Revell 1969 Nova SS

[camaroman]

I agree with chuck...

And kudo's to Revell for fixin' the gas tank...

Edited November 17, 2008 by camaroman

[george 53]

Mark, you'll probly hafta get in line BEHIND Gregg, But DON'T mess him up TOO bad, caz I need my Sunday nite FIX from him! NO broken fingers! OK? ( Don't worry Harry, I won't let anyone hurt you!)

[ProStr33t]

The Kit is the Revell '69 Chevy Nova SS 2 n 1 kit .. K, so just bought this kit and it looks great. I love the rims for the prostreet version.. Hoever the tires are very skinny IMO....

The engines include the stock 350 or you can use the superstreet 383 stroker.... I'll be using neither.. i plan to go with a twin turbo Lt1 .. There doesn't seem to be much room alotted for wider tires... Can anyone who has built this kit give me some tips on possibly making room for a beefier tire?

Here is the box cover ...

here are all the pieces... 136 total

Here is the body...

Here are the tires.... I will be making the super street version.. however the tires that they offer for this version are nice quality slicks.. they are just too skinny... They are barely wider than the front tires....

comparo with front tires...

[MikeMc]

Welllllll its like this..This year Nova always seems to be set high with narrow period tires. If your looking for fatties jammed under the body then your gonna have to tub it and make a new rear frame section or find a pro street kit and use the rear tubs adapted to your front frame to get the correct wheelbase and then mount up that Lt1 and have at it!!

[ProStr33t]

Welllllll its like this..This year Nova always seems to be set high with narrow period tires. If your looking for fatties jammed under the body then your gonna have to tub it and make a new rear frame section or find a pro street kit and use the rear tubs adapted to your front frame to get the correct wheelbase and then mount up that Lt1 and have at it!!

K, I'm not that skilled yet.... So I am gonna have to go with the smaller width slicks I guess... In Real life there are cars that do amazing things on a narrow tire so this will have to be one of them

[crowe-t]

Dennis, you can narrow the rearend about an 1/8 inch on each side ( or find one in your parts box, if you have one, that is narrower than the kit's ) then grind the inner fenderwells out some for clearance for your bigger tires. The rearend on this kit needs to be narrowed even for the stock wheels/tires to prevent them from being against the quarter panels. My springs are in the stock position,you may not need to grind out the inner fenderwells if you use the raised position. Here's a pic of my 69 that I tucked bigger tires under the rear using this method. Hope this helps you out.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/dayes/2008_1202Image0008.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Beautiful job with the body color's overspray on the underside!!!

Edited July 31, 2010 by crowe-t

[fastram]

I saw a resin chassis on Ebay that was already made for this kit, tubbed and all. I'd check that out if you're wanting a little more "Meat" under the Nova.

[Casey]

I just picked up this kit, and I agree that the rear slicks are a huge disappointment. I think you need to go the Street Freak route with this car if you want to use anything wider than a 7" tire. Bust out the extended leaf spring shackles, the Garbiel Hi-Jacker air shocks, and toss a set of N50s on 14"x10" mags of your choice.

I do recall the bigger SCS tires Dave mentioned just barely fit the rear of Revell's '69 Camaro without modification, so I bet that's about as big of a tire as you can run on the Nova, too.

Pics of the Nova exhaust system in place on the '69 Camaro chassis later...

[Guest Johnny]

Welllllll its like this..This year Nova always seems to be set high with narrow period tires. If your looking for fatties jammed under the body then your gonna have to tub it and make a new rear frame section or find a pro street kit and use the rear tubs adapted to your front frame to get the correct wheelbase and then mount up that Lt1 and have at it!!

Na, you just make a a period car jacked up a mile in the rear to clear with the tires sticking out past the wheel well openings!

[Guest Johnny]

the rear wheelwells are hatefully small in this kit unfortunately. i've been able to get the Sports Car specials and the Mickey Thompson Indy Profiles from the AMT Motion Camaro into the wheelwells but that's it.

the 1:1 cars had room for an L60 on a 7" Chevy rally wheel, if you wanted to go lower you could fit a 15x8 Weld wheel with a G60 or 255/60-15 in the rear too. the 7" wheel pulled the sidewalls of the L60 in enough that it didn't really rub, much.

i just wasn't into the jacked up and tires hanging out look on my 1:1 Nova's when i had them

Almostmissed the "much" which always seemed to be on the right side and you had to roll the well lip up and either use Hi-Jackers ti keep it from rubbing or as some did use the overload shock with springs on them!

Or as I said in another reply jack it up a mile in the air and let 'em hang out!

[Guest Johnny]

All subjective to what era you are talking! The wheels available and offsets were few when I was into it and the rubbing was on the outside using the 7 inch wheels (some to keep it lower took the hammer to the outside inner well) and sometines inside and outside with the 8 inch! depending on tire size!

But when the N series tires hit the only choice was UP!

Besides the most of the guys wanted 10" full reversed depth wheels so the only choice was up with them!

[Casey]

Here's the Revell 1/25 '69 Nova SS exhaust in place on the Revell 1/25 '69 Camaro chassis:

There are six mounting studs on the topside of the exhaust system which won't allow it to fully tuck up to the Camaro's chassis as it should, but the fit is near perfect. Definitely better than the Revell '68 Firebird's exhaust system, shown below:

Another shot of the Nova exhaust/Camaro chassis combo, showing the transverse muffler positioned in front of the fuel tank:

A few more detail pics from the '69 Nova kit, starting with the Centerline Convo Pro wheels, in a very narrow width:

The rear wheels:

Pretty decent 14" Rally wheels:

The optional traction bars:

Nice dual snorkel chrome air cleaner:

Fiberglass-look cowl induction hood, viewed from the underside:

Edited March 2, 2012 by Casey

[Casey]

Yeah, the three mufflers thing seems odd to me, too. I recall a single transverse muffler for most applications, but don't recall all the possibilities. The rear anti-sway bar mounts are odd looking, crazy long, and are nothing like any 1:1 rear sway bar I've ever seen.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Casey

[Rob Hall]

i wasn't around when these Nova's were new but i have to question why all the mufflers? the Nova kit come with duals and a transverse muffler?

The transverse thing is called a 'resonator', I think...I've seen this set up on other model kits also...AMT '68 Shelby comes to mind.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Rob Hall

[Eshaver]

On an actual Nova of this era if you ran a "60 series tire" , one had to run Air shocks as the wheel houses were too small. Secondly, if you did run outside of the body, in most states , they made you have Rubber Flares added as the mud was kicked to the rear clouding a following vehicles visibility. This was so in both Virginia and Texas ................ Ed Shaver

[Cory22]

Wow i wish i could put a kit like that togethor!!

[Rob Hall]

IIRC, PSF Hobbies made/makes an outlaw hood for the Revell '69. I got one off eBay a few years ago...

[lysleder]

I am now in the final stages of assembling my COPO Nova, and everything falls in place and lines up beautifully - but - upon mating the chassis with the body I found the rear axle to be positioned strangely off-center / rearward in the fender opening. My first reaction was that this odd, given the positive experience I had putting all the pieces together. So I gave the whole model a good look-see. The front wheels are in the proper location, the dash is butting up against the bottom of the windshield, and the chassisplate is just where it needs to be for the front and rear bumpers to fit neatly in place. So where did I go wrong?

Because it couldn't possibly be a bug in the kit itself? Someone would have noticed and mentioned by now, yes?

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[blubaja]

Because it couldn't possibly be a bug in the kit itself? Someone would have noticed and mentioned by now, yes?

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I'm not sure of this was intended as a joke or not....but yes. The kit is the issue. Not your fault. Welcome to Revell:/

[lysleder]

I'm not sure of this was intended as a joke or not....but yes. The kit is the issue. Not your fault. Welcome to Revell:/

Thanks, thats reassuring. -and yes, that was a sample of my awkward attempts at humor ;-)

[DaveM]

What's the best way to fix this one? It looks like you could mount the springs a bit forward on the chassis, or should we leave the spring location alone and move the axle up on the spring ahead. Either one would take a bit of fiddling, but I am inclined to move the axle ahead on the springs.

[lysleder]

but I am inclined to move the axle ahead on the springs.

That is what I will try to do.

[tim boyd]

For anyone working on an ultra-authentic Nova build using the otherwise excellent Revell kit, I photographed several of the real cars at the NSRA Street Rod Nats Plus in Kalamazoo a few weeks back. Four different shots of the rear taillamp area (which needs to lean inward as the surface goes downward - a fact that has always cooled my jets on building the Revell kit ever since it came out), and also of the front and rear wheel well openings which have been critiqued as well, with equal justification. Sorry I couldn't get any straight-on side / profile shots...cars spaced too closely together. Here's a link...http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/correcting-or-kitba/1968-72-chevy-iinova/

TIM

Edited September 29, 2014 by tim boyd

[Snake45]

I managed to mount an AMT '72 Nova rear panel and bumper on mine. It's not a direct drop-in and it takes a little work but it can be done and it looks 1000% better than the kit parts. If anyone's interested, I'll try to dig up the old in-progress photos and post them.

[unclescott58]

I managed to mount an AMT '72 Nova rear panel and bumper on mine. It's not a direct drop-in and it takes a little work but it can be done and it looks 1000% better than the kit parts. If anyone's interested, I'll try to dig up the old in-progress photos and post them.

Can we see it?

Scott