LouO Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 (edited) So day one started by picking up the Nova, and as you can see she is ugly. But on the good side she was in an inside garage for a while so all the floor boards, trunk, and rails all in good shape. Plus, the seller gave us boxes and boxes of parts (old and new) to go along with dream he had of someday rebuilding the car (inc. the original 350 engine & 4spd trans). Now she sure shows allot of surface rust from previous sanding, but actually the car has minimal rot. Tomorrow the complete tear-down begins (or shall I say the box gets opened LOL). Edited December 8, 2018 by LouO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhedir6 Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Looking forward to following this Lou. I was going to use this kit originally but went with the Mustang instead. It's a really nice kit. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMCMAN52 Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 sounds like a killer project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouO Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 Just a little update, since we're getting close, yet I still feel a long ways away. I also decided to write this in a style as if this was a real car (just for fun)... So it turns out the car is an original SS 350 car, with the 7/8 cyl. (sometimes 6) barely running a rebuilt was inevitable. The car looks like it was played with down the track a lot and had sub-frame connectors welded in at one time, and old fuel cell in the trunk. Shocking all metal (or should I say plastic LOL) is solid. After some media blasting the car actually needed very little bodywork, plus once I figured out the suspension, rims and tires, I can determine what will happen with the wheel-wells. So now the engine is built (reduced to 8:1 comp ratio) and now running a 2 barrel intake and 500 cfm Holley (4412) 2bl carb. Headers were added and connected to a shorted stock dual exhaust. The stock distributor is covered/sealed with plastic wrap, (and a junkyard picked Corvette distributor shield). A new clutch/pressure plate was installed along with the Saginaw 4 speed manual transmission and 3.23 (GT1) 12 bolt posi-traction rear both being checked/rebuilt. Factory options checked/rebuilt inc: power brakes, HD cooling, HD charging & HD suspension. The ugly weathered grey/tan finish will be a bit more appealing (hopefully) in the final product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouO Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 Finally Done ! With the challenges of the P2P it’s pretty obvious that not every car could even make it to the end, and that’s what happened with my 69’ Nova… The Nova went strong for ¾ of the journey, then experienced a right/front impact; that caused some serious damage. Committed to at least finish, we used some down time to do “body work” (via hammer, jack & hacksaw), installed a new belt, tie-rod ball joint and “bargained” (more like got ripped off by a guy) for a used battery. We were back up and running. The journey continued feeling like we were driving on railroad tracks at speeds over 50mph. It was obvious the Nova front clip took a bigger hit than we thought. The alignment was so bad the front/right tire was lasting only days and the “new” outer tie-rod was just about shot. Three days later the tie-rod gave it’s final farewell and our journey was over. This model represent the Nova the day it was recovered and brought back to a garage. Naturally a few things have been unloaded (including unexpectedly finding the battery missing). Note: this is the first build in about 7+ year (long story). Comments welcomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldcarfan Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 That's too cool! Nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivesuns Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 cool model and story. Glad I clicked on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty92 Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 Great model! That front end collision looks rough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeatMan Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Great job! Fantastic weathering and collision work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouO Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 Pretty much the first model I've been able to complete in the past several years. First time ever trying to do a "crash" and weathering. Thanks for the comments ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambles Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 I've done a lot of crashes and weathering on model cars and I'm impressed with your first attempt! It's not easy to make plastic bend at sharp angles like sheet metal, but it can be done. http://www.shamblesmodels.com/wrecked.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Italianhorses Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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