66 Nova Wagon (Mom's Toy) Sleeper Street Rod Finally Finished! 12-5-15

[microwheel]

I originally started this project as part of a double build along side a 66 Nova SS I called Pop's Toy. Because the original double build project thread was growing so large I decided to separate the builds and finish them individually. With the 66 nova SS competed, it just seemed right to me to do finish up the 66 Nova wagon in it's own thread.

 Before getting into the new work that's been recently competed, I thought I would try to do a recap of the past work on the wagon.

I started this project with a resin conversion kit from Bandit Resins.It is a really well done resin kit that comes with a Body, compete interior (minus the dash since the kit dash works nicely with it), and even some separate resin exterior door handles. This all fits a standard AMT 66 nova kit chassis and engine with no fit issues. Though for this build I decided to use a pieced together small block chevy engine to create my own version of a street rodded 283 mouse engine mated to a turbo 350 automatic trans. A kit supplied chassis will also get modified to accept a 68 corvette style rear suspension and a tubed A arm front suspension with rack and pinion steering with disc brakes on all 4 corners. This will all be done without changing much of the stock stance look.

The Starting Point

The basic look I'm going for, though the color will be different

The basic interior cleaned up painted and flocking added

Armrests created for the interior

Interior assembled with seat belts and armrest added

competed interior with detailed dash and interior door handles added

I'll be posting more catch up work in the morning.

Edited December 5, 2015 by microwheel

[GTJUNIOR]

Looking good!

[Againmikewins]

Wow! The interior looks great! The flocking is pretty convincing. 

What color is the interior paint? Also, what did you make the arm rests out of? Are the cranks and seat belt buckles photo etched, if so, where'd you find them?

[microwheel]

Wow! The interior looks great! The flocking is pretty convincing. 

What color is the interior paint? Also, what did you make the arm rests out of? Are the cranks and seat belt buckles photo etched, if so, where'd you find them?

Thanks Michael. 

the interior door handles and window cranks are white metal cast and were supplied by Pro Tech

the arm rests were carefully cut away from the donor kit interior side panels and then painted and detailed

photo etched seat belt hardware and aftermarket seat belt material was supplied from The Model Car Garage

using flat blue paint and medium blue embossing powder purchased at Hobby Lobby,
I brushed a coating of the flat blue on the floor area
and while it was still wet I coated it with a dusting of the embossing powder.

the interior paint color is Model Masters Nassau Blue Metallic Lacquer with a coat of Testers dull-coat over that.

[microwheel]

The engine for the wagon is my idea of a hot rod 283 mouse engine.  To get it the way I wanted it,

I used the block, tranny and a few other odds and ends out of the MPC 86 El Camino kit
 and the stock 4 barrel intake manifold is from the AMT 66 Nova kit.
 The exhaust manifolds, and valve covers are from the Revell 64 Chevy Pickup Kit.
 It will get a aftermarket 4 barrel carb and pulleys,
as well as a few other things, and then everything will get fully detailed.

The valve covers were first covered in BMF and then painted with testers metalizer dark anodonic grey and the detail
uncovered using a tooth pic dipped in lacquer thinner.

I covered the timing chain cover in Bare Metal Foil before cementing it to the block to give it that chrome look,
 and the two main pulleys are resin cast aftermarket ones from the BnL Resins stroker engine kit.

I got the holly 4 barrel carb from BNL Resins.

oil and tranny dipsticks were scratch made and added, a starter, power steering pump, and fuel pump was added from the parts box. a after market spun aluminum oil filter was added. the base of the distributor supplied by mad distributors was added and a vacuum advance was scratch made and added to that. Then the carb got detailed using photoetched linkage detail from the model car garage and a scatch made throttle spring added. Fuel lines were scratch made and added to the carb as well. The fuel line T fitting is cast white metal from pro tech. the rest of the fuel line nuts are made from plastruct .040 hex rod plastic.

The distributor cap and plug wires were added. Starter wire, heater and vacuum hoses were also added, and exhaust manifolds were installed. Then the oil filter was

painted and decal-ed, a fan belt from the model car garage was added an the fan was installed to finish out the engine detailing.

 

I'll be adding more catch up work later on. Stay tuned

[microwheel]

For the front grill of the 66 nova wagon. I used the same process as I did for the 66 nova SS. I started with the kit grill and planned out the process to use the grill insert from the Model Car Garage photo-etched kit.

Using my exacto knife and roto tool, I cut out the openings by the turn signals and then removed the area of the main grill needed for adding the photo-etched grill. I trimmed the and added a slight bend into the photo etched grill so it would fit the opening in the kit grill.

The photo-etched grill was then tacked into place using a few drops of CA glue applied to the back side of the grill assembly with a tooth pick.

This will all get a little bit of detail painting later before final assembly.

Edited November 18, 2015 by microwheel

[microwheel]

The molded on windshield wipers and exterior door handles were shaved off the body. Bandit resins supplied separate exterior door handles with the resin kit. And for windshield wipers, I will cut a couple of new ones off of a 66 nova ss doner body. (sorry I forgot to take pics of the door handle removal process on the wagon body, but it's the same process I used on the 66 nova ss body. So I'm including a pic of the SS body with the handles removed to show you how it turned out)

The wagon body was then cleaned up primed and ready for paint..

[microwheel]

The 66 Nova body originally got painted Tamiya midnight blue, clear coated, wet sanded and polished out and then BMF detailed. And as I was working on added the side glass the dang thing slipped out of my hands onto the floor and cracked the body on the passenger side. Lucky for me it cracked right along the front door edge. But it did require me to strip the body completely back to bare resin, repair it and now is in the process of a repaint. Since I am repainting the body, I elected to change the color to a lighter color Blue that would still match the interior. So after the body repair, (sorry no pics of the damage or repair process), I decanted some Tamiya Light blue peril can spray paint, and air brushed a few coats on the body. It turned out fine, however I then realized I was out of clear coat and had to order some more. It will be here tomarrow late morning and I hope to have the body clear coated tomarrow night and if all goes well wet sanded and polished out again the first of the week.

Here is a pic of the body the first time around before it got damaged.

And here it is with it's repaint after the repair, waiting to be clear coated.

More to come later. Stay tuned

[dragzz]

looking good nice detail on the motor  

[Davewilly]

engine looks great!  so does the interior.   cant wait to see some more on this...its going to be a pretty killer sleeper.

[microwheel]

thanks guys. Ok so here is where I kind of regret getting so wrapped up in the chassis build the past couple weeks that I forgot to take step by step progress pics as I went along. So hopefully I'll be able to at least explain a little of stuff I did and through the finished chassis pics you'll get a idea of how it was done.

I decided in  order to get the look I was after for the wagon, the kit supplied cragar wheels would work out just fine. These were detail painted and then mated to a set of goodyear polyglass tires from the parts box with decals applied to the tires from fireball modelworks. The kit supplied wheel backings were modified and only the outer rim areas of them were used. The inner parts of them were ground away with a rotor tool to allow me to modify the wheel assembles for disc brakes.

The following pics show how the front and back wheels and tires look on the chassis. The pics also kinda give you an idea of how, even with all the mods made to the chassis and suspension, I was able to keep the stance pretty close to stock. which was what I was after. After all a sleeper needs to kinda look close to stock right...

Tomorrow I will try to start describing the mods and details of the chassis and suspension work. It will take some time and I only have pics of the completed chassis, so I hope I'll be able to explain it all. Sorry forgot to take step by step pics of the process.

[crazyrichard]

looks stunning !

[microwheel]

Morning guys. Not really sure the best way to start with todays posts, so I will start out trying to explain the chassis mods the best I can. If I kinda get a little long winded, sorry in advance lol.

For the suspension, I picked up a Revell 37 ford coupe California wheels edition cheap. Since I had no intention of building it, I robbed it of its compete front tubular suspension with coil over shocks, spindles and rack and pinion setup. I had to do some modifying to the 66 nova chassis and inner fenders to get this all to work. The suspension cross member sat between the nova lower suspension mount area almost perfectly, all that was needed to get the fit perfect was a couple of thin plastic shims on each side of the 37 ford cross member to fill what little gaps were there, and a little height adjusting and it worked like it was made for it. I then had to cut a little bit of the Nova inner fenders away where the old nova kit upper A arms mounted to allow for the 37 ford's upper A arm mounts to clear. A little bit of clean up work to remove the Nova front sway-bar mounting points and everything was good to go. I then cut apart the 37 ford rack and pinion steering assembly and drilled it out to allow me to slide plastic rod through it so it would allow the front wheels to be possible. I made spindle arms for the 37 ford front spindles after finding I needed to flip the front spindles over to keep the ride height were I wanted it. The disc brake rotors and calipers were then added. The engine was test fitted several times during the process to make sure the cross member was going to allow the oil pan to sit right and the engine to sit like it was suppose to on the stock Nova engine mounts. Once every thing was mocked up and fitting the way I wanted it. It was all detail painted and assembled into place. Before the engine was permanently mounted into place, I routed front brake lines and added a brake booster and master cylinder from the parts box. I then detailed the engine bay with wiring harness for the Alternator, mounted the windshield motor and washer bottle, ran a washer hose line, and detailed and mounted the battery. The engine was then permanently mounted and plumbed into place.

Hopefully the pics below allows you to see how it all worked out.

The completed engine bay area

Later today I hope to post pics and info on the rear suspension work. Like I said, sorry I didn't get more pics during the actual build process. I usually do, but I got so wrapped up in things as I was going along, I didn't take time to stop and take pics.  Thanks for looking and remember comments are always welcome.

[jhuntsman]

nice work!! what did you use for the brake line hold downs on the bottom of the chassis pan?

[microwheel]

nice work!! what did you use for the brake line hold downs on the bottom of the chassis pan?

Thanks Jeff, for brake and fuel line straps, I use left over tree material from photo-etched parts. I just cut off strips of it and bend it over straight pins with needle nosed tweezers and then cut the ends to size. Takes a good lighted magnifying  glass to do it, especially since these old eyes of mine ain't what they used to be.

[microwheel]

My stock of clearcoat finally came in today. So i'm spending this evening clearcoating the wagon. I will try to have another update sometime over the weekend. Thanks for looking.

[TFchronos]

Awesome engine work!

[Greg K]

the detail work is phenomenal Jim. the photo of that engine alone looks like 1:1. i know pics don't do justice. 

[DUTCHMAN]

Quite honestly, I had to look twice at the engine sitting there as I thought it was a 1;1. Beautiful work Jim. Cant wait to see this one all together! Denny

[slusher]

Great detail work Jim..

[Dominik]

great work Jim! like the deatils on the engine. i think, it will come out pretty nice. looking forward for more

[blunc]

I really enjoy the detail work you add to your builds, thank you for sharing.

[crazyrichard]

nice details !!!

[RiskiestLion]

looks sharp !!!!!!!!!!!! i love the wagons

[Belair2k]

Beautiful work!

I think the engine and front suspension are perfect.

Looking forward to seeing more.