1940 Nash Ambassador 6 | Original Condition Barn Find

Hey Frank, what can you tell us about this car? This is a 1940 Nash Ambassador 6 with a twin ignition motor. It is extremely advanced for its time. A lot of people don't know about Nash cars of this era and they were really really special. This car was built by engineers and built by craftsmen. Nash cars always offered a little bit more than their competition and this thing is a it's a beautiful example. What we call a streamlined modern where we've got the front end it's kind of like it's leaning forward. The sharknose gram was a perfect example of that. When we look at cars from the mid-50s on it was all about adding chrome, adding features, and piling things on as much chrome fins and trinkets as you could hang on the car. This was a car that was designed to be subtle and artistic. There's a number of small subtle details that make it so beautiful. Like I said we've got the front end which is like a prow leaning forward giving the the spirit of motion. We have this crease here that starts all the way through the roof and resumes right here just to give it that spirit of motion. That is very subtle I would have not even noticed that. Right and the details are just very small and very well thought out between the bumper guards and the tail lights and of course as we go to the front we have the headlights with the rings and the in the ridges. It's a very very thoughtful design. It's not something they were just pumping out and running down the assembly line. This car a lot went into it. The body shell and platform were brand new in 1939 and this 40 is just a little touch up of that beautiful 39 design. We're getting out of the art deco period of cars in the 30s and moving into more streamlined modular and what they call and you can look at the features of the front end and it is just a thing of beauty and like I said Nash cars would always offer a little bit more than you expected. They'll offer a little bit more than their competition so this is a barn find. This car sat in a barn for over 15 years all by itself collecting dirt and dust and we found out about it. Mr. Ken Day who's the president of the Nash Club says there's this ambassador out in New York. You've got to help save it and so we had it shipped out here and this has and of course the engine compartment has not been detailed. It's not been cleaned. This is as it sat in the barn. This car has a twin ignition motor. Okay it's a six cylinder motor with 12 spark plugs. There's six spark plugs on this side of the motor and there's six spark plugs over on this side. This is a 254 cubic inch overhead valve six cylinder and the cool thing about Nash is it's got seven main bearings. Most of the six cylinder motors of the era had five main bearings. Nash put seven main bearings to make the block more rigid and more durable and that is the beauty of Nash engineering. The thing is about the cars of this era that people simply especially younger folks they know nothing about a Nash what the company was and what they made. Now in 54 Nash became American Motors and so they actually survived until 1987 when they were bought out by Chrysler. Chrysler absorbed American Motors in 1987. This is the kind of car when you compare it to its competition this is when cars when Chevrolet was your entry-level car a Pontiac was a step up Buick was a step up and then the Cadillac was above that and there was really definite classes for cars. That kind of stopped in the 60s like when they came out with the Edsel tried to put it between Lincoln and Mercury there was just no market there but this was a car that was engineered and built above above and beyond. In fact I looked at a photograph of the Packard factory in the 50s and the employee parking lot right 70% of the cars on the road were either General Motors Chrysler or Ford products right and the employees at Packard couldn't afford to buy Packards unless they were in upper management right because it was such an expensive car but there was about 40-50% of all the cars in the Packard employee parking lot were Nash cars because they knew what good cars they were and and what a high standard they were built to. So this car came out of a barn and it was given a coat of paint maybe in the 80s or 90s but everything else on this car is exactly how it left the factory in 1940 okay this interior with the moth holes and the mouse where the mice got into it this is exactly how it left this is this is as it left in 1940 and as we get to the dashboard this is when they were using Bakelite and really getting into the style of streamlined modular. The plastic part of the steering wheel needs to be redone in fact we have a guy at Green's Garage that does that when he's sober but look at that horn ring and the button there I mean it is just an absolute work of art the Bakelite was a big part of automotive interiors in those days. Suicide doors and like I said these wool seats been consumed by a couple of mice and a number of moths but these are all original this car like I say except for the the repaint maybe 40 some years ago this is all original we dragged it out of the barn we changed the fluids greased it up and off we went in fact speaking of Nash engineering this has an independent front suspension on it that was designed in cooperation with Lancia in Italy that's how far advanced and sophisticated Nash was this was a most sophisticated and advanced front suspension on any car in the country. Frank you have given me a newfound appreciation for these cars. Well I thank you Kent everyone and we have this collection it's between my two brothers my dad and I it's a family collection and every one of these cars is special for one reason or another and this car is special for the reasons of the styling the engineering and just what a fine automobile Nash was at that time you can see some of the features on the dash up here we have a ventilator Nash was known for having the most advanced heating and cooling system of any automobile manufacturer the Nash Weather Eye this has a push button radio from 1940 yes isn't that interesting yes the next steps will be this bacon light these knobs will come off and there's a technique to restoring them this steering wheel although it looks cracked and it's got pieces missing this is very restorable because it's solid you go in here with the dremel you clean it out there's a putty you put in here and then you coat it with paint and clear and they come out beautiful and you talk about barn finds this is a real barn find sat in that barn for years and they were having trouble getting it going it's like Matt and I were negotiating to buy it having shipped out here it's like hey will it run and they had a hell of a time with it and then I called Ken Day who lived a few miles away and he goes off you know what's it doing he goes oh it's the points he goes I'll go over there give the points a little rub and a little emery cloth you know the man knows Nash cars him and his wife Dira they they know the car so well they can diagnose it from miles away he had it up and running so drove up on the trailer and out to our home where we this interior was you know just imagine how dirty and dusty it was we vacuumed it out we steam cleaned it and took it from there respray was okay it's not great but the car is very presentable and the body is aero straight and she goes down the road she's a she's a happy girl well it's a beautiful car and it rides like just a dream