Introduction + Progress Pics

Hello everyone, my name is Neal. I purchased my 72 nova in December and have probably read every post on this site since then. I want to thank you all for the wealth of information you have provided. Anyways I just wanted to introduce myself and share my progress with a couple of pictures. :D

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/IMG_1664.jpg

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3 W's for you.

Welcome!

Wow!

Way to go!

Welcome to Steve's....looking good, keep the progress pics coming.
Could you fill in your location?...You just might have another Nova nut in your neighbourhood!

Holy!:eek:That snow did all that!:rolleyes::D

Welcome to the site,by the looks of things you maybe able to offer us some help with body work or atleast hanging sheet metal.:yes:The big guy really did a good thing when he started the site,I find very helpful too!

Welcome to Steve's :) Looks like you have ben busy the last cpl of months . Car looks great I cant wait to see it when its done eep the pics comming :yes:

Thank goodness I live in the NW. Wow, that's way more rot work than I'd care to do. Kudos for taking on this project! :yes:

Welcome to the site and doing a great job saving another Nova.....Cant wait to see the end result :salute:

Thank goodness I live in the NW. Wow, that's way more rot work than I'd care to do. Kudos for taking on this project! :yes:

Surprisingly the floor pans, trunk pan, frame, and all the sheet metal in the front is perfect. I dont know why the quarters and rocker panels rusted out so badly when nothing else did. I guess they are just prone to it. Anyways thanks for the warm welcome guys I tore into the right rear quater today and found some more of the same. Outer fender well totally gone, inner salvagable, and rocker basically one big piece of bondo. Oh well, should have new metal on her this weekend and I will be sure to keep the pics coming.

where can you get rocker panel replacements

where can you get rocker panel replacements

Classic Industries has them for 62 through 79
www.classicindustries.com

Very nice work:yes: And welcome to the site. As said before, keep us posted on the progress

sorry I haven't been able to update in so long but I can assure you a lot has happened to the nova. To much to list but the pics below will tell the story:D

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/IMG_0597.jpg

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:D

WOW! You have been busy!

John

Looking good!!! Keep the pics coming :D

Surprisingly the floor pans, trunk pan, frame, and all the sheet metal in the front is perfect. I dont know why the quarters and rocker panels rusted out so badly when nothing else did. I guess they are just prone to it. Anyways thanks for the warm welcome guys I tore into the right rear quater today and found some more of the same. Outer fender well totally gone, inner salvagable, and rocker basically one big piece of bondo. Oh well, should have new metal on her this weekend and I will be sure to keep the pics coming.

How hard were the rockers to put on? I might be doing that as well.

Todd

im sure it would have been quite easy if the repo part had been correct but the bends were so far off that it took a lot of manipulation to get them right.

Not bad at all. it will be worth all the hard work once it's done. You will have some great before and after pics!

Well its time for an update. Got the front suspension with new disk brakes done which is a pain in the a** when the engine is not in the frame. Rebuilt the saginaw 4speed even though I will probably destroy it in the first week! :devil: Started the smoothing of the firewall today. And also received my rust encapsulator paint from eastwood. So tomorrow is going to be a busy day :D

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture516.jpg

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It's looking good, you're going to have to change your name when you're done:cool:

Man your kicking butt on that thing, keep the updates coming!

Hello everyone, my name is Neal. I purchased my 72 nova in December and have probably read every post on this site since then. I want to thank you all for the wealth of information you have provided. Anyways I just wanted to introduce myself and share my progress with a couple of pictures. :D

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/IMG_1664.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures005.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures008.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures010.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures015.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures016.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures025.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures027.jpg


Welcome and nice work.

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of metalwork that looks great. Keep it up!

Nice work so far! If you're modifying the firewall like that you might want to consider building in some clearance for an HEI distributor. HEI's won't usually fit in the 68-72 bodies without some firewall clearancing and now would be the time. Just a thought. Bob

Nice work so far! If you're modifying the firewall like that you might want to consider building in some clearance for an HEI distributor. HEI's won't usually fit in the 68-72 bodies without some firewall clearancing and now would be the time. Just a thought. Bob



Thanks for the comments guys and thanks for the advise bob but I am actually almost done with the metal work on the firewall and have already made room for the new hei. A couple more days and pics will be one the way.:D

Time for an update, a lot has happened including receiving a new 350 crate engine. Rebuilding the 12 bolt with an eaton posi, and finishing the under carriage. Just started mocking up the new inboard shock mounts and will be reconnecting the subframe next week.


The Old...
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture579.jpg

The New :devil:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture754.jpg

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Oh yea :D
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14 hours on my back :mad:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture768.jpg

Cover is temporary waiting on my Moser aluminum cover
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture771.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture761.jpg

Shock mounting bar
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture774.jpg

Mounting brackets
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture776.jpg

Well shes finally rolling again. I'll tell you its a good feeling after having her on jack stands for so long. Finished the rear end and shock mounts and layed down some fatmat on the interior. Reconnected the front subframe. Removed all the electrical which was a hacked together mess so a new harness is definitely in my future.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture777.jpg

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Friggin awesome! you're gonna have that beast on the road by November if you keep it up at this pace! :thumbsup:

Boy you are doing a great job. Why did you paint the rear end cover green?

That is actually the old cover that I just painted with rustoleum. I am waiting on a moser aluminum cover.:D

Man nice work Brother!!:yes:

That is actually the old cover that I just painted with rustoleum. I am waiting on a moser aluminum cover.:D

You are flat doing some nice work.

that is very impressive

I like the progress so far, it’s giving me motivation on my 73 project.

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr241/slikvtx/HPNX0383.jpg

Holy!:eek:That snow did all that!:rolleyes::D
It's amazing what the combination of snow and road salt gummed up in the bottom corners of the rear wheelhouses can do over time. Definitely have to poke around to check for rust, and not just visually check for it.
Surprisingly the floor pans, trunk pan, frame, and all the sheet metal in the front is perfect. I dont know why the quarters and rocker panels rusted out so badly when nothing else did. I guess they are just prone to it.
That's kind of surprising, especially as far as the fenders are concerned. But I thought I saw some stitch welds in the floor pans in this picture. Were they replaced before you owned the car?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture814.jpg

Hey fellas time for an update. Finally finished the firewall the eastwood paint looks and feels like glass and got the engine in! Only took around eight tries with the hoist. Had to clearance the headers a little and then When I thought it was all good i went to move the clutch fork and found out it was the wrong one and was hitting the tunnel:mad: Oh well at least its in now:D The only question I have is that if you look at the second picture you can see the balancer is hitting the sway bar. Any ideas on fixing this? And yes you are correct novajay the front left section of floor was replaced at some time.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/IMG_1229.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/IMG_1234.jpg

WOW! thats some nice sheetmetal work there! nice job!

Well progress has slowed to a crawl ever since I ran out of room in my shop and had to put her in the garage. Hopefully i will be able to bring it back to the shop soon. I did finish the rear end and put in the new msd distributor and received some new fenders undamaged!!:D The fenders were bought from tamraz parts. They only took 4 days to ship. Also a new rear cross rail section is on the way. I was going to leave the old one which I patched but when I saw the new one online i just had to have it:devil: With a quick install on the fenders with no real alignment done the car seems a little high. The engine is in but im hoping the added weight of all the accesories and what not will bring it down at least 3 inches.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/Picture833.jpg

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nice work looks real good

You do great work. And the car is shaping up quick!!

I have tackled everything on my car, from welding in a frame, some minor welding of the body. Bending and flaring new brake lines. Building the engine (yeah, I did have to break out the mic and scales to get it right), all the electrical and many other things.

But there are two tasks that I am afraid of. One is digging into the tranny, oh too many parts for me.

The other is tackling a full on quarter panel replacement, mid belt. You have the skills to tear into a quarter panel and make it oh so sweet!!! Nice job!!! I only wish I could do such nice work.

I bow down to you mister...... JR

the firewall looks amazing

Update time...Brought her back to the shop this weekend and had some fun replacing the rear cross rail. Glad I did though as there was plenty of rust hiding behind it. Also replaced the motor mount with taller ones to fix the balancer problem and replaced the pinion yoke with a 1350 unit. Feels great to be working on her again.:D

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Wow:eek: you have made some serious progress on it keep up the good work and dont cut corners just to get it done faster do it right:yes:

good job on everything but goddamn what did you run a flat out bead on that quarter, no offense but it looks like hell...you need to jump around alot and i like to use air to cool it down immediatley....sorry but i had to say something and i know its gonna get filled but damn...the firewall looks awesome, what is the paint that you used on it exactly don't tell me it was the brush on kind........

on the other hand i wish i was getting this much progress done, but in the last few months i accomplished wiring the front lights:rolleyes::turn:

also the tab you welded on to mount the shock, i would angle that bad boy some, i can hear that bushing screaming from over here....maybe cut that section on the outside then hammer it out a little for some angle and reweld...in one of the other pics i can see the driver side and it doesn't look tweaked at all....if you went through the trouble of making a shock mount crossmember why didn't you mount both shocks rearward and vertical or whatever happens to be optimal

good job on everything but goddamn what did you run a flat out bead on that quarter, no offense but it looks like hell..

Ouch :) Kinda harsh huh? I see what you are talking about. The Q looks a lil warped. In one pic but look at this pic after welding and you dont see it. But yeah, maybe some distortion. Im kinda curious also as to what happened after the welding. Cause if you look at the one pic, after welding she looks good. Cameras?? They can distort real life. Not in my case, my body looks like it needs work in real life and on the pictures LOL Im sure it will all work out in the end. JR

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c313/nealyboy32/SeditaPictures025.jpg

good job on everything but goddamn what did you run a flat out bead on that quarter, no offense but it looks like hell...

I see the picture you talking about but it is the camera in real life they look very smooth a couple shallow dents but nothing crazy. The shock tabs on the traction bar will eventually be bent to the correct angle with a little blue heat :D The shocks are staggered on purpose to eliminate wheel hop.

Well I have been busy doing some little things such as fixing the shock mounts, adding some fatmat to the doors, which by the way makes a huge difference in the way the door feels and closes. Feels much more solid now and makes a nice thud when it closes. But the best part of the last few weeks was buying a brand new International car trailer. Now the nova has a dry place to stay while its not in the shop. I have been keeping it outside in a quanset hut but the moisture level in those things is ridiculous. I am almost to the point of setting the gaps but I had one question. I am a couple hundred pounds light in the front end right now just because the engine is not finished. Will this adversely affect setting the gaps or is it not a big deal?

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Finally done setting all the gaps on the doors and hood. Ended up having to do quite a bit of welding on the doors because the new skins ended up a little smaller than original. All the exterior trim, door handles, locks etc are on the way for fitment. Currently I have the nose assembled with all the trim parts and grill and its a big relief things are actually going together well and fitting correctly. Pretty soon it will be ready for paint!!! :D

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