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Sept 15th, 2002
I just got my Nova yesterday. If you don't know, I was looking for the right one for well over a month
now. So here's the story. I was getting desperate, searching every night, spending all of my available time
looking for one. On eBay, on cars.com, in every paper, and every day. It was a tiresome process. So I finally
ended up going to see a Chevelle, which is a very nice car, somewhat similar. I liked the car, but it was too much work.
My brother, on his way back from Steven's Point, saw a Nova that wasn't exactly what I was looking for (1968-1972 Model), but
he said that he thought it was a good idea, and worth checking out. So after I looked at the Nova, I went searching for this car.
I couldn't find it however, and my brother wasn't answering his phone, so I did something I probably wouldn't ever do, I called
the guy about the car, and asked him where it was. He gave me sort of bad directions, but then told me the car was in
front of his house, and that the "price was negotiable, I want to get it out of my front yard". Ok, I'm thinking, it was listed
at 1700, so maybe I could get a good deal on this thing. I went and looked at it. I've never seen this type of car before in
person. So it looked quite a bit different than what I was looking for. I liked it though, I mean, it looked like a lot of work,
but I was looking for a project. So after checking it out for about 15 minutes, I left. Before I got out of the driveway, I
decided to call, another thing I wouldn't normally do. The guy came out, and said he was selling it for a buddy. I told him
that I would pay 1300 bucks for it. He said he'd take it right now, but he needs to talk to his friend. Friday rolls around, and
I got a call telling me that the car was mine. Sweet. Saturday, my brother and I loaded it onto the trailer, and took it to it's
new home.
So we got it home, and immediately started driving it. Yeah, it runs, but not very good. I took it down my dad's lane, not hitting
it too hard, almost getting hit by a semi on the highway because of no turning radius, then Matt took it, hitting it pretty good, and
one more time for me, nearly flooring it. This car zooms pretty good, really good actually. So it's fun. It's nice to be able
to drive the first car you get, because you know how it can move, and how fun it is to sit in a car that is 16 years older than you.
It'll be motivation throughout the winter, to get it nice.
My budget for the car is as follows:
Body - 1500 smackers not including paint
Interior - 2500 bucks
Engine - 3000 clams
Should be interesting to see how close I stay to that, and how I raise that money. I've taken a bunch of pictures, but
my digital camera has a dead battery, so as soon as I develop the film (tomorrow) you'll get to see it. It's in rough shape,
but constant viewing of this page you should be able to see it transform. Other than that, take care.
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Sept. 18th, 2002
Here is what my car looks like right now...
 
 
As you can see, I've taken off both front fenders, the hood, the trunk, the doors, and the seats. Other things too, but that's just
little stuff. I haven't really taken any pictures just for viewing sake though. All of the pics I have are so that I remember
where everything goes when time comes to put everything back together. I'll try to get some better ones up soon.
I've done research on my car, here is what I've found.
VIN Number - - -
40411N126211
1964 Chevy II Nova 400 2 Door Sedan made in Norwood, OH, production number 126211
Cowl Tag - - -
10 D
Built October, the fourth week
Style
Interior Trim
Body Paint
Selected Options
Rear Seat Speakers
Trunk, Underhood, and Floor Lighting
Seat Belts
Engine Application Code
T 11 19 DE
Made in Tonawand,New York
November 19th
It's a 283cid 2V w/Powerglide Transmission
The Engine on my car is stock, and I'm assuming that the transmission is as well. So there is about 172000 miles on the
entire vehicle. Obviously, this shows, in the holes in the floor boards, the holes in the trunk, the rust in a few places. But
hey, I was looking for a project.
Next on the list is to get the damned dash out. Hopefully, my brother will come and help me get the engine out this weekend and
point me in a good direction for next week.
You should see the pile of car parts on the floor of our shed, and to think, I'm probably not even half done with the mess I'm making.
Grinding out bolts because they are too rusty and strip... The joys of working on old ass vehicles. This one should be sweet when
I'm done.
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Sept. 21st, 2002
What a weekend, felt like we did a lot, looks like we did a lot, but didn't spend a whole lot of time working on it. Probably
about 10-15 hours since we've last spoken.
 
 
The pictures on the left is how my car looks like right now. The right was everything we did yesterday. My brother came over,
and we started taking out the engine and transmission. No problems there. Actually went really well, really fast. Fun times
we had. This car is pretty simple. If you are going to learn how to start fixing cars, I'd suggest, the older, the better.
Nice and easy for the rookie mechanic like myself.
After we finished with the engine, we proceeded to take the front end off. Everything, basically from the windshield forward
we took off. It was only 14 bolts that held it in place. Strange, those are the only things that keep the front end of the car from
driving off from you. Well, everythign is sort of connected too, so that helps. So I plan on buying one of those brand new
front end kits, with the suspension and brakes and subframe all together. Should be nice nice nice. Now, with the car in it's current
state for a month or so, it's time to start cleaning it up.
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June 14th, 2003
I've left my car in December. It's in storage in Wisconsin now, and I'm in Tucson. It was a tough decision, but some things
were more important that fixing up an old car (barely). I've done a few bits and pieces of work on the car that I didn't
post yet.
We cut out the floor pans. Once I got everything out of the interior. I realized that a previous owner had stapled down
pieces of tin to cover up the rusted through areas. Of course this was spray painted so well, you could barely tell. Seriously
though, I knew it was a problem, I just didn't know how big.
Cutting out the floor pans wasn't as easy as I had read about. Drawing the lines in the correct area was difficult enough. I
bought two full pans from this small site online. They gave me a good deal, the best I've found on the internet through about 2
weeks of searching, and they looked pretty good too. Of course, once we took out the existing floor, we realized that we
needed new braces too. One had completely rusted off. What a mess the underneath of the car is.
Loads and loads of spot welds held the floor in place. We used a chisel, and a drill to get them all disconnected. This took about
2 hours for two people to do. We didn't do a complete factory looking finish either, we just wanted to get them off, and could
weld in new clean metal if need be later on. We had the car hoisted in the front with a cherry picker (the front end was compltely dismantled
and seperated from the car at this point), and the back end was on car jacks. Definitely not the best way to cut out spot welds.
Needless to say, we got them all off, and could commence cutting. We figured using a grinder with cut off discs was the way to go. So
we picked up a small pnematic one from a hardware store, but this didn't have enough power or speed, so we used our larger one, and
the task went by almost too quick. We aren't concerned with getting a show quality car, so we left a lot of metal on that was still
in good shape, and when we fit the new pans in, we cut out where we needed to to get it set right.
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© Doug Malcore 2002
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