2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

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ah8tk
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2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by ah8tk »

The car I built for 2014 is a Chevy Nomad wagon, in the beginning, when I was thinking about building a Chevy wagon, I was not sure if I wanted to build a 210 Handyman Special version, a Sedan Delivery or a Nomad. All I knew is it would be a 2 door wagon. After looking at some pictures of the wagons and speaking with my neighbor, it was decided to go with the Nomad. The arched rear glass, the tilted door posts, the additional chrome, the Nomad was a hot rod 2 door wagon.

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I did start this car back in the winter of 2013, I ran out of time and left it to be finished for this PWD season. Here is the plan for the Nomad:

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Like all of our builds we removed weight from the block before we glued sides to the block:

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Then the sides are trimmed and the cutting plan is added to the block and is cut on the bandsaw:

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After this the block is carved out:

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Last summer when I was at Back to the 50s, perhaps the largest pre 1965 car show in the world, I found an example of what I was looking to build. I took many photos of the ornamentation on the car so I could make a faithful representation in my pinewood car.

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After the block is rough sanded I decided to that I needed rear fender skirts to make it look more like a Nomad. The skirts are made with very thin steel made for roof flashing. The steel is thin enough that I was able to cut it with a scissors.

The skirts are fitted to both sides and epoxied to the block and clamped. I should really only glue one skirt at a time but I decided to glue both together. When you use a Quick Grip clamp this can be troublesome. They turned out great:

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Then the skirts are filled with bondo (I have had the same quart of bondo for almost 8 years, because you don’t need much when you use bondo on pinewood cars):

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Then the fine sanding is completed before the first coat of primer:

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Our cars are primed and sanded at least twice. The first coat seals the wood, all of the small imperfections are filled with spot putty and sanded down to 400 grit. The car is re-primed and any imperfections are fixed and sanded to 600 grit. If there is no wood showing through it is time for paint:

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We always try to paint the lighter color of a 2 tone paint job first. So on went the white paint:

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After waiting the lacquer paint to set (maybe ½ hour) the car is masked and the violet is painted:

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We almost always paint the bottom, and the inner wheel wells, last. I find it easier to mask off the body and paint the bottom and our aluminum bottom cover (also made from aluminum flashing). I think this helps our cars stop better on the “belly rub” stop sections.

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Then we apply the chrome tape and the decals we have drawn to fit our car:

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It was cleared, left to dry overnight, and then cleared again:

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I polished the axles, polish and wax the wheel bores and lubed and assembled the wheel assemblies. The car was weighed and some trim weight was added before the bottom cover was attached with 2 sided tape. The wheels were inserted and the car was aligned on the test board for about 3” in 4’.

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I brought it to another pack race that we put on to track tune the car. I ran it against the Studebaker, Champion . And could not tune it to beat the Studebaker. So the Studebaker ended up racing in the race I had signed up for.

It is still one of my favorite cars, I will have to work on the rear alignment to see if I can get it faster…
Last edited by ah8tk on Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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whodathunkit
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by whodathunkit »

Andy,

The Nomad is cool.. How did you get around the 2 3/4 inch wide rule?
Did you have to use a tighter wheel to body gap on the rears for the skirts to fit.
Or did you shave the rear hubs & iner wheel rim down for more clearance to tighten up
axle head distances to keep the wheels from rubbing on the skirts.

I like how you made the skirts for the Nomad useing the roof flashing.
what gauge of thickness on the flashing would you say you used .oo8 or more.

Cool idea there Andy.

Mark
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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ah8tk
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

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whodathunkit wrote:How did you get around the 2 3/4 inch wide rule? Did you have to use a tighter wheel to body gap on the rears for the skirts to fit? Or did you shave the rear hubs & inner wheel rim down for more clearance to tighten up axle head distances to keep the wheels from rubbing on the skirts.
Mark, the car is just under the 2 3/4” limit (by .007) see explanation below:

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Originally, when we built the Flo and Doc Hudson cars with fender skirts, there were issues with skirt clearance using the pre 2009 PWD wheels. The lettering on these wheels was much thicker than the current wheels. On Flo and Doc Hudson we had to remove the BSA, PINEWOOD DERBY on the wheel face by sanding. The Nomad has its rear axles (not axels) drilled with a 2.5 degree negative camber. The car is cut down to 2 11/16” width, to allow for paint and primer. We had issues our 3rd year with the Marlin not fitting into Randy’s Go-No-Go gauge, without a little force gently applied before we were allowed to race.

This camber gives more room for the top of the wheel (see drawing below):

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The Nomad does not have large fender skirts like Doc Hudson had (they don’t go as far down the wheel), this still may be some trouble. On the Nomad, this gives us plenty of room for the wheels gapped with the Maximum Velocity wheel gap gauge:

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whodathunkit wrote:I like how you made the skirts for the Nomad using the roof flashing. What gauge of thickness on the flashing would you say you used .oo8 or more.
The flashing that I used for the skirts measures .010.
Last edited by ah8tk on Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DerbyAddicted
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by DerbyAddicted »

You make some INSANE cars. They look incredible, and I don't see how any other cars can compete with you when it comes to best looking.
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Noskills
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by Noskills »

Andy,
Brilliant as always. Love the choice.
Noskills
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

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On average, how much time is invested in the building of one of your cars?
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ah8tk
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

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Thanks guys for your comments on the car.
DerbyAddicted wrote:On average, how much time is invested in the building of one of your cars?
Depending on the car between 10 to 40 hours, it depends a lot on the design time, the difficulty in creating decals and the amount of detail I decide to re-create in the car. I had over 60 hours in an 18-wheel truck I was contracted to build, a couple of years back.
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Vitamin K
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by Vitamin K »

Just wanna chime in and throw some props for some absolutely beautiful work there, man. Love it. :thumbup:
The Iceman
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by The Iceman »

:bigups: Nice!!! Man that is beautiful!
68sportcoupe
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by 68sportcoupe »

awesome car love it
is there a template for that.
and if so where could I find it
thanks
mike
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Re: 2014 car 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

Post by TXDerbyDad »

That is an absolutely beautiful car.
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