🔧 BUILD 1971 Nova - Work in Progress

General Information

1971 Nova - Insanity in Progress

I bought this Nova last year when I sold my mustang, I was a active member here when this was CSVT so all the info of my old car is still on this site. Some of you know me from other sites as well as some of the old CSVT members who are still around. I apologize in advance for being a little long winded.

I was looking to get back into a classic muscle car that I could restore and modify to my liking. I choose a Nova since they are cheap and my wife wanted it to be a chevy. I enjoy all makes/models domestic or import which is why I enjoy TCG.

Specs:
1971 2 Door Nova factory v8 auto

Engine
350 block 383 stroker
Cam - unknown (I have several cam cards from the previous owners not sure which one is installed)
Rods/pistons - unknown
Heads - stock
Edelbrock intake - unknown which model
Holley 750 double pumper

Trans
700R4
3200 Stall
Shift Kit - Jegs brand

Rearend
10 bolt 8.5
3:56 gears

I knew the car needed some work before I bought it....I just underestimated how bad some of it was going to be. When I got the car the owner I purchased it from had just primer bombed the car and splatter painted the trunk (was still fresh when I went to look at the car). I would have still bought the car but would have negotiated a better price, but hey live and learn. The guy I bought the car from purchased the car from an elderly couple in Ohio who had a binder of documentation which was a huge selling point to me. Unfortunately I didn't look closely to see that the receipts didn't have much specific information. So the documentation only shows dates and what parts were replaced not what they were replaced with (for the most part anyways.) Again no biggie.

The car had 3 paint jobs in it's life plus the primer the guy I bought the car from put on it. Under the primer was a Suzuki gold that was applied in 2002. (what a FUGLY ass color) under the gold was a red. Whenever the red was put on the car it also had extensive body filler applied but no rust or sheet metal repair, more on that later. Under the red was a factory correct blue. The cowl tag says the car should be Sandalwood, while I did find it on a few parts of the car this leads me to believe someone painted the car early on in it's life or worse someone swapped the vin and cowl tag to another car :dunno: . Also there were a few spots where Green was found, I'm assuming a donor car or junk yard parts replacement. To be honest with all the documentation I have it just confuses things even further. The car was also in a few fender benders, the worst being the passenger front fender.

In 2001 the whole suspension was replaced with stock equipment minus air shocks, this was also when the whole drive line was overhauled and the engine was turned into a 383 stroker. I'm just guessing and based on some info I've accumulated from Steves Nova Site SNS, everyone seems to agree this theoretical combo should be around 350-400hp 400+tq.

I drove the car for a few weeks and fixed some legal and safety equipment such as putting on the rear bumper, side mirrors and attaching the seat belts. The car actually drives pretty good, has some good low end torque and the trans shifts firm. These were all the reasons I purchased the car as I didn't want to blow the budget replacing the mechanical's right away while I concentrated on restoring the body and getting it in paint. I was originally hoping to have it in paint in early spring of this year. Currently it may see paint by spring summer of 2015. (crosses fingers)

Goals:
For now I want a nice cruiser that's got some decent hp/tq. I'd like to drive it around town and take it to a few cruises/car shows. During winter I always like to tinker and do upgrades.

My unrealistic dream goal would be to turn it into a pro-touring car. Sitting low on 18x10 or larger wheels. I would also drop in a LS series engine maybe a LQ4 on a tight budget or go wild with a LS3/6 variation. The car will stay an auto, I know some people won't understand that but I love a good auto as much as banging gears in a stick car.

Short term goals that are more realistic is to just restore the vehicle to good quality, I will keep the drivetrain as it is for now as it's in good shape and if anything blows up take it to the next level at that time (budget pending of course). The body will be fully repaired and painted by myself. It will be painted a blue (unsure of which specific color code at this time) but it will be a medium to dark hue.

Bottom line is all work will be done by me, in my garage with whatever tools I currently have or acquire. Hence the whole reason for purchasing this car.

Now to what's happened since I started work along with pics.

As I purchased it, as you can see the body doesn't look bad at all. Looking at it very throughly I could tell there was bondo/mud applied and I did notice some rust in the rear quarters and in the trunk area (which is common for these cars) I also noticed the body bushings were bad again another common problem with age.



IMG_1489 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr

IMG_1490 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr


Engine Bay, looks can be decieving, the whole front accessory system is a redneck engineer mess along with the fan and rad shroud.
IMG_1487 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr

IMG_1503 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr


IMG_1504 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr

Pics of the interior, the seats are trashed and the carpet doesn't fit right as it's either a universal or not the correct for this make/model/year.
IMG_1499 by Chris Watkins, on Flickr





I'll break this up into a few posts.
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cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
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Bolingbrook IL
Trunk all primed up.

GOPR0296.jpg


For those that want to see the video of it getting prep'd and painted.

 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
2,764
2,430
Bolingbrook IL
No video's or pics this time around, been trying to get as much time into prepping the body for primer. Still have a lot to go. My biggest problem is all the extra shit being stored in my garage. I need to make room to build a temp booth and have room to walk around the car.

Epoxy and Hardener have arrived so as soon as all the prep work is done I can build the booth and get to spraying.

I also ordered up the cam and valvetrain goodies that I've been procrastinating on.
TSP Torquer v2 - 232/234 .600
Pushrods, valve seals, CHE trunion upgrade

Still need to find 243, 799 heads to use and order up a new torque converter. When I have all that I can mate the motor/trans together and drop it onto the subframe and get some more space in the garage.
 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
2,764
2,430
Bolingbrook IL
Been busy but not much progress on the Nova. I spent about a month stripping old paint/primer off the car. Most of it being tough to reach areas such as the driver's door and jamb, underneath of the trunk lid , inner fenders etc. Last week I built a temporary spray booth to spray the car in epoxy.

I tested it out yesterday spraying the core support and the trunk. I still had a lot of issues with my devilbliss primer gun, it would spray fine for a few seconds and then volume would drop off. I kept adjusting the fluid volume tip as it would work for a few seconds. There were a few times it created some bad runs but hey it's primer so no big deal. About 5 mins before I was done spraying I figured out the cap vent was clogging causing a vacuum inside the gun. I either fix the cap vent or bypass that bs and switch to a pps cup system which will be nice for cleanup and loading of paint.

I've been recording content but have not been happy with most of it so I never uploaded... I did get building the booth recorded and it should be up on youtube now.


 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
2,764
2,430
Bolingbrook IL
I've always wanted to build one of those.

You gonna have enough room to spray? Seems a bit tight?
If the car was complete no there wouldn't be enough room for the front or back. I'm dropping the subframe out and spraying from the firewall to the rear and then all the components like the fenders, hood, doors, trunk lid separately.
 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
2,764
2,430
Bolingbrook IL
Booth is finally taken down, it's nice to get all that space back in the garage. Car is also assembled so parts aren't sitting around on stands or in my way. Think I will hook the steering linkage up and start on prepping the engine/trans for paint so I can put those in the subframe as well. I'll drop a pic here of the car back assembled but they are also in the latest video I have uploading now.

IMG_1392.JPG


IMG_1391.JPG



Here's the youtube link, video is up but still processing the HD version.

 

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