'66 Nova Glue Bomb Rescue/Rehab

[Snake45]

Bought this one in the box at the local toy show last year. Opening the box, I saw that the instructions, decals, and wheels/tires were missing; dunno if I realized that the engine was gone too, but that wouldn't have been a deal-breaker. The purple paint looked pretty good, all the body trim parts and glass were present, and the interior and chassis seemed to be already assembled. It looked like an easy, fun 2-3 hour “Snake-Slap it together” completion project.

When I got it home and gave it a better look, I was sadly disappointed. The entire rear suspension was missing, as were the right front axle stub and the whole left front spindle. The windshield was cracked, the backlight had a couple glue boogers, and the paint on the body sides was pretty orange-peeled, not smooth like on the roof, trunk, and hood. Back in the box it went.

Here's the main part of what I had to start with.

 

Months later, I got to binge-watching back seasons of Memphis Street Outlaws on Discovery on demand and got hooked on all the cool Novas on there—Zip Tie, Heifer, and Molly Gully's cool purple '65 Ugly Duck. I decided to see if there were some way to drag my hot purple mess across the finish line.

About this time I discovered Rustoleum “High Lustre” clear lacquer at Walmart. I thought the Nova would be the perfect “test mule” for it—if it didn't work out, I could strip the puple (which I didn't really care for anyway) off it and repaint; if the lacquer melted the body into a puddle of goo, I wouldn't be out much in terms of time, effort, emotion, or money at this point.

The Rustoleum worked better than I could have hoped. Two light mist coats to “seal” the purple enamel, and then four wet coats applied over two days and it polished out easily and to a nice shine that filled in the orange-peel very well.

 

With the body standing tall(ish), I got busy on the chassis. Scratchbuilt a left front spindle, and added an axle stub the to the right spindle. Came up with a differential from the parts box, then scratchbuilt leaf springs and spring mounts for it. Scratchbult a windshield from the clear plastic from a cheap diecast box, and polished the glue boogers out of the backlight. Forgot to mention that before the clear lacquer, I was able to carefully carve the mold lines off the tops of the rear fender right at the C-pillar, then touched up those areas, and a couple other spots with missing or chipped paint, with Testor Purple Pearl from the bottle, which I just happened to have on hand and which seems to be a perfect match. The slicks and rear wheels came from a “Nova Junkyard” I recently bought on eBay, and I narrowed the rear axles to where the slicks would just fit inside the body. I added traction bars from an AMT '72 Nova.

Here's the build thread, which shows a lot of details of building up the rear suspension:

I wasn't going to do much if anything to the interior, which was painted gloss gray, but I ended up breaking it all apart and removed a lot of superglue blobs and boogers. I smoothed the seat seams, added a roll bar from the AMT '72 Nova, painted the floor flat black and rest of the interior semigloss black with Silver Sharpie details. While I was at it, I thinned the interior sides and modified the firewall so the entire chassis and interior will fit under a '65 Nova body I'm working on restoring. To replace the missing headlight lenses, I just built up several layers of white glue. It's not perfect but they don't stand out as horrible and if I ever run across a spare set of lenses, I can easily remove the white glue ones.

So here it is, done-ish. I haven't figured out yet what to do about the body scripts and emblems, which are nearly buried under the paint and clearcoat. Maybe I'll come up with a solution, or maybe I'll just leave 'em alone and ignore them. It is a “rescue,” after all, not a first-line build, oh well. I ended up with almost as much time and effort in this thing as I'd have spent building one new from the box—maybe even more, I dunno. But it's enormously satisfying to save/rescue a sad, unloved project like this and make something shelfworthy out of it. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

[Koellefornia Kid]

Nice save! Glad you kept the purple, looks sweet!

[PappyD340]

Looks great, real nice save!

[espo]

This came a long way and looks great. Nice save.  

[cobraman]

Great save. Good looking model !

[BeakDoc]

A little TLC sure put some pop in that purple paint! That’s a fine looking Nova, I have an envelope full of PE stuff that was given to me by one of the dudes at the local HobbyTown. He told me, “some of it’s new, some of it’s picked through.” I’ve never even opened the envelope. I’ll dig it out tomorrow and sift through it. If there’s any Nova scripts/badges in there they’re yours if you’d like them. 

[slusher]

Beautiful car and shine Snake!

[Spottedlaurel]

A great rescue job there Snake, must be very satisfying to see it looking this good after what you started with.

[ewetwo]

Looks great Snake

 

[tmb727]

Keith Marks offers a decal sheet for a “63-67” Nova.  Maybe that might work for your emblem issue?

[Snake45]

On 2/28/2021 at 4:16 PM, Koellefornia Kid said:

Nice save! Glad you kept the purple, looks sweet!

 

On 2/28/2021 at 5:12 PM, PappyD340 said:

Looks great, real nice save!

 

On 2/28/2021 at 5:20 PM, espo said:

This came a long way and looks great. Nice save.  

 

On 2/28/2021 at 6:12 PM, cobraman said:

Great save. Good looking model !

Thanks for the kind words, all! Much appreciated! 

[Snake45]

On 2/28/2021 at 6:51 PM, BeakDoc said:

A little TLC sure put some pop in that purple paint! That’s a fine looking Nova, I have an envelope full of PE stuff that was given to me by one of the dudes at the local HobbyTown. He told me, “some of it’s new, some of it’s picked through.” I’ve never even opened the envelope. I’ll dig it out tomorrow and sift through it. If there’s any Nova scripts/badges in there they’re yours if you’d like them. 

Thanks so much for the kind offer. I see that MCG does offer a '66 Nova PE sheet, so if you have one in your goodie bag, I'd be happy to give it a good home. Thanks also for the kind words! 

[BeakDoc]

20 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Thanks so much for the kind offer. I see that MCG does offer a '66 Nova PE sheet, so if you have one in your goodie bag, I'd be happy to give it a good home. Thanks also for the kind words! 

I finally found the envelope of PE. There’s obviously a poltergeist who gets a kick out of rearranging my model room when I’m not in there. I wish I had better news to report. No Nova stuff. I hope I didn’t get your hopes too high.

[AMT68]

Great restoration and I'm impressed with the High-Lustre  Rustoleum. I'm also impressed with the scratch building of the suspension parts as you described. And I think the purple works well on this style Nova. 

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Richard!

Great rescue operation, bravo! 

I tried this Rustoleum clear myself a few months ago, when Testor's cancelled the Wet Look clear, hoping that since both were manufactured by Rustoleum, maybe it would have the same viscosity/flow as WLC. But I found it much "hotter" and less viscous. 

I'm impressed that you were able to carefully "built it up" on an enamel based paint. Convincing result!

CT 

[ATHU]

Super nice!!

[Snake45]

On 3/1/2021 at 1:36 AM, slusher said:

Beautiful car and shine Snake!

 

On 3/1/2021 at 12:49 PM, ewetwo said:

Looks great Snake

 

26 minutes ago, ATHU said:

Super nice!!

 

16 hours ago, AMT68 said:

Great restoration and I'm impressed with the High-Lustre  Rustoleum. I'm also impressed with the scratch building of the suspension parts as you described. And I think the purple works well on this style Nova. 

 

On 3/1/2021 at 2:49 AM, Spottedlaurel said:

A great rescue job there Snake, must be very satisfying to see it looking this good after what you started with.

Thanks for all the kind words, and yes, bringing one like this back from the dead is always particularly satisfying! 

[Snake45]

20 hours ago, BeakDoc said:

I finally found the envelope of PE. There’s obviously a poltergeist who gets a kick out of rearranging my model room when I’m not in there. I wish I had better news to report. No Nova stuff. I hope I didn’t get your hopes too high.

No problem, I wasn't planning on any such so I'm not disappointed. I really do appreciate you offering and looking for it, though! 

[Snake45]

6 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Richard!

Great rescue operation, bravo! 

I tried this Rustoleum clear myself a few months ago, when Testor's cancelled the Wet Look clear, hoping that since both were manufactured by Rustoleum, maybe it would have the same viscosity/flow as WLC. But I found it much "hotter" and less viscous. 

I'm impressed that you were able to carefully "built it up" on an enamel based paint. Convincing result!

CT 

Hi Claude, good to hear from you! Thanks for the kind words! 

I've since used the Rustoleum on a second enamel-painted model with equally good results. I used the same routine-- 2 dry mist coats about 4 hours apart, followed the next day by a just-wet coat, and then a wetter coat 4 hours later, followed by two more wet coats the next day. Polish-out was the next day, with Wright's Silver Cream. No problems at all. Temperature in my basement was probably in the low 60s. 

The Rustoleum isn't as thick as Wet Look Clear, and it doesn't dry as shiny, and it isn't as hard (it polished easily with the Wright's, unlike WLC). It's thicker and shinier and harder than Krylon Clear Acrylic--last time I polished that stuff out, I had about 10 coats on and I polished through in a couple places, necessitating a complete strip and repaint. Last time I polished Wet Look Clear I had to color-sand with 3M Wetordry to get rid of some orange peel spots before proceeding with the polish. It also polished out better than Testor Clear Gloss Lacquer. 

I really like this stuff. A big can of it costs under $4 at Walmart. My first can has cleared two models and there's AT LEAST one more model in there, probably two, maybe more. I've bought three more cans because, as you know, if you find something good, either they'll stop making it or Walmart will stop carrying it. I should be set for a while. 

[Claude Thibodeau]

18 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Hi Claude, good to hear from you! Thanks for the kind words! 

I've since used the Rustoleum on a second enamel-painted model with equally good results. I used the same routine-- 2 dry mist coats about 4 hours apart, followed the next day by a just-wet coat, and then a wetter coat 4 hours later, followed by two more wet coats the next day. Polish-out was the next day, with Wright's Silver Cream. No problems at all. Temperature in my basement was probably in the low 60s. 

The Rustoleum isn't as thick as Wet Look Clear, and it doesn't dry as shiny, and it isn't as hard (it polished easily with the Wright's, unlike WLC). It's thicker and shinier and harder than Krylon Clear Acrylic--last time I polished that stuff out, I had about 10 coats on and I polished through in a couple places, necessitating a complete strip and repaint. Last time I polished Wet Look Clear I had to color-sand with 3M Wetordry to get rid of some orange peel spots before proceeding with the polish. It also polished out better than Testor Clear Gloss Lacquer. 

I really like this stuff. A big can of it costs under $4 at Walmart. My first can has cleared two models and there's AT LEAST one more model in there, probably two, maybe more. I've bought three more cans because, as you know, if you find something good, either they'll stop making it or Walmart will stop carrying it. I should be set for a while. 

Hi Richard!

Thanks for the detailed procedure, and sharing your "secret recipe". I'll definitely give it a try. But I must admit from the start that I'm partial to the Wet Look clear. I guess I have to try new products/techniques since it is now discontinued...

If you happen to know people who have leftover stocks, I'm a taker!

CT 

CT 

[Snake45]

Glad to help, Claude. 

A couple more thoughts: 

Both of the models I used it on had heavily orange-peeled finishes. I used the Rustoleum to fill in the pores for a good shine. If you're overcoating fairly smooth paint, you might not need as much as 6 coats. 

Also, I wasn't able to "spoon test" the paint on either of these models. If you can spoon-test the paint you want to coat, you can probably go without the two dry, "mist" coats I started with and start right in with the first coat being just barely wet. I DID spoon-test the stuff on about a half-dozen already painted spoons I had laying around, with various Krylons, Testors, Rustoleums, etc on them. These each got a HEAVY wet coat for test.  The only one that showed any adverse reaction was one that had Krylon Sparkle Orange (more of a copper color). The clear kind of liquified the Krylon paint and made it run, BUT there was still no curdling, cracking, wrinkling, crazing, or anything of that sort. It dried nice and shiny. 

The Rustoleum does not dry as shiny as Wet Look Clear, but it can be polished out just as shiny, and much easier. All things considered, I prefer it to Wet Look Clear; it is now my go-to clear gloss coat. I'm considering using it to up-gloss some of my ancient teenage builds. 

[Claude Thibodeau]

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Glad to help, Claude. 

A couple more thoughts: 

Both of the models I used it on had heavily orange-peeled finishes. I used the Rustoleum to fill in the pores for a good shine. If you're overcoating fairly smooth paint, you might not need as much as 6 coats. 

Also, I wasn't able to "spoon test" the paint on either of these models. If you can spoon-test the paint you want to coat, you can probably go without the two dry, "mist" coats I started with and start right in with the first coat being just barely wet. I DID spoon-test the stuff on about a half-dozen already painted spoons I had laying around, with various Krylons, Testors, Rustoleums, etc on them. These each got a HEAVY wet coat for test.  The only one that showed any adverse reaction was one that had Krylon Sparkle Orange (more of a copper color). The clear kind of liquified the Krylon paint and made it run, BUT there was still no curdling, cracking, wrinkling, crazing, or anything of that sort. It dried nice and shiny. 

The Rustoleum does not dry as shiny as Wet Look Clear, but it can be polished out just as shiny, and much easier. All things considered, I prefer it to Wet Look Clear; it is now my go-to clear gloss coat. I'm considering using it to up-gloss some of my ancient teenage builds. 

Hi Richard!

My tests with Rustoleum clear caused just that, the colour coat to run and "sag" like soap at the car wash... I then knew I either: had loaded it to thick, and/or it was Soooo hot that the Tamya lacquer color coat could not take it. I'll go for spoon test, or more precisely, those white plastic cones that sell for 1$ and contain various scents for the house. My wife uses many of them (any wife who does not out there?), and they are perfect for tests: half round, with a spiral crease and a few flat spots, and molded in white. They don't even require sanding, just a light scuff pad session.

We'll see! Thanks.

CT