Nomad final assembly

[chevynut]

Thought I'd get started with a new thread for the final assembly of my Nomad. I'm doing the final priming and blocking on the body and getting it detailed out and ready for paint, which I hope happens in a couple of months.

In the meantime I decided to assemble my brake and clutch pedals. I painted the pedals with the PPG charcoal base and applied matte clear.

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Then I installed new NOS nylon brake and clutch pedal bushings and pedal bump stops.

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I found an NOS brake light switch and installed it. Finally, I machined some parts for the clutch master cylinder linkage to replace the mockup pieces and got that all put together along with the clutch safety switch. I previously had the whole brace assembly powdercoated silver along with a bunch of my other parts. It's pretty much ready to go into the car after paint.

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[BamaNomad]

CN, I can't wait to see the 'Marriage' between your chassis and newly painted body... It's going to be beautiful!

[Custer55]

Looking good as usual!!

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

looking forward too.

[Bitchin'57]

Over-the-top quality execution as usual, CN! After all these years, I'll bet it feels good to finally say the phrase "final assembly"!

[chevynut]

Glad to see you back Bitchin'57 . Yes it does feel good to talk about final assembly. In fact, I just met with my interior guy today and finalized the materials we need for the whole car. We are sending 1 1/2 of the orange/tan (Ferrari Tan) hides out for perforation asap so that's a big step. He has 4 full hides left over from an abandoned project he's selling me at his cost, and we're ordering 2 1/2 more charcoal hides that he thinks will finish my car. He originally told me it should take 7 hides so I hope there's enough . He already has the charcoal wool Mercedes carpet that he ordered in bulk and we're going to order the tan wool headliner material closer to when he gets the car after I get it assembled....there's a lot of work before that.

I've been working on interior details like rear seat belts and drilling holes for wiring, etc. the past few days before I put the body on the rotisserie. I spent a couple of days trying to figure out how to install seat belts without having ugly bolts sticking out the bottom of the car but I think I figured it out. Decided to leave the rear of the console until later....gotta get this moving.

I just sprayed the last coat of primer on the roof, and it just needs final sanding which I'll probably do at his place. I need to call to make sure he can take it this year.

[567chevys]

Wow ,

looks really good , glad your seeing the Finish line.I don't see how you find all the time to build the car .you must not sleep ?

Sid

[chevynut]

Here's the batch of parts from my zinc plater. I disassembled two Nomad tailgate latch assemblies and had all the steel parts plated along with brake parts and a bunch of other stuff. While I was there picking them up I saw several boxes of car parts they were doing .

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[chevynut]

One of the things I needed to do before paint is install the rear seatbelts. I had a heck of a time figuring out where to anchor them and still look good. I read that the belts should be no closer together than 15" and no further apart than about 21". The inboard locations weren't too hard to determine, but they needed to be outboard of the console. The outboard ones were more tricky. I didn't want to go through the wheel tub with a bolt, so I went through the floor instead. The only thing showing underneath is the reinforcement plates and bolt heads. The plates are epoxied into place with some super-duper space age epoxy I got. I'll use locknuts on top. The outboard mounting point is just in front of the tubs. Hope it all works right

I also cut the notch in the floor for my torque arm, which you can see in the last picture. If I had designed it better I wouldn't have had to do this but I did it with the body off the frame originally. And I probably cut more out than I really needed to.

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[c57heaven]

thnaks for the idea on the seat belt mounts on the side. Will you be bolting to the L bracket or was that for fitment?

[chevynut]

The seatbelts will be bolted to the top of the L-brackets which are made of 3/16" steel. They'll go on the backside so they don't interfere with the seat cushion. I still need to drill the holes.

Here's the rear seat structure, console, and tubs so you get an idea of what the problem was. I thought about mounting them on the sides of the seats, at the driveshaft tunnel and the armrest, but decided not to go that route.

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[chevynut]

A while ago I bought a new dash bezel set and a set of Dakota Digital VHX instruments and clock. I decided to go ahead and assemble them to see what they look like. Here's the clock in the new bezel with a chrome "BelAir" script. I decided that I want to remove any gold emblems/scripts.


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Here's the instruments. I got the black face with white numbers because I don't like either the blue or red. The needles turn red at night with the lights on. I really think these are the best gauges on the market right now.

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[WagonCrazy]

Those are nice.
And I personally agree with eliminating the gold colored emblems (for chrome). Doing the same with mine (when I get to that point.).
Carry on Laszlo...
It's all progress.

[Bluegrass Trifive]

I really like them too. I've got a set of the HDX series to go in my 57. Their tech support is top notch and they've helped me work through several PCM interface questions.

[chevynut]

I've got a set of the HDX series to go in my 57.

The HDX series gauges have some nice features but I don't like the layout for the 55-56 setup with the backwards tach. It just seems "wrong" to have a tach go counter-clockwise. I had just bought my VHX gauges when I saw the HDX gauges for the first time. They're quite a bit more expensive than the VHX series too, and I don't know if I could justify the additional cost. I got my VHX setup for $700 and the best price I can find on the HDX series is $1230.

IMO they should have just forgotten about the analog speedo on the 57 setup and put the tach there instead, and just use the digital speedo only. I personally think it would have been more functional and looked better.