"Plain Jane" 1970 Nova Build

[black69]

my first girlfriend had the identical to a tee of this car when we started dating in highschool. that was in 75-76. So the car was only a few years old and was mint mint mint. same color same interior.
Nobody knew back then how desirable they would be today.

Love the build of the car you have.

[John Brown]

The first thing I took note of was the blocked off vent on the far left side of the dash. I had to make one for my 70 Nova when I did a heater delete.

[Arrowsmith]

Moving along...slowly...L-O-L

I couldn't find a correctly built front cross over brake line plus I needed to plumb and wire the line lock. So...I built all of those lines myself from stainless steel. Hardline and all fittings are from Earl's. This is the completed line lock plumbing. This is one of those "looks easy enough" tasks, but to get it right takes some time:



This is a photo of one of the ways I figure out brake line bends:



Here's one of the "successful" lines (many aren't so successful!):



Some of the seemingly simple lines can prove challenging. Case-in-point is this feed line to the line lock. It consumed several mistakes to get it done:



I like to use a Weatherpack connector for things like the line lock. If it ever fails, then it's easy to remove and replace.



This is a wee bit amusing when I look back at it. Huge mess (in my old garage) building cutting, annealing, bending, flaring line. I prefer to anneal the hard line prior to flaring, hence the need for the MAP gas. Otherwise the line can crack. In addition, I lap the female side of the flares.



Here's a couple of photos of the finished brake lines:




Another thing I did was to send off the hood hinges, springs, hood latch and catch to Steve Gregori just before he sold Detail Plating. The car originally had these parts nicely painted, but that bugged me . I also replaced/added a number of ground straps.




This link will take you to a video that details the tools/equipment I use to build brake lines. There are a number of tools, ideas and tips you might not consider at first glance:

https://youtu.be/_9dibgkmPoU

That's a wrap for this segment. I'll be back...L-O-L

[CamaroNOS]

This is a little piece of artwork. Just love your detail.

Paul

[Andy]

Very clean build! Look forward to seeing more of the progress! Seeing this car makes me REALLY miss my old 72 Nova.

[Arrowsmith]

When I was planning this car, one thing I wanted to try and stay away from was a traction bar on the rear springs. In another life, I was a Direct Connection dealer (remember them?). It occurred to me I could use a Chrysler Super Stock Spring on the back and not use a traction device. Essentially, that's what many of the FAST guys do with they stock appearing cars. Trouble is, you can't easily adpat a Chrysler SS spring to a Chevy. Fortunately, AFCO offers a pretty good replica of the spring for circle track applications. I bought a pair. Here's a look:

This is the basic spring:



The front segment is heavily biased, with more full and partial leafs in the spring pack:



Meanwhile, the rear has few:



This is the arch of the out-of-the-box spring (which happens to be just about right for my Nova):



So how do they work? Simple. When under heavy acceleration load, a typical leaf spring will bend in the front segment. That's why you get wheel hop. This doesn't happen with an SS spring like this.

To compliment the springs, I swapped out the OE-style front bushing for a Detroit Speed composite Delrin/aluminum example. The backs of the springs use a conventional Chevy rubber bushing along with a stock shackle. The reason for this is, the rear of the spring in this application is just along for the ride.



I wanted a means to adjust the rear suspension (aside from the shocks which I'll show you down the road). To get there, I bought a rear sway bar kit from Hotchkiss and threw away pretty much everything except the front adjuster mounts and the actual bar. From there, I used a couple of adjustable links from Summit Racing along with four Aurora Teflon lined rod ends. I made up the actual (super heavy duty) housing mounts from pieces sourced from Summit. Also, those are 1/2-inch Calvert Racing u-bolts on the axle housing (no t-bolts). Here's what it looks like from the back:



This is a side view. The links can be adjusted for preload. It is possible with this setup to actually change ride height (jack it) from side-to-side. As a result, it can be used to help plant a tire:



On the bottom side, the subframe was tied to the car spring pocket by way of Competition Engineering frame connectors. The pair of photos attached are recent (today!). You can see I used stainless brake lines along with stainless park brake cables. The exhaust is a modified Hooker 3-inch stainless steel setup for an LS swap. You can see I use V-band clamps to attach the exhaust to the slip on header collectors. Although it might look low in this photo, the exhaust is actually very tight to the floor pan. The lowest part is the 4-inch header collector (necessary for the 2-25-inch primary tubes, but that's another story). These photos should give you a pretty good idea of what the car is like underneath... it's fun working on a car like this...




The following YouTube link (short video) will give you a bit more insight into the basic rear suspension setup:

https://youtu.be/ngqqkQz8PDk

More to come....

[WILMASBOYL78]

Great thread...outstanding detail on the build. As a Nova guy I think it is very cool.

Regarding the rear springs...have you considered using the "Dick Harrell Style" spring clamps??? They worked really well...and eliminated the need for traditional traction bars. They were cheap and easy to fabricate...and the results were very good.

old thread where this is discussed along with other stuff...

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=71829

-wilma