My '65 Nova

[novadude]

Funny story about this car... Tom - you will appreciate this, being familiar with the area.

Back around 1990, I took it to a small car show at Batey Chevrolet in Carnegie, PA. I had some "before" pictures displayed. When I got the car, someone has added '64 style Nova emblems to the front fenders. These showed in the "before' pics. A salesman that worked there came up to me very excited, and said "That's my old car!". I thought... "yeah, sure". He ran into his office and came out with several pictures that showed those front fender emblems and other tell-tale signs that this actually WAS the car he owned.

Story is that his Grandfather bought it new at Bill Heard Chevrolet in Columbus, GA. It got passed to his sister, and then to Stan (salesman). Stan ended up going to college in Grove City in the early 1980s, which is how the car came to Western PA. Stan drove it all through college, and then left it parked at his mothers house in Elizabeth, PA. He planned to eventually restore it or do something with it someday. His mother ended up selling the car to someone in the neighborhood that kept asking about it. It suffered some minor collision damage in the hands of this owner, as it had a willow green hood on it when I got it.

I actually found it in Lincoln Place. I was over my Dad's friends house and we were working on his '66 Impala in the back yard. This car came driving down the alley to visit a neighbor. Walked over to look at it, and it turns out the driver was a used car dealer who just took it in on trade. As far as he was concerned, it was just a junky old white car with a green hood. For $375 (1986 money), we drove it home (actually, my Dad did - I was 14). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

The initial $375 investment was my graduation present from high school. The deal was that I would fund any restoration work with money earned from an after school job. If I did well in school, they would give me the car when I graduated. Being on a LOW high-school kid budget, the body and paint is pretty bad, but the car still presents well from a distance. The Engine, undercarriage, and interior look a lot better than the body! LOL

I honestly think I might just leave it as is. There is something nice about a car you can drive without sweating every rock chip, etc.