🔧 BUILD 1971 Nova - Work in Progress

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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

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231/244 112.5 hmmm

What intake manifold would you run?
ya those durations are a bigger cam than I need, I just started looking at the BTR stuff today, the stage II might be better. Based on my research somewhere in the 22x/23x durations would fit this combo better. But then again what do I know :ROFLMAO:

Worst case the stock truck intake just modified to fit under my stock hood. If I find a good deal on a TBSS or Dorman LS2 I may pick one of those up, but at this HP range there isn't a need for an intake.
 

Pro Stock John

LS is the best engine
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I hear good things about the truck intakes especially the TBSS version. I've heard better things about the LS6 intake over the LS2.

I think the 231/244 will want a 3600+ converter.

I'm gonna ramble a bit now. I think something in the upper 220s on the intake/ and mid 230s on the exhaust might fit with your 6300 max rpm plan. Huggerorange73 huggerorange73 aka Mike has a stout LS2 C6 that has run high 10s maybe he could chime in with his thoughts. I think he might be running a Spinmonster cam which was pretty popular on CorvetteForum.
 

Huggerorange73

Big government pro Russian dude AKA Comrade Mike
Mar 29, 2011
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I hear good things about the truck intakes especially the TBSS version. I've heard better things about the LS6 intake over the LS2.

I think the 231/244 will want a 3600+ converter.

I'm gonna ramble a bit now. I think something in the upper 220s on the intake/ and mid 230s on the exhaust might fit with your 6300 max rpm plan. Huggerorange73 huggerorange73 aka Mike has a stout LS2 C6 that has run high 10s maybe he could chime in with his thoughts. I think he might be running a Spinmonster cam which was pretty popular on CorvetteForum.
Pro Stock John Pro Stock John you are correct sir.

Can ran 10.95 @125 made 455 RWHP through the A6.

Engine Mods below:
PRC Stage 2.5 heads
Ported FAST 102 intake
Comp Cams Spinmonster 230/234 .612(XFI)/.598(XER) 114 + 2 LSA
SLP Underdrive pulley
Yank 3600 stall
Kooks 1 7/8” Longtube headers

Combo is smooth as silk and makes nice power.
 
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cap42

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I hear good things about the truck intakes especially the TBSS version. I've heard better things about the LS6 intake over the LS2.
The Dorman is the functional equivalent to the TBSS intake just with a lower profile. I know a lot of LS guys have argued over the dorman or ls6 intakes performance. Honestly any of the 3 would be a upgrade to what I have, but I also feel from a performance standpoint a unnecessary one. Right now the only reason for me to swap intakes is hood clearance.
 

Shawn1112

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The Dorman is the functional equivalent to the TBSS intake just with a lower profile. I know a lot of LS guys have argued over the dorman or ls6 intakes performance. Honestly any of the 3 would be a upgrade to what I have, but I also feel from a performance standpoint a unnecessary one. Right now the only reason for me to swap intakes is hood clearance.
Is the Dorman still available? I know when I was looking for a LS6 intake mani for my 71, the Dorman version wasnt available anymore.
 

cap42

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Is the Dorman still available? I know when I was looking for a LS6 intake mani for my 71, the Dorman version wasnt available anymore.
yes, but the price has shot up considerably the last year or so. Think they are going for around $900 now, for that money you could get a used TBSS for cheaper, or spend a little bit more and get a FAST

*EDIT* Just did a search..

 
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Mr_Roboto

Doing the jobs nobody wants to
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yes, but the price has shot up considerably the last year or so. Think they are going for around $900 now, for that money you could get a used TBSS for cheaper, or spend a little bit more and get a FAST

*EDIT* Just did a search..


If the FAST doesn't require propreitary rails it's an extra $200. I'd much rather have a FAST over a Dorman.
 

cap42

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Here's the update from this weekend.

I never finished the front fenders, it's a good thing I post everything to TCG. I had to look through this thread to find the last time I touched them. Jan 2016, page 5. Nothing really changed on the front fenders so you can go to those posts to see the before. Here is the after.


IMG_1191.JPG

IMG_1192.JPG


A whole day's worth of work to correct my quick down and dirty job of pathing in new metal and making a patch for the side marker. I still have two sections near the rear of the fender to finish.

This is what they look like, the front lower section (In this pic the fender is upside down) looked like this before.

IMG_1194.JPG

IMG_1195.JPG

I remember doing these patches on the fenders and I remember not spending any time at all making the patches and then just burning them in. As you can see I didn't even finish grinding off the weld prouds. That is what I'll get to next time out and if it goes quick enough I'll start on the driver fender.

Here's the video that just finished uploading to Youtube.

 

cap42

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Just a quick update, still futzing with the passenger fender. I just can't leave some things alone. When I made the patch to delete the side marker I never shaped it to the fender. While it looked good I later noticed I would have had to lay in more filler than I was comfortable with. So I put the whole fender in the english wheel to give that spot the right profile to match the rest of the fenders contour. That caused distortion, lots of high's and low's and I overstretched a bit of it during the process. I didn't take any photos and have just been having the gopro on in the background capturing footage. Made a video covering it and went into a bit of detail of how to hammer/dolly. Had a nova guy and a local friend ask me some questions about it so figured I'd make a video covering it while I was doing that kind of work.

I really need to up my youtube game, need to figure out how to make fancy intro and title screens vs what Youtube just selects based on the footage. Anyway here's the video for those of you interested.

 

cap42

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Done futzing with the passenger fender for now, made braces for where it will attach to the body of the car. Of course when I welded the braces in I welded them in too hot and created some shrinkage on the spot welds. The braces were 1/16th plate so it needed more amperage to get it to fuse. I'll pull the stud welder out later to get those out. I moved onto the driver fender which still had a good amount of damage from some fender bender. Had to fix most of it before welding in the turn signal patch. I tried my hand at TiG welding it in and didn't do that great of a job. There is a still a spot that I'll need to use the stud welder and slide hammer on because of another brace in the way. Aside from that and some type up's I'm happy with the Driver Fender.

I now have to cut out another spot that started to rust through on the driver door and finally replace the side cowls. Once those are opened I'll coat the inside to prevent any further rust and clean up the drainage holes. Then I need to sand/scuff the rest of the car to get any other surface rust off, then it's all prep for shooting it in epoxy.

As usual I made a video documenting the process. Most of it's time warp and a good majority was cut out since it's 3 weekends worth of work.

 

cap42

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I still have some metal finishing to do on the driver fender but put that to the side for now. I ordered new side cowl panels and they arrived this week. This is one of the last few areas of original rust. Since they were hidden I originally was just going to leave them be but since I'm going to the extent I am with everything else I figured what the hell might as well get it all gone.

No pictures again, I just set the camera down and swapped between timelapse and regular speed. Once I got the panel out I had to fix the inner structure. I lost a bunch of footage showing fabricating up that patch. Had to pull out the bead roller with the tipping dies and use the shinker/stretcher to get it to fit the curvature. Kinda felt good to just go hog on welding and grinding for once as nothing will be seen so I didn't care if it was looking factory.

Video is uploading as I type this, posting the link as usual should be live in about 30 mins.

 

cap42

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Metal finishing on the driver fender was completed, no pics, no video. I started on the passenger side cowl and got it to the point where I started to burn in the replacement panel and ran out of shielding gas. Need to run out to airgas supply this week and get the tank refilled so I can finish it up. I did make a video this weekend, it's a bit longer than normal since I went into detail fabbing up the inner brace vs just timelapsing it.

Link to video, it's still processing so should be up within the hour of this post.


After this is all done I need to fix the tiny rust spot in the drivers door and finally make up my mind about the rough spots in the window channels. If I just leave those be then it's time to go over the inside and body of the car again to prep it for primer.
 
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cap42

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I've been slowly working on this turd... rust replacement is finally done. Now it's on to the metal finishing stage. I'm back at correcting my previous fuckups which is the driver's rear quarter. Those of you who have read the whole thread know it's the 3rd time I've now I've futzed with this fender. I just can't leave it alone until I am satisfied.

 

cap42

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why not replace the entire quarter, or was it not bad enough to warrant that?
Only the lower sections and the wheel wells were bad so I decided to do half panels to save as much good steel as possible. Time wise that was a mistake, it would have been faster and less finish work just to do the full panels. A lot of this metal finish work is due to how much welding has gone into this panel. The lower style line had to be moved to match the rest of the car and then my decision not to mess with the door jamb caused the slice up the center of this area of the panel.
 
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