1967 Nova SS Build Thread

[dlove63]

Keep it up! This is one to keep an eye on.

[Blown73]

Keep it up! This is one to keep an eye on.

Thanks! It has been a long haul so far. Headed into the shop this week to try and get the frame fitted to the car. Hopefully I'll have an update Monday!

[Blown73]

A little bit of progress on the frame last night. We started fitting the frame to the body. After about an hour of head scratching and measuring, we started with what I will call the outriggers to attach the front of the frame.



They are cut a little long and tacked in place for the moment. They are square to the rear of the car, which gets a little tricky when the frame is tapered.







The tubing on top was used to make sure the outriggers were straight to eachother. It also happens to be the correct length for the side tubing to connect the two. Funny how that works eh?

There will be a piece of 10 ga plate that welds to the interior of the rocker panel, which is cut already. We need to decide where we want to set the frame on the body before it welds up.

That's it for now. Hopefully I will be adding more pictures next week!

[Glenn]

You guys are doing a nice job!

[Blown73]

A little more progress last night on the frame installation. We have moved to reinforcing the inside of the rocker panels. I used a piece of 10 ga materials, slightly under cut so I should be able to put trim over the inside of the door sill, if that makes sense...


Anyways, we were originally going to just weld top and bottom, but then decided that it would be better to put some welds on the center of the material to make sure it will be strong enough to hold up to just about anything!




After that, we laid out the welds, we decided 1 on 3 off was going to be enough. You run into strength issues with welding too much on thin sheet metal, so we figured this should be about the right number. 1 on 3 off means 1" of weld, three inches clear, then 1 inch of weld, etc etc, all the way down the line, if you wanted to know.



We only had time to finish one side last night, and tacked the other side into place.





That's it for now!

[Blown73]

There has been a lot of head scratching going on in the shop trying to put this frame on. There is a slight bow in the rocker panel (hoping thats stock?) that we tried to scribe a piece of 2 x 4 tube steel to. Unfortunately, when the TS was cut, it twisted. So, that idea is currently sidelined until further notice.

However, the other side of the rocker panel is installed and welded up. We set the body on the frame (a big moment for me) to start lining everything up. this is all preliminary, but it is still pretty exciting. Next we will line up the wheel wells, then re-align the frame to the body and start marking out cuts for the out riggers!













How goofy do those wheels look now that that body is over the frame? We were having a good laugh!

[BossaNova]

Looks like fun. I like that you're tying the rockers to the frame with the "outriggers".

[sebtarta]

Balls of steal!

[Blown73]

Ha, I wouldn't go that far with it. Maybe brass or lead perhaps?

Thanks for the encouragement guys! Hopefully I will have a roller next week...

[Blown73]

Got the body on the frame last night!



and welded it down:



And I have to say, the ride height is going to be LOW. However, most of the stuff tucks into the frame. So, it will be low, but shouldn't drag.

Drum Rolls please:



Happy Wednesday!

[Blown73]

Happy Monday!

So, I have been busy over the last few weeks. The car is home from my parents house ( my garage was too small to have body and frame in one place) I did some re-modeling in the garage to make sure the nova had a nice place to stay. Anyways, I did some work over the weekend on the rear window rot. I used the shrinker/stretcher to form pieces to fit, then cut that area out and welded in the new piece.

I had some success in not warping the entire roof, but there is definitely body work to be done. Overall, I am happy with the result as I had never done anything like that before.

The picture shows the progress across the window. I took it about halfway done or so.



Also, I started fitting up the front end to get ready to weld that on, more to come on that!

[csouth]

Very nice work.. I'm following this for sure....

[Blown73]

Just for fun:

[GS455vert]

Good work!!

[Dalamar]

Great progress Jeff,

You're getting this thing done.
The chassis and suspension looks really nice.

(nice bike tires

[Blown73]

I have been a busy boy...

The chassisworks frame does not come with the front radiator support brackets welded on. I thought this was odd for a long time, then when I went to put them on, I realized that where the body mounted to the frame, it put the bumper lower in the plane of the body. So, I tried to set everything up with a straight bar from the bottom of the front crossmember. It was all tacked in, but it was very close to my steering and sway bars. So, I had to come up with something else. I don't have a tubing bender to make nice professional bends, so this is what I came up with:







I also continued the battle against rust, replacing the A-pillar cover and the roof corner on the passenger side.





Oh, and I got this:



More to come...

[Carl @ Chassisworks]

I have been a busy boy...

The chassisworks frame does not come with the front radiator support brackets welded on. I thought this was odd for a long time, then when I went to put them on, I realized that where the body mounted to the frame, it put the bumper lower in the plane of the body. So, I tried to set everything up with a straight bar from the bottom of the front crossmember. It was all tacked in, but it was very close to my steering and sway bars. So, I had to come up with something else. I don't have a tubing bender to make nice professional bends, so this is what I came up with:

That looks great, Jeff! I had a feeling you didn't really understand when I told you that you had to decide where that front was supposed to mount. It doesn't really make sense until you have all the pieces in front of you. Good job!

[DirtShark]

Best mock up wheels I have seen yet...26er or 29er? It's coming along nice work!!!

[Blown73]

Thanks Carl!

Yes, the wheels seem to take the show on this car so far. I should probably work on that! They are actually 26" diameter, which should be about the same as the final tire size.

I am getting ready to run fuel lines, which means I needed to figure out where they are going to run. Well, I have a frame in the way now. So, I devised a plan to put holes in the frame, but I didnt want to have circle holes. I decided ovals would look kind of cool. So, I bent up some 1 1/2" pipe in a press into an oval shape, then measured the 4 locations I wanted them to pass through the frame and started cutting.

Well, I don't have a plasma cutter, so cutting oval holes proved to be a time consuming effort. It took me about 8-10 hours to put these little buggers in. I think they came out okay, what do you think?

[Blown73]

Not a whole lot of actual work done on the car lately, but I have been collecting parts!

I got frame stands and motor mounts so I can start to locate the engine in the frame.







and hood hinges. (not the ones I REALLY wanted, but the ones I can actually afford)

The motor mounts themselves are pretty sweet, but they only come in bare aluminum. I had them anodized black and I am thinking they look awesome. Any bets on if Chassisworks will start making them in black after seeing these? I think royalties might be in order...

Anyways, I am at a stalled point. I need to buy a transmission. Or rent one from someone so I can mock it up in place and build the cross member. If anyone has a t-56 magnum that they want to loan me for a week or two, let me know!