[cybrslider]

Made some progress this weekend. Brakes installed. The car was originally a 4 wheel drum car. Now it has a "factory" front disc conversion. I bought the kit from Matt's Bowties. The kit is also known as the "Right Stuff" conversion kit? Anyway...

Fairly happy with the kit. I spent the extra $100 bucks or so and had the stainless steel pre-bent brake lines included. These lines were very close - the line that goes from the prop valve to the back rubber hose was about 2 inches "short" from being able to use the last factory tie down clamp. Probably could bend it a bit and that would work as well. The front disc steel lines are what I will call "kludgy" but, they work. I will probably remake or modify them. I had to make one line that goes from the master cylinder to the new prop/combi valve because the one they provided was too short for me to tweak it so it would connect. It was about 4 or 5 inches of tubing. I made one that was bent basically the same way but with bigger loops (about 10 or 12 inches of tubing) so that I could tweak it and get it connected.

I'll upload some pictures later.

Only problem I have is the passenger side brake hose where it attaches to the caliper with copper washers is leaking.

Engine - had a set back there. Will need to find 2 replacement cylinder heads. Bummer

 

[cybrslider]

...

Only problem I have is the passenger side brake hose where it attaches to the caliper with copper washers is leaking.

Walked out in the shop today and there was a puddle of brake fluid by the front passenger tire. Bummer...

 

[72 Greenbrier]

Engine - had a set back there. Will need to find 2 replacement cylinder heads. Bummer

What's wrong with your cyl heads...???

 

[cybrslider]

What's wrong with your cyl heads...???

Oh, I broke one of them. It had a broken exhaust manifold bolt on the end hole. In my attempt to fix it, I made quite a breakthrough - right to a water jacket. I should have pulled the head and used the drill press. My hands aren't as steady as they used to be. Got the bit off a bit and now it flows water in a place I don't want it - namely on the ground.

I will replace them in pairs so...

Might go ahead and freshen up the block now too. Not sure.

 

[cybrslider]

So, I got replacement cylinder heads. Opinion - is this a score or a rip?

I had been pricing rebuilt heads and couldn't find anything cheaper than about $300 bucks each rebuilt with around (average) $100 core charge. One head was not a suitable core so I would end up paying one core charge, making the heads basically $350 apiece.

Decided to check eBay. Found a set of new 317 castings, not rebuilt, for $526 for the pair. So I jumped.

Got the heads yesterday. Only thing about them? It looks like someone started to do some port work on one of the heads - one intake port floor has been ground on slightly.

Hope to get them installed in the next week or two. Engine goes in after that.

 

[cybrslider]

Brakes are sorted. Just need a partner to help bleed now. The problem with the leaking on the passenger side was also on the drivers side. The banjo bolts are not properly machined and that allows it to put uneven pressure on the copper washer as it is crushed, resulting in leaks. Pic of the bolt and washers, see the right most washer and the ring near the inside.

Bought some different bolts and new washers. Installed and no leaks detected. Yay!

 

[chevygod]

Don'tcha love modern service parts? I try to use nice, clean original parts where possible.

Glad you got it sorted, looking forward to the next updates.
Tom

 

[cybrslider]

I didn't realize it had been this long since I posted. I have made some progress. Engine was in and out a few dozen times while I worked out clearances. Originally purchased an F-body pan but, I just could not make the adjustment to get it all to work with that pan. It would either hit the cross member or, I couldn't line up the motor mount pins. So, alas, ordered the Holley 302-2 pan. Fits well. Clears everything.

Floors - I knew there was something funky with the floors on this car. It has some visible surface rust around the drip rails and rear pillars. Some slight bubbling in the rear quarter area on the driver side. I mean slight - like 2 or 3 bubbles. One actual rust thru right on the edge of the passenger rear quarter wheel opening that is about a quarter in size. The spare tire well has a bunch of extra, non-factory drain holes. Rockers are solid. Door hinge areas are solid. Doors are solid - they have some surface rust on the inside but minor; solid at the bottoms. There is some rust behind the windshield and, some of water leaking over the years looks like it may have crusted up the dash a bit in the corners by the pillars. Overall, car is fairly rust free. But, the floors were weird. Turns out the previous owner went to extreme measures to cover up the rust there. On the underside of the car, there was bondo and fiber glass. It was still pretty obvious, looking underneath the car, that the floor had issues. The inside - well, not sure what all it was. Definitely some fiber glass in there. Maybe fiber glass cloth spread across the floor and then coated with resin? Most of it was hard. There was some black, gooey mess as well. The hard parts pulled up mostly in "sheets". Anyway, got all the cover on the inside out and was left with the attached pic. Most of the worst parts are in the foot wells. The floor between the front and middle braces was pretty solid. The front drivers and rear passenger foot wells areas were the worst. Pic is rear passenger side. Front drivers side had a hole about 4 inches in diameter. Rust on the passenger front goes up higher into the firewall than does the drivers side front. Floor is mostly cut out of drivers side. Braces are solid. I ordered 64-67 floor pans to go back in. I bought the Auto Metal Direct pans. The contours are not all exactly the same. Looks like the length will be good.

Hope this wasn't too long and boring.

David

 

[Roadking41A]

Any new updates?

 

[cybrslider]

2.5+ years since last post - I am still working on the car. Life and work settled down some. I finally finished up the floors a couple of months ago. Bought a new wiring harness from American Autowire and that installation is in progress. Along with that, re-assembly of the car (so the wiring has something to hook up to).

I plan to do some custom interior lighting - like a modern car. I want to install some map lights by the rear view mirror, keep the stock dome light and, add a dome light to the rear cargo area. I'd like for these to be switched so they can be configured to come on when the door opens or not, or be on with the switch. Anyone done anything like that? I also plan to use the ashtray as a "charging station" - two 12 volt charges and 2 USB charging slots.

David

 

[lkmarsh]

Hi there, my wagon build is also proceeding at a glacial pace. Right now I'm rewiring my console
with relays for windows and locks. The eBay link below shows an oem mirror with light.
I have these in all my old cars, picked them up at wrecking yards and swap meets.
Wired into the dash light dimmer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-1971-...mobile&hash=item23cac9365d:g:adYAAOSwEW9aXiyx

You can add one or two more dome lights, tap into existing circuit and they will work
like you describe. I added door switches to the back doors and used a window lockout switch
for a dome light switch just inside the tailgate.

Another build thread here mentions 67 floor pans being a better match than the 68-69.
Is your new pan for a wagon, sedan, coupe? And are you doing a two-door conversion? -lyle

 

[cybrslider]

Hey Lyle -

Thanks for the info and link. I am quite the noob when it comes to wiring. I've had the harness for a few weeks. Been comparing with the old, studying, planning. I have the fuse box mounted and the rear body wires routed (not terminated). Working on getting the dash and instrument cluster routed.

I used 64-67 floor pans from AMD. I might still have part numbers somewhere. They fit pretty well. Took some convincing (that is, pounding with a hammer and some heat) around parts of the the floor braces and at the body mounts in the front brace. I am not doing a 2 door conversion.

David

 

[Sprech]

Hey David, how is this progressing? I'm about to get mine back after 4.5 years as I have not been in an hurry and I've moved twice. Where in OK are you? We will be down there the week of 6/20-ish. Bryan

 

[NickeyChevelle]

One word: Two Door.

 

[cybrslider]

Bryan - sorry I missed your post a couple of months ago.

And sorry I am not doing well at updating. But, honestly, I am doing nothing that is ground breaking. Finally, I apologize for the length of this post upfront.

Motor and transmission are in the car. The transmission was at a terrible angle. Basically pointing down toward the ground. Getting it leveled out so that it was closer to the proper angle required me to cut the transmission tunnel. That little side project took about 3 months. My fabrication skills suck . Anyway, I used the factory cross member - cut the bracket off, flipped it around, welded bracket back on. Works great. I have not tried to hook the factory emergency brake back up yet so I will see how well it actually worked when I try that.

I tried to install the truck exhaust manifolds but the driver side manifold hits the frame rail. So, I bought some Patriot exhaust manifolds. They cleared the frame rails and appeared that they would work great. But, I found out when I tried to install the starter a few weeks later that the passenger side manifold is pulled in too tight and it hits the starter. So now I have a Patriot manifold on the drivers side and a truck manifold on the passenger side. Would that affect the AFR to the O2 sensor in a bad way? The Patriot manifold has a ball type end and came with a little 3 inch extension with a O2 sensor bung welded in. I plan to put the O2 sensor there so hopefully it will work out.

I have been fiddling with the wiring for months. Very low confidence in this area. I asked a few questions about wiring in the electrical forum Plus, the transmission tunnel project mentioned above pulled me away from the wiring. I am back to the wiring now. Something is different now though - I looked at the diagram and the actual harness after being away from it for a few months and something just clicked. I got several wires cut and terminated successfully. Confidence is now higher and progress is being made.

Drive shaft is cut and installed. 4L80 transmission yoke had a 1450 type u-joint. Original car driveshaft had a 1310 u-joint. There is no hybrid between these two so the driveshaft shop welded a new yoke on the driveshaft for a 1350 u-joint and installed a half 1450 / half 1350 u-joint.

I posted a few years ago how I modified a 2 door car style fuel sending unit to try to work in the wagon tank. I am still on that idea. I have a sending unit for an EEC regular car tank. I took the sending unit piece that the float moves (not sure what this is called) off the tube. Took the sock filter off. Put some of those old cheapie tubing bender mandrels in my vice and bent that short little tube so that it more close matches the angle of the stock wagon sending unit. Put a flare nut on the tube and double flared it. Got a piece of 3/8 tubing, cut it to the correct length allowing for the fuel pump, double flared one end and joined it with the sending unit with a 3/8 brass union (look at the older post of my work with this - it is very similar but much improved now). The end of the tube where the fuel pump will go on the new modified unit is at the same angle as the stock unit. I drilled a hole in the flange for a new piece of tubing. Supported the flange all around except for under the new hole and took a punch bigger than the hole and hit the flange over that hole a couple of times to sort of bevel it. Got a piece of 5/16 tubing about 8 inches long, bent it at 90 degrees in the middle and soldered it to the flange in the new hole. Spread some fuel resistant sealer on the soldered joint Now, just have to work out the fuel pump and the wires and get the sending unit piece installed back on the tube in a better place.

I ordered AutoMeter 5 inch diameter gauges for the dash. The dash is all apart for re-wiring. Plus, the dash bezel was broken in a few places and the dash pad was cracked and all dried out. Ordered a new bezel and pad. Took the gauge assembly out of the dash bezel and removed the factory speedometer and fuel gauge. Also removed the clear plastic piece on the front. The 5 in gauges are just slightly too big to fit in the hole. Took a Dremel tool and opened up the hole. Gauges fit in nicely. Another plus? I don't need 13 wires for all the bulbs in the dash now. Only need 8. Only problem I see is I lose the high beam indicator light and the brake light. I have ideas for that, though. I am not going to have a clock so I am going to modify that 2.25 inch "Chevelle" badge where a clock would go to be where the high beam and brake light indicators will go. I am going to cut out a square piece of metal in the original speedometer where the little bow tie high beam indicator is cut out. I am going to patch that into the badge right above the word Chevelle. Going to cut a rectangle below the word. That badge mounts in a "can" that has 2 bulbs to light it up. Perfect. Just have to fabricate a couple of "light tunnels".

Short term plan is to finish up fuel tank sender, run a new fuel line (car was originally a 6 cylinder and has only a 5/16 fuel line), get the intake installed back on the motor. Get enough wiring done to try and start the motor. I have been much more motivated since the floor pan work is done but not good enough. I think it will really motivate me to get the car back on the road if I hear the engine run.

I'll try to post some pictures if anyone is interested.

Thanks,
David

 

[cybrslider]

I had asked a question in the LSx Engine forum and Mike/@72 Greenbrier requested some pictures. Attached are pictures of a mock up of the fuel sending unit I made. I started with a regular coupe sending unit with EEC. First pic compares built unit with original unit. Second pic is what the flange will look like. Not quite finished but very close. Fits tight but does fit. This would not really qualify for a budget build maybe? Not counting the research and dev I did to come up with this, I have about $140-$150 in this.

Thanks,
David

 

[cybrslider]

Progress is still occurring at a snails pace...

Fuel sender - still working on this. The one in the pictures above ended up having a problem and I had to start over. About 99% completed on the latest version. Also found out that my fuel tank has a few holes in it when I found out the aforementioned sender unit problem. So I worked on the sender and installed it in the tank. Then plumbed the fuel lines from the sender to the Corvette style regulator and got the wiring to the fuel pump and sending unit done. Will be taking the fuel tank to a local radiator shop that advertises they can repair fuel tanks this week. I expect to have the intake back on the motor before I get the tank back. To finish the sender I just need a final adjustment on the float arm and to attach the "sock" to the bottom of the pump. And, I need to put a bubble flare on the 1/4 tube. Hopefully I can check fuel pressure and pump operation soon after I get the tank back.

Got the dash all installed, with a new dash pad as well. I don't really like the dash pad I bought. I'll dig out details if someone wants to know them. The factory unit seems to have a metal substructure and is fairly rigid. The new one is flippy/floppy not rigid. There are a couple of small areas where it doesn't pull down onto the metal dash correctly. I wouldn't buy another one of these. It's staying now though.

Along with the dash install, wiring to the maxi-fuses and down to the starter was done. The ignition switch, headlight switch, etc. in the dash are all wired up. The tail lights and rear side markers and tag light are wired. Still need to wire up the backup lights. Both front inner fenders are installed, passenger side fender is installed, radiator core support, battery tray. Got the power steering pump sorted. Got the shifter linkage working. The factory Chevelle bracket was used. The bottom bolt hole was used. For the top bolt, I made a strap that was about 2 inches long and drilled two holes in it. The right side hole on the strap was bolted into the top bolt hole for the bracket in the frame. The left hole was lined up with the top hole of the bracket and a bolt and nut put thru them. That was done to move the top of the bracket, which improved the geometry of the shifter linkage. For the linkage rod off the column, I bought a 5/16 hole X 3/8 thread rod end, a steel sleeve with a 3/8 thru hole and a 3 foot long 3/8 diameter round piece of steel. The 3/8 steel was bent by hand (very tough, use a torch if you can) to very close to the shape of the original factory rod. Slipped the other end thru the attachment at the rod that goes to the transmission and cut it to length. The geometry is still a bit wonky but it does go into all positions and it seems to be pretty smooth.

I will be getting a radiator and hoses, a heater valve and wiring harness in the next few weeks. After I get the harness, I'll need the ECM flashed. I hope to have the car running by the end of March and driving soon after that.

Thanks,
David

 

[cybrslider]

Just a quick update - car did not run by the end of March because I didn't get my ECM back from the tuner until April 2. The fuel system is 95% done and tested. Had a defective AN fitting at the fuel rail so it sprayed fuel everywhere for a second or two. Replaced the AN fitting and no more leaks. Pressure is at 58 psi. It won't hold it when the pump stops, though. The 5% left on the fuel system is to get the front tank strap and the tank splash guard/cover installed and, the vapor line is not plumbed. I have 1/4 inch fuel hose hooked up at the tank but it is just hanging on the floor right now.

I'm hoping this thing lives and breathes by next weekend. It might be 2 weekends because of stuff at work right now. Just have the mounting of the PCM and then wiring it up. Should be somewhat drivable except the back brakes don't work. Not getting any pressure back there. Anyway... Yay!

Thanks,
David

 

[Capt Casey]

Funny I have always liked wagons. I saw one wagon along time ago when I was a kid and it was a 68 said Nomad but only had two doors.? as i got older I asked about that two door wagon I saw and the dealer at Wolfe Chev Olds said that they were only dealers parts cars used by the service staff. two doors no back seat or maybe it was folded down it was filled with boxes but did have the side glass and rear tailgate and window.
I have never seen one since and can't find any info on them at all. It was fleet white with the Wolfe Chev Olds on the doors.
I would love to find one!
Wish I was older and had a camera at the time but being six and reading Nomad...I thought that's cool!

 

[Aml383]

Thought I would start another build thread - since that is what I'm doing also.

1969 Chevelle Nomad Wagon. Bought the car a little over 2 years ago. Orignally a 6 cylinder, Turbo 350, 6 passenger (no rear seat) factory A/C car.

When I bought it, it was running. Not really drivable as the brakes were in sad shape. Non - power, 4 wheel drum brakes. Pedal was almost impossible to push down. Car had exhaust leaks at the donut gasket and plenum gasket.

About 6 months ago, I bought a power disc brake conversion kit for the car. Decided I was going to fix the exhaust leaks, the major oil leak at the fuel pump, rebuild the front suspension and then drive the car that way for awhile.

I removed the exhaust and intake manifolds and promptly broke every stud on the exhaust manifold. Now get this - my WIFE said, "honey, why don't you just buy a new engine for the car instead of messing with all that 40 year old rusty junk?". Wow! She really is the best wife ever!

I told her that if I put a new engine in the car that I wanted to remove everything from the engine bay and clean it up. That morphed into a frame off resto mod.

Pics are what I started with 2 years ago and where I am today. I haven't been able to do much in the past month or 2 because I have a terminally ill family member I'm taking care of as well. He is a trooper though - wanted to get out in the shop and help me with the car even though he isn't really able to do anything.

Plan for the car is - big block, 5 or 6 speed manual and 12 bolt with 3.50 or 3.73 gears. Car has rusty floors so as soon as those are repaired (will be doing that myself - wish me luck!), I will be removing the body from the frame. I plan on running new fuel and brake lines. Going to get a whole new wiring harness as well. Will be blasting as much of the car myself as I possibly can. I am also going to paint the car. I plan on buying a crate big block from someone. I also, at this point, plan on buying a Hurst driveline conversion kit with tranny.

This build will undoubtedly take a few years. Can't wait to get out and start cutting the rusty floors and getting those repaired so I can make some progress. Will likely be a month or two before I can get started.

I have actually made a bit more progress on the firewall disassembly. I have removed the air conditioner box and wiring.

Love that car !
It's cool calling it a nomad and all but I'm sure your aware it isnt a nomad .
I had a mint 83 Malibu wagon some time ago . Wish I'd have kept it and turned it into a hot rod