Damnation 1966 Chevy II Nova

[KurseD]

Sometime around 1980-81 my brother-in-law purchased this car from a local racer, and my dad helped him with tuning and driving it. They raced the car at our local track for a while, but it was constantly plagued with engine problems, so they eventually sold it to another local racer. I remember helping with pushing it down the staging lanes when I was a tiny little thing, and always thought it was one of the coolest cars in the world. I would love to build a 1:1 replica someday, but seeing the prices that 66 Novas are going for these days, sadly I don't believe I will ever come across one suited for the build at a cheap enough price.

So I'm going to try my hand at a 1/25 replica. I've had this AMT kit sitting around since the early 2000's waiting to be built. It appears I had started building it at some point and lost a few small parts along the way, and also glued some together prematurely, no biggie I can work around that. The attached picture with the kid in the Spiderman tshirt is me at 3 or 4 years old, and my father sitting in the car at my brother-in-law's house. The black and white is from the local track on one of it's races.

The car ran a 350 / 4 speed combo with a single 4 barrel, but the kit came with a 350 / th350 combo, so I'll be using a donor engine / trans from another 70 1/2 Camaro kit I have for various parts.

So far the parts that I'm having a hard time locating in the spare parts boxes are a correct style hood scoop, and the steelie rear rims. Hopefully I can source something online.

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by KurseD

[KurseD]

Found some 5 star rims in the parts bin, but not really satisfied with the look. The spokes don't seem to have the same flat surface as the old Cragar S/S rims did.

Popped the hood and interior pan in the freezer for a while. Broke the hood scoop and seats off without too much issue. Tiny bit of damage on the hood, and some holes in the pan, which have now been filled with green putty. Plan is to flock the floor pan anyway.

Painted the chassis, axle, and leaf springs. Played with my new chrome pen on the diff cover.

Assembled the 350 / 4 speed combo from the Camaro, found an old small block in the parts stash that donated headers and valve covers. Going to soak the valve covers to remove the paint and repaint them before installing.

Edited February 27, 2019 by KurseD

[stevez]

luv it!!  I think the revel 67, dodge charger had some nice Cragars.  They probably appeared in a number of other kits as well in the 67-69 mopars.

[KurseD]

7 hours ago, stevez said:

luv it!!  I think the revel 67, dodge charger had some nice Cragars.  They probably appeared in a number of other kits as well in the 67-69 mopars.

I'm certain I had several models that had the correct Cragars, and even had the skinny fronts, but I'll be darned if I can find any of them now when I need one. LOL!

Thanks for the comments.

[PappyD340]

Nice,  look forward to following along

[KurseD]

2 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Nice,  look forward to following along

Thanks!

[Jantrix]

Check the Monogram pro-street Camaro's (various iterations) for the scoop. It's taller, but could likely get cut dwon to get you close. Also the Monogram 66 Malibu (black version only). Looks like a great project.

[KurseD]

15 hours ago, Jantrix said:

Check the Monogram pro-street Camaro's (various iterations) for the scoop. It's taller, but could likely get cut dwon to get you close. Also the Monogram 66 Malibu (black version only). Looks like a great project.

I built that Monogram 66 Malibu kit as a kid around 1990-ish. Loved it. I found a scoop exactly like that on eBay I'll be purchasing tonight along with some steelies for the rear.

Edited March 1, 2019 by KurseD

[KurseD]

Ordered a scoop from user "propsplus" on eBay. A little taller than I was hoping for, but hardly noticeable. I'm very happy with it.

[KurseD]

Got the reverse steelies in the mail, tried them in some wrinkle wall slicks I had, but I feel like they are a bit too large to replicate the original. Also found a different set of Cragars for the front.