"Sweeping the Bench"

[KWT]

I'm already on board.

That Nova already looks awesome and whatever you're going to do is going to be awesome.

[Danno]

Yikes, Anthony!  

The red interior of that white Nova would serve to really keep the driver awake on long road trips!!

??

[disconovaman]

???  Alot of people don't like red interior in these cars. I think it's retro and I like it. The color dye in the plastic sped up the weathering process so when I see colored interiors (specifically red or blue) and in original condition I'm surprised, it usually means the car was exceptionally taken care of.

The camera makes the cloth fabric look brighter than it is. 

I won't be painting the model interior red though?... thinking tan or light blue with pladd seat covers...

[dragcarz]

How do I order these?

[disconovaman]

2 minutes ago, dragcarz said:

How do I order these?

Greg Wann mastercaster1 email him directly he's a member here...

[Danno]

Or, you can email directly:   mastercaster1@cox.net

??

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Danno

[Rockford]

This is going to be a fascinating build, Disconovaman you know I'm going to be following this closely, my little baby X body is hiding from the British winter at the moment. All those promos were making me very envious!

[disconovaman]

On 12/16/2020 at 11:30 AM, Rockford said:

X body is hiding from the British winter at the moment

Mine is hibernating too...

I figured you'd be interested in this build lol... at the moment I am still cleaning up the body and figuring out what to do with the frontend... the original chassis looks like the better choice.. so I'm waving my options on how to improve that right now.

and color... I'm contemplating Mulsane blue with lt. blue interior or Chocolate brown met. with tan interior...maybe Gold with tan, I don't know?

[Rockford]

It's not the most luxurious of garages but it's dry. We've had nothing but rain for weeks, wave after wave of rain coming in off the Atlantic. 

Any vinyl roofs in the offing ?

[Jantrix]

Because it's a Nova and a 4-door, my minds eye sees a hot rod taxi. Checker yellow with the obligatory checkerboard stripes, period correct wheels and tires, with a nasty blown big block. No scoop, just the hole in the hood, blower, carbs and velocity stacks. Racing harnesses, front and back, just for grins. Yep, that's what I'd do. ?

[disconovaman]

The yellow is a hard sell for me. I think they look good in any color (my unbiased opinion) but they really should be a less opaque color to really be respected. 

There is a stigma that follows this bodystyle, particularly with their low value status. Because they are cheaper people with "lower budgets" tend to own them. 

The explanation is because you can buy them cheap, those people tend to not make the best styling decisions. 

I'm not criticizing those people but when you see air shocks, cheap wheels, goofy spoilers, and ugly hood scoops it's hard to see the potential. 

When it comes to this bodystyle,  owners really need responsibility in order to earn respect of the mainstream car world because generally they aren't very well received due to the owner's poor choices. Here's the funny part, the low value is directly caused by the owners bad taste.. this is reason for the stigma.

Every compliment I ever got started with the same sentence, " I never liked this bodystyle but" and usually ends with "seeing your car has changed my mind" ? 

They really are beautiful cars. Not so much the 4 doors but No 4 doors from the 70's were really  beautiful ? 

Here is an example of "Right & Wrong" this is my buddy's 76 SS his Dad bought it new...

 

 

[disconovaman]

the Hot Rod Taxi is a good idea but I may save that for the Supernatural Impala... only because I'm less attached to Impalas ? 

Here is a Yellow X body. see what I mean by poor choices?

[Rockford]

It has to be said that if the hi- po days of the late 60 's were still in operation in the days of the disco Nova it would be seen as an iconic design, sadly the gas crisis relegated it to being an underdog. Without doubt it is one of GM 's best ever body styles.

[Spottedlaurel]

14 hours ago, disconovaman said:

......this is my buddy's 76 SS his Dad bought it new...

Ah, that's interesting to see. That's how I'd like to get mine sitting.

[disconovaman]

18 hours ago, Rockford said:

the late 60 's were still in operation in the days of the disco Nova it would be seen as an iconic design

That's a good point. Emissions really put a strain on the H.P. hay day. Everyone that I've talked to from those days didn't like the style change from 1972 in their opinion the Death of the Nova happened 73...

My neighbor bought his 75 brand new, a week later he was pulling the 6cyl and dropping in the 396/365 and 400 turbo from his wrecked 69 Chevelle. I was 12 when we moved next door to Roger in 85 and he had owned the Nova 10 years at that point... Sadly, It wasn't long after in November of 86 he was killed in a car crash in his newly bought 85 SS Monte Carlo... (it was white with blue stripes) I'll never forget when my step-dad took us to see that car. It was hardly recognizable. The Nova lived on though, his mom sold it and it became a drag car, I was told. 

The Nova was so nice,  I was really to young to realize it... White with Black interior, nothing special to look at really but it would light the tires up... 

My dad said they just adjusted their budget for the gas crisis and he said they weren't really effected by it... they would swap license plates when they needed gas in his truck or mom's car. She had a 71 pinto and dad had a 3/4 ton 74 Chevy truck with a 454 lol

[Sam I Am]

Ok, here is the one I am working on.  It is modeled after my old bosses daughters car. Originally a little old lady one owner with 60k miles on a 350/350 with a/c, ps, pb. We blew the car apart, painted it this color blue, changed the interior color to grays, and put in a set of bucket seats, added aluminum dress up kit to the engine and the mag wheels. 

[disconovaman]

11 hours ago, Sam I Am said:

here is the one I am working on.

The AMT 76 tubbed street machine, the body, to me was always a little funky. The wheelwells are to wide and the top is to short but it's still a cool kit.  It gets the point across lol!  beautiful paint on yours, do you have a photo of the real car?

I've built several of the AMT kits because they seemed to be the most available... here is one I built as a Hot Wheels fantasy car...

 

[disconovaman]

Well I haven't had time to work on the 4 door lately... but I'm gonna get back to work on it soon... here is the Squad Rod I built when Round II reissued the kit. 

 

[doorsovdoon]

The Squad Rod actually looks really good! Strangely, less controversial than a vinyl roof!

[disconovaman]

50 minutes ago, doorsovdoon said:

less controversial than a vinyl roof

Thanks ? yeah... don't know why that is... I could only speculate that given my track record for starting Workbench threads and then stalling out.. like the boy who cried wolf, me getting everyone's hopes up...? Everyone is willing to come along for the ride until the car stops, then you're moving on to the car that's passing by ? I have so many stalled builds... I wish I had half of the stalled  builds that I've gotten rid of...

I hope the Squad Rod comes back molded in white with new decals and color tinted glass I would love to see what they do with it...

[Rockford]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:49 PM, doorsovdoon said:

The Squad Rod actually looks really good! Strangely, less controversial than a vinyl roof!

I'm saying nothing (now there's a change!)

[Rockford]

On 12/21/2020 at 4:40 PM, disconovaman said:

The AMT 76 tubbed street machine, the body, to me was always a little funky. The wheelwells are to wide and the top is to short but it's still a cool kit.

Yes, the AMT lines are too square, the roof line shows it whereas the MPC is very accurate. 

[disconovaman]

Well I've desided to scratch build a complete chassis for the kit. I couldn't get anything to work to my liking so I'm trying to put a plan together...

I'm telling ya MPC really came up short on this kit in some areas. The body has small issues, nothing you can't fix but the flat door panel tub interior is not ideal. The chassis is another fail on their part. The Pontiac 350/400 is a let down to for the factory stock builder specifically. Sorry I'm  turning this into a review but it always baffled me why MPC wouldn't put the chevy V8 from say the MPC Monza... or something from their line up in the mid 70's. 

 I swear if I ever win big in the lotto I promise to invest in a company to design an all new 76 Nova...I'd make sure it has lots of options too. One idea is to create bumpers that have both options with and without the impact strips.

For 1976 GM roughly only made around 12,000 hatchbacks so I believe a trunk example would be a more realistic kit to market. 

Multi peice interior and separate front wheelwell's and sub frame would be important to me as well... How about a SS grill? Or an opening hatchback (if it has to be hatchback)... If I'm dreaming, I'd want it to have the Super Sport option with bucket & bench seat option separate 4speed console with gages... ???

Yep a 1976 SS 350 4speed Nova is definitely needed in the model world. I mean the car plays a significant role in automotive history due to fact that it's the last time Chevrolet put SS and Nova on the same car! So why not have a model kit to immortalize it...

[espo]

A suggestion for your chassis problem. Consider the better detailed Camaro chassis from a Revell kit. The 1:1 cars shared the same chassis platform and Revell has offered several Camaro kits and can be found on "Sale" often. This should give you a much better starting point for the Nova build. As for your '76 Nova SS, Chevrolet also offered the Rally Nova option for a few years at that time and could be had with the 350 and 4-speed. 

[disconovaman]

1 hour ago, espo said:

As for your '76 Nova SS, Chevrolet also offered the Rally Nova option for a few years at that time and could be had with the 350 and 4-speed. 

Oh yeah, the Nova Rally replaced the Super Sport in 77 and the Z26 code carried over to the Nova Rally as well... I owned two 77s and 78 Nova Rally. It was still a Sport option just didn't have Nova and SS on the same car anymore... here is the 78 Rally I owned twice...lol