Hi Guys!

Thanks for the compliments. The car isn't quite a 100% survivor -- it was painted once in a past life. I understand the original owner used the front fender and the rear quarter as an "aimpoint" to get it in and out of her garage. There's filler in a spot over the right rear wheel, some ahead of the front wheel well and the vinyl roof was replaced (because she didn't open the garage door high enough). I've spoken to the last owner (aside from the dealer I bought it from) and he confirms the past damage and repairs.

You'd get a kick out of the original owner's manual. Important stuff like turn signal operation is underlined in Red. The piece that makes me smile is a note on the turn signal operation. Someone (and I'm guessing the original owner), wrote "UP for Right"; "Down for Left". I'm speculating here, but I'll bet she was accustomed to hand signals before (you gotta wonder what she drove previously?).

I've been told by the past owner (a friend of the original owner's grandson) that the old girl special ordered the car. It was built the third week of July, 1969. The original sales brochure included with the car has the same underlining of text for options and equipment, which seems to corroborate that statement.

Anyway, I found this thing at a used car dealer showroom in Colorado Springs, CO. It was advertised on the internet. And how I found it was by using this approach: At night when my wife and I were tired and had quit working for the day (we're both self employed), I sat in front of the TV with our laptop. For perhaps 10 weeks, I'd search for cars nighly. I used "Hanks Helper" to grind through a huge amount of websites daily (it was actually designed to cut through the Craigslist mess). I also searched by way of Google, using "Low miles 1969 Nova" as the parameters. Boing! The car showed up with multiple hits.

FYI, the previous Nova I had (which I unfortunately sold to go after motorcycle magazine work) came up the same way. It was a 38,000 mile three owner car. That particular car was a three owner, original paint 6-cylinder car. It was also a little old lady special and had similar "aiming" damage! FYI, in my recent search I also found another really, really nice 1971 Nova in my recent search (19,000 miles or so). It has a '71 LS6 in it but it all looks 307-stock. It was a cool sleeper and a very nice car. Bottom line is, these things are harder to find, but if you dig, you'll unearth one.

Anyway, the plan here is to use the restoration part of the car for magazine and book work and the vintage Day 2 mods as the basis for tech on my website.

Take care fellows .....and someone, please buy Buford the Buick!

Wayne