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A pair of 66 Novas- small update for now on the wagon


microwheel

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I'm headed to California for a week next week, then Texas for a week after that. I will be having modeling withdrawals!

Joe - I'll be in Corpus for a couple days starting on the 5th of June. Maybe we could meet up real quick?

Tim

LOL can't wait for the day to come when the wife and I hit the road for a few years of traveling around the country. Less than 2 years till she retires and then its, Prep The Motorhome, and away we go!

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LOL can't wait for the day to come when the wife and I hit the road for a few years of traveling around the country. Less than 2 years till she retires and then its, Prep The Motorhome, and away we go!

If your wife knows how to drive the motorhome, you are set. Car modeling on the go. lol Of course you will need a steady hand. Ha!

Tim

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The engines look awesome Jim. Beautiful detailing and clean building. Truly superb.

What did you use for the linkages? Did you scratch or is there something aftermarket available?

Thanks Greg, I used aftermarket photo-etched linkage from the Model Car Garage.

Great work on both engines Jim, enjoy your camping trip...

Thanks Carl my friend. We hope to, if the weather plays nice for us. It cooled off up here the past few days. Went from low 80s over this past weekend to only in the 50s and 60s the past few days. They say it's supposed to get back up around 70 this weekend, but we will see lol.

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Started working on a few things the past few days for the chassis.

To start with I got the rear wheels detail painted. I'm using a set of AMT wheel pack redline F60-15's for the tires on the Nova SS for both front and back. I painted the outer hub area of the rims Tamiya gloss red, leaving the center caps and outer rings chrome. I gave the wheel backings a complete coat of gloss red and then painted the inner parts gunmetal. I applied a black wash to the groved area. I also painted the insides of the wheel backing gunmental and then painted the lip that meets the outer rims and shows through the outer rim holes, titan gold.

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Next I assembled and detail painted the rear end and leaf springs. The rear end was painted in Tamiya semi-gloss black and the leaf springs where painted in Tamiya gun metal. Not being a fan of metal axles, (mostly because they always seem to rotate with loose slop) I added some evergreen tubing to the areas where the metal axle exits both sides of the rear end housing to tighten them up. Later on I will detail the rear end with brake lines.

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Next I cleaned up the front engine bay firewall and fender panels and drilled mounting holes at the heater area for the heater hoses off the engine.

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To assemble the engine bay parts, I taped them unpainted to the chassis and then guled them together. Once the glue set up, I removed them and then painted the engine bay assembly Tamiya Semi-gloss black. Later I will add the engine bay detail components to the engine bay. That will get done later as I detail the chassis and install the engine.

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A test fit of the firewall and inner fender assembly to the painted chassis.

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More in the following post.....

Edited by microwheel
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A test fit of the painted rear end on the chassis

Still alot of chassis detail work to do. I plan to add brake and fuel lines and E-brake cables.

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A few shots of the rear wheels test fitted to the rear end and chassis

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That's pretty much where I'm at for now. Heading out to go camping with the wife and son tomarrow. Hope to get back on the bench after the weekend.

Edited by microwheel
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Going to be heading out this afternoon for a little camping this weekend guys. Was hoping to get a little bench time this morning, but got to much to do. Hope to be back at it, on the bench, the first of the week. Have a good holiday everyone.

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Afternoon guys,

Just a small update for today. Had a great time with the family over the holiday weekend. Camping was fun even though it we did get a little bit of rain on Monday and had to pack up and leave early.

I spent a little time yesterday and this morning getting started on the chassis detail for the Nova SS. Got the main brake line run and the fuel line. Also got started on the E-brake cable. I mocked the drivers side exhaust and the rear-end suspension in place, temporarily, so I could make sure of clearances. Still got to run the brake lines to each rear wheel as well as the e-brake cables to each rear wheel. Then the exhaust has to be completed before I can permanently mount the rear-end. I am giving the rear suspension a little bit of a lift so the car will have a slight rake in the stance. You'll understand my thought process with it when I get that far.

Here's a pic of where it's at on the bench so far.

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More to come as I get it done.

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  • 4 weeks later...

morning guys, been awhile since I had anytime to spend on the bench, but I finally got a little time last night and this morning to do a little work on the Novas. I decided for now to work on completing the 66 nova SS (pops toy) and then move on to the 66 nova wagon. I didn't get a lot done but I did get a few odds and ends done.

Last night worked on getting the front suspension shocks and springs made. I still have a lot to do on the front suspension, but I'll get to that I hope later this week.

To make the shocks and springs, I coiled a couple of pieces of craft wire around the threads of a screw and cut them to the same length as the kit springs. I then prepped some evergreen plasic tube and rod to make the shocks.

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After cutting the tube and rod to length for the shocks, I cut the top and bottom off the kit springs and CA glued one of them to the spring and the other to one end of the shock and then test fitted the parts together to make sure they would fit.

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The parts were then seperated. I detail painted the shocks.

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And detail painted the springs.

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The parts were then reassembled and glued into place on the chassis.

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That's as far as I got on the front suspension for now, but I hope to get the rest of the front suspension finished up later this week. In the post to follow I moved on to working on the front grill and bumper assembly. So check back in a few and I'll have the write up for it posted.

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For the front grill of both Novas I plan to use the photo-etched insert from the model car garage detail set. This means a lot of cutting and grinding to open up the needed areas.

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I removed the area of the molded in grill as well as the openings around the turn signals. I then shaped and trimmed the supplied photo-etched grill to fit the opened up area.

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The photo-etched grill was then CA glued into place.

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I then epoxied the headlights in place and CA glued the photo-etched Chevy II and SS emblems onto the grill. I detail painted the turn signals with Tamiya clear orange and added a little body color between the bumper and grill assembly. And that's pretty much where I'm at for today.

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I'll post more as I get things done. Thanks for looking guys. I will try to get on again later this evening and check out some of you all's builds. I really enjoy watching some of the progress you guys do on your works in progress.

Edited by microwheel
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Welcome back, Jim! So glad to see some updates from you. Looking good as usual and I love the shocks. I "borrowed" your spring method a while back and utilize it in all of my builds now. It's too easy not to, but the level of detail it adds is so worth it.

Tim

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