First Drive

[alhewitt]

A little history - we all have history, right?
This is my second 57, the first one I bought 55 years ago in 1962 at the age of 17. I was in high school and king shi*. I quickly removed the 283 and replaced it with a 327. It would run as I remember but lacked certain amenities. It was a 150, black, 2 - door post, 3 speed car.
Now I have a factory FI car that looks that same - 2 door post, 150, black car. So it is in my garage but not running well - yet. Current gas is bad shi* when left in the tank for a long period. I'm having to de-fuel it and god know what else. Anyhow I had it running (not well) and drove it around the block. What a tank! No power steering or power brakes, minimal head lights and I'm 17 years old again...
So I'm having fun with this car and sparing no expense, it will remain stock to the nut and bolt. Hope to attend some shows this coming summer, just want to be a player.
Cheers
Al

[BamaNomad]

Hi Al, sounds like you have a neat car that many of us would love to pore over and explore.. Have fun with it and 'keep on keeping on'..

[chevynut]

Welcome to the site. I guess I have a hard time understanding why anyone would restore one of these cars to 60 year old condition, but it's not my choice what you do with your car.

[BamaNomad]

That's what the word 'restore' means, CN... ie. RESTORE to original condition... Otherwise, you are *Preserving*, *updating*, or *Customizing*... IMO...

[WagonCrazy]

Welcome to the site Al. Neat car and neat story you have there. Enjoy the heck out of it, and do whatever you want to it as you bring it back to life.
Life is short, get it drive-able...

[busterwivell]

I have had my 56 for 10 years this coming April. It didn't run then, and I never drove it more than around my property until 2-11-17. Finally finished the wiring, and drove it 2 miles to the mailbox and back.......it's a start. I need seatbelts, then an alignment and new tires, and it's a driver! Finally! I share the excitement.

[BamaNomad]

CN wrote: "Bamanomad, I have no plans to sell my Nomad but if it ever gets to the point that I lose interest in cars or can't drive anymore, who knows. Pretty sure I can get more out of it than I have in it....if you ignore my time. LOL!"

I think that is true for most of us who expect (hope) to get more from our cars upon sale than what we put into them...
We have to DO the work ourselves and IGNORE payment for our time..

You are right re a very nicely done RestoMod being able to bring $100-150K or more.. but everything has to be *right*.. the color, the builder, the model car, etc... and those things 'change' from season to season and are difficult to predict.

Personally I pay little attention to the B-J auction prices. I know too many examples of *fake cars* that get PUSHED by B-J at auction because the seller/builder is a close friend of theirs (or a great repeat customer?).. The prices are inflated on the higher end cars by RICH guys trying to impress their buds (or almost rich guys trying harder to impress the audience). The ONLY entities making $$ from a BJ auction are B and J themselves (at 20% of all the sales)...

[alhewitt]

As an up-date to my 57 and to the many comments, thanks for the words folks. I do plan of leaving this car as original as possible and agree that any modification will detract form its value. This is not to say that modified cars cannot be better in terms of newer equipment and can be worth more but starting with what appears to be an original car I feel it would be a shame to modify it. Like the man said, it is my car and I can do with it what I like - this is America.

I have replaced the fuel system from gas cap to the FI system with new. Inside the old tank looked like the surface of the moon! It is amazing what current gas can do. I have access to 100LL avgas and plan to use it. I don't know if the valve seats are the newer variety so running it with leaded avgas should solve that problem.

I have removed the 283 cu in engine and have it running on a stand with an AFB while the FI system is undergoing restoration. The FI system is in a shop where it will be dialed-in and made to look new. The engine has good compression, makes close to 15" of manifold vacuum and idles at 45+ PSI of oil pressure. This was an auction bought car will little history known and based on these reading I'm planning to clean it up, paint it and re-install it with out opening up.

While the engine is out I cleaned up the engine bay. The previous owner went nuts with a can of Chev orange paint and had over-spray on the frame. Turns out that when this car was restored the frame was powder coated so I was able to remove the orange paint with-out effecting the appearance of the frame.

Work continues and I hope to take to a show or two this coming summer. I did jack up the rear and count the driveshaft revolutions necessary to rotate tires one turn. It came out to 4.56:1. So driving this car on the freeway is probably not going to happen.

This car is a little like the box of candy in the Forest Gump movie - you never know what you will get.

Stay tuned
Al

[chevynut]

I have access to 100LL avgas and plan to use it. I don't know if the valve seats are the newer variety so running it with leaded avgas should solve that problem.

I would advise against doing that. Leaded gasoline has been banned for highway use for a couple of decades now. Also, when you buy aviation fuel, you're not paying the highway taxes so its illegal to use on the highway. The fine is up to $10,000. Plus it's almost $5 a gallon here.

Sounds like kind of a unique car. Good luck with it.

[markm]

Al, some of us love 60s era hot rods and spend the $$$ to build them. However, only a fool would modify an original Fuelie or 2x4 car unless it was an incomplete basket case. I share you pain on the crap they call gas today.