Projects 1941 Nash hotrod

Hey, if your car had a stock wheel and you didn't toss it, it might be worth eBaying. I had guys crying all over for the stock deluxe wheel out of my '40, they were literally being assholes about it and I told them all to pound sand. The dummies could have had the one out of the 4-door parts car my buddy has, probably, I finally looked in it the other day and it was the same wheel. On the bright side at least I know the car's worth what I paid for it.

Anyways, if you have it, even if the plastic is crap, you might be able to get $300-$500 out of it, I don't know if the 41 deluxe wheel is as desirable, but it's worth looking into for that kind of money.

 

Well, it was sunny and 48 out today, after 3 days of continous rain.Thats enough to get me motivated!
I got ambitious, and did some work. Ill let the pics tell the story....




Ok, i went to work on the frame. Got my slip yolk and u-joints today, and FINALLY mounted my driveshaft. I added another crossmember, and built a driveshaft hoop. I also made gussets for the frame brackets that hold the tranny x-member.



My headers also got the VHT treatment.


I did some measurements, and if you didnt notice before, the body always leaned tword the passenger side. Turns out one frame rail is 1'' higher than the other, and 1 inch longer. Now i hafta move my rear shakel mount on that rail back an inch to compensate for the difference. That should also equal everything out as well.

 

Went down yesterday and spend $70 DOLLARS on steel brake lines and fittings. Jesus!

Should be stopping under its own power now!

Heres my next question. How are you guys running the throttle linkage on some of your hotrods?

 

Lokar makes a couple of throttle cables that come out of the firewall....So it mounts to the firewall, and has an adjustable cable out to the carb, and another down to the throttle pedal...Works pretty good.

 

theres my issue. Im stuck with what i have at autoparts stores - i.e. no plastic.

Im thinkin of building a throttle pedal that mounts to the firewall, then running a trick rod set up.

 

Man, this is a cool project. You will definitely have a unique rod when you're finished.

I think you may need to adjust that driveshaft hoop a little:



With the body on the frame (especially if you drop the rear a few inches) it sure doesn't look like there'll be enough clearance at the top for the driveshaft.

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

You could try the local U-pull-it junkyard...Measure the length you will need for your car, and go out and try to match it up to something...

 

you are a true hot rodder!!!

 

So modifying the shackle mount was a bum idea. Turns out the entire frame was twisted

So, i went back to work...

put the front end up on jackstands


Cut out all my crossmemebers and disconnected the leaf on that side leaving that one rail loose..





Then i took a bottle jack and put it between the axel tube and the frame, and jacked it as much as possible, then some more...




Then i hooked the leaf back up, and measued. Did this 3 times. Now its withen 1/16 inch. After that, i welded everything back in place.




Got my headers painted, and started on the front brakes.

 

Got the body back on today, and hopefully will be haveing it move under its own power tomorrow!

 

Well, its starting to come together. It drives and stops on its own now!

Heres the throttle pedal i made



Got my brake lines run


Got my generator brakets finished, and wired up and charging \

Starting to look like a car, and sounds like one too!

 

Wow go for it, Ur awesome!
Is this the way they did it in the old days? Just..... do it ?

 

yup, im guessin it was.

 

Very cool... as Nike says: Just Do It... I don't care if your 17 or 70 you do what you wanna do and it's not wrong, may have to adjust but its not wrong..

 

Well i did some more work on it. I braced in and made mounts for the rear of the body, so that it doesnt flop around any more. Then i made patches to fill in where i cut out the original rear shock towers.



I also found the original headlight buckets, and sand-blasted them using my neighbors blasting cabinet. They're a bit worse for wear, but still strong, so im just gonna use em. Still need to find hardware for them. They have FLOOD BEAM stamped into them as well.





I also got tired of looking at the ground, so i started fabbing up floor pans. Need do some firewall work yet, and im gonna tie the floor pans into a firewall between the gas tank and drivers compartment. Also tracked down what will become my roll bar.




Took it for a spin down the road today. Its spooky how light the car is. Got the carb and timing dialed in finally. Romped on the throttle, and spun the tires between 1st and 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd. It'll be cruising at 40mph, and you can spin the tires until you let off.

 

Got my fuel tank mounted. Welded up patches in inner fenders, got my 3/8ths hard line run for my fuel delivery, and got it plumbed and kosher. also ran my front brake lines, and got the one part i needed for my brakes. Thats all done with now.
Started putting floors in...



Now what the hell do i do now?


You do this... Also serves as a barrier between my fuel tank and i. Also got my rollbar welded in.





Tada! Now the seat is mounted as well.

 

Kid, that is some fine work!

 

Want some advice?
Your air shock mounts are a bit light. The car is going to supported on those when you pump it up. The welds are in tension and they aren't very long.
In your position I would have made a square hole in flat plate and passed the cross member though the hole.
That way the load on the weld and the cross member is spread right around the tube instead of one place in the wall of the tube.

The way you have welded them to the diff will cause the same grief. A longer weld is what is definitly needed. When in doubt check out designs on other vehicles.
Your floors. The use of flat plate may easy but it also drums,thats why car engineers design those ribs into floor panels. if you don't have access to a beading machine you can overcome a lot of drumming by tacking angle (1/2" ) lengths so the corner of the angle is pointing up and the two edges are stuck to the plate.
Drumming can get very old very quickly.
A bit of effort with the disc grinder so you round off any thing you make will give everything a finished look.
Buy grinding discs in extra bulk quantities and use safety gear so you will be less inclined to just cut and weld and call it done.
Get some flap wheels for your grinder and spend time polishing up the things like your gas pedal.
I like your approach and Attitude ,and age doesn't mean a damn thing as long as you aren't crouched in front of the tube playing xbox or using drugs you are OK in my book.

 

Thanks for the advice. Im still getting everything togethor on it, so the floors have yet to be cleaned up. As for the shock mounts, they're welded on the inside and out, but i get what your saying about the concentrated point of pressure and the affects of leverage that the shock will have. If it breaks, ill just re-engineer it so that it wont. Everything on this car has been a learning experiance, so when i do it again, i know what to do.

If i had a bead roller, i would have every thing on the car rolled with beads. Unfortuantly, i dont. If you look at the past pics, the floors were designed with a bunch of cross braces, so drumming wont be an issue. As for the back panel, it does have that problem. I was gonna take a piece of 1x1 square tubing, and run it horazontal from one side to the other, then rosette weld it to give it some bracing.

 

As much as I hate to say it, the harbor freight bead roller [GRRRR! Cheap chinese crap] might be a worth-while investment.

 

Nice to see a young guy so keen!
heres a couple shots of a 47 nash I did for some friends of ours. I fitted 454 chev and auto and Jaguar irs and ifs .

 

Can it do 16 gauge?


Thats a pretty neat 46 sedan you built there. Pain in the ass cars arnt they? Looks like you used the original floor height. I channeled mine about 10 inchs

 

They are basically a "kit" . You HAVE to strengthen the frame so it won't bend on anything thicker than #20 guage. I am a great believer in recycling stuff ( a cheap skate ...) and Mine is an 80 year old peice that I am making more dies for. Rather than spend my good money on the stuff made in China I think that I can make something better.
Dynaflash,do you guys have a lathe there? , Somewhere I have some plans on my PC scanned from an old rod mag on how to make your own bead roller which use US made (pexto) dies and gears. It needs a lathe to machine a couple of shafts but everything else is just stock materials.

 

nice build, great work, keep it up

 

I blew up the pic,and the first thing I though of was...whoa,that looks like NZ architecture,a quick look at your profile says you are. Where in NZ are you, I had a friends years ago who collected Nash's in the far north.

 

This thread inspires me to stop thinking about stuff quite so much and just get on and do it

great work for one so young!

 

Thats a pretty neat 46 sedan you built there. Pain in the ass cars arnt they? Looks like you used the original floor height. I channeled mine about 10 inchs[/quote]


yeah, floor was pretty good so it got front pans and rockers . Chassis has been powdercoated and all suspension detailed with brakes plumbed etc (have had it running too!) Body is painted (hot rod black) so not to far to go. Next time I'm at the owners I'll snap a couple current pics

 

Tauranga, bay of plenty. What part of the far north? We have friends up that
way (No nashes tho!)

 

yeah, floor was pretty good so it got front pans and rockers . Chassis has been powdercoated and all suspension detailed with brakes plumbed etc (have had it running too!) Body is painted (hot rod black) so not to far to go. Next time I'm at the owners I'll snap a couple current pics[/QUOTE]

Yea, i got pissed after i fell though the floor, and took the torch to it. From the firewall to the trunk lock, i guted it.


ITs amazing how few of these cars are out there, and how almost non are being made into hotrods.

 

Hi ,just regoniced this topic and have to say good work ,especially for 17 year old ,way to go! I like oddball rods over fords jus because they are different from the crowd. (not all of them are nice ,though)

Are there more Nash -rodder at hamb?

A.V.G