Darcy Synder's 1969 L-78 SS 396 Nova!

[Xplantdad]

I had been on the hunt for a car for about 6 months and wanted a local car so that I didn’t have to travel too far to have a viewing. The choice was down to 2 cars, a Canadian built LS5, M-22 cowl induction , original paint Chevelle in southern Alberta, or a 1969 Nova SS, L-78, M-21 in Ontario. The owner of the Chevelle was being hard to deal with, so I got a plane ticket to Ontario to look at the Nova.

The Nova turned out to be very dirty, but appeared to be mostly complete. I flew home the next day, and arranged for the car to be shipped back home. The first thing I did when the car got home was take the back seat out, to find the fisher line sheet. But it wasn’t there. It was later found with one of the previous owners. I had to order Canadian GM documentation before the purchase of the car to verify that it was real.

A good cleaning was in order and made a big difference in the appearance of the Nova. I also received a folder full of receipts from the early 90’s to the present. It had a few names with phone numbers, and I was able to locate 2 of the previous owners that way. The one gentleman wanted to buy the car back. I was also given the original buyer of the cars number from the guy I bought the car from, and made contact with him also. This guy says he still has the POP for the car, but his basement is so cluttered he’s not sure where to start.

The car was also bought and sold through Legendary Motorsport at one time. I knew I was missing a few previous owners that I had not made contact with. Then last year, mid year, the phone rings, and a guy asks if I own a black Nova with a big block!

It turns out this guy remembers this car from his younger days. He went to school with the owners daughter, and she had snuck him into the garage to see the car under a car cover. He was able to help me get contact with the second owner of the car. I am still missing one guy that lived in Toronto, Ontario, his name from what I have been told is Luke Sekk, Sikk, not sure of the spelling. Any help would be appreciated to locate this guy.

According to owner 2, the cars best time was a 13.9 at 110 mph. He had put a hydraulic cam in it for lower end power. He mentioned that he may also have the original distributor. So I`m waiting to see if he can come up with it. He also had the tranny warrantied by GM.

The car was under coated and rust proofed from the dealer and has just over 54000 original miles. The documentation verifies the mileage. It is numbers matching from one end to the other, all the date codes appear to be correct also. All the windows are dated coded correct except for the drivers back side. Even the front windshield is dated correct. The car was hit early on in life in the drivers back quarter, and had a new quarter put on it then. That's when the original fathom green was changed to black, as you see it today. The paint is 40 years old, and shows its age. However, that just makes it easier to drive it around and not be scared of an expensive paint job. Some of the original stuff missing is the usual stuff, carb, distributor, exhaust manifolds, radiator and shroud, pollution stuff, and Muncie shifter. It still wears it original interior, the bench has some rips in it, but I do have all the GM material to do both the front and back seat. I have a date code correct carb and I have the exhaust manifolds now. I just got the new rad from Heartbeat City, with the correct codes, and just installed it. It finally is slowly coming together, and looking more correct all the time. I pulled the motor and had it all freshened up, and put a correct solid lifter cam in it, everything else was good to go. The tranny was also gone through, some new bearings, and syncros were needed. It also has it original alternator and starter. The car still had the original clutch in it and that too, has been replaced. I also had to locate some XT`s and dog dishes for it, and Smallhurst helped out with getting some tires up to me.

As you can see, as time and money become available, I put a little of it into the Nova. And yes, my wife thinks I`m having an affair in the garage. I think she`s right!! LOL The pictures will tell you all the rest of the story of the car. It`s still missing some stuff, and is not perfect, but it`s a heck of a car to burn around in on a Friday or Saturday night, or just hang out at a car show. I had it to a 100 ft shoot out last year, and a best time of 3.039, on the bias plys. Not very fast, but a great outing for me and the family. Some of the videos will be on the u tube link. It sounds wicked at about 5500 rpm in any gear.

Thanks Bruce for making me get this done, and thanks sYc for the great web site. Enjoy, and happy safe cruisin!












Some Banff shots!







MORE!!

[Xplantdad]

More!

[Xplantdad]

Some documentation!











And...finally!

[Mayhem]

Awesome!

[1969l78]

Great car!!!!!!

[CDNL-78]

Thanks Bruce for posting this for me.

Some of the pictures are as follows:
#1 is when I got the car home, with a little clean up. Still has SS rims on it.

#2 This is from the test drive and viewing in Ontario, you can see all the spider webs, etc, it was very dirty.

#3&4 shined up for an apprasial close to home.

#5 In front of the Banff spring hotel, this is a amazing hotel. This is where all the stars, and high falootin people hang out.

The rest in the first post are from Banff.

I have since done the kick panels, to get ride of them day 2 speakers. The rest of the pictures are just random shot while the motor was out, then right after I put it back together.

Hope you all enjoy. And as always, Thanks Wilma for helping me identify that was a correct L78 nova. And Bruce for kicking my butt to get this done.

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/[/img] I hope it's a short winter up here.

[mockingbird812]

Nice Nova Darcy. Good detective work - it really paid off!!

[TDW]

Very nice Nova.

[ORIGLS6]

Oooooooh, Cloth Seats! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] I love it!


Great Car. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]

[Mr.Nickey Nova]

Just what i like to see,another Nova coming out of the woodwork.Sweet!!!