another ‘57 in our budget, he always referred to this and the other cars as “our” cars and not “his”. It was a great gesture to let us have a shared feeling about the cars. So I’ve always felt I held a share in the car.

I've been blessed to grow up with the cars and within such a cool car club with all the members that treated me like I was one of their sons. They were always cool to me and helped teach me about these cars and cars in general. Think of it as what I feel CK5 is now, but in the old analog before times. They were all proud for me upon my graduation from college and going to work in Detroit for GM. Even coming back as an adult the members in the club had been cool and welcoming to me. Unfortunately, most of the old members have passed and what was left of the local club disbanded a few years ago. It bummed me out but there are a couple of guys left I need to reach out to.

But for those that haven't had the pleasure of seeing a Nomad at all, might be blown away seeing many together at once. So here's some shots from the Archives of the Mile High Nomad club and the National Nomad club (I ended up with the photo albums somehow). Back in the beginning the club was very active with weekend trips, parades and local car shows.
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This was taken at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park in Canon City.
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Chugwater Wyoming for a club run.
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Vail NNC convention in 1976
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Indy NNC convention 1977. Our car in the top right pic near the bottom corner.
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On the infield at the Brickyard.
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I think this convention had one of the biggest turnouts of any of them. Look how many are on pit road!
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You see here kids, you don't need your phone for panoramic shots.
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Omaha 1983
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Rapid City 1984
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The club rented out an entire drive-in movie theatre for a screening of American Graffiti. Probably one of the coolest things I remember as a kid was seeing all these Nomads together watching one of the coolest car movies ever.

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I've got many more where that came from.
I know you wouldn't take owning that car for granted. I just think it's such a cool situation to be in. I'm glad you'll get it out in the public to be seen and appreciated.
 
I probably missed it but what are your plans for this - in the overall sense. Strictly shows, or gonna do some driving in it?
 
I made some great progress this afternoon. The last two days have been a struggle getting the fuel pump to start drawing fuel. But today I took a step back and started checking basics. I pulled the line off between the pump and the frame. Interestingly enough, my Dad had a 6" braided steel line in this spot. I was expecting rubber. So with the line off at the pump I attempted to blow compressed air back to the tank. It just felt blocked. So I got underneath and pulled the other side of the line off so I could see if the inside was collapsed or not. It wasn't. So I attempted to blow back through the hardline again. Like before, it felt blocked still.

Before moving to the back I decided to validate that the pump indeed was working. I hooked up my gauge to the inlet side of the pump, primed the carb again and looked at the reading before it ran out of fuel. 10" on the button. Pump is ok.


So I decided to go back to the tank and check on that end. To my surprise this is what I found.

Obviously, this isn't factory. I do recognize it though. Back after we had an incident with the white '57 on our way to a car show. Sediment from years of use of 104 octane boost finally broke free an started clogging up the fuel filter. That car has a glass bowl filter on the front carb and we could see the flakes floating around. We ended up flushing 5 gallons of fuel through the tank over and over again after straining the drained fuel until we got nothing but clean fuel. Then my Dad built the same style of fuel filter between the tank and the fuel line. My Dad had to put this in when he got the car out last in 1999. I didn't know he built one for this car.

I took the filter off and blew air forward through the line and finally I felt like it wasn't plugged up. So I attempted to blow back into the tank, no bueno. Clogged for sure. Lucky for me unlike the sedans and hardtops having the sending unit in the top center of the tank, the wagons have the sending unit at the front vertical wall that's really easy to access. Five screws and it's out with a little wiggle. I brought the unit back out from under the car and attempted to blow though it either way. Nada. No flow. I took a length of bailing wire and started to run it up the pickup tube and about 2" in I found the blockage. Slowly I soaked it with brake clean and kept running the wire in and was getting this gooey black tar out of the pipe. Looking at the pipe it sits horizontal (no sock at all) and then it makes a 90* turn verticle. Most of the horizontal section was plugged. I was able to keep working it in and out each time getting a little more out. I then came up with a little trick to chuck the wire up in the drill and let it roto-rooter its way up the pipe. Each time flushing it out with brake clean and air. After about 15 minutes of fiddling the air was flowing freely both ways.

Now one might think I'm nuts for even worrying about it. Most would have just got a tank and sending unit and call it a day. Which, I will do. But ultimately I want to make sure the car runs on it's own now. I had run my borescope into the empty tank and found no flakey business where the three gallons of fuel was. With the pickup pipe cleaned up and putting the filter back in where my Dad put it (air flowed freely through it) and the filter up front at the carb I feel ok running it this way until I replace the tank this winter.

I went ahead and reinstalled the sender and buttoned up the line. Knowing the system should flow, I used my next tool I made to gently pressurize the tank and push fuel up the line.


It sure worked as I could hear it flowing out of the line up by the pump! Now I have to double time it to get the line threaded in. (slight tactical error on my part I should have hooked that up first) It's by far easier to reach that line from under the car than reaching down. The only problem was the fuel running down my arm at a serious rate. I just couldn't get it so I went back up top and threaded the line in from up there, even if I could only get an eighth of a turn on the wrench before hitting the upper control arm.

While I was under the car I figured out why the car was way louder than I remember too. Turned out when we loaded the car on the trailer the exhaust on the right side caught on something and pulled the inlet of the muffler out of the head pipe. I went ahead and slipped the pipe back in and locked it down with the clamp. Much better.

All done under the car I primed it one more time and twisted the key. Lit right off. With the choke on it built up some temp into the engine and after about ten minutes I could take the choke off. It settled into a lopey idle like I remember. @Wes Harden While it was running, I tossed my dwell meter on it. 5 degrees at idle. I have no clue if that's good or bad.

But, when I switched it to the tach setting it's barely reading 200 rpm and I know damn well it wasn't actually running at that speed. So my dwell meter might be off.

The choke is still on here so it's running fat.

Choke off, at operating temp and idles nicely on its own. Once things warmed up the valvetrain clatter quieted, though it still has some which I expect.

I hopped in and with the tires off the ground I pushed in the clutch and clicked the Hurst into 1st gear. I slowly released the clutch and let the drivetrain spin slowly. No odd noises. I took it back out of gear and let it idle some more. The t-stat opened and it the idle mixture seems to be pretty close as it wasn't burning my eyes anymore. Oddly enough the carb didn't leak a drop today. The bowl screws were tight too. I still plan on getting a kit for it, but it was odd that it was clean and dry. Oh, @76zimmer you'll like what the carb comes back to by the list number. 2818-1 which according to Holley was a GM factory carb for the 64/65 365hp 327 in a Corvette. The date code narrows it down to April 1964.



All in all, a very productive outcome to the day. Next up, full brake inspection, lube the suspension and check rear axle fluid.
 
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Bottom of meter says 8 cyl is times 2 so dwell is actually 10....... Yes? tach would be times 2 also?
 
Bottom of meter says 8 cyl is times 2 so dwell is actually 10....... Yes? tach would be times 2 also?
Each scale has two sets of marks, top and bottom. The top row on each is 4/8cyl, bottom is 6 cyl. That's where I came up with 5 degrees. Again, I'm skeptical since the tach reading is totally off. I can't compare to the tach inside as it don't work currently. It's a really old original Sun Super tach that actually had some goofy battery inside it to work and gets the reading from the big box on the inner fender. The battery is some odd size nobody makes but it's close to an AA. I've found a couple of outfits online that will convert them to modern electronics that I'll probably get done.
 
Each scale has two sets of marks, top and bottom. The top row on each is 4/8cyl, bottom is 6 cyl. That's where I came up with 5 degrees. Again, I'm skeptical since the tach reading is totally off. I can't compare to the tach inside as it don't work currently. It's a really old original Sun Super tach that actually had some goofy battery inside it to work and gets the reading from the big box on the inner fender. The battery is some odd size nobody makes but it's close to an AA. I've found a couple of outfits online that will convert them to modern electronics that I'll probably get done.
Yeah, top is 4 or 8 cyl. Bottom is 6 cylinder.
5* showing is 4cyl. Double it for 8cyl. So 10
 
I think it reads 8 cylinder and you double it for 4
the meter reads 4 cyl.=8 cyl.x2
 

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