Paint the Calipers Red, It'll Stop Faster

With the new (to us) motor, we started driving the Nova again and a few of the other items that had been neglected were due for upgrades. Fortunately, our Nova came from the factory with front discs so new rotors, shoes and calipers were any easy way to get factory-fresh stopping power.

The upgrade? Paint the calipers red. It'll stop faster... right?

Having the brakes off got me thinking about getting new spindles.
A 2" drop would be nice...

Time to "Drop" In a New Motor

See that red motorcycle in the first blog post? That motorcycle was built by my buddy Jim and his production crew at Vengeance Motorcycles in Riverside, CA. I convinced Jim a couple of years ago to move to the beach and one night over dinner I was lamenting about my dilemma with the Nova motor. Should I bail? Should I rebuild? Jim solved my problem and offered me a free motor. To sweeten the deal, offered to help my son and I drop it into the Nova.

The motor was a 305ci out of a 92 Camaro. Sure it was no over cammed solid lifter 350 but it ran strong and was free. While my son wasn't thrilled to be loosing the "beast", he was enthusiastic because this would mean the Nova wasn't going to be given away to some CL bottom-feeder. I was happy because it was a chance for the two of us to wrench on the Nova together and I knew with Jim's help and guidance there was a pretty good chance it would actually run again.

The 305 was a short block and it has center-bolt heads so we couldn't reuse a lot of the parts from the old motor so we bought a few items to make it work including an intake manifold, valve covers, water pump, gaskets and such. Not only did Jim give me the motor but he pressure washed it, tapped all the bolt holes, painted Chevrolet Orange and installed all the parts we bought. The day it arrived it looked like a brand-new crate motor.

The "fresh" 305 was removed out of a 92 Camaro in leu of something more powerful. From the way it sounds, we think it might have a cam in it, but who knows?

The first step was to make the engine compartment look decent enough to put the masterpiece in that Jim had prepared. Jim taught us a trick and after we scrapped years of grime off every metal surface we sprayed the entire engine compartment with EZ-Off oven cleaner. As it turns out ovens are usually coated with baked-on enamel so the cleaner is pretty harsh but doesn't hurt the enamel. Put the same stuff on your painted frame, inner fender wells and fire wall and the next morning the old paint washes off.

 

After cleaning we taped and masked everything off and gave the engine compartment a fresh coat of rattle can "Frame Black" paint.

Next up was the motor install. We decided to leave the trans in place and mate it up to the motor in the car. If I had more overhead room or if I had disassembled the front clip, I would have put them in together. The newer SBCs have a one piece rear main seal so they are less likely to leak, but it just seems this puts a lot of strain on the seal as you are mating them together. The good news is so far we have no oil leaks.

The install happened on a Saturday and Sunday and by the end of the weekend the Nova roared back to life! The original 4-bolt main got bagged and put into storage for possible future re-use. I've always thought it would be fun to "drop-in" a 383... but this motor will do just fine for now.

Rumpty Rump, Pssssst. The end of an Era.

Then the worst thing that could happen to an old hot rod happened one day, the motor blew a head gasket. After being told it would be at least $2000 to sort it out. We decided it might be time to just sell the Nova. At 23, my son was at an age where having a "regular" car would make more sense. Given the fact the Nova had no heater or defroster and the floors were wet half the time it wasn't the most practical vehicle for every day driving.

With the motor and rust issues it was decided it was time to pass the project to another owner. We posted an ad in the OC Craiglist asking $2500 with these pix which created a flurry of phone calls.

After explaining to folks on the phone about the rust and blown head gasket. The best offer we got was a low-ball $1000. The 17" rims and tires were $900 a year earlier... are you kidding me? We were keeping the Nova.

How to go Rust Free in one foul swoop! AKA the $2100 folly.

Given the body rot on our Nova, I started rationalizing that if I just started with a rust-free car I could take all the good stuff off the Nova (motor, trans, rims, tires, most of the interior etc.) and put it on a rust free car and we have a great Nova. It sounded so sane I started watching for "rollers" and guess what I found? A 1973 rust free California true SS Nova! It was located in Bakersfield and it could be mine for a meer $1600. The seller offered me a new SS hood and grill for $300 and offered to deliver it to me for another $200. How could I pass up such a sweet deal?

 

Figuring this would be a little too much of a project for me I had the roller delivered to a local hot rod shop and the day it arrived, I drove the Nova over and asked: "How much to put this stuff on there and paint it?"

Look it came with the original numbers matching SS block, crank and heads! (FYI No such thing in 1973. The SS package was just an exterior trim decoration and could be ordered with any motor including a six cylinder if you wanted.) This was an automatic, AC car, bench seat, 350ci 2Bbl L65. No one will ever be lining up a Barrett-Jackson to add this to their Nova collection.

On the plus side the roller already had mini tubs installed. This is $1000 project all on its own. I dreamed of the 11" rear wheels I would put on the car.

How do I know it was an original SS? While no one can say for sure unless you have the original build sheets, who in their right mind would put SS stripes on a non-repainted car? It was legit.

And as a bonus, it came with  a trunk full of (all be it dusty) goodies.

 I could picture the brand new cowl hood and SS grill. It was only a matter of time!

It was delivered ready to go. Just swap the motor bolt on some parts and take it to the DMV!

The owner of the shop quoted me $40K. That's right $40,000 dollars. It was his nice way to tell me to get my crappy Novas out of his shop. I took my prize(s) home and tried to not look my wife straight in the eyes for fear I would explode in flames.

1973 Nova SS Roller For Sale (Cheap!) - Third Time's a Charm
I decided to give up the SS swap dream and decided to sell the SS on E-Bay. I asked $1800 and got no bids. Just to get rid of it, I lowered the price to $600 and had a $500 non-refundable deposit required. I got one bidder. He sent his deposit and showed up a week later to pick it up.

After the buyer looked at it he said it was too big of a project. I told him to give me the $100 he owed me and to take his car and title. I suggested that just he part it out and he could double/triple his money. He declined and walked away.

So I listed it on Ebay. Again, I only had 1 bidder and it sold for $600. The guy sent me the deposit and asked if I could hold it for a few weeks. He owned a body shop and had a customer with a 73 Nova who wanted it for parts. Several weeks went by and he called and said his customer backed out and so he didn't want to spend the time/money to come get the car. It was still mine.

So it went back up on the Bay and sold again for $600. This time the buyer was in North Carolina. He sent me the $600 and sent a truck to pick it up. One morning a few weeks later, we pushed it on to a car carrier and it rolled away. My wife smiled at me that day.

I paid $1600 for it and I eventually got $1600 back. So the hood and SS grill cost me $500 which is about retail. I decided those suckers were going on our Nova.

Rust Never Sleeps

Over the years, what wasn't so kind to the Nova was the beach. As Neal Young sang "rust never sleeps" and the Nova got its share of sleepless nights. Every time it rained my son would complain that the carpet was wet.

The visible result was two big rust-through spots on the drivers door and drivers rear quarter. But as anyone will tell you if you see this much rust look out, there is a lot more under the surface. We noticed signs of other rust especially the rear tail panel (was there when we bought it) and under the rear window which was crunchy when you pressed on the glass. The Nova started looking more like a Detroit native than a So-Cal baby. (This one was built in Van Nuys, CA.)

Drag Stars and Air Shocks Gotta Go

The Drag Stars and jacked up rear end give the Nova a real 70's / 80's hot rod look but I've really become a fan of the modern lowered hot rods with tall rims and low profile tires. When it was time for new rubber I decided to bite the bullet and replace the 15" Craigar Drag Stars and TA Radials with a modern set of 17" rims.

I found a local So Cal Craigslist seller who was offering a set of 4 17x8 Dante 5-spoke wheels with 45 series tires mounted for just $900. and I couldn't pass up the deal. The Dante wheels have a 4.5" backspace and a clear coated polished aluminum finish. The tires was chose were 225/45R17's up front and 245/45R-17's in the back.

At the same time I came to the conclusion that I needed to ditch the air shocks on the back of the car. They made the car ride horribly and the rear end was too jacked up. Removing the air shocks revealed that we had badly sagging rear leaf springs, so to get the right stance we picked up a set of Hotchkis 2" lowered leaf springs for $500 and put them out back. This put the car back to level and the rims and stance gave the Nova the modern hot rod look it wanted.

One of the odd things about Novas is the right tire sits closer to the body than the left tire. The rear seems to be offset by 1/2-3/4's of an inch. Once we lowered the back this became more apparent as the passenger tire would rub on the inner fender well under load and in turns. Fortunately the previous owner had rolled the fender lip so the rubbing isn't too dramatic.

The Spirit of Dale Earnhardt

The Nova has served our son faithfully during his high school years. His Nova became pretty well known in local circles. The vanity tags are 73CUSTM this spelled out the year and model of the Nova and the distinct rumble of the exhaust note let everyone in the neighborhood (including his mother) know exactly what time he was getting home every night.

The 73 Nova with the Dale Earnhardt 3 on the dashboard
pays homage to the late Dale Earnhardt.

The previous owner had affixed a Dale Earnhardt "3" to the dashboard and unlike Dale, our son had resisted stuffing it into a wall. I'd like to think the 3 reminded him to drive safely. Whether it was his safe driving or the spirit of Dale looking out for him, both my son and the Nova made it through his teen-age years without incident.