Thought I would test the waters as this shot would not have lasted five minutes on the main forum, and I was OK with that.
This thing has been in the works since 1983, been through a kinda/sorta restoration deal. Changed direction, stopped on it, started again, stopped again, etc. At 70, it would take more energy than I have to do a build/rebuild thread so I'll just post photos as I get them converted from paper to digital (no scanner). Nearly NOS L79 327 engine.
As I mentioned prior, car was originally planned to be a resto, decided restomod was more to my liking, had a fresh 12 bolt in it, yes, the narrow (and rare) Nova version, sold it and all the front suspension (all fresh) and used the money to fund the IRS conversion. The rear uni-body area has been "backhalved" with Art Morrison rectangular tube frame rails and crossmember components, all my own design, as is the Dana 44 (large) Corvette center section with half shafts narrowed six inches/side, my design nickel plated round tube trailing arms built in the ladder bar style, coilovers are QA-1, the camber and toe adjusters are custom swedged aluminum with my design mounts, also has a custom anti-sway bar.
All modern front suspension, Corvette brakes, dropped spindles, custom nickel plated upper/lower tubular A-arms and custom mounts, QA-1 coilovers, new rectangular tube crossmember, Thunderbird power R&P, custom anti-swaybar. Late Corvette dual master on NOS GM issue brake booster. These uni-body cars are pretty soggy up front in general and they tend to twist under "spirited" driving, this is a custom shock tower brace ( my design), as with most all welding on front and rear suspension this is also TIG welded, but not by this blind ol' man.
^^^^^^^^^^^^Ditto. Easy for me to say 'cause I've got an early Chevy II project as well that's temporarily stalled out right now. But damn, your car is way too cool to be sitting in the garage!
This car was never planned to be anything but a car for my wife, it was a 250 cube 6 cyl with a three speed on the column car, the plan was to put a 4.3 V-6 with a Muncie four speed in it, well, so much for plans huh! Decided to rebuild the six but a four speed was still in the plan, the car was fun enough with the Muncie but I just was never a 6 cylinder guy. The decision to go V-8 was made for me when the 250 in my brothers' 74 truck went T.U. I sold it to him for what the rebuild parts cost then went on a search for a Nova 327 block. I felt lucky when I found one but when I had it Magnafluxed it had a cracked main web, actually was lucky when the seller not only refunded my money but also the cost of the Magnaflux job. Took a while but a friend got a lead on another one that checked ok, needed one sleeve and a rebore, found the needed TRW forged 11/1 pistons (.040) and moved forward.
My 350 hp 327 Nova engine, plus .040, forged 11 to 1 TRW's, balanced, built 30 years ago. Most everything is NOS, including steel sj crank and rods, 67 dated heads, all new GM valves, springs, retainers, keepers, pushrods, "O" stamped rocker arms, "151" L79 camshaft, harmonic balancer, Winters intake, Holley 3245 carb dated 1966, recolored and rebuilt by Holley Custom Shop, even found a complete Delco distributor new in the box. Had to replicate an L79 Nova (front sump) windage tray, I'm not positive but I think I started with a Corvette item and modified it, oem trays have long been a "holy grail" part and this was before they were being reproduced. Note the Nova "362" block, easily recognized by the sunken oil filter pad and relocated clutch pivot ball location, these have gotten harder to find and have gotten REALLY expensive.
Muncie wide ratio (M20) four speed, modified non application handle on new Hurst shifter, I never liked the look of the handle Hurst supplied with their Nova shifter. Original Nova OEM Muncie shifter ***embly and shift boot, considered holy grail pieces in the Nova world.
Yeah that handle is worth some money for someone needing it for their bucket seat car. I have a bench seat handle squirrelled away
Wow, thanks. The credit for this new found enthusiasm should go to Ryan for hatching this plan. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for this new HAMB forum, this is going to be good.
If there is a car that needs every correct component to be in place for everthing to work it's the Nova SS, hard to find a four speed console that's not butchered or at least cracked from banging gears with a misfitting shifter. These OEM handles were designed with a very specific shape to work in the tight console and also be positioned for a varying range of users. Like most four speed cars the Nova requires this specific trans tunnel hump.
Did the Nova have the stupid slider cover plate on the consoles? They ran them on the Camaro in 68 and what a mess. On top of the stock linkage brain being bolted to the crossmember that slider is prone to biding up. There is a reason Chevy just started running Hurst units in 69. yep pretty much any 4 speed Chevy up until 67/68 needed the correct hump/tunnel for a 4 speed. They got away from that in 67 in the Camaro and then Chevelle's in 68. The handles had the offset built into those cars to bring it up center in the tunnel. I think Nova was the last line to have to have a specific offset hump in the floor.
No other Chevrolet uses that set of shifter rods, notice the short reverse rod. Due to packaging requirements for these cars the tailhousing also plays a big role in getting everything to fit, the speedometer outlet has been moved to the p***enger side and extra shifter mounting bosses have been cast in to move shifter forward, other GM cars used this tailhousing but the two round spacers are needed to align everthing on Novas. On the Hurst mount, note the extra thread boss I added, this was tried prior to modifying the shifter handle, Hurst also used spacers.
Those caused a lot of shiftibility issues on these cars, many of them were removed along with the two mounting rails, which were really hard to find before being reproduced. Not mine but yes, I have all the pieces.
GM in thier wisdom, returned to the offset hump (sounds like a dance craze) in the second gen F bodies (4 speed Trans ams, and Z's). Many don't have them, just holes cut in the floor, cut with a can opener and covered by a console but I have welded in a few humps in order to keep things tidy.
Noth'n better than a tidy hump! I've been under a few original four speed Novas, I've come to the conclusion that when the guys on the ***embly line got a build sheet that said four speed they must have given the job to the new hires. Talk about "gas axe" carnage. Equally hideouse was the slopped on sealer.
Great to see all the details of your build Denny....Wow....you need to that car on the road. The shifter is interesting to see....I am taking an easy route of having Crash Box enterprises "blueprint" an OEM/Custom shifter that mounts to the Autogear 4 speed with a 32 spline output tailhousing that requires a custom plate to get the shifter headed the right direction for a ChevyII. I'll post some pics when I get it.
I've (sheepishly) posted this on the main forum about my 67 Nova but now it's kosher. I'll start with text only due to having posted photos earlier in the thread. This car was originally intended to be just a driver for my wife, well, things evolve, right. The latest iteration has kinda/sorta morphed into an autocross type car, or as some might say a "pro touring" car, so with no plan to satisfy any particular racing rules I decided to just wing it and throw parts at it and see if they stick. The suspension and brakes on these cars have always been pretty sketchy, on top of that being a unibody car, there is nothing that even resembles a real ch***is underneath. Most of the newer builds have full ch***is', this usually dictates the floor pan be removed completely and replaced with all new sheetmetal, really not something I wanted to do. There have been a few Novas' converted to IRS where the attachment points were installed using the thin original sheetmetal rear subframe, that did not appeal to me either. I started by air chiseling these pieces out and replacing them with 2x3" rectangular tubing main rails and crossmembers that were custom formed by Art Morrison Enterprises. I sent them patterns that I made out of Masonite, they matched the contours of the floor perfectly. Getting kind of wordy so "to be continued".
what a fun lil project you have there . . . it sounds like it has came a long way n still stayed in the family , which is awrsome . i have my friend s chevy ll at my place for some time he is just awaiting on a few parts for ir , which has been a challenge as he does nt want to deal or go w the aftermarket component s
There are some pretty nice reproduction parts for these cars nowadays, back in the early 80's when I started this project there was virtually nothing being repopped and GM had stopped making replacement parts for them long before Chevelles, Impalas, etc.
Last time I talked to Denny about the Nova and his '32 roadster they both were still covered with dust. Hopefully now that he can share photos of progress he will get back to work on these cars. HRP
There's the operative word "work"! Danny, thanks for the positive input but it seems I can come up with any number of excuses not to "work" on my projects, you know how it goes, my back, neck, shoulder, hip, foot...........HURTS, it's hot, cold, wet, foggy, humid, TV, football, Nascar, drag racing, hell, I've even been known to fit in a golf game on TV. And yes, I think I could use the depth rod on my dial caliper to measure the dust buildup.
Ok, you made me work, found some old photos, even had to get a step ladder. The day I bought our Nova, early 1983. See, me "working". Dust seeds planted.
The Jalopy Journal
