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1963 Chevy Nova Wagon Street Rod FINISHED 3/20/22


Dennis Lacy

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9 hours ago, slusher said:

I really enjoy what you doing with you wagon and all the kit bashing bringing it together. I feel like I am reading car craft and getting ideas for my ride. A model is worthless if you don’t build it..

I agree it definitely looks like something that would be done in car craft magazine.

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Hi Dennis, that air dam is perfect! Definitely gives the grocery getter a bunch of attitude. In my head those wheels “shouldn’t” look good on that car, but in the photos they look great! Always enjoy your builds, although  I must admit, I’m particularly enjoying the 50’s and 60’s builds. 70’s??

Cheers, Steve

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14 hours ago, Steve H said:

Hi Dennis, that air dam is perfect! Definitely gives the grocery getter a bunch of attitude. In my head those wheels “shouldn’t” look good on that car, but in the photos they look great! Always enjoy your builds, although  I must admit, I’m particularly enjoying the 50’s and 60’s builds. 70’s??

Cheers, Steve

Thanks, Steve! I’m very happy with the new look with the air dam. A lot of people probably don’t like these wheels on their own but I’ve surprised myself a few times now by chrome stripping and paint detailing certain wheel sets.  

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On 9/30/2021 at 11:36 PM, Katsusauce said:

I just finished my 63 Nova Wagon not to long ago...super fun build.

Your wagon looks great....keep us all updated on the progress. 

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Thanks, man! I followed your wagon with interest and the finished model looks great. Watching you convinced me to make an air dam for mine and so glad I did. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

UPDATE!

Sorry that this project went stale for a while. I haven’t been able to work on models for a month which starts to feel like forever! All is good, just had different priorities for a bit. Anyway, I did finally get some model time yesterday and got started on modifying the stock interior to bring it into the early 90’s with the rest of the car. 
 

I started out by removing the entire center section of the dashboard by scribing around its shape on the backside until it was cut free. Did some clean up around the inside perimeter then trimmed a piece of .040” sheet to fit in the hole. Glued the heck out of it on the backside and on the front I will take care of the seam with filler. The dash will then be finished out with a photo etched gauge panel and stereo details. 
 

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From there I carved out the molded in front bench seat. This leaves a huge hole that needs to be filled as well as some notches on the sides. I took care of both with some more .040” sheet. 
 

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I needed to add in a section of driveline tunnel so I rummaged through my interior bin and found a Revell 1940 Ford floor that had a tunnel that was good match in size. From there I cut everything away until the tunnel patch was a nice fit and then glued it in place. I’m not concerned about removing material from the floor patch to actually expose the tunnel underneath as with the flat “curbside” chassis pan the tunnel does nothing functional. 
 

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That’s as far as I got yesterday but it’s a good start. Here’s a look with the dash and bucket seats in place to get an idea of where this is headed. The seats are from Revell’s 1932 “Speedwagon” Woody. They are a classic 90’s aftermarket street rod seat design. I’m not concerned with the floor patch not being textured as I think I’m going to try my hand at using flocking or embossing powder. I will, of course, be filling and blending all the seams. 
 

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I haven’t come up with a definitive plan for the rear seat yet but I’m leaning towards deleting it and building a subwoofer enclosure in its place? We’ll see. I’m also going to be addressing detailing the door panels and other areas so there’s plenty more to come. 

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Once again you are raising the bar!  I'm not going to even try to out quote those that have kome before me... you do have an eye for the detailed aspects as they appear to you during any one of your builds.  Whether it be a kustom, drag, klassic hotrod or something that had been brewing in your automotive centered mind for a time... you address it the same way a professional full-scale builder would and most often you'll improve on it.  A mentor to many and a friend to all, keep up the excellent work, Brother -KK

Edited by Kit Karson
Text correction...
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Can I ask how you are attaching the front wheels? I know that it has a wire axle that goes thru the engine compartment. Are you drilling a hole in the engine, or using some type of stub axles. I re-read your posts and don't think I missed how this was done.

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1 hour ago, Chevy II said:

Can I ask how you are attaching the front wheels? I know that it has a wire axle that goes thru the engine compartment. Are you drilling a hole in the engine, or using some type of stub axles. I re-read your posts and don't think I missed how this was done.

I haven’t shown that yet because I ran out of the rod material I need and have been forgetting for months now to get more. I’ve even been to my LHS twice in recent times and had that nagging feeling that I was forgetting something! 🤣 But, yes, I will be making stub axles that engage with the kits wire axle holes (although in the front I need to drill a set of holes higher than the existing ones to get the stance I want.) The wheel backs are set up for this already which I’m pretty sure I showed. Once I get the rod size I need I will absolutely show how the wheels get mounted. 

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17 hours ago, Katsusauce said:

That is looking super good!!!

I'm impressed with the direction the whole build is going....glad to see you back at it!  👍

Thanks a bunch! This project took a hard turn away from its original direction of just sticking an engine in, lowered with some American 5-spokes. I’m really having a lot of fun with it. I find now as I’ve entered my 40’s that I’m feeling very nostalgic about the 80’s and early 90’s street rod trends that I remember so fondly back as a kid.

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54 minutes ago, Dennis Lacy said:

Thanks a bunch! This project took a hard turn away from its original direction of just sticking an engine in, lowered with some American 5-spokes. I’m really having a lot of fun with it. I find now as I’ve entered my 40’s that I’m feeling very nostalgic about the 80’s and early 90’s street rod trends that I remember so fondly back as a kid.

Same here, I'm 59 and I'm building a lot off of memories as a child at the race track and  through my adulthood.....

Keeps it fun👍

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12 hours ago, Kit Karson said:

Once again you are raising the bar!  I'm not going to even try to out quote those that have kome before me... you do have an eye for the detailed aspects as they appear to you during any one of your builds.  Whether it be a kustom, drag, klassic hotrod or something that had been brewing in your automotive centered mind for a time... you address it the same way a professional full-scale builder would and most often you'll improve on it.  A mentor to many and a friend to all, keep up the excellent work, Brother -KK

Thanks for the nice words, brother!

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  • 2 weeks later...

UPDATE! 

Happy Halloween everyone! Before taking the kiddos Trick or Treating tonight I had a productive afternoon at the workbench. 
 

The first order of business was to come up with a solution for the rear seat. I don’t have anything that would make a proper looking bench that would match the front buckets in any kind of way which is why I mentioned in my last update the idea of replacing the rear seat with a custom stereo enclosure. If the car was a 2-door I would have done that no problem but given it’s a 4-door I really wanted it to have rear seating. Digging through my bin of interior parts I came across another pair of Speedwagon front seats. I grabbed them then spent some time studying how to best make them fit with the step in the floor and around the wheel wells. After some careful carving I made them fit nicely. 
 

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Continuing on, out of the box the door panels have some almost indiscernible engraving “detail” which worked to my advantage since it was easy to sand smooth. Before doing that I scribed all of the door panel gap lines that didn’t exist. I also filled then sanded all of the seams for the floor patch.  
 

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Borrowing a detail from @Katsusauce recently finished and very cool ‘63 Wagon, I opened the spare wheel cover in the cargo area to display a matching Centerline Champ wheel. I used a small Dunlop tire from Revell’s 32 HiBoy Roadster which I had to cut in half and then sand down around 3/4 of its circumference to fit. 
 

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Here’s some mock up shots with all four seats in place. I tacked them in so that I could also get a look with the interior up into the body. I’m very happy with how the seats worked out. 
 

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Next will be to finish the door panels with some 90’s looking inserts, billet handles & cranks and making a subwoofer box for the cargo area. 

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22 hours ago, Katsusauce said:

Very nicely executed buddy......love the work you're doing on this simple "curbside kit"

Really dig the direction she is going in, and am excited to see her finished‼️

 

Thanks man! For such a simple kit I sure keep finding a whole lot more work to do on it! 🤪

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  • Dennis Lacy changed the title to 1963 Chevy Nova Wagon Street Rod FINISHED 3/20/22

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