espo

Beautiful build. It's a shame all of the attention you gave the interior is hidden from view.

Great attention to detail. If it were pictured with a better background it could pass for the real thing.

I looked on Google since I wasn't sure of the year, I know these images look extreme but that is the light I was thinking of. I don't remember them looking that extreme when used and they would use some of the sheet metal from the donor car to mold them into the tail light area. They would use some of the donor sheet metal to make a small body line running forward on the body from the tail lights. It sounds extreme but it actually looked very good and mirrored the body line from the rear bumper going forward. Enough of all this. Lets see more of your build.

Great job on the body work. One advantage of the body in a molded color is that its easier to see what needs sanding and saves on primer. I can see from the pictures just how smooth you have gotten it.

You have a great imagination. This looks like something from the Diesel Brothers TV series.

Absolutely apocalyptic.

Very realistic weathering. I will have you know the radio reception was greatly enhanced with the use of said antenna despite its rather low price point.

Sinister looking Dodge. I like that a lot.

Great deal of body work to create this body style. Under hood detail is exceptional and the heater hose clamps really stand out.

Very nice build. I still can't stop thinking Cop Car when ever I see the front of Dodges from this era.

Looks outstanding. The extra details like the license plate and the plug wires really bring it to life.

I like your hinge for the hatchback, while not to scale and I don't think that it could be, that is basically the way Chevrolet did it at that time. A thought on hiding the hinge from view. First paint the exposed hinge either black or the color of the interior. With that and possible tinted windows I don't think it would be noticed.

The Plymouth lights would also look great. The tail lights I had in mind were around 1960 Chrysler lights that were part of the fender fins. They were not the flat elliptical type but more of a curved shape within a chrome surround with a flat mounting surface with the fender. The lights on the Plymouth you show were also used on the fenders of older step side style picks. The paint design on the Plymouth in the picture looks good also.

If it were me I would go with the Model Master Hemi Orange. The other paints would look good also, but when you are going for an exact color the Model Master paints are hard to beat.

The Nova SS was not a common in stock model. I had two for demos and bought one used in '86. I had high hopes and little money when I bought the Nova SS as our '66 El Camino had been stolen from the parking lot at UC Cal. Sacramento. The Rally Nova was a budget model offered to attract a buyer on a budget. It was more about stripes and black grills than anything else. That said it could be ordered with anything from a 250 six to a 350. That is when this became a really great car, but it had to be ordered with the right options. I ordered four Rally Novas in '77 for stock and equipped them as if they were SS's. As you may know in California we were limited on engines and transmissions we could order. A manual transmission was next to imposable to order on anything but a Z-28 or a Corvette. This had to do with the certification process for California Emissions ( smog test). Some how for a short time GM got around the certification for 4 speed Novas. When I saw this I ordered the Rally Novas and several Nova SS with the 4 speed. The GM and the Dealer owner both jumped my on this and my job was literally on the line. Amazing, they all sold and at a good profit in less than 60 days. It was a fun time for a car guy in the business and I was always amazed at how little some of these owners really knew what would sell if they would have to sell on the lot.

Great looking manifolds. Are they going to be available to buy at a future date ?

Very clean build. It really does represent a different time.

This looks fantastic. Hard to believe it's not real. Man I which I could paint a model black and look that good.

Great idea on the front seat. There was a build here some time ago that was a street rod type build. The builder provided a very detailed explanation on how he created a folding arm rest that could be folded up and down. Just a thought if you wanted to go that way. I have to say I have a great appreciation of this era of Nova. At that time I was working at a Chevrolet dealership in central California and often drove Nova's as demos. As I'm sure you know by now the chassis is shared with the Camaro and all of the chassis and suspension inter changes between them. I would always order mine with the F-41 suspension that added stiffer shocks and larger sway bars and added a rear sway bar this was basically the same suspension as the Z28 Camaros at that time. With the 350 engine they were fun drivers.

I was wondering about that. I thought I saw him in a show after the S & H series and he looked the same then, not so much now.

Your 1:1 Nova looks to be a Concourse model which replaced the LN from '75. The only real problem might be making a rear package tray for the interior. Your car looks to be a coupe and the model you have to work with is a hatchback. They style Rally Wheels on your car I think can be found in some of the later Camaro models unless you already have some.

Great job on the tail lights. I wouldn't change what you have done here. Years ago when these cars were fairly new some of the other tail light used were anything from Chrysler light setup which looked very much like this but the molding had a sort of chrome wing look on either side. Some used a Mercury tail light that had a triangle look that would run parallel with two sides of the body moldings. Of course a lot of guys just put the '59 Cadillac lamps in and called it done. I think your lamps are much better looking than some of the other options.

When I retired in 2005 I bought a new Pontiac GTO which you would know as a Manero . It was the LS2 with a 6-speed manual. A few years later the General Motors was supposed to bring the UTE to the US but then our economy when in the toilet and GM took the bailout from the government and dropped Pontiac to keep Buicks because they sold big in China. I was ready to trade my GTO for the UTE when all this was going on. Since then my garage has seen a steady stream of new MoPars. But if GM ever starts listening to its customer base again and brings this to the US I'd buy one.

The actual time spent working on the model, and when it gets finished are very different. Life inters in to it. Time spent with family and chores around the house, not to mention the time spent on this site. I may work on a model for an hour before I'm waiting for glue or paint to dry. Start doing other things and before you know it a month has past. I know many here are building machines and crank out great builds all the time, just don't know how they do that.

Is that Huggy Bear with the Red Wings sweat shirt ? Time has been kind for him. I don't recognize anyone else.