My brother's Nova

[tinydb84]

Started back on my brothers 72 Nova. He bought it years ago and it had an oil leak in the pan.




We put the engine back in and it had another leak. It sat like this for a few years.

[tinydb84]

We didnt take any pictures of the front suspensioon upgrades. The front end was updated with disc breaks, drop spindles, and new control arms.
I finally convinced him to start on it again.

I started patching and shaving the firewall.


Someone caught me welding.

Little epoxy until I can do the bodywork.

[tinydb84]

Changed out the master cylinder.

New stainless lines.

[tinydb84]

Then started an LS swap. Running a LQ4 with 243 heads and a 230ish duration cam. Sorry for the shtty Instagram pic.

Tried 3 different oil pans. None fit well enough to run without modifications.


Tacked in.

Boxed in.

[Zoomin]

Looks like a great project.

[tinydb84]

Thanks Zoomin. Since I am spending my brother's money this one might get done a bit faster than my build.

Put the pump and sending unit dropped in the tank

Mated the engine and trans

Dropped the engine in on the stock stands

Engine fit fine but the pan hung too low

[tinydb84]

Decided to make new motor mount towers rather than buy all new mounts. Made a jig to hold everything in place.

Cutting some tabs
http://s20.photobucket.com/user/Tiny...43741.jpg.html
Picked this up at the craft store. Works great for laying out radius.

Also got these tab magnets from Strong Hand Tools. Makes holding the tabs much easier.

Mounts burned in.

[Rickysnickers]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

Decided to make new motor mount towers rather than buy all new mounts. Made a jig to hold everything in place.

Cutting some tabs
http://s20.photobucket.com/user/Tiny...43741.jpg.html
Picked this up at the craft store. Works great for laying out radius.

Also got these tab magnets from Strong Hand Tools. Makes holding the tabs much easier.

Mounts burned in.

Very nice welds!!

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Cool project, tagging along.

Thank you, hopefully you will like what you see.

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Well,, there goes the new neighborhood...lol

This neighborhood was gone before we got here. I am in a constant battle with people abandoning their cars on my street...

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Very nice welds!!

Thank you. I had intended to tig it all together but it was such a tight fit in the engine compartment I got lazy and mig'd it all in.

[tinydb84]

Engine going in.

Engine in.

Moved the engine up and forward one inch. Seems to clear everything really well. Need to make the trans crossmember next.

[Advanced Design]

Cool project, tagging along.

[Joe Pass]

Well,, there goes the new neighborhood...lol

[tinydb84]

I think my brother is pretty motivated since we have been making good progress. He has been coming home from work to get **** done.
I filled in all the extra holes that were drilled in the floor and raised up the tunnel just a bit to give us a bit more space around the transmission:

My brother stripped all the rust and brushed on some epoxy (we were too lazy to strip the floors):

Got some knock off dynamat:

Applied it to the areas that sounded hollow when we knocked on them:

Put a layer of closed cell foam to act as a decoupler:

Then mass loaded vinyl on top:

Still need to work it down on to the floor more. The stuff is thick and hard to shape.

[tinydb84]

He ordered his headers (didn't get a chance to take a pic yet). I welded in his O2 bungs while he was doing the floors.



Not the prettiest tig but it will do.

[tinydb84]

Long weekend of really crappy work! Pulled the engine and stripped the engine compartment and underside of the car for paint.

The car hand an oil leak for years. There was so much crud we pressure washed and degreased multiple times.
I thought the car was black underneath...apparently it was just dirt and grease.


My brother wire wheeling away.

[tinydb84]

I did a bit of body work on the firewall.

Blocking to check for highs and lows.

Did a bunch of hammer work and first pass of filler.

Masking.

Spraying.

First coat and bad lighting.

[tinydb84]

Here is a better pic of the engine compartment. Broke all three bolts to the wiper motor so now we need to deal with that.

The nice thing about working on his car is that I don't have to do any of the dirty work. He spent the last week finishing stripping, cleaning, and painting the underside of the car.

Didn't bother with the rear end or the leafs because we will likely pull it out at some point to either rebuild it or replace it with something stronger.
He started pulling the engine apart for paint.

[Joe Pass]

Lookin good....

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice Nova and cool project! Nice welding and fab work too. That will be a sweet ride when you guys are done with it. Do you plan to heat up the foam to get it to lay down better? I haven't tried any of that but may some time.

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Lookin good....

Thank you sir.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice Nova and cool project! Nice welding and fab work too. That will be a sweet ride when you guys are done with it. Do you plan to heat up the foam to get it to lay down better? I haven't tried any of that but may some time.

Thank you. The foam laid down fine. It also has a sticky side so it conforms to the floor where it is applied.

The MLV on the other hand was a pain! He cut it in sections and laid it down horizontally. Once it was cut to length he used a combo of heat gun, a few relief cuts, and aluminum tape to get everything in place and sealed down.

[tinydb84]

Started putting the fuel system together. Never used push lock hoses before. Not as hard as everyone says. Froze the fittings, heat gunned the hoses, a bit of tranny fluid for lube and ta da!

Modified an old exhaust bracket to mount the roll over valve.

[tinydb84]

My brother started to assemble the engine. New TCI converter and flywheel.


Together.

No pics but my brother started scrubbing it clean and scuffing it for paint. Hope to get it in by this week since I am out of two for the next two weeks.

[Joe Pass]

You're doing it right...very cool

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

You're doing it right...very cool

Thanks. He wasn't initially planning on doing this much work but it has been coming out well and I think that has been motivating him to keep doing more work. Not bad for a garage build!

[tinydb84]

My brother finished prepping and masking the engine.

Then shot it with Eastwood's 2k Aero Spray Ceramic Engine Paint.

The paint sprays out like a gun but has quite a bit more overspray. There isn't much paint in each can as you would think. He got about one coat per can. It has isocyanates in the paint to so be extra careful. He is going to add an additional coat today. Kinda regret not buying a clear for it.