1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard

[L78_Nova]

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.



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



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).



Then cut off the muncie handle to the required length and had the holes machined out (drill bits were having none of this material).
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.



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.

[L78_Nova]

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).



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.



Set the back down onto riser blocks.



Remove the framework.





Lift the front end off of the jackstands



You can see in this photo I had finished up the steering linkage, brake and fuel lines



And ready for storage

[NorCam]

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.

[Crush]

Man, I’m getting excited to see this one done. Thanks for detailed updates and pics. I admire your efforts!

[L78_Nova]

Originally Posted by NorCam

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.

Thanks Graeme, was nice chatting, look forward to meeting soon!
Gary

[L78_Nova]

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.







Around this time also got the seats back from having the covers installed. Legendary covers installed by local shop SFI

[Bill Pritchard]

Originally Posted by L78_Nova

Sorry only tack-up pics of one bracket.

Don't you dare apologize for lack of pictures in this thread!

[L78_Nova]

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.





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.



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.



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.











Heads going out to machinist for freshening. Resurface the flywheel and give the block a serious wash and deglaze the cylinders for new rings.

[L78_Nova]

A little "inside" work... Cleaning up the cluster... lots of spares.



Well this has been in the basement for many, many years waiting for this day.
Radio Delete... OK OK... non radio ordered, dash bezel


Stock Clock location


Modified Clock location... hmmmm wasssup




Snuck in a repop factory style tach... a little stray from pure stock.

[dykstra]

Very cool!! Looks outstanding!