1974 nova resto

[townsend]

hey guys. most of you know me as the sad 94 lt1 kid. well now i have new joy haha. my father in-law hit his mid life crisis finally at 49 and wanted to relive his youth again. back in the day in '81 he had a '74 ss nova, 4 speed with 350. he lived it up in that and got rid of it for a 72 olds cutlass supreme with the rockett package.

well, story goes on, the guy he sold his 74 to found him on all things facebook and said "hey bro, i got your car and need to sell it." well we fell for it at first, he kept sayin it was 4 hours from paint, he freshened up the body, perfect running order, yada yada. we went to look at it, and i was very hesitant considering he wanted $8500 for it. it was all a lie. worst part was, the car wasnt even a 74. we left quickly.

that night i found the 74 that we would later buy on craigslist in lanoka harbor, owned by a guy with a original 70 gto judge. Iowa car, 2 owners, clean title, original 68000 miles, original everything. car was bought new by a gm sales manager and meticulously maintained until he died. it then sat, and caused some of the issues we have now, but its a running driving car, just needs some love.

it only has 3 options: turbo 350 column shift (instead of powerglide), 350 2 barrell engine, and an am radio. bench seat, manual drum brakes all the way around, and we have the original ugly wheels with it too.

the day we got it home:




nearly mint interior

[WildBillyT]

Awesome!!

[townsend]

our goal is to make it a nice cruiser, with a kinda sleeperish side, but modern updates to the suspension and brakes. basic bolt-on's to the motor for now, like headers and a full pypes exhaust, intake, hei update, and new carb. just enough to drive it and get it straightened out, then the power bug can hit him and he can do whatever he wants. believe it or not, i have to restrain him from going crazy with it.

problem areas: needs new drivers side fender, patch on lower drivers side quarter right behind door, little bit of patch work around where the clips attach to the body for the vinyl top trim, cleanup tail light panel, small patch in passenger floor, small patch by pinch weld infront of passenger side rear tire.

what we are doing now: making it a driver, repairing suspension first starting with rear end and working forward

original build sheet found under floor mat:


leaves all broken except one or two:


caltracs, new energy hd shackles, u-bolts, etc., new multileafs are out getting the aluminum front eye bushings put in:


in a couple days should be sitting pretty on its own again.

[townsend]

thanks bill, thought you might like it. i just showed him yours, basically for the most part what he wants to do with his. you gonna have it out at duke this weekend? or you gonna have the ta?

[WildBillyT]

Can't make it to Duke, the 21st is my anniversary. However if he has any questions he wants to ask I'll answer them all! NPHNP.

[townsend]

hahah ill be messaging you often thanks man

[maroman88]

looks like a nice project! good luck!

[townsend]

thanks man, we are gonna need it

[NJ Torque]

Congrats and good luck.

[townsend]

aluminum bushings pressed in...currently cutting off last stupid clip nuts for front leaf perch and cleaning up holes for shackle bushings on frame...

[coolmanvette75]

Looks like a fun project Shaun! Let me know if you need any help. My dad used to race a 68 nova and is pretty knowledgeable with them...

[townsend]

ah thanks dude! let me know if you need help with le sewing machine lt1, i can hand you shtuff haha

[townsend]

ohh yeah the bumpers are original believe it or not, they are bright as heck!

[B4C]

Be careful with the 73-74 only parts some of them are hard to get a hold of. Interior door panels, plastic bumper fill panels are the first things that come to mind.

[townsend]

yeah we have been seeing that. the interior is seriously mint except the one visor fell off the mount and the drivers side seat is worn. door panels are a-ok. bumpers are getting set in flush like the older ones too. there are other things that are a pain like the front leaf to body perch, cant find one anywhere

[B4C]

Dont destroy the plastic panels taking that bumper off you could probably get good money for them because they arent reporduced.
You mean this? From what ive read this should work and lower the car slightly.
http://www.rickscamaros.com/camaro-l...1967-1969.html
And it you havnt found a forum already
http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/

[townsend]

From what I've read those don't work. Read it on stevesnova actually haha

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by townsend

From what I've read those don't work. Read it on stevesnova actually haha

I run '69 Camaro buckets in my '68SS. They do lower the car a little. I forget what arch my springs have but between those, the buckets, and no leaf spring pads I think my rear tires tuck up nice.

Did you get the J-clips out for the buckets OK?

[townsend]

yeah i got em out, after lots of broken dremel grinding wheels. gotta do the passenger side tomorrow. drivers side just got mocked up tonight, everything fit fairly well. trying to decide on no lower leaf pad or do a lower leaf pad for the caltracs with the multileafs. it seems as though if i just run the top one and not the bottom one it may work, or the caltracs lower plate is gonna contact the perch before the spring being totally tight in there.

[townsend]

well we finally got her back down on all 4's. just got a little tweaking to do to the caltracs adjustment. its set at base setting right now. ill get better pics tomorrow heres for now


sitting nicely


next steps are to do full front suspension, tune up, headers, carb and intake. if anybodys got some sbc laying around and wants to get rid of it pm me hes looking for some stuff.

[townsend]

just recieved the hooker headers and pypes racepro dual exhaust with x-pipe. getting ready to start tearing the old stuff off

[townsend]

well, le headers have been installed, along with deadsoft aluminum gaskets, stage 8 locking fasteners, percy's collector gaskets, and the full pypes exhaust. not as loud as we thought it was gonna be. also, we are having issues with the drivers side header gasket leaking at the back bolt/cylinder. another issue is that the headers are sitting unevenly, the drivers side is lower than the passenger side, to the point that with everything mounted up the collector extension hits the trans crossmember, which in turn does not allow the collector gasket to line up and now i have a leak there. other than that, its running better and sounds pretty decent.

[townsend]

late update will post pics later tonight. we bought a summit pro-pack with the intake, 600cfm carb, hei, new valvecovers..etc. got it put together in a few hours and it runs great for the most part. problem we are having is the fuel pump when the motor warms up cant keep up. the clear-view fuel filter is draining out, and if you blip the gas it only trickles into it. this is causing the bowls to drain and it to run like crap. new fuel pump next week

[greenformula92]

New mechanical fuel pumps are so cheap and they are so easy to replace...

[steverc0034]

Nice looking nova man.