1963 Nova project "Rocket"

[colt6920]

PT.1- Reintroductions
It has been over 2 years since the last time I’ve posted an update on Rocket. So I’ll be splitting up the past 30 months of changes and build updates into a number of postings to do my best to cover all of the bigger pieces as well as some of the annoying issues that came up along the way.
Picking up from my last post I ended up enrolling into the auto body class with my brother to have access to a paint booth to do it for a lot less haha. As the goal has always been is for the car to be competitive around a track or autocross course to me it never had to look amazing so I just went with a Hotrod Flatz single stage flat white. After the car was painted it was noticeable to me that it was our first attempt at body work but there was a few spots that we could improve up the road. We were rushing to get the car together during the class since for the first time ever we had access to a lift and aren't stuck laying on our backs inside of a barn or in a garage. Throughout the class we bolted all of the suspension back on along with brakes and what ended up being our first attempt at brake lines… this one still kills me to this day.

I was desperately wanting to get the car to LS Fest West 2021 but clearly I struggle to get things done on time, as I only ever have time or a little bit of money. But between my brother ans a couple friends we were able to scramble to get the motor and transmission into the car just a day or two prior if I recall correctly. This would be the last time we were all able to do an event together, less than 2 weeks after my now wife and I moved to Las Vegas because I had always wanted to pursue a career on The Strip for some reason. So the car, all my parts, tools and belongings packed up and moved into a small apartment that had a separate garage for the Nova. My goal is to post a new update everyday for the next week catching up on everything that has happened these past couple years and where the plans for Rocket are headed.

[colt6920]

PT.2 Almost Quitting
The first year in Vegas in regards to progress on the Nova was incredibly frustrating to say the least. It was either always 100+ degrees or below 40 with virtually no in between. The garage had no lights but it did have a million bugs including a decent number of black widows… I slowly made progress on the car from getting the C&R radiator, driving out to Cali to get a set of front fenders (it was cheaper than shipping haha), and attempting to get the brakes to work and redoing lines multiple times with my flares, predone flares and a couple fittings failing. About the only upside to our apartments location is I had Phenix Industries less than 5 minutes down the street. It made getting any sort of braided line or fitting super easy. I’m pretty sure by the end they just assumed this guy has about a dozen cars or he’s just an idiot and can’t figure out how to actually build lines. The final point where I became incredibly close to calling it quits, selling the car and moving on after years, countless hours, memories with friends and family helping me build it happened when we came back from a week long vacation visiting my grandparents in Montana. We came back super excited because I had proposed to my girlfriend while in Montana and she said yes. The Uber had just dropped us off and I went down to my truck to get something out when I noticed the light from the garage door opener on, and when I attempted to open it with the clicker nothing had happened. I walked to the door and was able to open it by hand, when I lifted it up I see pieces thrown everywhere all of boxes of parts stolen including the Terminator ECU, all of the chassis wiring from Painless Performance, all of my tools, CVF serpentine kit, steering wheel, a ton of other random pieces half of the exhaust, door handles etc. We called the police filed a report but unfortunately with the apartments not having any cameras there and about a week long window when it may have occurred made it near impossible to narrow it down or track down any stolen parts. Then to top it all off our apartment insurance refused to cover anything stolen, pushing me back to square one. I remember one nightly shortly after getting through everything that had happened and a little over a year with minimal to no progress on the car just laying under the car for at least an hour or two trying to decide if thats it im finally done trying to build Rocket and just give up. Ultimately I decided that I hadn’t come this far, had my friends and family spend all the late nights early mornings, sponsors going out of their way to do so much for me when I don’t feel any of it was deserved. That I was going to no matter what it took finish my build and try to build it as competitive as possible.

[Peanut1959]

Wow, what a kick in the nuts! I'm glad you've had some time to regain your perspective. Carry on.

[colt6920]

PT.3 Start of the Rebuild
When making the decision to recommit to finishing the Nova it was a rough starting point with our renters insurance essentially telling us to pound sand. Leaving me at square one for tools, about the only thing I had left was my angle grinder haha. This is where the car community and one of the big reasons I had been so interested in the protouring segment/ autocross and other racing events was how open and willing to help they are. Shortly after posting about everything being stolen, Painless Performance actually reached out to me, and went way beyond what I could have imagined replacing everything that was stolen along with throwing in some merch. Whoever runs their socials and reached out Thank You! Others also reached out from Total Cost Involved and Baer Brakes offering help. With having to go back and redo so much and have to wait and save for awhile to be able to replace everything else that had been stolen, I decided eh we’ve already cut the firewall and front half the car out we may as well do that to the back half. My brother had purchased a large frame table for his fabrication company 10 Past West making building a rear frame truly square way easier than we could have before. My idea to doing this was to set the car a few inches lower, add additional rigidity to the back and allow a wider wheel. During this time we had moved into our own house, and for the first time since we started building Rocket years prior I finally had a permanent spot to work on it. Not having to put it in a storage container at my dads ranch just to have to pull it out and put it in his barn to work on. Driving over 100 miles from college to spend a day trying to finish even the smallest thing on it just to have made some progress.Or on a trailer in my moms driveway because I was not allowed to have it in her garage for more than a day.