--- Project Green Monstah --- 69 Nova SS ---

[zdiesel]

Been plucking away at this project with my father for the past few months. When we purchased the car locally we had only intended on using it as a parts car (we have 2 other 3rd generation Nova's already), but once we hung the front sheet metal back on the car, we realized the car really wasn't in that bad of shape and so the wheel started turning. The car was last stickered in 83 and had been sitting in this guys barn ever since so I guess you could call it a barn find that we found on craigslist haha. The car is going in the direction of essentially a pro touring style rat rod if you will, or as we've come to refer to it as pro rat. The outside appearance will not be changed, but everything mechanical will be touched and brought back up to speed. Here's what we started with.







The car definitely needed a new floor pan and firewall, so we ordered up some AMD replacement panels and got to cutting.







After the floor was in we got to work on the firewall.









At this point we were working full tilt on the car, and as you can see the shop was a complete mess. Made for a good picture however, this is when we took a break from fitting the firewall and floor to something easier and more familiar which was doing a very mild clean up on the 350 small block that will be powering the car for now. It's a motor we pulled from another nova parts car with only 49k on the clock, was stuck when we got it but after being freed up, it fired up without a hiccup after sitting for 25 years. Good compression in all 8 cylinders so we plopped a comp cam, set of lifters, and double roller timing chain we had kicking around in it and called it good enough for now. We left everything grungy for good measure.



Here you can see our clean room where we do all of our high perf engine work.







After taking care of that we went back to finishing the firewall and floor pan install.



All seam sealed up.





We also cleaned up the stock subframe, gave it a little reinforcement welding and coated it with POR-15.



Some stitches on the bottom.



Seams welded up on top.



Cleaned up some ugly factory welds while I was at it.



Painted up.



Next we got to the fun stuff, ordering parts! Here's some of the goodies we got.
DSE Solid subframe mounts



Last summer at Goodguys East Coast Nationals we met some of the guys from ridetech out there at the show and shot the **** with them all weekend. We had a blast, they gave me some tips out on the autocross (I had dragged out my L33/T56 swapped S10 Xtreme for All American Sunday) and were just a great group of guys. My Father and I had always wanted to do some crazy suspension setup on one of our cars and after talking to the guys from ridetech that weekend we were sold. Nothing but respect for the guys from Ridetech and excellent products and service. So if one of the ridetech guys is looking at this (as I know there are a few on this forum), A+ work, keep it up. /endrant. ANYWAYS, we called them up and ordered one of their Level 2 Coilover kits.





We ordered up some dynamat and laid it down all over the floor, also got a new carpet.

[epeterson]

Sweet project!

[zdiesel]

We then dyed the seats, here you can see the rear bench. The front is a bench as well and we pulled both seats from the same nova parts car that we pulled the 350 small block from. The seats are absolutely mint with not a tear in sight. They were originally blue, hence the reason for dying them black.



Then we got busy and installed all the ridetech suspension components (or I should say my father got busy as I was away up at school when all the goodies showed up). I stumbled upon the perfect set of wheels on craigslist for the car with the correct size tires as well, what are the odds?! They're 17x8 SLP ZR1 wheels that run 4.5" of backspace, they're designed specifically for third gen f-body's but they work perfect for our purpose and fit with no spacers and only minor fender treatment for extra wiggle room. Jumped on those and picked them up for a sweet $450 which helps keep the budget in check. At this point we have more money in the suspension than the rest of the car, so I think we're doing alright.

SO, we go all the suspension on, dropped the motor and trans in and bolted the wheels up. At this point we couldn't resist and dropped the car on the ground to have a look, and were rewarded with the following. Note: We Haven't adjusted the springs at all so ride height is suspect to change still. But the thing looks bad to the bone (yes I know a tire is backwards)

IMG_20140412_205321_702

IMG_20140412_205237_362

And that's where she sits for now. It has a turbo 350 behind it right now but we're trying to track down a muncie to put behind it because auto's suck behind anything short of a drag car in my book. The goal is to have it on the road in time for Goodguys East Coast Nationals...should fit in with all those gussied up hot rods don't ya think? We've got some work to do in the next couple months to get it ready so stay tuned.

[GS455vert]

Cool!! I will be following this thread, I got a 70 SS build that I plan to start soon with ridetech stuff also.

[Tig]

Lovin the title. It looks awesome.
Lookin forward to your updates.




subd

[SS PUNISHER]

Love it man!

[aidanfancystang]

woo hoo another nova! keep it up I need to steal ideas, I mean I need to keep track of your progress.

[zdiesel]

Thanks for the comments guys, we're looking forward to getting the car on the road and for the future of the car. It's gonna be a test car for us to learn new things, novas aren't new to us by any means but this car represents a lot of firsts for us already and more to come.

[zdiesel]

Didn't really make any progress this weekend I was home on the Nova, spent most of my time swapping a new radiator in my S10 and helping a buddy replace a blown out tire on his S4. Snapped a couple more pictures for the hell of it though, hopefully can make some progress next weekend.

[zdiesel]

Slow progress, hopefully going to look at a parts car later today that we can get a bunch of parts we need from. Got the dash back together, steering column in and gauges hooked up. Finals week and then I'm home for the summer and then we should be able to get cranking on this thing.

[zdiesel]

So schools done now (woooo summer!) and we've been plugging away at the Nova now getting stuff done. Hoping to be done and on the road in less than 3 weeks. Here's the update...

Front seats are dyed and in the car



Dash and all the gauges have all been installed and waiting to be hooked up. Modified a wiring harness from a 70 Nova to work on our 69 as well, everything works now.



We pulled a Muncie 4 speed from one of our other Novas, unit needed a rebuild as the other Nova is an old drag car and the input shaft splines had started to keel over. Brought it to a buddy who rebuilt it, fresh case, input shaft and a couple other pieces. Ready to rock and roll



Picked up a clutch kit and some ARP hardware for the flywheel and clutch to hold all that power we're gonna be pushing



Here's how she sits right now



We've accomplished some other things as well, brakes lines are back under the car, we cleaned up the underside and painted over all the bare metal, the front suspension is completely snugged down and ready to rock and the motor has been started! We've also got some parts laying around and some more on the way including a gas tank, mufflers, electric fan, fan controller, line-loc, and some other bits.

Stay tuned. Goodguys debut (hopefully) in 3 weeks haha

[tom091074]

Looks good!

[zdiesel]

Thanks!

Spent the whole weekend out in the shop, its going to the exhaust shop to get an exhaust and an alignment on Wednesday so we've been pushing to get it ready for that and moving under its own power. We got the electric fan in and wired, used this slick Derale adjustable fan controller and tied the wiring into the factory harness. Pulling it out with the factory harness is as simple as disconnecting the ground strap, unplugging the harness from the controller, the fan, and the temp sensor. Integrated really nicely and the controller is tucked away under the battery tray, out of sight but still accessible if a relay goes bad or it needs to be adjusted.



Got the radiator in as well with the fan, just one we had laying around from another Nova. Line-loc installed as well, new battery. Almost done under the hood.



The big fight of the weekend was getting the shifter in and the hole cut. We have a Hurst competition plus shifter we would have liked to put in it that was out of another Nova, but the bracket it used placed the shifting mechanism up high and we had interference issues with the shifting rods with the floor that would required mangling our nice new floor more than we were willing to do. We later found a kit that Hurst now makes that included a new bracket and rods and everything that we believe places the shifter in a more factory location that wouldn't require mangling the floor but budgets getting tight and our solution was free haha. So the solution, we had a stock shifter laying around and decided to try our luck with that. Popped it in and it lined up well with the hole we had already cut but the lever was hitting the bench seat. So we dragged out the welder and the cut off wheel haha



Beveled the edges, one root pass and two passes over that and I think she'll hold all the gear bangin' you can throw at her. I may add two braces on the sides and weld them in for support since that would be its weak spot.



Those are the big things from the weekend really, dealt with a lot of small time consuming stuff as well like putting the fuel lines in, adjusting the clutch, adjusting the throttle linkage, wrapping up some wiring. Got some parts coming in today and a lot of stuff to get done today before it heads to the exhaust shop tomorrow.

17 Days until Goodguys.

[protour_chevelle]

Looking killer so far!!

[FLYNAVY53]

nice build!!

[zdiesel]

Thank's guys! Lots of progress last night.

Gas tank showed up so we plopped that sucker in there



Also go the rear suspension tightened up for the alignment shop, brake plumbing completely done, fuel lines are half run, welded a new stud on our shifter with the right threads for the shift ball we had laying around, shifter linkage in and adjusted, radiator hoses in, power steering hoses run, put one driveshaft in to realize it was 2" too short and the other one we had was 1.5" too long. Both from Nova's go figure, so were dropping the long one off at a driveshaft shop today to get shortened 1.5".

Popped the hood back on and snapped some pictures, should be back on the ground later today.







Can't wait to get it outside to grab some good pictures with the DSLR and the wheels on with the stance dialed in. 16 Days to go.

[zdiesel]

And shes on the ground, to the exhaust shop she goes



Wheels looks great on the car with it all together, the front's are pretty tight but we have a CPP zero-offset brake kit that should help pull the wheels in 3/8". We also only had four 1/8" shims which wasn't enough to properly set the camber within reason. Without shims the car was seeing +4 degrees of camber which wasn't helping with fender clearance. It has 245/45/17's on the front right now as well and I know we've got a set of 245/40/17's up stairs that may also give us that extra bit of clearance we need.

[19,69camaro]

That is such a cool look keeping the patina. Keep it up!

[zdiesel]

Thanks man! My dad and I think the patina looks pretty awesome combined with the stance and wheels too. Besides, that paint job took 30 years in a barn to make happen, why change it now?

[zdiesel]

Got a few things done this weekend, got it back from the exhaust shop for the weekend so we could work on a few things and dragged it back Sunday night. The mufflers we ordered aren't going to fit so we have a couple more on the way and the exhaust should be done by Tuesday or Wednesday and the alignment taken care of. We did adjust the ride height and lock the coilovers down.



Had it outside for a bit, next to my L33/T56 swapped Xtreme



And it even moves under its own power! Running like hell since we haven't adjusted timing or the carb yet, but its a step closer.



Still have tire clearance issues to deal with, and a 3.73 posi rear to install. All the wiring is done and the gauges are hooked up and working properly. E-fan setup works mint. Getting close.

11 days left.