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

[L78_Nova]

RH trunk drop. Recall I had patched the bottoms prior to installing the quarter. Shown here prior to finish welding. This side was all welded solid prior to installing the quarter,



From the underside.



You can see where the patch overlaps the ribs in the panel. This needs to be cut out and ground to open up the ribs.

[L78_Nova]

With the car up on the rotisserie it is easier to access for welding. You can see where I have ground down the welds and cut out the overlap of two ribs.



Ready to plug weld to the quarter bottom









And all ground/cleaned up. I was very happy with how this turned out. Looks exactly as the original.

[L78_Nova]

LH side. The patch was only on the forward section this side.
Sorry no welded pictures.

[L78_Nova]

Well, back to travelling for work (first time since March 2020) so it's been a super busy couple weeks. This is looking into my back yard before I left Feb 27th. We are 3rd for snow accumulation since they started keeping records in the 1870's.



So it was a nice break to arrive in Nebraska to this ! Highs of 70 - 80 for 4 days. Unfortunately they desperately need moisture.



Back to the program... The rear underbody at the back bumper was a little torn up. I suspect from chain hooks from towing or trailering. I have before pictures from the left side .





And... After pictures from the Right side. Both were roughly the same condition to start. Right side needed a little segment of a washer welded in to replace a torn out piece.

[L78_Nova]

Having some previous experience with Novas, I know where to probe for potential rust problems. The forward fuel tank brackets are susceptible to road spray and it is common for the trunk floor to get soft spots above the tank brace where moisture and dirt accumulates between the sandwiched layers. The metal rusts and swells so to fix it properly it needs to be cut out from both sides. The underbraces are heavier so easiest to start here.











Sorry, only one poor picture of the finished patches. Lots of work to fix a few tiny perforations. The patches are the extreme left side of this photo.

[L78_Nova]

Same repair from the trunk side.
Pinholes picked open



I used a punch from the bottom side in the corners of the cut out hole to mark where I needed to cut the top side out.
Left Side



Right side



Left side cut out (underside is repaired)



Right side cut out (underside is repaired)





Left Side finished



Right side finished

[L78_Nova]

Rear window channel. Right side of rear window channel was a little rough... a little too far gone to use the old JB Weld trick.

I made patches from scrap with pre-bent edge for two reasons. First, the break along the edge better resists warping. Second, in some places the pits were all the way around the edge.

I didn't have a piece the perfect width so I did this in two halves.

Top side cut open



Here you can see how rough the lower edge was. This will be cut out later.





Top side welded in. Bottom edge has now been cut out.







Fitting the lower side patch. Here you can see the shape I used. Had to use two pieces on the bottom (depleted my scrap pile)



First bottom piece welded in



Little bit left to go... put the camera away too early... sorry.



Also made a couple small patches to the face of the channel further to the left, no pics

[Keith Seymore]

Nice work, and thank you for posting and documenting all this.

I hope you don't mind if I go back a few pages and capture some questions:

Originally Posted by L78_Nova

Rear window channel. Right side of rear window channel was a little rough... a little too far gone to use the old JB Weld trick.

What is this "old JB Weld trick" of which you speak?

K

[Keith Seymore]

Do you all know if these little posts are available as a repair?

My Chevelle is missing a couple, apparently from the factory.

K

[Keith Seymore]

What is this?

(lol)

K