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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
4 Attachment(s)
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
8 Attachment(s)
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
3 Attachment(s)
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
4 Attachment(s)
Assembling the control arms (which had been blasted and powder coated)
Used my homemade anti-crush device and the shop press. Attachment 229038 Attachment 229039 Attachment 229040 Attachment 229041 |
Nice ! Your anti-crush tool is much nicer than mine. I use a piece of exhaust tubing and the ends will scratch.
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
5 Attachment(s)
The backing plates and floor plugs on this car were dip galvanized. I was able to request a favor through a friend to have these done locally. :grin:
Attachment 229054 Unfortunately this is probably the last batch of zinc electroplating that I will be able to have done locally. :no: Attachment 229055 Need to start getting some of these parts put back on Rear Entry Attachment 229056 Attachment 229057 Spare Room Attachment 229058 |
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
8 Attachment(s)
Best I can figure this was sometime around May 2022. Getting ready to pull the body off the rotisserie. First hanging the front from the engine crane.
Attachment 229104 Attachment 229105 Attachment 229106 Attachment 229107 Installed leafs, differential and fuel tank. Attachment 229108 Took some "liberty" adding aluminum drums. Attachment 229109 Attachment 229110 Attachment 229111 Then put the subframe in with jackstands under the frame horns and left the rear body on the back half of the rotisserie for a short time... (no pics of the bare subframe in) |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
5 Attachment(s)
Sad that i didn't take any detail photos of rebuilding the steering box and brake calipers :frown:
Front suspension assembly... getting this thing rolling to go away for summer (need to bring the drivers home). Attachment 229139 Attachment 229140 Attachment 229141 Attachment 229142 Attachment 229143 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
4 Attachment(s)
With the subframe in I could attack my shifter project. Installing a hurst Competition Plus body with a factory style Muncie handle... in the stock location to use the factory boot. SHhhhhhhh!
Mocked up the factory shifter which was easy enough because it bolts to the subframe. (marked the location... I actually had tape strung across from the dash to the seat to form a window box of the handle location. Attachment 229171 Next mocked up the transmission tailshaft (a little tape measure work required here as the rear mount has lots of "movement"). Mounted up the Hurst shifter and adapter plate and then determined how far I needed to move it to get the handle into the correct position Attachment 229172 By modifying the adapter plate I was able to move the shifter body forward and rotate the top forward a little to get it where the handle was in the exact location as the factory Muncie shifter. (The shift body also required a little clearancing along the inside forward edge). Attachment 229173 Then cut off the muncie handle to the required length and had the holes machined out (drill bits were having none of this material). :haha: Don't worry the original shifter was not from this car and was essentially a parts shifter as the internal "gate" spring mechanism was non-functional. (Paid hard for that shifter... got scammed) Remaining parts available if someone needs. Attachment 229174 Finally mocked it all up with the bezel and boot and looks like it should work fine... a little stretch upward on the boot but nothing serious. |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
8 Attachment(s)
Spring 2022, time to get the summer cars home. Hate to put it away but have some stuff I can work on for the summer. Garage is a horrendous mess. There was a spring flood threat where I store my 70 Chevelle project so it had to come home for a few weeks (black fender). Have to get the Nova back on the tires. Masking paper is from painting the trunk... totally disappointed will expand later (still too fresh).
Attachment 229535 First up, get the engine crane to lift the back off the rotisserie. You can see the front frame horns are on huge jackstands so I will need to do this in steps. Attachment 229536 Set the back down onto riser blocks. Attachment 229537 Remove the framework. Attachment 229538 Attachment 229539 Lift the front end off of the jackstands Attachment 229540 You can see in this photo I had finished up the steering linkage, brake and fuel lines Attachment 229541 And ready for storage :frown: Attachment 229542 |
I think I have some clean original 1177 rear drums and original 633 front calipers if you need some Gary. Remind me next time we talk.
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Man, I’m getting excited to see this one done. Thanks for detailed updates and pics. I admire your efforts!
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Gary |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
5 Attachment(s)
Another long hiatus from posting however the project is coming along nicely
You may recall the homebuilt tow bar mods to the subframe which were repaired. Well the bumper brackets also met the fate of the torch during that tow bar modification. I had 3 damaged original brackets which were otherwise straight and solid and some only mediocre spare brackets. So I decided to use portions from the spares to repair the originals. Spliced on pieces to replace the torch damaged areas and tig welded back together. Sorry only tack-up pics of one bracket. Repaired three in all. Attachment 235078 Attachment 235079 Attachment 235080 Around this time also got the seats back from having the covers installed. Legendary covers installed by local shop SFI Attachment 235081 Attachment 235082 |
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
10 Attachment(s)
And Engine Teardown !!
This is one area where the Green Bastard did NOT rear his ugly head. I know this engine had been gone through at least twice by local speed shops and had seen LOTS of street and Some Drag Strip action so I was not too certain what I might find. Attachment 235083 Attachment 235084 A valve cover load spreader is peeking out from the oil pick-up screen. He was in there with two friends. THREE valve cover load spreaders and a medium handful of orange silicone sealant chunks YIPES ! I still have a hard time believing this thing survived. Attachment 235085 Crank and Bearings had some striations but nothing too serious. May have gotten away just polishing but the crank was still standard so I had it ground .010" to be safe. Attachment 235086 Pistons were in very good shape with no ridge on the cylinder walls. Was bored .030 with new pistons on the last rebuild. odometer shows about 67,000 (with 4.10 gears, uncorrected speedo) so not a lot of miles... not sure what the mileage was upon rebuild. The Machinist that deglazed the block said it looked pretty fresh still. Attachment 235087 Attachment 235088 Attachment 235089 Attachment 235090 Attachment 235091 Heads going out to machinist for freshening. Resurface the flywheel and give the block a serious wash and deglaze the cylinders for new rings. Attachment 235092 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
6 Attachment(s)
A little "inside" work... Cleaning up the cluster... lots of spares.
Attachment 235095 Well this has been in the basement for many, many years waiting for this day. Radio Delete... OK OK... non radio ordered, dash bezel :headbang: Attachment 235096 Stock Clock location Attachment 235097 Modified Clock location... hmmmm wasssup Attachment 235098 Attachment 235099 Snuck in a repop factory style tach... a little stray from pure stock. Attachment 235100 |
Very cool!! Looks outstanding!
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
4 Attachment(s)
And some addition pictures of the Dash installed.
Attachment 235101 Attachment 235105 Attachment 235103 Attachment 235104 |
70 L78 Nova...
Looking good...my first one was a 70 bench seat Forest Green L78.
As for the Muncie handle...rather than drilling holes, try welding a donor Hurst end on the Muncie handle. It is an easier lift and you get the benefit of the Hurst serrations in the mounting area for the bolts. Keep the photos coming... -wilma |
Love that tachometer!
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Very enjoyable to watch along!
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Wow...on the engine "pieces" !!:crazy:
Thanks for the continued progress pics! |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
5 Attachment(s)
Getting into some side glass gLass Installation. Another stray from original... NEW tinted glass from Auto City.
I couldn't bring myself to install used pieces after all that paint polishing !! Attachment 235115 Attachment 235116 Attachment 235117 Attachment 235118 Attachment 235119 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
3 Attachment(s)
And the rubber mat !! Very nice original purchased through this site.
They are not very cooperative after ageing. I was actually quite surprised to see how much it had shrunk/dis-figured since I had it in for the 2017 barn finds show (and is was stored very gently, not folded up). Using some strip caulk to seal under the bezel. I used an old shift boot inverted to seal downward around the shifter. Just to help with some noise and fumes/tire smoke ?!? Attachment 235123 Attachment 235124 Attachment 235125 |
Car is looking great Gary. Was just thinking about you yesterday and wondered how things were coming along.
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
5 Attachment(s)
Kick Panels
As with much of the restoration, Clean Clean, Clean! These kicks were quite nice but had a little discoloration in places so they received a coat of trim Black after hours of (did I mention) cleaning. I also selected and repainted the best condition doors (seals) I had from about 6-7 :haha: (I have a Nova problem). Carefully reassembled, slowly tightening into place to compress the fresh duct seal. Attachment 235130 Attachment 235131 Attachment 235132 Attachment 235133 Attachment 235134 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
6 Attachment(s)
Got a little ahead of myself... Looks like the headliner was done prior to the dash.
Started with stripping old glue off of the tack strips, ugly job, no pictures necessary. Also cleaned up all the pinch welt moldings (we'll leave the stainless out of this for now). Cleaned and painted the headliner bows. Attachment 235143 Making "maps" of all the hole locations required for use after the headliner is in place. Between aligning the tape map with the position alignment marks and feeling through the headliner one "should" be able to locate all the screw holes. I correctly located the dome wiring as I placed up the headliner and bows. Attachment 235144 For the sun visors the alignment strip is outside. Attachment 235145 Getting started Attachment 235147 Attachment 235148 Getting it roughed out Attachment 235149 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
8 Attachment(s)
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Looking real good!
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
10 Attachment(s)
Package tray and sail panels..
Well first a little distraction to polish out a small stray scratch I noticed while climbing around up there. Attachment 235639 I took some of the pictures after I had prepped to install the rear glass. Ended up having to wait some time for a new rear glass because all my old originals were a little scratchy. Attachment 235640 Attachment 235641 I had several pairs of originals (and repops) to choose from but nothing was good enough shape or matched the headliner close enough for my liking. So I stripped the fabric and recovered the originals with the material supplied with the headliner (Legendary) Attachment 235642 Another example of NOTHING takes five minutes... Attachment 235643 Attachment 235644 Left side. The little wrinkle in the upper corner of the headliner required pulling it apart at the back, removing the tack strips and modifying them to lay flatter. wrinkles are gone now. Attachment 235645 Right Side. Same wrinkle, same rework Attachment 235646 Attachment 235647 It would be a good idea to remove that tape along the back edge before installing the back glass... ask me how I know :rolleyes: Attachment 235648 |
Great job on the headliner! That's a satisfying project.
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
6 Attachment(s)
A few odds and ends
Park Brake and Pedals Attachment 235649 Attachment 235650 Speedo cable and clips Attachment 235651 Rag joint. Tape on box shaft is the rotational center for reference with alignment/tie rod ends. Attachment 235652 Attachment 235653 Heater core cover and wiring clips Attachment 235654 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
1 Attachment(s)
Chrome is back...
Door handles and air cleaner lid... Bare bones... Plus some parts for my 70 Chevelle Man Chrome hurts now !! Attachment 235655 |
Did your smallblock/6cyl firewall plug still have the black tape on it?
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This is the plug for where the smallblock/6 cyl heater core would exit the firewall. The factory puts that rubber plug over it from the inside. They use a piece of black tape on the surface that shows in the engine compartment. The tape is usually gone.
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
2 Attachment(s)
Ah yes, the original tape was there but not re-useable. I replaced with similar cloth tape.
Attachment 235656 Attachment 235657 |
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