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I couldn't leave well enough alone....

3K views 28 replies 12 participants last post by  trvslhy 
#1 · (Edited)
But I liked the end result :devil:.

Before...




During...




The "new part"...






I didn't get a picture of it finished yet. I lost my light while I was finishing up... I tossed the 10 bolt for a 12 bolt with 3:73's. Also tossed out the monoleafs and added Multileaf springs. Now where did I put that 4 speed ? ? ?


Tommy :)
 
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#8 ·
what kind of shock are you going to use? just in case youre looking for a cheap way out, run of the mill 91 ford explorer shocks fit on my 74 in the stock location with my extended shackles. forget exactly how much longer they were than stock shocks but they were $17 a piece.
 
#11 ·
The black 68 got a new rear also this weekend. The one I installed in the blue car was in my black car. The one I installed in the black car is one I just bought from Dan from his 68 SS parts car. The black 68 originally had a "BV" coded 4:10 geared 12 bolt but it was grenaded on the strip.. The car still has the war scars in the rear of the tunnel from the damage to the rear... The rear I bought from Dan has a Schieffer spool and 4:88's with Strange axles. Real nice looking under there.. :cool:.






Tommy :)
 
#16 ·
was grenaded on the strip.. The car still has the war scars in the rear of the tunnel from the damage to the rear.
my car has similar scars. i'm the only person who ever sees them, so i really just leave it alone. i'm not sure if i can even get my back seat out now, as the floor is that tweaked.
 
#13 ·
I'm very sore and very tired... Me and a floor jack had to handle 2 12 bolts and one 10 bolt... I don't want no more of that for a very long time....:sleep: :sleep: :sleep: Thecherry picker was just used to hold one in the air while I cleaned it up.. Four cans of oven cleaner did the trick :D


Tommy :)
 
#17 ·
Mine was supposedly turned to shrapnel during a dryhop after a burnout.. The floor is fine all the way up to the bottom of the back seat and it looks like a tornado had a party... It turned the pinion snubber around and the bracket that holds the brake line and punched a few holes into the tunnel... I would have loved to have seen it happen.... :cool: That black car was raced for many years on the street and at the track.. I replaced the rear bumper because the original had marks and tiny dents all over it from a bumper jack... Probably from swapping street tires and slicks every weekend.... :cool:



Tommy :)
 
#20 ·
Did you center the housing, or the pinion, in relation to the center of the tunnel when you replaced the rearend? The reason I ask is, my 72 is not even close to centered from the factory. There is almost 2 inches difference from right to left. By eyeballing the tunnel and pinion from the front of the car, there is no way in hell I can center the pinion and have the tires at the same place on their respective sides. The housing (whole rearend) needs to move toward the drivers side to take care of the issues, which I am going to do with some new perches when I put multi leafs on it soon. Thanks.
 
#22 ·
Did you center the housing, or the pinion, in relation to the center of the tunnel when you replaced the rearend? The reason I ask is, my 72 is not even close to centered from the factory.
All 3rd Gen Novas have the rear offset towards the driver side for some reason. The only way to correct it is to remove, measure and reweld the spring perches. It's a thorn in the side for us Nova owners...



wow I never would have thought to use the cherry picker like that to paint it! works well I bet. I have a question. What is the reason for longer shocks?
The cherry picker worked great. I used oven cleaner (1 dollar a can at the dollar store) and did a little scraping in some spots. I used a little Kerosene as well. The shocks on monoleaf Novas don't have as much travel as the Multileaf shocks and will fully extend during driving.



BTW car looks good. Your neighbors dont complain about the front end sitting in the driveway?
Naw, it isn't there anymore anyway.... I usually don't leave anything out there long but they all know I bring something in from time to time to tear apart....


Tommy :)
 
#21 ·
wow I never would have thought to use the cherry picker like that to paint it! works well I bet. I have a question. What is the reason for longer shocks? is it cuz of the traction bar? reason I ask is when I converted my 70 to multis and a 10 bolt posi I used monroe gas matics. Just told the parts guy I had a 70 nova and poof. I didnt want to run KYB's cuz I didnt want a stiff ride in the rear and KYB's seem to jack up the rear. I did run KYB's in the front. Just wanted info is all.

BTW car looks good. Your neighbors dont complain about the front end sitting in the driveway?
 
#26 · (Edited)
I don't have any pics of the interior in the car right now. I had the seats and panels restored but haven't taken any pics lately. Here are the seats, panels and before/after of the trunk. It had no pits or bad rust at all in the trunk, just lots of corrosion from glued in carpet... The floors in the car were poked full of holes from different seats and racing seats as well as the usual rust a Nova has in the footwell... Me and a friend welded in the new floor pans. My interior guy had a NOS bolt of material he had bought back in the early 70's from detroit. When he finished the seats he gave me the rest of the bolt which should do the front and rear seats again if need be... Hard to find that stuff these days. I got lucky.












Blue paint on dash. I really think the blue interior against the black exterior is sharp :cool:


Tommy :)
 
#28 ·
Yes, I do. I'll have to dig them out and get them scanned to the harddrive. It isn't a numbers matching car and I don't have documents. To me and to the last owner it was just a hotrod nova to have alot of fun with.. I should have kept driving it instead of fixing things... It was a ton of fun and a handful when you stabbed the gas..:cool:



Tommy :)
 
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