The Progress Diary
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Links list
My 1960 Met
Some finished Mets
Diary archive
Possible colors
My other car...
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Welcome to the progress diary for my 1960 Nash Metropolitan! This is a car I've wanted for a long time.
I first saw them at a cool rod and custom show called "Back to the Fifties," held every June in
St. Paul, Minnesota, and have also seen several at the Goodguys Heartland Rod & Custom Nationals here
in Des Moines. I became interested in cars because my husband Steve, when I met him in 1988, was just getting into the notion of building a street rod. We ended up building the first car together, a 1937 Chevy 2-door sedan. And yes, I contributed more than just fetching tools and serving beer. Since then, I haven't worked alongside him as well on other projects - I suppose it's easy to say that wrenching isn't "women's work" when it's a project that doesn't really interest me. That's where the Nash Metropolitan comes in. This is my car, my project, my vision. So it needs to be my work, as much as possible. I plan to learn a lot of new skills!
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July 17, 2002 |
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Runs and Drives! Steve has worked on the car now for less than a week, and already has the motor running (feeding gas from a small gas-can in the trunk), the clutch working, and the brakes stopping. He drove it (and I rode in it) around the block on Tuesday night! The notion of whether to go stock or street rod with the motor remains un-decided. I've talked to two great guys who have told me about the conversions on their Mets - one is Gerald Henry (he manages The Nash Met website) who has a '57 Met with a Chevy Chevette engine/drivetrain, and the other is Hal Trick, who had a Met with a Datsun B-210 conversion. Both gentlemen answered a BUNCH of questions (thank you!) and assured me that these two conversions went very smoothly, so at least we know that a conversion to an automatic can be done with minimal fuss. Next up: bleeding the brakes, taking apart/cleaning/putting back together the clutch linkage, and rigging a gas tank.
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