1972 Project

[Prater]

I had posted the start of the project in the Body/Interior section but really felt this is a better place to post on the girlfriends 72 Nova. The original thread I spoke of getting the project out of a field behind her parents home. This 1972 Nova was Angie's first car, a gift from her parents while she was in High School. It has sat the last 13 or so years in the field with no rear window so its pretty rough. I was able to get it started and drove it to her home about a block away. Money is super tight so right now all we plan to do is the elbow work. Tearing it down and making a list of what it needs until funds become available. Here are a few pics...

Day she got it back in the mid 80's



Shot last year when we decided to get it back home for some work



Sitting at its new location while waiting for a shop

[NovaNick70]

I am curious to see what the interior looks like after 13 years with no rear window! post some pics when you can!

[Prater]

I worked yesterday on pulling out the back seat and cleaning up all the old broken glass. I dont have good pics of the seats, but they are pretty bad. i dont know if the rear seatback frame will be usable, the bottom looks like a good e-tank cleaning will make it usable. Foam and cloth are torn up from rodents living in it. The floor under the seat is suprisingly in much better shape than I figured, but the bottom floorpans are rotted out. Here are a couple pics I took.

Rear Glass, or lack there of...



Cleaned up under the rear seats

[jimmeyjack]

I also had the rubber flooring, its pretty good at holding moisture under it.

[Prater]

The rust starts prettymuch were the rubber floor protector starts, it even ate up the side of the transmission tunnel in a few spots. I ran out of time to remove the front seats and flooring. I wanted to make sure and get the tarp secure before this blizzard hit us.

[Prater]

A few interior pics from Angie's cell phone

[Imbo]

Awesome project! Goodluck with it.

Had to post because i wanna keep updated with this

[ovrdrive]

That's still in good condition from all the weathering it has gone thru.

Has Angie given you a list of what she wants in this car? (motor, trans,etc)

How about a color choice or rims?

[Prater]

She wants to clone an earlier SS but add rally stripes. Her color choice seems to change everytime we watch Overhaulin' but she pretty much wants it blue with white stripes, or white with blue stripes. No idea on the wheels. We have a few motor choices, i have a few big blocks and some small block parts. I think a mild big block with a 700r4 would be cool.

[PCPete]

When considering colors, remember that different colors have different costs. It has to do with the pigments, yellow is a killer. You also need to look at the fillers and coatings as a system. Start with one brand and technology type and stay with it all the way. I went to a couple of auto paint suppliers and got estimates based on various technology levels then went with one that was a step back from the newest - at half the cost.

One of the things that you see ol' Chip do is a rendering of the finished product. It's more than the drawing, it's the vision for the car when it's done and has the suspension and drivetrain as part of the vision. You need to map that out sorta the same way so that you get everything working together.

When you are planning the drivetrain, figure out how you (she) sees the car being used. There's that darn cost/performance/cost/drive-ability/cost/wow-factor/cost thing. Did I mention cost? Again, it's a system and using a newer Fuel Injected small block with a 700R4 and medium rear gears can make for a lot of fun, but will cost more than the old school small or big block and a TH350 or 400, but the fuel economy will be much better.

Don't forget the "whoa to match to go". You gotta stop that thing somehow. While you have stuff apart, replace all of the bushings in the suspension, that makes a huge difference in how the car behaves.

I'm not trying to scare you with cost, but a well thought out plan will save you a ton of money and keep the project on track.

[Prater]

Thanks Pete. I appreciate the input, its not my first project car but it has been nearly ten years since I worked on one. I am a big advocate of stopping power, my 12,000lb boat trailer next to the nova has electric/hydraulic disk brakes on all three axles.

I raced two different Corvettes in SCCA and NCCC events. I like the C5 upgrade kits available to the Nova and I am familiar with the brake system, thats probably my route for stopping power. I have some C4 Corvette brakes and calipers but by the time I fab it up I can have the C5 brakes ready to go. Anyone know if the C5 booster and reservoir will fab over to the Nova?

Here are a couple more pics of the back seats. i really dont know if we will be able to use the frames now that I took a closer look at them...

[novas665]

nice project. I too am starting a 1972. Have you tried changing to a 350 cid engine? I have and the frame mounts and motor mounts are tough to fit.

[Prater]

This Nova is already a V8 model. Here is a pic of the engine bay...

[Prater]

Unbolted the front bench seat and moved it out of the way to finish looking at the floorboards. Here are the pics of the damage. I think the transmission tunnel is ok so i will probably not do the whole floor but instead just do a left and right side floor. I will need a partial firewall on the passenger side. Anyone have a doner piece?

[thegrappler]

At first I thought you had a pile of rocks sitting on your floor until I realized it was a huge hole
Looking forward to your build.