More detailing work on the front frame brake line brackets and rear end brake line brackets .
Also started cleaning up spring perches and body to main brake line holder

Next was the assembly of the front suspension components on the subframe.

Front brake lines installed along with hoses,etc.

Installed the front brake components
Was even able to use the original backing plate paper dust seals .
They still retain their factory ink stamps .

The firewall and dash were supposed to be the last thing to get detailed body wise .
Started sanding and looking for any markings or codes we could find .
The only thing I found were the letters AB on top of the cowl .
After some digging I think the A was for Ash Gold and the B was for Black primer.

Next up was converting over to the BB style heater core .
Modified heater cover and added correct hose retainer plate.

Lovin the build!

The car originally had a Ivy Gold interior that someone changed over to Black at some point.
The seats were recovered but the dash pad was incorrectly recovered in cheap vinyl, as well as the car was missing the hard to find A pillar AND B pillar moldings .
The headliner was the original unit that someone had sprayed Black and the package tray and sail panels were pretty rough.
The kick panels, dash top, glove box and ash tray were still Green.... errr Gold as well .
I thought about going back to Ivy Gold, but they are extremely hard to duplicate with aftermarket parts ,due to so many different colors between parts vendors.
Even the OEM seat covers ,kick panels, dash pad, etc, were all different shades or hues of Gold with some metal pieces even looking Green .
So I decided to leave it Black ,and clean it up some.
My son helped me along the way with prep as well.

Also decided now would be the time to prep firewall as it would be easier for masking off for paint for both dash top and firewall.
I decided to retain the original cowl markings as the letters match the 1st initials of both my son and Mother .
My helper again adding the paint code back to top of firewall as well as the new powerplant code 😎

Time for some new color ...
Think my helper approves :)

This next step was long coming and an exciting one for me.
Time to mate the subframe back to it's body.
New bushings and recoated hardware and presto, it's a roller again for the 1st time in over a year.

So the car was finally a roller .
At this point I was going to just throw the front sheet metal back on, install the engine and transmission, and try to get the car running.
But the more I looked at the car I was unhappy that everything underneath and inside would look fresh, and the outside would have subpar paint and body panels far from being straight.
The quarters had some pretty good waves and dents, as wel las the doors.
The paint on the left front fender was cracking from what appeared to be a poor repair at some point.
The biggest issue was the paint on the rear quaters and roof was reasonably shiny and looked fresh while the rest of the body panels were dull and had much more orange peel.
I had mentioned early on about the hidden issues and they were about to reveal their ugly heads.
So down the rabbit hole we go..................... :(
I made the decision now was the time to paint it the way I wanted as it was already half way unassembled anyway.
So tear down number 2 began.
Here I am welding in fender trim holes while making new ones for the BB fender call outs.
Then time to make new holes in the hood for the SS louvers as well as add the support brackets underneath.

The quarters had some pretty deep dents and the nasty surprise was next ..

Looking great!!!

Well, It would appear I'm the worst at updating my own thread but will try to get back to it.
The car is actually a lot further along but I'm going to still bore everyone with the process pics anyhow :)
So in my last post I had mentioned early on about the hidden issues .
When I took off the right rear taillight I noticed it didn't fit well in the taillight panel.
I also had mentioned this was the 1st( and last !) car I have ever bought sight unseen.
It seems the car had been hit in the right rear and there was overlapping metal visible when looking at the right rear quarter from inside the trunk. It looks like it was hit diagonally in the quarter at an angle and it pushed the quarter, taillight about a 1/4" forward, and put a nice vertical split in the quarter panel around 10" long . The fix appeared to be pounding the metal in and then applying some, ok , a ton of Bondo to make it look presentable . The fact everything was pushed slightly forward explained the slight overlap in the metal .Ughhhhh
So at this point I needed to decide if I was going to replace the quarter or try to fix it .
Since this car came out of the West Coast and was about as rust free as a 50yr old car can be I decided to try and spend some time fixing the quarter.
I lost some pics along the way but here is a pic of the quarter after welding the gap shut and starting to do some hammer and dolly work.

The next step was trying to work the corner of the taillight panel and quarter back to get alignment of the taillamp housing and fix the arc of the rear quarter edge.
This was harder than you'd think as the Nova quarter panel shape is a compound angle as it curves out at the middle in the vertical position but also curves inward at the reads edge of the quarter as well .
I bought a profile gauge, and using the drivers side as a template and a hammer and multiple sized dolly's , I was able to work the metal back to shape.
At one point while working the rear taillight panel something hit the floor.
It ended up being a piece of Bondo that was shaped in a right angle to make the RR lower outer corner of the taillamp panel. This piece was about 1-1/2 thick in some places...
I then had to hammer the edge of the quarter rearwards and it wanted to split, from being thin, so I had to hammer, and weld and grind, then hammer and weld an grind. You get the picture ..

All told , I spent probably spent close to 25 hours fixing a 14" x 14" area .
In retrospect , I could have found a patch panel for the quarter considering the time taken to fix all this . But it is still all original metal still for whatever that is worth and there was zero tin canning and it felt as solid as the drivers side was .
And my stubbornness may have played a small role into the decision to forge on as well , ha ha ..

----You won't regret the extra work when you are looking at it finished!!!....Bill S

Awesome! I can appreciate your hard work!

Here are some pics of the inside of the quarter as well . Getting closer after some metal work to the proper shape using a profile gauge.

Trunk view before metal work
Metal shape getting close..

The next order of business after a getting metal work close enough for filler was to prep all the little areas that were an issue.
Someone drilled 12 holes in the body on each side for rubber door guard molding. I also decided to go the route of de-trimming the car to better match a COPO look for a stripped down sleeper.
That meant welding in all the molding holes as well as fixing a bunch of little pin holes in the trunk gutter area as well as some minor pitting in both the front and rear window channels.
Then it was finally time to apply some filler and start getting things straight.

Finally time for some DTM primer for all the bare spots and then I used some Polyester primer to help not only get things super straight after blocking but it helps seal in any old substrate.

Some more pics

1st coat of Polyester primer

Guide coat and block time !!!!!

The BOSS even helped out with the tedious sanding. My wife helped sand and did all the jambs, and under hood and trunk areas.. She earned a new found appreciation of the old adage.." (The harder it is to sand, the more important it is !) " She's a rock star !!

Some pics of the wife's jam work and before old door pins were removed /replaced.

Some more pics before/after final 2k panel priming ...

More block sanding.....Also in pics you can see tape pieces showing any pin holes/imperfections in panels.

Final , final prime ,and letting parts bake in sun to shrink since I don't have a booth to bake them in :

While those parts cured I took the opportunity to work on the inside floor boards and trunk floor. Being a California car it had very solid floors and trunk
There were maybe 5-6 small pin holes( like most Novas have under driver's side mat) I welded up and then dug out and replaced any worn,cracked seam sealer . Then I painted the floor with a rust preventative.
Then a top coat top was added to simulate the factory red oxide primer .
I figured even though it was to be covered with caret and no one will ever see it I just couldn't bring my self to leave anything untouched at this point .

So early on I knew I wanted a vinyl roof car .
So that is why in all the pics the roof paint was basically untouched .
The issue was when I fixed the front and rear window channels , I needed to go back and ut some paint down as I wasn't comfortable leaving primer under a vinyl roof ,even if it was catalyzed .
The next project was painting the edges of the roof and window channels black base, clear coat.
I just ended up painted those areas, and then sanded, and feathered the paint back smooth as the vinyl top underlayment will cover any small imperfections. ( actually the roof was amazingly straight )
I forgot to add these earlier, but here is a pic of the trunk floor as well as the inside of the Right rear quarter after repairs and seam sealer.. much better-er ha ha

Hey Nick!

Looks awesome.

Next step was letting main body of the car sit out in the sun to bake some more while I took care of some small things.
Decided to paint the inside of the fenders before final painting as well as installed trunk and floor plugs.
Also needed to touch up some seam sealer around the trunk seal area .
Getting close to laying some color soon....

So I will keep from boring everyone with more sanding pics but basically after the car/panels sat and cured ,I went over and finish wet sanded everything 1 more time to make sure things were straight and to check for any blems.
Then it was time for some color in the door and body jams as well as the underside of the trunk lid and inner areas of the fenders.
Pushed the car out and power cleaned the garage and added paper to the floor .
Everything taped up and ready for some paint !!!!!!!!!
To preface the car was originally Ash Gold body color with Ivy Gold interior from the factory. It had been repainted Black at some point in it's life time, albeit poorly .
Early on I decided Gold wasn't in the cards for a color for me , as the interior choices would be limited as well as so hard to match ,so the decision was made to make a complete color change.
It needed to be a factory 68' color though as I not only wanted an OEM look, but also needed something that worked with a vinyl roof.
So.......................................

Well finally the day had come for some color.

Sharp is that Marina Blue or what is it?

My guess is either Island Teal or Tripoli Turquoise. Whatever, looks great!

I love the color!

Awesome choice of colour, love it.