Vintage Car Thread - Discussion and Parts Requests

[jamespowers]

Do any of you gents own or have any experience with late-thirties Nash products? There's a 1938 Ambassador Six that's caught my eye, and before I approach the seller I want to know what I should be looking for. This being New England, I know enough to look underneath for rust, etc., but are there any particular issues for this make that I should know about? Any reason why I should run as far as possible in the other direction? Any advice would be appreciated before I take any further steps.

Is that the car where the front seat folds flat to the rear seat offering an instant bed? The "make out seat" was not at all endearing to parents of the time.
I would say go for it if the body is in good condition, the engine runs and the car drives well. Your drawbacks are parts for cars this old and kind of odd models. I am sure there are clubs that would know more about parts availability and such though.
Price is one thing I would certainly be concerned with. Haggle like a pro.
Let us know how it goes.

[David Conwill]

I could be wrong, but I believe the Nash flathead six survived as the standard Rambler engine into the mid-1960s, which would be a point in its favor.

I also believe '38 predates unit construction on the Ambassador, which would make rust and damage repair easier.

[jamespowers]

I could be wrong, but I believe the Nash flathead six survived as the standard Rambler engine into the mid-1960s, which would be a point in its favor.

I also believe '38 predates unit construction on the Ambassador, which would make rust and damage repair easier.

I am not sure but I found this link that might help:
http://www.allpar.com/mopar/nash.html

[LizzieMaine]

Excellent stuff, gents -- thanx.

The "Nash Bed" is a feature I've always liked -- the car we owned when I was very small had one, and I was fascinated by the idea of being able to live in one's car if everything went south. In this day and age it seems like even more of an advantage.

This particular car looks to be in decent shape, and is listed for $6900, but he had it up for over two months with no takers at that price, which sort of caught my notice. I'm going to make some inquries and find out if there's a reason why nobody snapped it up.

[jamespowers]

Excellent stuff, gents -- thanx.

The "Nash Bed" is a feature I've always liked -- the car we owned when I was very small had one, and I was fascinated by the idea of being able to live in one's car if everything went south. In this day and age it seems like even more of an advantage.

This particular car looks to be in decent shape, and is listed for $6900, but he had it up for over two months with no takers at that price, which sort of caught my notice. I'm going to make some inquries and find out if there's a reason why nobody snapped it up.

That price is what they go for here. I think you should be able to get the price down by a grand at least as it isn't a "california car." Just be careful to look at everything. I am pretty sure you will though.

[JohnRutherford]

Wow, you guys are lucky to have such great cars and be mechanically inclined. I however, am not, but there is an excellent daily driver at a body shop near my home I am quite interested in. It's a '59 Rambler Rebel with the 327 V-8. I don't know how much it costs as of yet, but it's a real beauty let me tell you.

[jamespowers]

Wow, you guys are lucky to have such great cars and be mechanically inclined. I however, am not, but there is an excellent daily driver at a body shop near my home I am quite interested in. It's a '59 Rambler Rebel with the 327 V-8. I don't know how much it costs as of yet, but it's a real beauty let me tell you.

Well, at least engine parts are readily available.

[Stanley Doble]

Nash was a quality car in the medium price bracket. They emphasized their comfortable ride, sound proof bodies, and excellent heating and ventilation system. The Nash conditioned air system was the first integrated heating system that brought in fresh air from outside the car, heated it, and distributed it to the windshield defroster and heater outlets. Previous car heaters were a tin box that reheated the stale air already in the cabin.

They were not considered a hot performer, but a reliable comfortable family car. I never heard of any particular weak points.

One drawback might be relative rarity, and the difficulty of finding parts. But this is true of any thirties car, with the exception of Ford and Chev. To offset this there are a couple of Nash owners' clubs with members who are quite dedicated to keeping them on the road.

The Ambassador was top of the line. Earlier models had a straight eight engine but I believe the 38s had an OHV six. (Correction, in 1938 they offered both 6 and 8 cylinder Ambassadors).They had both OHV and flathead sixes, which they made until their V8 debuted in 1955. So, engine parts may not be too hard to get as they were made for many years.

Incidentally the Ambassador had coil spring suspension on all 4 wheels, and torque tube drive. Only Buick and Ambassador offered this type of suspension. It gave a pillowy ride but cost more money than regular leaf springs. Lesser Nashes had the conventional leaf spring suspension at the back, coil springs at the front.

Another unique feature was dual ignition. Some models had 2 spark plugs in each cylinder. This was supposed to improve economy, power and reliability. No one else had done this except for a few ultra luxury cars in the Rolls Royce class and they dropped it by the late 20s. Today, some very sophisticated racing engines have dual ignition.

It would be interesting to know what model you are looking at. If you can give some details about condition, I can look it up in my Old Cars Price Guide.

[Stanley Doble]

The 59 Rambler Rebel on the other hand, was a hot performing car. This was Rambler's performance offering, putting the 327 V8 from the bigger Ambassador into the lighter Rambler body. Incidentally the 327 was AMC's own design and owed nothing to the better known Chev 327. In fact the AMC 327 came out several years before the Chev.

The Rebel was a hot car, it could give the Corvette a push and beat just about any car on the road at that time, with the possible exception of the Chrysler 300.

[LizzieMaine]

Here's the ad -- http://maine.craigslist.org/cto/3050496446.html Hard to tell too much from the pictures, but it looks pretty solid. (And he's dropped the price to $6500)