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oldelpasso - 72 Nova Father Son project 30 years in the making

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41K views 161 replies 33 participants last post by  oldelpasso  
#1 · (Edited)
oldelpasso - 1972 Nova Father Son Project

Year: 1972

Model: Nova

Engine: 383 Stroker (Built by Burbank Speed & Machine)

Body/Exterior: DSE Mini-tubs

Paint: Palladium Silver by South County Auto Body

Suspension: Ride Tech 4 link, 2" Drop spindles, Lower Strongarms, SC&C Street-Comp Stage 2 Uppers

Transmission: Legends LGT-700 5 Speed

Rear End: Stock 10 Bolt 3.73 w/Posi

Exhaust: Custom Built Stainless

Wheels/Tires: Budnik Pivot 18x8 Front / 18x10 Rear

Interior: Recaro Bucket Seats, by Escondido Custom Upholstery

Electrical: American Auto Wire

Accessories/Options: Vintage Air, Power Windows & Locks

Sound system: Tunes by RetroSound and Rockford Fosgate

Additional Comments:

Welcome to my build guys! I've been a member of SNS for a while now, quietly perusing the forums, enjoying seeing everyone's work and craftsmanship, and doing a whole lot of admiring. I would first like to say thanks to everyone here that has helped me with my build. There is so much information here, and so many guys and gals willing to help I feel really lucky to be a part of the SNS family. I thought it was finally time to share some of the progress I've made on my car, and if nothing else maybe provide some motivation to some of the other Father Son teams that are ready to get started on their projects.

So, a little background - my Nova was handed down to me from my Dad. He bought it used in 73, and it was his daily driver for about 10 years. Some of my very best childhood memories were with my Dad and that car. We've talked about restoring it since I was 5 years old (I'm 38 now). The Nova really is a member of our family.

My Dad garaged the car after some mechanical issues around 85-86, with 189,000 miles on the OD. It sat in the same spot for 25+ years.

About a year and half ago we were sitting around watching one of those car restoration shows, and I mentioned we should try to get the Nova running. The following weekend we put a tune up on it, and after all those years the car fired after the first turn of the key. My Dad had a smile from ear-to-ear. It was a really amazing moment. Right up until it started spewing water from the radiator, water pump, and freeze plugs. That killed any hopes of driving it that day, but it gave us just the motivation we needed to start our project. We looked at each other and my Dad said to me "Let's go, let's restore it".

We spent about a month taking the car apart, documenting and bagging all of the parts, and towed it down to San Diego for mini-tubbing and some other cool stuff. What follows is our build in progress. Hope you guys enjoy...

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#3 · (Edited)
Day 2 - Getting the front end pulled apart. Lots of grease and crud, but for the most part things were in really nice shape. The passenger door and driver side fender were pretty trashed. Evidently my Dad was a fan of road side bondo work. You can see where they very nicely drilled into the door several times directly on the lower body line. Ugh!

At the advice of my body guy, and knowing that the driver door was already replaced at some point early on, I ended up replacing both with salvaged parts from a scrap yard in AZ. The fender was a little harder to find than I expected, but I eventually found a good one.

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#7 ·
This was around a month into the project. I found some bucket seats online from a 72 Camaro. I really went back and forth on newer style vs. older style seats. I like the look of the originals in an older car, but I think I'll regret not having bolsters and better adjustments at some point.

I started playing around with test fitting, and how to get the brackets to work. I realized pretty quickly my engineering and welding skills weren't up to par on this job, so I decided to leave it to the pros.

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#12 ·
EdyJun - Yes it's ChassisWorks. I don't have a lift at home, so I had BOS do the install while it was getting mini-tubbed. They didn't have any trouble with it all though. It's well built stuff, and straight forward on the install. ChassisWorks really takes care of their customers. I had to do a return of some other parts and they were really responsive and helpful. Be warned though, there can be a wait if they are out of stock. If I recall, the G-connectors were built-to-order, and about a month or so out (a year ago when I bought them).
 
#16 ·
The first body shop was a friend's place. He had the car for a few months, but didn't end up having the time or resources for such a big job. In April I found another shop and they've been working on it ever since. It's taken a while, but well worth the wait. Here are some pics when they were stripping the original paint.

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Doors and trunk lid went out for acid dipping. The driver side door came back with a few more holes than I expected. More roadside bondo I guess.

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#28 · (Edited)
Progress has been a little slow this month, but I finally got the front end apart and a bunch of stuff (subframe, core support, spindles, bumper brackets, steering linkage) off and sent over to the powder coater. He did a really nice job, was very reasonable, and got everything back to me inside of a week. I'm hoping to get the subframe back on this weekend. Got a couple of new toys from Mark at SC&C, and Summit last week too. :yes:

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