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1978 Chevy Nova 4dr POLICE


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This is a nice little subject that is very popular with the 1:1 police collectors/restorers.  The ready availability of the MPC Squad Rod along with my fervent desire to do anything 1) POLICE, 2) 4dr and last but not least 3) 1970's brought me to this one pretty quick. Most of what one needs is there but as always one must spend quite a while removing the styrene kit builders equivalent of a heroin addiction to fastback roof lines on dang near every kit out there and fashioning in a more dignified and authoritative 4dr c-Pillar.   Plus a natural sedan trunk lid surface.

In its current incarnation with me, it's almost done. And only about 2 & a half months on it too! (of course there are three others on the bench right now too) Am I getting faster? Personally, I sure hope so as long as the end result does not suffer. There was some tedious re-aligning of the door tops from sloping downward 2dr ones to almost squared off 4dr ones. plus you must add the Impala/Caprice body accent welt line from the top edge of the rear door across and down the rear quarter panels.  it is VERY faint in this scale and takes a bit of doing.  Please have a look, and thanks for stopping by!

Phase 1:

180330 - 78 Nova 4dr begins (1).JPG

180330 - 78 Nova 4dr begins (2).JPG

180330 - 78 Nova 4dr begins (4).JPG

180330 - 78 Nova 4dr begins (5).JPG

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And finally, where I am at this point. Just need to do some teilawork around the doors, add a rocker & drip moldings along with trunk line details and it will be almost done.  Well, I have to modify the interior tub then the proper wheels & caps and DUNN!

180404 - Nova - 75% (3).JPG

180404 - Nova - 75% (4).JPG

180404 - Nova - 75% (6).JPG

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Loving this build already.

I´d like to point something out regarding conversions of 2-doors into 4-doors. I´ve been working on a ´71 Valiant for a couple of years now and I posted this pic to ask for advice because I felt something was out of proportion.

1.jpg.d0b99bb30ccac0bd1a22470043a0114b.jpg

 

The result of the discussion was that I had built a sedan with a coupe roof height. The roof came out too low, like a very gentle top-chop. I ended up cutting the pillars and raising the roof 1.5 millimeters or so. 

I used a Duster front clip with a Dart body to get the correct style a-pillars and a simple body to work with for the conversion. Someone mentioned that the windshield of a Dart Hardtop wouldn´t fit a Valiant Sedan in 1:1. The picture of your modified body´s rear end with the 1:1 pic next to it. Compare the rear windows with each other. I could imagine that it´s not only Mopars to have different roof heights on sedans and hardtops. In the case of my Valiant it was pretty obvious, that the roof had some sort of issue. Easiest way to find out would probably be calling a glass guy and asking if 2-door and 4-door Novas use the same size windshields.

Looking forward to seeing this evolve, digging the subject.

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13 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

NICE !! A 9C1 Nova !! Those things were essentially a 4 door Camaro , engine and all !

Yup, they were popular in my area too, and got great write-ups in the motor press. I drove a '77 or '78 Olds Omega 4-door with the small-block Chevy engine and upgraded suspension for about 10 years and it was a rocket--loads of fun!

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Oh my! I have been wanting to do this also but I was not sure how to do it... you have some Awesome skills!

If you would consider a resin caster I'd buy aleast 10! Or if not I'd pay you to do one for me like this one...

This is my favorite bodystyle of nova. I have owned 18 over the past 25 years.

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If you decide to cast it, let me know! My grandparents had two of these. My gran had a fully loaded dark brown one and my grandpa bought a creme colored one with the police package and (I think), the 350 in it, vinyl bench seats and all. I know that it was fast. He drove to projects a lot as a civil engineer and wanted something fun to drive.

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Thanks to all for comments and encouragement!  The Nova is on the list to be cast, and that will happen as soon as we can.  Greg is still gearing up, he takes possession of the 91 CVPI project today and begins his work on it to make the molds and copies. He plans to post progress pics as he goes so you may want to follow that on that thread on the resin board.

As to the 9C1 Nova here, I kidded myself with the posting of the last set of pics that it was mostly done but Ron and at least one other called me on the rear window being a bit short.. which was because the trunk lid (so pretty) was still a tad steep as  it's angle to rise rose to meet the eel-like fastback C pillar of the 2dr version it was born as. No two ways about it, the trunk lid must flatten down at least a whole 1mm. (cm? I can't keep that metric stuff straight. It was about 1 & 1/2 on the ruler) That will add a bit of a bigger rear window coupled with a small addition to the roofline at the top.

PITA it was but check out the progress and basic results..

180406 - 78 Nova - Trunk - rear wdw re-do (1).JPG

180406 - 78 Nova - Trunk - rear wdw re-do (2).JPG

180406 - 78 Nova - Trunk - rear wdw re-do (3).JPG

180406 - 78 Nova - Trunk - rear wdw re-do (4).JPG

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These pics show the addition of material to raise the rear roof edge a bit higher, adding some to the rear of the C posts to straighten them a tad, and finally, all of it primed over and door window frames being added in..

(If you look at where the C-pillar jumps up from the trunk surface to rise you can see from the earlier pics how that had to go down to be a bit more parallel with the body accent 'spear' from the door across the quarter panel..

180407 - The roof now. (1).JPG

180407 - The roof now. (2).JPG

180407 - The roof now. (3).JPG

180407 - The roof now. (5).JPG

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I'm excited that this is being done. The dedication to accuracy is impressive. I thought it was good before the change but but that panel between the deck lid and window is a nice touch. I do understand that if it's gonna be cast it has to be as correct as possible. One thing that would be Awesome is if the frontend from the 77-78 could be cast in place of the 79. The grill for the 77-78 represents 4th gen the nova better. The 79 grill was 1 year only with rectangle headlights. I never knew there was a difference in the two kits until Round 2 released the Squad Rod. I've had a few of each but had never compared them.  I will be happy either way I'll buy as many as I have ideas for.

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This looks great, everything so crisp looking.  I have done 4 door conversions a couple times but I am never happy with my door lines, if you don't mind sharing how did you do yours so nice and look like they are factory?  Thanks in advance.

 

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I'm not into four doors and have never build a model as a police car. But after watching the effort you have put into this and the way you have strived for accuracy I'm thinking I will be build my first one when this body comes available.  

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Rich/Anthony, DiscoNovaman & all:  Thanks!!  To answer a question it will be released but exactly when I can't say , Still it will be posted here.  I have some RTV & I may have a go at it myself just for sh*ts & giggles.   But when it is released it will be as the 1978 Nova, as I was inspired to do it by the mass use of them by the LA Co. SO in that year. That plus they were just NEAT little copcars, eh? 

I used a 79 SquadRodsimply because of their ready availability and after a cursory examination of the 78 vs the 79 far as I could see the primary difference lay totally in the grille/HL treatment.  It seems on the 1:1 version all else would be identical, the front fenders, header & bumper.  Ron H. had mentioned some other difference but I just got through studying pics and so far I can't see it.  Still he is probably right & I am wrong. But I can modify it and procure a 78 Grille and fit it into the body.

John: All cats are slave drivers. :P

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5 hours ago, DumpyDan said:

This looks great, everything so crisp looking.  I have done 4 door conversions a couple times but I am never happy with my door lines, if you don't mind sharing how did you do yours so nice and look like they are factory?  Thanks in advance.

 

Mr. Dan, I wrote a three-page description/response to describe my process and somehow this site/whatever ate it. I will write it again it will just be a bit later as I am forced to return to work at the moment.  May even make me more pithy. 

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