69' nova

[LS1NOVA]

Aluminum block LS2/3 and a couple turbos!

[Motown 454]

Damn that's looking nice! Great job.

[Oregon]

Brakes showed up. Aerolite 6 piston fronts and Superlite 4 piston rears. Thanks to Ron Sutton for working up the brake/piston/pad selection for my setup. Ron is great to work with.

Rear brakes and parking brake setup are now installed. I'm just waiting on a couple of bolts to finish the fronts.



Now i need to figure out where to stick the e-stopp actuator box for the parking brake.

[Oregon]

Well...seeing as how I've been running this project without any REAL plan, I figured it would be good to get the direction hammered out. I ended up getting in touch with Ben Hermance a while back and decided to work with him on a rendering that I could stick to throughout the build. I desperately needed this to give me some sense of direction, otherwise I would keep changing things and continue wasting time and money.

I didn't give him much direction other than overall influence/theme, and that I wanted to finally get more rubber under a Nova (give me flares without ruining the car). I am more than pleased with the final out come. Eventually I'll need to find a shop that can take this on. I would like to stick to the PNW, but we'll see. Anyways....

Here it is. I welcome all feedback good or bad!

[rchaskin]

Very radical.....I like it. AWESOME!!
Are you thinking 315s and 335s or 335s all the way around?

If it were mine, it would have some sort of cowl hood or L88 or stinger or something.

JCG has a good vision of adding width / flares to older cars.
http://www.jcgrestorationandcustoms.com/

[19,69camaro]

I love the rendering. One thing that really bugs me about lowering a Nova is the saggy assend look they get from uneven wheel coverage. I like how you can still maintain a bit of a rake but still have an even amount of wheel coverage.

[Oregon]

I tried some cowl designs, but in the end I always gravited toward the clean look of a flat hood. I felt that the rest of the car had enough visual interest that adding stuff to the hood made it look too busy.

Yeah, I've seen the JCG method and I dig it. It's just a little too subdued for the theme I was going for.

[Oregon]

Tire size isn't nailed down yet. I'll need to play with sizing once the flare sizing is determined and measurements can be taken.

Would be pretty awesome to fit a square setup on it.

[rchaskin]

I tried some cowl designs, but in the end I always gravited toward the clean look of a flat hood. I felt that the rest of the car had enough visual interest that adding stuff to the hood made it look too busy.

Yeah, I've seen the JCG method and I dig it. It's just a little too subdued for the theme I was going for.

I just meant he could probably do the metal work you had in the rendering.
They can do some pretty complex metalwork.

[Oregon]

Ahhhh gotcha! Agreed.

[Oregon]

Well...motor plans mellowed out for now. The boss convinced me to drive something more manageable to start out and "upgrade" later if I really feel the need. Motor showed up yesterday. Pretty simple LS3. About 550 fwhp.

[Oregon]

Gas tank showed up after a bit of a snafu with a tank mixup. Ricks and MCB went above and beyond to fix the issue and the turn around was extremely quick. Both are top notch.

[Oregon]

For better or worse, I have new tires on the way....



Scrub radius should get interesting...Time to warm up the cutoff wheel and get ready to make some room!

Anyone need 2 19x11 Formula43 wheels?

[rchaskin]

Heck yes!!!!

I think it will stick like glue. In these type of cars, front grip is king.

[Oregon]

Radiator came in this week. Got it assembled and installed.



Any suggestions on where to mount the oil cooler? Is it cool to mount it smack in the middle of the AC condensor or will I be restricting too much air flow?

[Oregon]

Slow progress....

I spent some time sorting out parallel and concentric alignment on the bell-housing. I ended up with a few shims to get things within spec. The concentric measurements were good to go so there was no need to get offset dowels.

Ordered up a clutch and go it installed. It's a Monster LT1-S. It's basically a C7 clutch with a custom billet steel flywheel and some other little bits. I've heard good things about it so I thought I'd give it a go.








Also got around to bolting on the new rim halves to widen the front wheels.




Do these tires make me look fat, or just stupid?




My slave cylinder shows up today. With any luck, I'll have the engine/trans installed in the car by the end of the weekend.

[Oregon]

Motor/transmission are in. Looks like I'm going to have to do some firewall work to allow proper clearance for the fuel rail feed line...oh well, probably wouldn't hurt to add some additional clearance behind the motor anyways.

[Kiquee71]

Great looking Nova, like the modifications on it. Looking forward to seeing the completed car. Keep us updated on your progress.

[RaceFace]

Wow!! Lookin' good!! Keep the pics coming!!

[Gil]

Very nice ! will be bada$$ !

Gil