View from the Top

I took this shot with my phone from the second floor of Hope Square in Rancho Mirage. Not bad from the top.

Spoiler Alert

I added a "Spoiler by Randy" the the nose of the Nova this weekend. Its based on the chin spoiler found on the 1st Gen Camaros. Randy makes these out of steel and yo can paint them or run them black as is.

Its a simple three bolt installation that attaches to the hood latch support in the middle and the two frame rails on the sides. The only downside is because I did the bumper tuck and the raised the bumper an inch the ends of the spoiler don't meet the bumper supports. I might make a couple brackets, they aren't need for support but its more of a visual thing.

 I like the black accent to the front of the car and I feel it really finishes the front facia of the Nova.

Sorting out the Bump Steer

Now that the front end is so low I have some bump steer issues to resolve. Bump steer manifests itself when the suspension loads or unloads from a bump in the road. Bump steer often occurs when one lowers (or raises) the front end and the tie rods become misaligned relative to the lower control arm. They need to be parallel or the tie rod will swing on a different arc as the control arm. The shorter or longer arc will cause the wheels to turn while the steering wheel stays still. Bump steer = thrill ride.  

While inspecting my front end I discovered that the shop that installed my drop spindles put the steering arm on the upper set of bolt holes. I assumed this was done because when the steering rod was bolted to the (proper) lower set of holes, the tie rod knuckle would hit the rim or it may have been done because the tie rod looks like its parallel to the lower control arm this way. In any event, this improper installation has caused my suspension to be out of whack.

 

Did My Cheap Wheels Just Get Expensive?

If the tie rod will hit the rim, the simple solution is have less backspace on my rims. The Vision Legend 17x8 wheels have 5.25" of backspace.

 

Other guys 3rd Gen Nova setups it appears a 17x7 rim with 4.5 inches of backspace would clear the tie rod and the outer fender. Unfortunately Vision doesn't make a 17x7 wheel in this style. So to do this I would have to get 4 new rims. Ouch!

3rd Gen 8" Front Rim Sizes

This Super Chevy article shows a 69 Nova with 2" drop spindles using 17x8 w/ 4.75" back space up front (and 17x9 with 5.75 back space out back).

Here's a chart I made to help wrap my head around the rim widths and backspacing and where they sit in relationship to the outside fender and the tie rod end connection to the steering arm.

Modify the Steering Arms?

From the image above it seems that modifying my steering arms will solve my problem. I only need to pickup about 1/4" to get my tie rod clearance. This could be done by shimming the steering arms out with longer bolts and spacers or by heating and bending the steering arms. Then I could shorten the tie rods by 1/4" (4-5 turns) and we are in business. Time to unbolt the front end and do some work.

Move the Steering Arm Down and In

After removing the wheel, caliper and disc I was able to get to the steering arm bolts. I removed the bolts from the upper position on the spindle and installed new 1/2" x 3" grade 8 bolts in the bottom position. Then I added three washers between the steering arm and spindle to give myself the extra 1/4" of clearance. (I also added 1/2" x 2" bolts to the upper position on the spindle. This is basically overkill as it only holds the dust shield on to the spindle.) I test fit the rim by re-installing the disc, caliper and wheel to verify the 5.25" backspacing actually cleared the tire. It's really close but it clears. I've read you should have 1/2 clearance for tire deflection but my tires are low profile and the tie rod is right at the point where the tire meets the rim so deflection wont be an issue.

 

I now have the tie rods on the same plane as the lower control arms and have tie rod clearance off the tire. (Note: Since this picture I replaced the sway bar mounts and shocks and springs with QA1 coil overs.)

This picture above is a little deceptive as the lower control arm does not look parallel to the tie rod. This has to do with the shape of the lower control arm. This setup is in-fact parallel to the plane of the lower control arm pivot and the ball joint.

Home Alignment
I decided to even up the Caster and Camber and used a home alignment setup I built with a Sears digital level. I got it pretty close but my toe was still off. Then I took it to the alignment shop and had them fine tune the finished product. By the looks of it the toe should come in on the left (+0.05 should go to -0.03) and the right out a hair (from -0.06 to -0.03).  That should give me the 1/16" toe in.

 

After this visit the alignment felt good but the steering wheel was no centered so I brought the tie rod in one turn on the left and out one turn on the right and this centered the wheel nicely.

The Front Bumper Tuck

In 1973 Chevrolet was required to increase the crash resistance of the bumpers on its vehicles. This began the era of the "big bumper" Novas. In order to be able to accommodate an up to 5 mph impact, the bumpers were pushed out away from the body 2-3 inches which made the bumpers look really bulky.

Big Bumper Nova owners wishing to clean-up the look of their 73-74 Novas have two choices. They can swap the nose trim, grill and bumper for a 69-72 setup which is a basically bolt on swap as the fenders are the same, but this is not cheap swap and it changes the personality of the 73 nose. The alternative is to perform the "bumper tuck". This is fairly quick and cheap.

On the front and rear, the bumper tuck eliminates the 2" plastic/vinyl trim that is suspended between the bumper and the grill or end panel and moves the bumper back to sit abutted to the grill or rear panel. On our car the rear bumper tuck was performed by the previous owner (who told us he also replaced the rear bumper with a 1974 bumper).

Since I had the front grill removed for paint, I decided to reassemble the front end with a front bumper tuck. Step one was to notch the bumper bracket. These bolt to the frame and when you slide them back without the notch they will run into the radiator support.

After several tries and test fitting, this is the final cut I used. 4-1/2" from the rear edge and 4-1/2" wide. (You can follow the slope of the detent in the brace in for the last 1-1/2".)

Bumper Tuck
Next Drill the new holes in the frame with a 1/4" or 5/16" bit and then finish the hole with a 1/2" or 9/16" drill bit. I only had a 1/2" so I needed to the clearance the holes so the bolts would slip through. The brace is now bolted to the frame using the first two bolt holes on the brace.

The #3 bolts are no longer bolted through the frame because the frame bends in away from the bracket. Here I just used an old bumper (carriage) bolt to tie the bumper bracket together with the outside bumper bracket.

Bolt the bracket to the frame in the new bolt hole location and you will have a bumper tuck that sits up over the lower grill trim and above the bottom of the headlight trim.

Lower Bumper Tuck Alternative
I also wanted to see how it looked if I bolted the bumper below the lower grill and headlight trim. The upside is you can move the bumper further back about 1/2", the downside is the 2" gap between the bumper and filler panel that would need to be filled.

To do this I added another elongated hole lower on the frame rail. (This pic is before I connected the two holes.) For the back bolt I used the existing slot in the frame.

If you use this bumper tuck you don't need to notch the braces but you definitely will need to fab filler panels for the side trim. Also with the bumper pulled this far back I found my front tire ran into the rear edge of the brace so if I left it this way I would have needed to trim the back of the brace.

It seems everyone goes with the upper tuck and I concur, even if the gaps weren't there the lower grill trim now becomes a visual element and it changes the look of the front end.

I'm thinking a Spoiler by Randy might be a good addition to the front...

Freshen Up the Interior

Since I had everything apart I decided the interior of the Nova needed a little freshening up as well. The dash pad, door panels and front seat were shot but the carpet, headliner and back seat were fine.So I decided to "freshen" the interior. Here's the before shot:

While I was working on the heater a new dash pad was put in and I rattle canned the dash. The door panels were replaced with new ones from Classic Industries and I took the front seat to Marce at Surf City Upholstery to have him match the velour that is on the back seat from the previous owner's recover.

I've still got to find a door pull and trim for the door panels,and there are lots of little pieces that could be replaced, but its looking much better. Here's the result so far.

The Heater Undelete

At some point a previous owner had the heater core go bad so he removed the A/C and Heater equipment under the hood and bolted a steel cover over the air inlet on the firewall. By removing this he also eliminated the Defroster. So for the last 10 years its been a little cold and foggy in the Nova during the winter months.

I decided this finally needed to be fixed. In addition to this my son also noted that there were no lights on the dash, so at night he was running dark. Since we were going to send out the seat to have it recovered I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get under the dash and fix this as well.

First I completely disassembled the dash. How is it possible all this stuff fits under there?

Next to get access to the mounting location for the heater blower motor I removed the passenger side inner fender well from inside the engine compartment.

There are a couple of companies that make "AC Delete" covers for the 3rd Generation Novas. The top piece is made from fiberglass and looks like a factory cover but I found it wouldn't fit without cutting the cover just above the top hose outlet. So I opted for the simpler looking ABS cover.

 

The next item was the wiring the PO had snipped off the wires that passsed through the firewall and I had this to work with. See the 5 neatly cut wires? They go through the firewall out to the AC/Heater components. The other end of this harness goes to the AC/Heater controls on the dash.

 

I bought a new Blower Motor, AC Relay, and AC Resistor and from the factory service manual I figured out how to wire it. The key to success was to buy all AC components. The AC components are all heavier than the Heat-only and the firewall on the AC cars are different than the firewall on the heat only cars!

 The resistor was mounted inside the AC delete panel and wired out to the AC relay which feeds the blower motor. This all is routed through the firewall in the big grommet just above the valve cover.

You can see the new Heater core coming through the firewall. The first test was to try the blower motor and it worked on all speeds. All I need now is a couple of hoses and the Heater install will be complete.

In reassembling the dash I cleaned all of the connections and replaced all the bulbs and two undersized fuses and now we have all the lights on the dash as expected!

We added new door panels a new dash pad and had the seat recovered and the interior is like new.

How Low Can We Go?

Back when we replaced the air shocks and installed the 2" drop Hotchkis leaf springs on the rear I felt the front end need come down the same amount.  After I replaced the front brakes I started collecting front end components when good deals would come up on ebay. My goal was to lower the front end a couple more inches and hopefully make the car handle better in the process.

I went with a set of the Tubular A-Arms that have a coil spring drop pocket and a pair of 2" drop spindles. I felt this combined with a set of stock height springs would give me just the right ride height in the front.

 
ebay Tubular A-Arms

ebay Tall 2" Drop Spindles

Rock Auto Rockwell Constant Rate RC5370 Coil Springs

Rock Auto KYB Gas Adjust #KG4515  Front Shocks

The only problem was taking the front end this low put the front rims right on the fender wells so hitting any bump caused the front tires to rub on (actually bang into) the inner fender well. Ever since we lowered the rear there was a little rubbing on the passenger rear under load but the PO had rolled the inner lip so the rubbing was minimal. But when we got this low in the the front the rubbing was way too much.

 The Nova with 2" drop in the back and 4" drop in the front.

The old wheels were a fairly standard 4.5" backspace the solution was some 5.25 backspace wheels. So I changed to this wheel in silver.

Vision Legend 5 - 17x8, 5x4.75 bolt pattern,
5.25" backspace (+19mm offset), Silver Rims

The 5.25 was perfect on the back the rubbing out back was gone and the 17" rim clears the rear shocks in the stock location. In the front a 5" backspace would be perfect so I ordered a set of custom spacers from http://www.motorsport-tech.com. These were $90 but worth every penny to get it right.

Motorsport-Tech.com 10mm Spacers

These spacers have the added advantage of being hub-centric so the wheel is not riding on the log nuts but instead it rides on the wheel hub. The 10mm spacers move the wheels out 1/4" and still leave 8 full threads on the lug nuts.

The front tires are still P225/45R-17 and the backs are P245/45R-17. With the front this low, the front tires are maxed out. But when we replace the rear tires we might go a little wider/taller as there is plenty of room for more tire in the back now.

Someday I'd like to add a Posi Rear, 1" lowering blocks, Disc Brakes and a set of 17x9 rims back there!