Starting the restoration of my dads 73 chevy nova hatchback that he drove back in high school. Its been sitting in my grandpas yard for 21 years. It was purchased in Van Nuys, California. My dads aunte and uncle purchased the car brand new off the lot in California in 73. It was then passed down to my dad when he was 17 years old. My plans for the restoration on the nova is to paint it a metallic blue, with a black interior, I already got the 350 engine and TH350 transmission rebuilt myself along with the help of my dad. Also put a limited slip diff. Thinking about putting a 70-72 grill on it but haven't made my decision yet.
Started removing front fenders and wiring harness and all other engine compartment components. Going to sand blast front frame and repaint it all and change out all bushings, springs and control arms.
After removing seats and carpet there is a some rust holes on the back seat floor pan so that will need to be replaced along with the trunk pan and hatchback trunk lid as well, other than that its pretty much rust free.
Pretty much the same spots mine had the rust! Lots of work in your future. Take a look at what I did with the trunk pan, they don't make 73 pans anymore. The 68 pan works pretty good.
Yes I ordered the whole rear pan. You can cut out what you need, but it's really not much more work to just replace the whole section to the rear seat, it comes with all the brackets etc. If you decide to go down this route, understand you now have other issues. The spare tire in 73's is recessed in to the pan, the 68 is flat, also you will will no longer be able to use the stock gas tank, as the tank is also cut and recessed to fit the spare tire, lastly the rear tail panel is different. so you would have some modification to make it work. Check out my thread if you think you might make the swap.
Do you have a picture of the trunk pan condition? You might just be able to patch the old one? Otherwise there are lots of things to think about.
Maybe... What's under all that surface rust is the true story. Clean it up and see. I see a few holes looks better than mine did. If you have access to a sand blast machine hit see what you find?
alright i do have access to a sand blaster! i know i need to replace the rear floor pans for sure there rusted all the way through and i almost went through one with my foot so those need to be replaced no doubt but thanks for the tips ill keep you posted! your car is coming along great alot of work done on it and it looks awesome cant wait to see when its done.
alright i do have access to a sand blaster! i know i need to replace the rear floor pans for sure there rusted all the way through and i almost went through one with my foot so those need to be replaced no doubt but thanks for the tips ill keep you posted! your car is coming along great alot of work done on it and it looks awesome cant wait to see when its done.
ditto, since we have almost the same car! The blaster will show whats under all that surface rust. If you just have to patch a few big holes thats better than going down my route. Mine was completely swiss cheese across the whole pan so I used the opportunity to do some cool stuff to the rear end.
just got the subframe cleaned up this past week and painted now to put it all back together with the bushing kit i purchased then onto the rear end and then off to the body shop
Just finished getting the driver side control arms installed on the subframe plus the coil springs which were a pain to install without the subframe bolted to the body and no motor on it! Onto the other side then removing the rear end and replacing bushings, and cleaning it up for paint!
front end almost complete reared rebuilt and painted
Got the subframe all done and bolted up to the body with new bushings and the rearend is rebuilt and painted just waiting on the new leaf springs and shackles to come in!
finally got the leaf springs in and bolted to the axle and up in the car, got some new rotors to slap some tires on the nova to take to the body shop. gonna build a engine test stand to break it in and hear it run.
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