My Nova

[Darren]

Hey guys, I know I'm not like an official member or anything, but thought that some of you may be interested in seeing another yank that'll be on the road in the area pretty soon.

I have a 1973 Chevy Nova 350 which I bought towards the end of January this year. I'm hoping to get her on the road in May as there's not much work left to do.

This is the car when I first got her home

Since then I have polished the wheels, rubbed down a lot of the underside and re-painted it (still some to do), fitted a new exhaust, replaced the brake cylinders and shoes all round, bled the brakes, painted the grille, removed the standard silencer, and removed the 3 non standard radios that were fitted to the car.

To do is finish painting the underside and front subframe, fit a cherry bomb silencer and tighten up the exhaust. I have also removed the fan to give a fresh coat of paint with some detail too. I have got myself a Quadrajet and air filter, but will need to get hold of a new intake manifold before that can go on.

Anyway, here's the car as she presently stands, with hopefully only a few weeks until she's ready for MOT

 

[Laceytree]

Someones been a very busy boy lately. Very nice

 

[mason]

Nice car there

 

[Darren]

Thanks, hopefully it'll get nicer tomorrow as I plan to be working on it all day. Hopefully get the exhaust finished maybe get the subframe painted too and get the fan back on, which I should finish today. Roll on the weekend.

...been a bit busier, finished my fan

...fan on, with a wierd but cool side effect
[video=youtube;3s9CKV56p1c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s9CKV56p1c&feature=youtube_gdata[/video]

 

[Darren]

Dispite the weather, I actually managed to get quite a bit done today. Started out under the car painting the wishbones, then the heavens decided to open so I was forced indoors. Fed up with not doing anything to the Nova I went out and sat in the car to plan on where to install my front speakers. In the end i decided to build door pods in an attempt to keep it looking more stock, I was considering under-dash mounting but they'd have to hang down a bit which would get in the way and the sound wouldn't be as good. I also managed to get a bit of the head linging tidied up as it was hanging down.

The rain stopped, so as under the car was drying out I got the headlight out so that the H4 units could be installed. The retaining rims are a bit delecate, so they were strengthened and the backplates cleaned up and sprayed. While the headlights are out I can finish painting the panel that runs across the front behind them.

When underneath the car dried out, the exhaust system came off, exhaust paste was added and it was re-installed, tightened up and does not leak at all, so the exhust is done. 1 more day of work and the car will be ready for MOT :yay:

The end of the exhaust, who'd have thought a Halfords trim would look so good :lol:

A shot of the underside where you can see the silver fuel tank, chrome cherry bomb, and exhaust system.

The front of the car just as we finished packing up.

 

[matt 103]

hi darren , lookin good . can't wait to see it

 

[Darren]

She's getting there. Was hoping to have her on the road for this month's cruise, but I don't think that'll be do-able. Should finish the work next saturday (8th) and then get her booked in for MOT the following saturday (15th). If she passes, which I'm hoping she will, can't see any reason not to, I'll still not be able to go as the DVLA don't open on saturdays, so I'd have to book a day off work during the following week to sort out the historic tax.

 

[matt 103]

thats a shame mate . she is lookin good

 

[mason]

hope all go's ok with the m.o.t

 

[Darren]

Bloody weather, another day mostly wasted due to rain. Why can't it rain during the week and be nice at the weekend, mother nature just has no consideration :lol:

Still, we got the rear bumper off and managed to straighten it out quite a bit, I can get to the fuel filler pretty easilly now. I've got no pics as the car is too close to the wall, but when I can get behind it I'll take some pics for a before/after image. It's not perfect, but it's a vast improvement, especially when it was done with some blocks of wood, a car jack, a long pole, and a leather mallet. Best of all the chrome is fine.

I couldn't get the lights back in due to getting too soaked, however I gave the worst tyre a quick check with a depth gauge and the worst point was 2mm of tread depth, so it's all legal.

It's put the car back a week, but if the weather holds out next weekend, she should be finished then and MOT the following week.

 

[mason]

yes i no how you fill this weather sucks i have lots of work for the M.O.T on my mums van :sweatdrop:

 

[Darren]

A decent-ish weekend. Hope you got some work done on your Mum's van Mason. Shame is didn't stay nice for Sunday, though the evening seemed to be better.

I actually got to drive the Nova briefly on Saturday

...just a quick shakedown round the block, due to low fuel and none of the essential road going endorsements , but now I've really got the itch to get her on the road properly. When she's running on choke you need a fair amount of brake to hold her still, and she got up to 30 with only the slightest touch on the gas... and what a sound :drool: ...I'm gonna stop babbling, but needless to say I'm getting excited.

If all goes well and my old car goes though MOT this week, I'm hopeful the Nova will be able to be MOT'd next saturday. If not It'll be another week, unless I can a day off work to get it done. At least, hopefully, all the main work is done, I don't see any reason why she'd fail anyway. All the lights work (and we're sure are adjusted fine), the wipers and washers work, the horn works, there's no play in anything, tyres are all legal, no CV joints to split, all the grease nipples have been greased, only a sniff emmissions test to fail due to the age which my nose says it's a pass, and from my 2 minutes on the road, she seems to drive nicely too. Regardless, next saturday she's going to get a bloody good wash, polish, and wax, probably won't have time to do the chrome properly, but we'll see.

Must remember a can of gas too, to get her to a gas station.

Come on car!!! :devil:

 

[TransAmDan]

Sounds like some great progress has been made. Well done. Will be great to see it on the road. Good luck with the MOT.

 

[Laceytree]

I am so excited for you Darren. Its been great fun hearing about all the progress you have made over the last couple of months and can't wait to see your lovely car. Everything crossed for the MOT and heres to seeing you at the next cruise hopefully

 

[Darren]

I'd like to be at the next cruise, I'm sure I heard a few of the cars go by my place on the way to southsea. I live on Copnor Road and heard a lot of rumbling outside I'm hoping to have the car on the road for the bank holiday weekend.

 

[Darren]

Drove her to the testing station yesterday, and what a drive... especially considering the last MOT was in 1995 and the last tax disc I found was from 1993. That was probably the furthest she's driven in 17 years and everything worked perfectly. Nice smooth gear changes, the kickdown worked fine. As it was the first run, most of the drive was nice smooth progressive acceleration where you didn't even notice the gear changes, they were so smooth. But there is that big roundabout at Hilsea which is prettty notorious for being a bastard, so i gave her a bit more juice and got a nice chirp out the back tyres and a quick pull away, but everything was working perfectly. Breaking with no hands on the wheel was straight. The test is today at 1pm, but I can't honestly see any reason why she'd fail. I can see 3 advisories with 3 of the tyres (2 of them a from dodgy tracking which I'll get checked, but most of the tyre is fine, certainly more than 75% of the tread width all the way round is well above legal, and the other was run over inflated so will need replacing, but the current depth is no lower than 2mm) but other than that I can't see any faults.

That was my first real drive in a lefty too. Must say it's wierd at the moment having the inside mirror on the other right, and I can't wait for my new set of mirrors to turn up from the states, I'm not liking having no mirror on the passenger side. Still, they should be with me in 7-10 days.

My fingers and toes are all crossed, and I'm sure they will be til my Dad calls I guess around 2ish.

 

[Darren]

Passed with only 3 advisories:

passenger side front tyre close to legal limit (knew about that one)
passenger side rear tyre excessive wear on inner edge (knew about that one too)
passenger side seat belt showing slight signs of wear

Other than that, they said they were very impressed with the car. Next stop, DVLA for the tax. All being well, I'll be on the road at the weekend

 

[chris68coupe]

Congratulations..........Enjoy!

 

[mummyjan]

Fantastic news Darren, so hopefully we will be seeing you out and about very soon, take care xx

 

[mason]

Congratulations hope to see you out in it