Restarting My '70 Nova Project

[BravoXray]

Looks great. I wouldn,t be able to sleep til it was completed and driveable. LOL You certainly have lots of patience, and I admire your do it right attitude. Beautiful car. The stripes will give it a totally different look. Are you thinking black stripes like the ones that came from the factory way back when ?

Thanks.
Fortunately, I'm a pretty patient person, so I don't try to rush things. Sometimes I get wrapped up in the task at hand and I forget to do a related step, and have to backtrack and start over.
The black vinyl top and stripes will completely change to looks of the car.

Here's what the car looked like when I bought it.

Here's a Nova with the black top and stripes, but without the side trim.

 

[BravoXray]

Looks incredible! My dream is to own a muscle car, in silver so I am drooling over these photos. And the fact that you did the work yourself is even more amazing. Awesome work!

Thanks a lot.
Finding a classic muscle car that isn't really expensive or isn't a rusted out pile of junk is getting tough, but good deals can still be found. Most important is to check it out thoroughly to make sure it isn't hiding problems the seller isn't disclosing. When I bought my Nova, I knew it had rust in the floorboards, but the original rocker panels were solid, so that wasn't a surprise. The big problem was that it had cone through four previous owners, and the seller had very little history of what had been done to it, with the exception of the engine being overhauled. But whoever overhauled it did a ****ty job, as it used a lot of oil from the get go, because the ring gaps were not staggered properly. Also, it my have been overheated because there was very little ring tension, the pistons nearly fell out when I disassembled the engine. The valve guide seals were also shot and the guides were pretty well worn.
While totally restoring one the way I have done it is a daunting project, the most important thing it to find a good, solid, straight car to build into the car you want.
Another possibility for some people can be to buy a new body and build it with the driveline and other parts from a clapped out donor car. There are several body styles available, like the '69 Camaro, 55-57 Chevy, 2nd gen Mustangs, and some others. A friend built a '69 Camaro that way, and by parting out a junky donor car, doing all the work himself, ended up with a really nice car for ~$35K. A comparable original '69 Camaro would have cost $50K or more.
Don't give up on your dream, you'll regret it later.

 

[Duds13]

Thanks a lot.
Finding a classic muscle car that isn't really expensive or isn't a rusted out pile of junk is getting tough, but good deals can still be found. Most important is to check it out thoroughly to make sure it isn't hiding problems the seller isn't disclosing. When I bought my Nova, I knew it had rust in the floorboards, but the original rocker panels were solid, so that wasn't a surprise. The big problem was that it had cone through four previous owners, and the seller had very little history of what had been done to it, with the exception of the engine being overhauled. But whoever overhauled it did a ****ty job, as it used a lot of oil from the get go, because the ring gaps were not staggered properly. Also, it my have been overheated because there was very little ring tension, the pistons nearly fell out when I disassembled the engine. The valve guide seals were also shot and the guides were pretty well worn.
While totally restoring one the way I have done it is a daunting project, the most important thing it to find a good, solid, straight car to build into the car you want.
Another possibility for some people can be to buy a new body and build it with the driveline and other parts from a clapped out donor car. There are several body styles available, like the '69 Camaro, 55-57 Chevy, 2nd gen Mustangs, and some others. A friend built a '69 Camaro that way, and by parting out a junky donor car, doing all the work himself, ended up with a really nice car for ~$35K. A comparable original '69 Camaro would have cost $50K or more.
Don't give up on your dream, you'll regret it later.

Oh I'll definitely own one eventually haha! I like the 67 Chevelle but following this thread has turned me into a Nova fan too! Thankfully I have some car gurus handy who I can take with me to look at potential purchases when the time comes to make sure I'm getting something decent.

 

[dlbraly]

Looks Great!
I like that black stripe as well. Can't wait to see yours with it.
Gives it a more finished look.

 

[BravoXray]

Thanks for the compliment.
Yesterday, I tries to find where the fluid on the floor came from. It was either brake fluid or antifreeze, as both feel and taste similar, but I couldn't find any place that it might have come from. All the brake lines on that side were dry, as were the heater hoses. No sign of anything leaking. Curious....
Brian came over and I had him push the brake pedal down, and still no leaks. It was kind of soft, so I went around and re-bled all four wheels. I got a little air out of the right rear bleeder, and that firmed up the pedal.
I did go ahead and order a new set of braided hoses, when they come I'll go ahead and replace them, just to be safe.
Talked to the vinyl top installer, and he can tentatively install it in two weeks. Now I just have to find a trailer to haul the Nova to his shop, about 25 miles away. One of my friends had one that I used when I brought the Nova back from Wisconsin when I bought it, but he sold it a couple of years ago. I think a guy a few houses east of me has a tandem axle trailer with ramps for rent, I'm going to call him on Monday.
One other thing I need to address is to move the driver's bucket seat back a couple of inches, it just doesn't slide back far enough to give me reasonable leg room. I think I might be able to use some 1 1/2" X 1/4" bar stock to install between the seat and the top track with the seat mounting holes offset a couple of inches. So, I'll pull it out and see if that's going to work or if I need to come up with another plan.I didn't have that problem with the bench seat, and the buckets are mounted in the factory locations, so I'm not sure what's going on.

 

[dodge man]

It looks like you’ll be enjoying it soon. It’s going to be a really sharp ride. I keep an eye on vintage car prices and they are very high right now. I keep thinking they can’t go higher but they do.

 

[BravoXray]

I watch the Mecum auctions on the Motor Trend channel occasionally, and it's interesting how much the price of classic cars can fluctuate. It all depends on the people bidding on them. I've seen some restored or resto-mod cars that have sold for outrageous prices, and some go for a fraction of what the sellers had to have put into them. It just all depends.
I went to a Mecum auction in Indianapolis a few years ago, and there were a couple of cars I would have bought if I would have had registered to bid on them. One was a Nova and one was a Chevelle. Both looked like decent cars, but went dirt cheap. You just have to be in the right place at the right time, or be prepared to spend a lot on a car you want.

Cars, airplanes and boats can all be huge money pits sometimes.

I bought a plane back in 2000, paid $45K for it. A friend who is a big time bass fisherman made a comment about how I must be rolling in dough to own an airplane. I pointed out that he easily had three times that much invested in his truck, trailer, boat and all the related equipment. That ended that conversation.

 

[BravoXray]

Still pecking away at wrapping up some of the last tasks on the Nova. Since I have it on the wheels now, I moved it around and discovered the brakes are still a little soft, and the brake warning light comes on when you hit the brakes. A couple of weeks ago Brian and I had bled all the brakes except the left rear, which is a difficult one because I had to install aright hand caliper on the left side so I could get the parking brake cable to be routed where it was able to connected to the pull cable. That put the bleeder on the bottom instead of at the top, so to bleed it I had to disconnect the parking brake cable, take the front caliper bolt out, rotate it up so the bleeder it on top, and put a caliper compressor in to keep the caliper from pushing out when applying brake pressure. I pumped the brake pedal a couple of times and stuck a piece of 2X2 between the pedal and the seat to hold it down, bled the trapped air out, and repeated it until the pedal was good and solid. No more brake warning light now.
Another item was getting the cowl panel installed, and that was another thing that took 5 times longer than it should have. The old cowl panel, which I still have, just screwed down to the cowl and lined up with the hood and fenders just fine. Now however, it sets almost a 1/2 inch lower than that. The cowl wasn't replaced and I have no idea what's going on, because the doors and fenders would have to be lowered that amount go get it aligned, and there's no way to do that. So, I 3D printed 4 spacers to fit under the attaching screws raising it up level with the hood and fenders. The hood sets down pretty snugly on the front of the cowl panel seal which tends to tilt it up in the rear, so after 11 tweak, check and retweaks, I finally got it to where it looks okay. That ended up taking 6 hours over 2 days.
Another task was to install sound deadening in the trunk. Since I can move it now, I moved the tractors out and pulled the car out and tuned it around. That made it easier to work, with a folding table set up to use when cutting pieces of DynaMat to fit into the trunk. The first couple of pieces in the front were the worst, I had to get my big old ass in the trunk to to get them fit and rolled down. The rest was easier, and it only took 1 1/2 hours to get it finished. I had to take a couple of breaks, as it was over 90° in the shop. So now, I'm just waiting on the carpet to come from Stock Interiors in SC. They were the only place that had in in stock, let alone in silver to match the interior carpet.
One other item was the left tailpipe and muffler, they were loose and had rotated out of position. So, I jacked it up and put a couple of jackstands under the rear axle, then loosened everything up, got it into proper position and tightened all the clamps back down, really tight this time. I also retightened the rest of the clamps on the system. Nothing should move now!
So far, the plan is to take the car to the vinyl top installer next Friday, so I have a trailer reserved at a local U-Haul to take it down there, then bring it back on Monday. After that, the glass will be ready to install along with all the window trim. I also still want to get the racing stripes put on, so I'll have to coordinate the with the vinyl shop. After that, I have to take it to the alignment shop for an alignment, and then it should be ready for the road, finally.

I might even make it to some cruise-ins this season!

 

[the old grind]

Wait, does a sleeper like that beauty (currently lol) need any more chrome and striping, hood louvers, vinyl top/two-tone, fox tail, 6' CB whip on rear bumper (BTDT), running boards, class II hitch, extendable AM/FM antenna with yellow tennis ball or Real-Lemon container on it to help locate it in a parking lot .. to LOOK just awesome?

Just that I think a lot of (more) dress might expect perf to match from many. Imagine smoking a pair of used tires down to the belts at a car show and few saw it coming (well, exhaust note/rumble at idle) from a car that looks so handsomely stock. (hp vs stock tire size? lol))

Apologies for my taste for body-color trim and a humble appearance and the rant. btw, the tires could have been mounted 'reversed' and not have to show that gaudy white writing on the sidewalls.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Looking great, and nice to see it getting closer and closer to the finish line. Do you have to get it re-appraised now that you have completely restored this beautiful car and significantly increased the value of it ?

 

[BravoXray]

Looking great, and nice to see it getting closer and closer to the finish line. Do you have to get it re-appraised now that you have completely restored this beautiful car and significantly increased the value of it ?

Yes, once it's finished. I'm going to get it re-appraised and re-insure for actual value.

 

[BravoXray]

Wait, does a sleeper like that beauty (currently lol) need any more chrome and striping, hood louvers, vinyl top/two-tone, fox tail, 6' CB whip on rear bumper (BTDT), running boards, class II hitch, extendable AM/FM antenna with yellow tennis ball or Real-Lemon container on it to help locate it in a parking lot .. to LOOK just awesome?

Just that I think a lot of (more) dress might expect perf to match from many. Imagine smoking a pair of used tires down to the belts at a car show and few saw it coming (well, exhaust note/rumble at idle) from a car that looks so handsomely stock. (hp vs stock tire size? lol))

Apologies for my taste for body-color trim and a humble appearance and the rant. btw, the tires could have been mounted 'reversed' and not have to show that gaudy white writing on the sidewalls.

Not sure I appreciate your taste in accessories, I'm of the more subtle, don't show all your cards kind of guy.

I tried to find some 434 emblems to replace the 350 emblems, but no one makes them. I guess 427 ones would be a little more honest, but then everyone would think it had a big block. I was thinking I might be able to 3D print them though. Hmmmm.

The tires are 215R14s in the front and 245R14s in the rear, on 7" wide rims.

I took the hood louvers off until the stripes are put on. The AM/FM antenna will be in the windshield, and I never had a CB in any of my cars back then, but I did have one of the early Craig (I think) 8 track players and a reverb unit.

 

[MossRoad]

I like the front plate!

 

[dodge man]

On a previous truck I actually installed new calipers on the wrong side and they wouldn’t bleed. You may find the caliper with the bleeder on the bottom very difficult to get the air out.

Never mind, it looked like you took it loose, flipped it over and bled it, which was what I was going to say.

 

[BravoXray]

Yesterday, I addressed some more little niggling items on the car. One was that the passenger door dome light switch didn't work. I took it loose, and I could tell the wire wasn't attached to it. Without taking the kick panel out there is very little space to get int that cavity, but with a piece of SS safety wire with a hook on the end I was able to fish it out the gap between the dash and door pillar. I was able to run another wire in through the switch hole, fish it out through the gap, tape it to the switch wire, pull it back out and get the switch attached and screwed in. It works now!
Another thing that needed attention was to do a rough setting of the toe-in one the front end. Just the little I drove it, in and out of the shop and up and down the driveway, I could tell it was way off. I saw an episode of Road Kill Garage where they use some jackstands, string and a ruler to get it set well enough to drive to the alignment shop. That worked fine, but entailed jacking it up and back down a couple of times before I got it close enough for my satisfaction. Should drive better now, especially since it has manual steering, like a real muscle should have.
One last thing I did yesterday was to hook up the hoses for the windshield washers. only took a few minutes, but another item crossed off the list.
The trunk carpet came today, so I unpacked it and laid it in the sun for a while to take some of the wrinkles out. It fit pretty well in the trunk, so I decided to go ahead and put the jack and spare tire back in, at last. I cleaned 11 years of dust an dirt off the spare and the jack, then got them put back where they belong. One more item checked off the list.
I also decided to reset the adjustments on the Cal-Tracks, as I hadn't adjusted them since it was off the jackstands and on the ground, so I had to jack it up high enough to get the jam nuts loosened up, let it back down, adjust the links, jack it back up to tighten everything back up, then let it back down again. I need an air operated floor jack!
I also took the vinyl top out of the box and laid it out in the sun on the drive for a few hours to take some of the creases out in preparation for being installed this weekend. It's been in the box for at least 10 years, but is still really supple and is laying down pretty well. I'm going to put it in the sun every day until the weekend, so it should flatten out some more by then.
I also installed a couple decals to replace ones that were removed or destroyed during the rebuild process. I need to do some research on just how many decals it came with from the factory, where they are installed and then see just how many are being reproduced. The folks on Steve's Nova Site have a lot of collective wisdom on matters like that.

 

[BravoXray]

Still waiting on the vinyl top installer, tentatively going to do it this weekend. Of course, it's supposed to rain Friday and Saturday and I have to haul the car on an open trailer, so we'll see what happens.
I talked to the window installer who is taking over for the gentleman that passed away a few months back. Her is working with the man's son to figure out who has glass in his shop and work with them to get it installed. They have not been able to find the rear glass for my car, however. The only thing we can figure out, is that he used it on another customer's car, and was going to order another for my car, but didn't have time to do it. So, the son is going to order another glass for my car, since I paid his father for it.
I did decide to install a fire extinguisher in the car, not only in case I might need it, but in case someone else has a fire. It's cheap insurance and I was able to put right between the front seats.
I also added a harness that connects the battery to a battery maintainer so I can keep it topped off while it sets idle.
I think I'm going to pull the seats out and lubricate the tracks, as I blasted and painted them before I installed them, but never did lubricate the slider tracks and rollers. That won't take long and will make them easier to slide if someone needs to get into the rear seat.

 

[coast40]

A friend had some new smoothie wheels blasted and powdercoated, and they came back coated over the sand in the crevice.

 

[BravoXray]

A friend had some new smoothie wheels blasted and powdercoated, and they came back coated over the sand in the crevice.

Seems to be a problem to get a good powder coat job on wheels. I wouldn't think new wheels would give a problem, as long as they get all the grit out of the crevices.

As long as it isn't raining tomorrow, the Nova goes to get the vinyl top installed. Outlook is pretty iffy....

 

[BravoXray]

Well, when the vinyl top installer said he could do it the weekend after the 4th, he meant the weekend after the 4th of July weekend. I'll try again next weekend. Or give up and install it myself.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Any updates ? I was hoping that you would get to enjoy it a whole bunch this summer. We,re almost into August.