69 COPO Nova (UPDATE - COMPLETED & UNDER GLASS 1-5-17)

[espo]

Your detailing is really bringing the engine bay to life.

[lghtngyello03]

Your detailing is really bringing the engine bay to life.

Thanks David! This is my first time detailing to this extent. I'm glad I found a boat load of multi colored Kynar wire. Really hoping this will make a difference in all of my builds.

[lghtngyello03]

I managed to get a good bit done last night. I got the suspension and exhaust installed, and a little bit of detailing done on the chassis. Also got my windshield fluid bottle painted and the hose installed on it, as well as the door panels detailed and installed along with the seats.

Still have to run battery cables

Just a mock up, still have to glue it all together, run battery cables and heater hoses.

 

[Dogfish_7]

Awesome detail work!

[lghtngyello03]

Awesome detail work!

Thanks Bruce.

[lghtngyello03]

So, I got my wheels sprayed and detailed last night. Just had to see what the rear wheels were going to look like in those big tires. Also got the engine installed and some more detailing done in the engine bay.

All that is left to do is glue the interior tub to the chassis, and hook up my heater hoses, do some nut/bolt chassis detailing and put the front wheels on, and I'll have my rolling chassis.

Light makes the wheels look goldish but they are light green metallic.

Still have to hook up my heater hoses and install the radiator/radiator support and hoses.

 

[71_Sears]

Absolutely amazing work! Looks like I need to get this kit and build it stock instead of robbing parts to make a 74 Nova!

[Intmd8r]

Nice progress!

Certainly makes mike Nova build look like a bag of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH lol

[lghtngyello03]

Absolutely amazing work! Looks like I need to get this kit and build it stock instead of robbing parts to make a 74 Nova!

Thanks Dan. This kit has a lot going for it after you fix the mold lines/sink holes.

Nice progress!

Certainly makes mike Nova build look like a bag of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH lol

Lol, man everyone's builds on here are awesome.

[71_Sears]

Thanks Dan. This kit has a lot going for it after you fix the mold lines/sink holes.

Lol, man everyone's builds on here are awesome.

I was very pleased that the Nova Copo and the Nova SS with drag options were practically the same kit as I have the SS body and 350 on my now 74 nova and the rest is the Copo kit and the Copo body and 427 went with the SS kit to my uncle so he could build a replica of his 74 Nova. I've been toying around with making resin bodies of the 74 Nova as that body style was never made in scale before, we will see what becomes of that!  Looking forward to seeing the next step on your build!

[High octane]

Looks like you're doing a great job on that "bowtie" Scott as that is a really nice kit also. I bought one when it first came out to snag the big block and put it in my Nova SS build.

[EL LOCO]

This is coming up mighty fine. Well done dude

[OldNYJim]

Looking GREAT!  Beautiful clean building!

[lghtngyello03]

I was very pleased that the Nova Copo and the Nova SS with drag options were practically the same kit as I have the SS body and 350 on my now 74 nova and the rest is the Copo kit and the Copo body and 427 went with the SS kit to my uncle so he could build a replica of his 74 Nova. I've been toying around with making resin bodies of the 74 Nova as that body style was never made in scale before, we will see what becomes of that!  Looking forward to seeing the next step on your build!

Thanks Dan, has been a good build so far.

Looks like you're doing a great job on that "bowtie" Scott as that is a really nice kit also. I bought one when it first came out to snag the big block and put it in my Nova SS build.

Thanks Nick!

This is coming up mighty fine. Well done dude

Thanks Ernesto!

Looking GREAT!  Beautiful clean building!

Thanks James.

[lghtngyello03]

Small update, I managed to get my heater hoses cut to length and installed, as well as the front wheels on. So I decided to test fit for stance and see how all my wiring detail would look.

All that is left is installing my radiator support, and to finish detailing my dash, and the complete chassis will be finished. 

Then paint the body

 

Loving those wide rear drag radials.

[OldNYJim]

Wow, that's gorgeous - and it sits just right!  I love watching a master at work!  Great job!

[crazyrichard]

looks stunning , love the details and chrome ..very nice build with attention to detail and tight !!

i do have one small comment :

even though your cables are better then no cables , next time search for much thinner wire (leave thi as it i) ..they alook too thick ..i had the same problem in the past and rather then buying cable i found that some type of earphones (the small that go in your ear) have very small wires in the mantle

..

i have been hoarding all sorts of small wire over time out of all sorts of old electrical stuff   ..

so def. not ment offensive or to be a wise guy ..it would look even better in the future with smaller wires

last wire i used for (coindidence lol) a weathered nova where small ear phone wires for the battery and the hoses for the heater where smaller then the radiator hose .

all scavenged from apliences and my hoses are the rubber mantles where i pulled out wiring

 

 

[lghtngyello03]

Thanks Richard. I used your car as a reference for some of my wiring. Although I didn't go as crazy on it as you did, lol. This is my first attempt at wiring a car. The battery wire is 28awg Kynar Wire, and the electrical wire is 30awg Kynar Wire. The heater hose is the wire that comes from Detail Masters for Heater Hose. Not trying to be wise either, I love your build, but the heater hose on yours looks a tad large for scale?

I definitely will search for some thinner wire before my next detailed build like this. I have to check some of my old stuff out at my Dad's  and see if we have any old computer stuff, or headphones laying around. Dunno if I threw all of those away when the headphone jack screwed up or not, lol....wasn't building models at the time, so they were trash to me. My wife thinks I'm crazy for all of the old medicine bottles I have for truck wheel arches, lol.

I had no luck finding any smaller wire for the wire on the firewall. I have no electronics in my house that I have junked, as we moved in and were just starting out, so everything is new, and looooong to be due to be trashed, lol.

Edited December 9, 2016 by lghtngyello03

[lghtngyello03]

Wow, that's gorgeous - and it sits just right!  I love watching a master at work!  Great job!

Thanks for the kind words James!

[blunc]

you could achieve smaller wire by removing the insulation from multi-strand wire and separating the strands.

various kinds of household wiring can be used this way...dead appliance cords and speaker wire are fairly common.

paint or markers can be used to color as needed.

your engine bay wiring would have looked more in scale if you had removed the colorful insulation.

in my experience, the battery cables look visually larger than most engine bay wiring unless the wiring harness is a large bundle with strands coming off the main wire run. Engine bay "wiring" should not be confused with engine bay hoses. 

your work on this build is great, some elements are throwing off the illusion of "looking" like the real thing.

[lghtngyello03]

you could achieve smaller wire by removing the insulation from multi-strand wire and separating the strands.

various kinds of household wiring can be used this way...dead appliance cords and speaker wire are fairly common.

paint or markers can be used to color as needed.

your engine bay wiring would have looked more in scale if you had removed the colorful insulation.

in my experience, the battery cables look visually larger than most engine bay wiring unless the wiring harness is a large bundle with strands coming off the main wire run. Engine bay "wiring" should not be confused with engine bay hoses. 

your work on this build is great, some elements are throwing off the illusion of "looking" like the real thing.

Kynar Wire's insulation is so thin, that removing it wouldn't net me anything I don't think?

I'll try some this evening. Visually in person, (I think it is the light in this picture) the battery cables are nowhere near the size of the heater hoses..and it can be told.

Only thing that I can see that doesn't look correct is the wires on the firewall, and drivers fenderwell.  I'll take some of my gauged automotive wire in the garage and pull some strands out and correct that.

Edited December 9, 2016 by lghtngyello03

[blunc]

Kynar Wire's insulation is so thin, that removing it wouldn't net me anything I don't think?

I'll try some this evening. Visually in person, (I think it is the light in this picture) the battery cables are nowhere near the size of the heater hoses..and it can be told.

Only thing that I can see that doesn't look correct is the wires on the firewall, and drivers fenderwell.  I'll take some of my gauged automotive wire in the garage and pull some strands out and correct that.

I didn't mean to insinuate anything by including the comment about engine bay wiring and engine bay hoses, I apologize if that's what you thought I meant.

I only included that comment because not all builders are not as familiar with engine bay elements, whether they work on cars or not. For example, some people only do car audio, that means they can say they work on cars but their experience may be limited to from the back side of the firewall to the rear of the car and have no idea how things should look under the hood.

When I'm doing battery cables, I consider what type of engine they will be connected to and how much current will be required. A standard four cylinder of current gen cars can get away with smaller cables (unless they are running a 5000 watt stereo), a hi-compression V8 may require anywhere from 450 cold cranking amps (unlikely but it could happen) up to 800 cold cranking amps. These kind of amperage demands require thicker battery cables...and can look as thick as fuel lines or bigger.

This info is a generalization and can be taken with many grains of salt but it IS what I have experienced.

If you can find some pix of Nova engine bay wiring, you should be able to replicate the look without damaging what you have already completed.

[crazyrichard]

its always a trial and error imo , i'm one who uses as much scrap parts and scavenged stuff instead of going online and buying parts forr a build ..thats my thing i just love that ..

like i said with these wires you did it def. looks better then when you would not do wires

 

 

 

 

[lghtngyello03]

I didn't mean to insinuate anything by including the comment about engine bay wiring and engine bay hoses, I apologize if that's what you thought I meant.

I only included that comment because not all builders are not as familiar with engine bay elements, whether they work on cars or not. For example, some people only do car audio, that means they can say they work on cars but their experience may be limited to from the back side of the firewall to the rear of the car and have no idea how things should look under the hood.

When I'm doing battery cables, I consider what type of engine they will be connected to and how much current will be required. A standard four cylinder of current gen cars can get away with smaller cables (unless they are running a 5000 watt stereo), a hi-compression V8 may require anywhere from 450 cold cranking amps (unlikely but it could happen) up to 800 cold cranking amps. These kind of amperage demands require thicker battery cables...and can look as thick as fuel lines or bigger.

This info is a generalization and can be taken with many grains of salt but it IS what I have experienced.

If you can find some pix of Nova engine bay wiring, you should be able to replicate the look without damaging what you have already completed.

A high compression 425 horse big block needs a little thicker battery cables for the load it pulls when it has to crank.  But I fixed the wires on the firewall and the fender well. Most definitely will use this size from now on... looks much better, thanks man!

its always a trial and error imo , i'm one who uses as much scrap parts and scavenged stuff instead of going online and buying parts forr a build ..thats my thing i just love that ..

like i said with these wires you did it def. looks better then when you would not do wires

 

 

 

 

Fixed it Richard

 

[lghtngyello03]

Alright, update here, lol. I changed out the wires on the firewall and fenderwell with single strands from some automotive wire, as suggested by Richard and Mike. Looks much better now, you guys were right.

 I completed the dash and steering wheel to round out the interior. I have always wanted to put some magazine articles and things like that in the seat of my builds. So, as with the wiring, here is another new thing (to me) I am going to add for this build.

What can I use for seatbelt material??? This is all this thing needs inside and it'll be much better after that.

I decided to go with the redlines on the front tires, and keep the backs to look like the modern drag radials that they are.

I have a complete rolling chassis now.  All that is left to do is paint the body, do the detailing on it, and I'll be done

 

 

What can I use for seatbelt material??? This is all this thing needs inside and it'll be much better after that.

 

Edited December 10, 2016 by lghtngyello03