By Robert Barager

The Back

Remove the body from the chassis by removing 4 screws, 2 at the rear corners and 2 just behind the front tires. It also looks like I removed the front bumper to make it easier to lift the body away from the chassis. It is attached with one screw, but appears to have also been glued to the part of the chassis, which acts as the bumper brackets. I remember that separating the body was a little difficult because something in the back area of the wagon body was glued as well. I don’t know if the glue back there was intentional by DM or if it was just something that got glue on it while it was being assembled.

As always, be a little careful with the steering column when separating the body from the chassis, since this is usually glued to the underside of the dash. After the body is off the chassis, you have access to the screw that attaches the rear end to the chassis. The screw goes down from inside the car and into the top of the differential housing. Remove the screw, and then remove the entire rear end/axle assembly.

You will have to separate the ends of the leaf springs from the chassis so that they will lift out with the axle assembly. The shock absorbers will just slide apart. With the complete axle assembly out of the way, you can remove the amount of material from either the mounting boss on the chassis, or from the rear axle assembly (I don’t remember which one), that is equal to the amount you want the back of the car to be lowered.

This can be done with a small file and patience, or with a small grinding tool, such as a dremel. Since the axle assembly will now sit deeper into the chassis, the leaf springs might look funny (reverse arch), so I usually try to remove some material from the ends of the leaf springs to make them thinner, so that they will still have the correct shaped arch. The shock absorbers are usually not a problem since the two parts ‘telescope’ into one another. When reattaching the screw that holds the axle assembly to the chassis, it will probably not want to tighten down completely, due to the removal of the material from the mounting boss. You can apply lots of force to the screw and make it cut threads deeper into the hole in the differential, or you can cut down the screw to make it shorter (or grind, or file it shorter).

Another thing I did was to paint the front and rear wheel wells flat black while the body was off of the chassis. I think this makes a big difference in the appearance of the car.

The Front

Tie rod/center link assembly: Remove the screw holding the bracket, which holds the tie rod/center link assembly up against the gear at the forward end of the steering column. The tie rod assembly can be removed by lifting it up and letting the pins on the tie rod ends slide out of the steering arms.

Remove the 2 screws holding the lower A-frame/cross-member assembly to the chassis. This will allow you to remove the wheels and backing plates from the chassis. I think I removed the hubcaps, which probably gave me access to little screws, which hold the front wheel/tire assemblies to the backing plates. Remove the screws so the wheel/tire assemblies can be separated from the backing plates. Label the backing plates (right and left) as you remove them, but label them the opposite of the side they came off. They will be swapped from left to right, and vice versa. The reason for this is that, after modification, the backing plate assembly will sit deeper up into the chassis (thus lowering the car), but the tie rod assembly will not move up with it, leaving a space between the tie rod end and the steering arm. By flipping the backing plate assembly over, it moves the steering arm down slightly (because the steering arm was originally slightly above the center of the backing plate) which helps reduce the space between the tie rod ends and the steering arms when reattaching the tie rods.

Modifications to the backing plates:

When referring to the removal of material from the backing plate, I am referring to the portion of the backing plate which projects outward and fills the space between the upper and lower A-frames, when the piece is mounted in the car. Remove the amount of material from the TOP of the backing plate equal to the amount you want the car to be lowered. You must add the same amount of material to the BOTTOM of the backing plate so that the original height of the projection remains the same as before you started.

To remove the material from the TOP, you can use a sharp tool to cut the material away, or you may just file it away. If you cut the material cleanly, you may be able to use the piece that you cut away to attach to the bottom of the backing plate. It never cuts away cleanly for me, and therefore, I just make a new little piece of plastic to epoxy to the bottom of the backing plate.

I use a small piece of a sprue from some plastic model, which has a thickness roughly equal to that of the projection on the backing plate. I find a small drill, which matches the diameter of the original hole in the backing plate projection, and use it to drill a hole thru the little piece of plastic sprue. I file the piece so that its height is equal to the amount of material I removed from the TOP of the backing plate projection.

I use 5-minute (2 part) epoxy to ‘glue’ the piece of plastic to the BOTTOM of the backing plate projection. I put the smooth end of the drill thru the piece of plastic and the backing plate projection to line up the hole perfectly while the epoxy hardens. (As the epoxy begins to set, carefully rotate the drill and move it back and forth slightly to make sure it doesn’t get epoxied into place in case some of the epoxy ‘oozes’ into the hole.)

Test the fit of the backing plate projection between the upper and lower A-frames, and do any minor sanding or filing now. Paint the backing plates with flat black paint to effectively hide the modification.

Reassemble the wheels/tires to the backing plates, and reinstall them back onto the chassis with the lower A-frame/cross member assembly.

Even with the backing plates swapped side-for-side, the steering arms will most likely still be higher than they were originally (depending on how much you lowered the front end). On the driver’s side (since it is held down tightly by the bracket which keeps it in contact with the gear on the steering column) nothing needed to be done. On the passenger side there was too much space. The ’55 tie rod assembly on the passenger side has 2 separate parallel ‘tubes’ attached to each other, side-by-side. I took a sharp knife and separated the 2 tubes, and with the assembly in the car, re-glued them together, but instead of side-by-side, they are more like over-under each other. This raised the tie rod slightly so that it looks better and engages the passenger side steering arm more deeply.

It may sound like a lot to do, but it really isn’t. Just go a step at a time, doing one side at a time, and before you know it, your Nomad will be down where it belongs.