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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States

      New Project: 1970 Nova .... SoCal

      My name is Brian. New member from San Diego.

      Thought I'd start a build thread on my new project, a 1970 Nova.



      Still haven't 100% figured out all the details of what I want to do to the car, so let me hear your thoughts.

      Previous owner worked on it for 5-6 years and got it here:
      454 Big Block
      Th400
      12 bolt rear with 3.73 gears
      Sub frame connectors
      Front factory disk conversion
      new fuel tank and electric pump
      replc all bushings
      undercarriage, firewall, and floors scraped and sprayed with Lizard skin
      No interior
      No dash

      Photo on pick up Nov 2012


    2. #2
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      I'm setting a goal to get this road ready/legal by mid Aug

      I think my end goal will be a mean looking sleeper/rat rod/patina pro touring machine. But I'm flexible.... I'd also like to keep this as a driving restoration.

      Since Nov 2012 here's what I've been doing:

      sold off the 15" rally's (with the wrong offset so they hit the fender lips)
      purchased cheap rollers for garage.
      Purchased cheap shocks to get settled
      cleaned up some wiring
      Stripped massive layers of old paint and lots and lots of bondo
      Started patching some rust holes

      I got a big pile of parts I've been collecting ready for install: Astro Hydroboost conversion, front spindles, some 18"s with Nitto 275 and 245's, autometer gauges for dash

      I still need to decide what to do about seats for the August target date. I'm thinking of dynomat, carpet, front buckets, and 3 pt seat belts for the August goal.

      Before:


      after:


      Here's the Nova as of last weekend:

    3. #3
      Join Date
      Dec 2004
      Location
      California
      Posts
      793
      Country Flag: United States
      Welcome to the board, its good to see another SD guy on here. There are several guys on here from the SD area, some of them get together once and while. Keep the updates coming as you go it looks like you have a great start to your build already.

    4. #4
      Join Date
      Mar 2006
      Location
      California City Ca.
      Posts
      398
      welcome aboard
      Dale Hayes
      87 turbo t
      turbonetics t60, pet stock location intercooler, ride tech coilovers, rjc exhaust, 60lb injectors with tt chip, ported heads and intake, ported tb, baer brakes, roh 17 inch wheels....now need to finish paint and get it put back together.

    5. #5
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      San Diego, CA
      Posts
      100
      Country Flag: United States
      welcome and damn another nova in socal lol

      were sure becoming more and more popular around here
      -Blake
      yellow 72 nova in San Diego

    6. #6
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Just thought I'd share a little progress.

      I'm doing an Astro Van Hydro-Boost conversion. Its taken me a little while to collect all the parts...but hopefully I finally have them all now because I took it all apart.

      I just found a local guy that tig welded the old push rod with a new adjustable clevis, so that should have been the final missing piece.

      Before: Standard non-power master cyl with front factory converted disk and rear drums


      After: mock up of the Astro hydro boost and master cyln, you can see the Wilwood prop valve in the bottom of the pic

    7. #7
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Just finished up the Hydroboost over the weekend.

      Once I started bleeding the brakes, I started to find some interesting stuff. Pass rear = working drum. Driver rear = No fluid present during bleeding. Driver front = excellent condition and fluid present. Pass front = dry as a bone. replace caliper, still no fluid. Had to replace line from master to front passenger just to get the fluid flowing again. Now I got 4 working hydro assisted brakes. THEY WORK!

      I'm getting a little pedal feedback when I brake, so I think I need to re-address how I Tee-ed the return lines into the power steering reservoir.

      Now that I got all 4 brakes working, I think it might be an official "driving" project.

    8. #8
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Posts
      72
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by bs46488 View Post
      ...Now that I got all 4 brakes working, I think it might be an official "driving" project.
      Awesome! Right on schedule too, not bad. Let us know how the maiden voyage goes!

      of the running car.

      Jon Rasmussen
      Hotchkis Performance
      877-466-7655 ext. 224
      [email protected]

      Hotchkis Performance East
      704-660-3060

      Check out our Facebook page!


    9. #9
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Well, I chickened out to head down our street (we live on a very very steep 1/4 mile hill)

      here is the car on saturday after I pulled her out. Went back in the garage and noticed a new leak on the floor (tranny and rear diff leave a little drip that I haven't fixed yet). This time the leak was brake fluid leaking out of the rear wheel cylinder. I guess after reviving all these systems, things are bound to cause a little problems.


    10. #10
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Posts
      72
      Country Flag: United States
      So close! Luckily enough wheel cylinders are easy to replace. Looking forward to the "first drive" post.

      Jon Rasmussen
      Hotchkis Performance
      877-466-7655 ext. 224
      [email protected]

      Hotchkis Performance East
      704-660-3060

      Check out our Facebook page!


    11. #11
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      Posts
      133
      Very cool! Seems like there is always a leak to chase. Your nova is looking good though!

    12. #12
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Back for a little update.

      I've been chasing leaks in my Hydroboost conversion. I've had nothing but problems with the AN hoses and braided lines for the pressure lines. They keep blowing the hose out of the AN fitting. My guess is that I purchased the wrong type of AN fittings/hose for my application.

      So I've converted to factory OEM hoses. After scouring RockAuto for days for pictures of hoses, I found a couple of hoses that might work. I went down the street to order at my local parts store. (not to mention the hose was only $18.99) Got the hose home, had to take a little of the bend out of the factory hard line...and it fits like a glove. The pressure hose from the booster to the pump was a little trickier, but I ended up buying two separate hoses ($18.99 + $13.99) then cut the fitting off one of the hoses and had a local welder TIG the 3/8 hard lines together. I should have everything buttoned up tonight so I'll take some photos.

      Right before my final line blow out I had the car driving around in the cul-de-sac and the temp gauge started to climb towards 220+. I was in the process of converting from the mechanical fan to an electric fan. Also had to replace the two dry rotted radiator hoses. I also did a fluid flush and took out gallons of nasty rusty water. Notices some hoses missing on my water pump, etc.

      So after I get the car off of jack stands for the power steering lines debacle, I will finish the install on all the cooling system maintenance.

      Hopefully that maiden voyage isn't too far off now....

    13. #13
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Posts
      72
      Country Flag: United States
      Keep at it! Looking forward to meeting up some place, sometime!
      Last edited by Jon @ Hotchkis; 10-18-2013 at 08:24 AM.

      Jon Rasmussen
      Hotchkis Performance
      877-466-7655 ext. 224
      [email protected]

      Hotchkis Performance East
      704-660-3060

      Check out our Facebook page!


    14. #14
      Join Date
      Mar 2012
      Location
      Escondido CA
      Posts
      493
      Country Flag: United States
      Brian, some of us will be out at Qualcomm on Sunday autocrossing, feel free to come check it out!

      1973 Corvette Factory Primer Car
      1969 Barracuda Convertible
      1967 Plymouth Valiant

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Just a quick update....

      Here is the completed "factory" type power steering hoses.



      And after putting the car up on the jack stands to tackle the leaking rear wheel cylinders, I thought it would be a good time to tackle my worst rust issue:



      As you can tell from my first cut...I'm using a patch panel for the outside qtr. I'm going to make some home made panels for the inner structure. Its not going to be pretty, but it will remove all the rust.

    16. #16
      Join Date
      Sep 2010
      Location
      alpine ca
      Posts
      657
      Country Flag: United States
      cool project what part of san diego are you im in alpine area and built my wife a 72 nova
      john
      1972 NOVA SPEED TECH TORQUE ARM AND FRONT ARMS , RUSHFORTH NIGHT TRAINS, DRIVERZ INC
      BUILD LINK
      https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...t-(GREY-MATTER)

    17. #17
      Join Date
      Jul 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      432
      Country Flag: United States
      Ya PT Novas of San Diego! Come visit us at our next event dec 7 Qualcomm stadium.SCCA SOLO 2 Autocross.Some of our Pro Touring guys will also be at the Good Guys Del Mar event this weekend. So far on this thread I noticed two that raced with us and one that went for rides at Qualcomm.WE have a few San Diego Autocross and San Diego SCCA threads here.also facebook " San Diego SCCA autocross" and the main function site SDR-scca.com

      Free to visit our event!and broadcast on 93.7 fm
      George

    18. #18
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      So I've noticed that most build threads go this way.....Well its been 2 years since I've updated.

      Anyways, I've made a little progress and also back tracked a little at the same time, so I thought I'd post an update.

      I was plugging away at the car for a good while.

      So then whenever I would start the big block to drive it into the driveway to work on it. I'd have to listen to my wife complain for about 2-3 days about how loud the car was and how bad it smelled. Then in my other ear, I have my father (who taught me all this car stuff) saying the same thing over and over again LS motor, LS motor, LS motor. So I finally caved to both of them and figured I could buy an LS motor and solve the old car smell for my wife and also take the advice of my father.

      So I decided to pull the big block and put it on an engine stand and make room for an LS in the Nova. Here is the Nova with its engine removed. You can also see my engine stand in the background (and my father). Typically engine stands are red, but mine seems to look a little primer gray with a hideous orange firewall:



      I guess at this time, its when I start another build thread!

      Here is the latest on with the nova. I'm back to researching and buying more parts for the LS conversion. I'm hoping to get it back to running, stopping, and steering over the summer. (I'm also hoping to have the truck as "driving project" by then too")

      Brian

      1972 C10 - 454/TH400 - Short bed conversion - https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...1972-C10-SoCal
      1970 Nova - LS Swap - https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...Cal?highlight=



    19. #19
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      My father was out visiting for a couple of days and we spent some time working on the LS swap.

      We jumped knee deep into the wiring harness. Following the instructions on the web it wasn't that bad of a project.

      Here is the motor/wiring cleaned up a little:



      Got the engine mounted and ran into an issue. The center link hits my oil pan when turning. The mounts I'm using moved the engine forward about 1.75". I bought the new Holley 302-2 pan. It has a good solid hand width behind the truck intake on the firewall. The trans mount was quickly modified to fit. I even think my driveshaft will bolt right in. So I'm more inclined to modify the center link or find a different centerlink to swap in. Any suggestions?

      Brian

      1972 C10 - 454/TH400 - Short bed conversion - https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...1972-C10-SoCal
      1970 Nova - LS Swap - https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...Cal?highlight=



    20. #20
      Join Date
      Feb 2005
      Location
      Waterloo, Ia
      Posts
      1,409
      Quote Originally Posted by bs46488 View Post
      My father was out visiting for a couple of days and we spent some time working on the LS swap.

      We jumped knee deep into the wiring harness. Following the instructions on the web it wasn't that bad of a project.

      Here is the motor/wiring cleaned up a little:



      Got the engine mounted and ran into an issue. The center link hits my oil pan when turning. The mounts I'm using moved the engine forward about 1.75". I bought the new Holley 302-2 pan. It has a good solid hand width behind the truck intake on the firewall. The trans mount was quickly modified to fit. I even think my driveshaft will bolt right in. So I'm more inclined to modify the center link or find a different centerlink to swap in. Any suggestions?

      Although I dont have an LS swap, I'm pretty sure this is a common LS swap problem and its solved by buying one of the conversion oil pans. I'm sure someone who knows what they're talking about will chime in though.
      -Nick
      -1967 GTO I drive and race
      -Build threads:
      -http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=615847&page=23
      -https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...project-thread


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