Miss right now

[helzbelz888]

when i was 14 i bought i had saved enough money to buy my first car. it was a lime green 1970 c/10 pickup. It was litterally an immaculate rust free barn find.. the original owner used it to pull his horse trailer lol. It was also the beginning of my love of old chevrolets. when i was 17 it was stolen and it hasnt been recovered... About a year ago i had that itch that needed to be scratched. After a lot of research and searching i bought this 1968 chevrolet nova for 3400 bucks. Here are some pictures from the day i brought her home...

[67 ls1 vert]

from what I can tell it looks pretty nice. Good find. My son wants one so bad. Out of all the cars he wants a Nova for his first car.

[CruizinKev]

very nice!

[scherp69]

Nice car. Always nice to see other Nova's on here, especially another 68. What are your plans for it?

[1971CHEVELLE]

Very nice car

[helzbelz888]

ok so heres where i am right now... when i got the car it had been sitting in storage for 6 years... i drove it all last summer and before winter i POR 15'ed the floor pans and trunk pan just to stop the rust. I'm in school and working full time so it doesnt leave more than weekends but i got good/bad news! i found out my landlord isnt selling the house so i can proceed with the project. since my college FUBAR'ed when they sent my official transcripts and now all the classes i want are full I'm taking this quarter off.

Dont let the earlier pictures fool ya.. this car loves pictures but is what i would call a 50 foot car... i think it was a maaco or earl shy paint job.. they scuffed, laid a guide coat of bondo and shot the paint...

Immediate Goals:
1: Get the body straight
2: Paint i want a blue thats almost that same dark blue but Grey stripes. thanks to cheapthrillz i found the color I'd been looking for and I'm sold on the cyber Grey metallic corvette stripes.

I'm a notorious horse trader and i stumbled upon some pretty good parts finds... i'll post some parts pics in a few days but the overall theme of the project is a canyon carver.

heres what i'm doing this weekend... i've been bagging and tagging in between all the other things i have to do around the house..

[helzbelz888]

well i got some parts today so i figured i'd use it as an excuse to take photos of some of the parts i've collected recently.
i got this motor from a coworker on the P8 posidon
355 cubic inch SBC. got it for 1800 bucks. cam was ground to a comp cam design, 10.5:1 compression. he estimated 360-400 horse out of it.




I got this 650cfm holley 4011 for free from a buddy after i helped him with an engine swap. he wasn't using it so he wanted it to go to a good home.


I'm going to have the sub frame powdercoated once i disassemble the front end. So i ordered a PST subframe rebuild kit, Front disc conversion, CPP suspension kit, and MP drum brakes for the rear. (what you dont see in the picture is the multi leaf springs i was too lazy to carry them inside for pictures.) i also picked up a painless wiring harness on sale a while back...





My next purchases are going to definitely be sheet metal and paint/autobody supplies... i'll probably end up reskinning the quarters, trunk drop offs, DSE minitubs, patching the firewall.... a lot of my repairs are going to be from it sitting in storage for six years. the water just dripped down the firewall and pooled in the usual areas. but now i'm rambling... hopefully someone finds this interesting lol more updates soon!

[BA.]

It was a good looking Nova to start with, and it looks like it'll be even better when you're done!

[daredvl22]

Wow, this takes me back. I bought my 1st car - '72 Nova, when I was 15 years old. An old lady (original owner) traded in at the dealership my dad worked at. I paid $500. It was pea green, 350, with an automatic trans. It was a West Coast car, so it did not have ANY rust, nor did it have any dents, dings, anything. Well that was approx. 17 years ago and I still have it. My dad and I rebuilt it from the ground up twice. Enjoy the project, and keep it forever. If you don't you'll one day wish you had!

[chevyhector]

Looks good ! but good luck with that Painfull harness!

well i got some parts today so i figured i'd use it as an excuse to take photos of some of the parts i've collected recently.
i got this motor from a coworker on the P8 posidon
355 cubic inch SBC. got it for 1800 bucks. cam was ground to a comp cam design, 10.5:1 compression. he estimated 360-400 horse out of it.




I got this 650cfm holley 4011 for free from a buddy after i helped him with an engine swap. he wasn't using it so he wanted it to go to a good home.


I'm going to have the sub frame powdercoated once i disassemble the front end. So i ordered a PST subframe rebuild kit, Front disc conversion, CPP suspension kit, and MP drum brakes for the rear. (what you dont see in the picture is the multi leaf springs i was too lazy to carry them inside for pictures.) i also picked up a painless wiring harness on sale a while back...





My next purchases are going to definitely be sheet metal and paint/autobody supplies... i'll probably end up reskinning the quarters, trunk drop offs, DSE minitubs, patching the firewall.... a lot of my repairs are going to be from it sitting in storage for six years. the water just dripped down the firewall and pooled in the usual areas. but now i'm rambling... hopefully someone finds this interesting lol more updates soon!

[Chevrolaine]

Nice ride! Go with GM's Deepwater Blue. Believe it's a factory color for 67-68.
Good luck with the project.

[helzbelz888]

Nice ride! Go with GM's Deepwater Blue. Believe it's a factory color for 67-68.
Good luck with the project.

Thank you! I do think that color of blue is a GM color but it was originally Grecian Green. If you look at my second post where the door trim used to be you'll see the original color.

[helzbelz888]

My dad came to visit for the weekend so we pulled the motor/transmission out of my car. Props to my buddy Ian for loaning me the hoist. OH and what a surprise! the guy who owned it before me didnt mask it when he painted the engine hugger orange as shown by the overspray on the firewall and grease! Half assing seems to be the theme of his build.... Everything went super smooth till the tailshaft was clearing the core support. All of a sudden we started loosing hydraulic pressure. i was jacking fast to slow it and my dad pulled back and it came down fairly easy... turns out my buddy had never added oil to it. Something fairly easy to overlook. i added a bit and it works great now! I'm hoping to get some money to put back into the project! i put the ad up on craigslist and cleaned the transmission up with some engine degreaser and a brush. turns out theres a transmission under that grease clod i pulled out!

here are some pics.

[helzbelz888]

lol its been a while since i updated my post.... few minor setbacks... my hunting truck required a little mechanical attention, business trips, vacation, and my budget put this on the back burner... but i listened to deep purple's "highway star" and i jumped back into the garage.

The car is 99 percent apart and ready for media blast. I went in halves with a guy from work on a 50 gallon media blaster. he and i are going to do his '66 nova and my '68. This weekend i'll get the new floor pans in and post some pics.