[hotwheels000]

I owned a 72 with a very simular stance and color back in the 80's. Unfortunately, I didnt part with the car on my terms. A girlfreind at the time was driving it on I-5 shortly after I added power steering to the car,made an ubrupt lane change which resulted in (5) 360's and a run-in with the center divider... needless to say, it was a compression type dent /impact on the rear bumper and caved in the drivers rear quarter. Drove it for a few more months and sold it as at the time it wasnt worth fixing since Novas were everywhere then.

Fast forward 20 plus years and my never ending midlife crissis continues.

Decided it was time for another one, did a bunch of looking around local and on line, Saw this rig on CL,pondeered it for 3 months, talked to the seller 2x times during that duration. Drove down to "look" at it.

Quick specs as advertized
zz502 motor ..this car is 500 +hp on pump gas. 4 speed super t10.. ford 9"rear end 350 gears.. fuel cell. weld wheels / new rear tires.. motor ..tranny..rear end all been gone thru.. this car is very fast all brand new interior power seat cd player new headliner .. i don"t do emails.. and no low ballers,,car is very fast for the money ..my #

And, well the pics tell the rest of the story.

Some interior shots

 

[hotwheels000]

A few more pics

Engine

Trunk

 

[XINLOI44]

Good looking car, and welcome to the site. :yes:

 

[67nova73]

Welcome to the Site :waving:

Nice Car :yes:

 

[PCPete]

What crisis

It looks like fun to me. Welcome to Steve's and did you buy it? Where are you in the great and very wet today PNW?

 

[hotwheels000]

I have a few plans for this ride. Mostly centered around drivability. It has some dyno time scheduled for tommorrow to dial in the low speed fuel delivery.

Then its suspension time,thinking cal tracs system in the rear and some after market coils up front. She is riding on single leafs and air shocks in the back along with who nows what springs in the front(sitting on the bunp stops). I want a quality,safe riding street cruiser...

Next is a few interior changes like replacing the cracked dash bezel, upholstering the front seats,replashing the dash with correct pad and getting that big ole tack relocated, center console maybe......

 

[hotwheels000]

Good looking car, and welcome to the site. :yes:

Welcome to the Site :waving:

Nice Car :yes:

Thank you, I have been lurking for awhile. Learning everything I forgot 20 years ago and also coming to the understanding I can no longer go down to the local parts store for this ride:devil:

It looks like fun to me. Welcome to Steve's and did you buy it? Where are you in the great and very wet today PNW?

Yes I did,and south of Seattle.

 

[hotwheels000]

I am hopeing someone can tell me what year this dash bezel came out of. Mine is cracked as I mentioned.I dont know if it is the original but it doesnt have the" fasten seat belt" indicater in the dash.

This one does....

I would lie to use the pictured one,but at the same time it would be nice if it was the correct bezel

 

[PCPete]

probably

Probably a 72. Mine may have had the fasten seatbelt on it, but PO covered it with some kind of stuff. I have some dash parts that may get that thing to work, I'm up in Mukilteo.

 

[1quik69]

Hello and welcome to the site. That's a nice looking car.

 

[on a bugdet]

that is the exact same one in the 71!
Welcome to the site!

 

[hotwheels000]

Probably a 72. Mine may have had the fasten seatbelt on it, but PO covered it with some kind of stuff. I have some dash parts that may get that thing to work, I'm up in Mukilteo.

Thanks for the parts offer,I have all the goodies that bolt to it so I am good there. Its good to see that there are other Nova owners in the area.

Hello and welcome to the site. That's a nice looking car.

Thank you, I am very happy with it so far. Now its time to make the changes to it to make it mine

that is the exact same one in the 71!
Welcome to the site!

Thanks, seems like that dash bezel may have been used in a couple years

 

[hotwheels000]

I spent the day at Blood Enterprises today. A little test and tune on the dyno was in order. The car didnt drive well from idle to about 1300 rpm unless you "launched" it from the start,slow speed driving between those rpms was also less than acceptable in my eyes. I was certain it was carb/jetting.

First thing was to put it on the lift and replace a broken wheel stud on the pass side rear. It also gave me/them a chance to go over the car. I had never seen the underside clearly and from all angles due to the ride hieght.I was very happy with the inspection,it didnt reveal anything unusual.All the floor pans and normal places for rust to develop were in great shape or had been replaced already, the repairs looked profesional and on par. There was two items that I noticed.

First was the battery cable routing to the trunk had a pinch point in the positive lead,that was addressed immediatly along with some heat sheilding added. While I was under there they allowed me to use there tools and also add rubber isolation dampers to my fuel pump mount. (I thought that was very cool, a very customer oriented shop that didnt mind you helping)While I was doing that the mech replaced the wheel studs and gave the car a once over from his standpoint...He noticed the oil pan was way to close to the front cross member,not a huge repair need to add BB standoffs to the cross member but parts needed to be ordered and that will be done another day

I also shot a few pics of the underside

Then it was dyno time

Dyno confirmed some carb work was needed. A couple external adjustments and some other fiddly bits with the float bowl off and it was time for another pull. Dyno showed a lean mixturre still so a few more tweeks and the numbers were looking good. Craig(the owner and mech) also mentioned that the airfilter I had was a horsepower stealer. So for grin he threw one of his favorites on there... another dyno run and it showed a 15 hp gain.WOW I couldnt believe it. SO , I will be ordering that set up pronto.

The graphs and what not showed I was still a bit rich at the top end (wot) but he new I wasnt chasing numbers and was looking more for drivability at low speeds and cruising so we opted for no changes as it would have been another hour or so of shop time.

The magic # at the end of the day was 367 HP and 480 ft lbs torque to the rear wheels. I was expecting less than that from what I have learned when comparing crankshaft #'s (chevy specs) to dyno rear wheel #'s


They have defenitly earned my respect and bussines, top notch service.

Best part is the owner is into R/C and offered the use of his sandblaster and what not to me after we started talking crawlers/scalers and R/C in general.

 

[RatNova71]

Cool Car. If it were mine I'd get "Nova" emblems for the fenders and paint that chrome "simulated air vent" blue with chrome edges, but thats just me. Looks nice

 

[sbc1320]

Craig(the owner and mech) also mentioned that the airfilter I had was a horsepower stealer. So for grin he threw one of his favorites on there... another dyno run and it showed a 15 hp gain.WOW I couldnt believe it. SO , I will be ordering that set up pronto.

So the air filter in your pictures was taken off for the dyno?

What filter did Craig use in it?

 

[DrKrazy]

Wow, that is one gorgeous car. Color is great and looks like it was built well. I am also very curious about the air filter that got taken off and what it got replaced with?

 

[hotwheels000]

Cool Car. If it were mine I'd get "Nova" emblems for the fenders and paint that chrome "simulated air vent" blue with chrome edges, but thats just me. Looks nice

Definetly painting the phony vents the proper motif when the weather gets better if they even stay.I havnt looked closely but I am really hoping they are attached in a manner that doest require repainting the fenders so I can remove them.Thanks for the suggestions

So the air filter in your pictures was taken off for the dyno?

What filter did Craig use in it?

Dyno pulls were done with the filter top shown in earlier pics except the last pull where we used the cleanr he suggested for comparison, I will have to ask him the exact brand as I didnt bother since I ordered it thru their shop. I always try to support the local guys when I can.

 

[hotwheels000]

Wow, that is one gorgeous car. Color is great and looks like it was built well. I am also very curious about the air filter that got taken off and what it got replaced with?

Sounds like I better make a call . I will swing by after the holidays and check with him and report back to you guys.

I personally thought it was "ugly"... but how else can you get that Hp gain for around 80'ish dollars. It was just a standard round looking cleaner about 13 or 14" in dia with the proper contours to allow the air to flow properly. It is avail in brushed alum,black,(with or without the chevrolet script) and a silver carbon weave looking type also.

 

[hotwheels000]

I was up at the local hobby shop the other day and somehow managed to come home with this. I forgot how much fun it is to build these things. I tried to get the color close to the 1:1.... added a tach detailed the dash like I want the bigin to look,etc. The wheels were pretty close to mine less the divots,tires, well I can always wish

Only real bummer is it isnt a 502

Now if Santa would get here soon and the weather would cooperate... I could get into the garage and start tinkering on the real one again.

 

[hotwheels000]

Was looking thru some old pics this week and found these of the 72 I had in the mid 80's. Kinda cool seeing pics of the car that made me want this one.