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

[L78_Nova]

Lower rear corner of LH inner wheel tub required a patch. Concave shape required several slices along the flanges to "participate".



Fabbed and fitting... Faux spot weld dimples between plug welds



Blurry shot of welded in. Edge cuts remain to be welded.

[Salvatore]

Great step by step pictures. Well done!

[L78_Nova]

Lots of cleanup of the inner panels. Mostly wire wheel on a drill. Slow, tedious work but it really works well for the irregular shapes. Respirator and eye protection mandatory to avoid the orange cloud.

At this point the panel has been rough fit many times and the outer tub is now in place.



You can see the trunk floor and part of the hinge flange has also been stripped to bare while the quarter was off. Many hours climbing around in the trunk.
Everything clean and bare steel will get a heavy coat of DP90 epoxy. Surfaces like the sail panel which still have some surface rust will get POR15

[L78_Nova]

Installed the inner jamb reinforcement. Unlike the RH side there was no damage here so the plate was easy to correctly locate and weld in prior to the panel. Drilled for plug welds upon installation.



Sectioned in the lower half of the telephone receiver and removed the formed dimple in the jamb (per RH panel). Drilled for plug welds.



Inside view. Note lower corner of door jamb (RH side in picture). This area was a little mis-formed. The leading edge of the panel at the lower door jamb flared back a little leaving an awkward gap at the bottom corner. The contour of the paned was also slightly off at the lower leading edge. It was split, reshaped and welded up from the inside (built up to fill gap) to align correctly.

[L78_Nova]

Prepping everything for the panel install. Sail panel.



If you look closely you can see the small faux spot weld dimples along the forward (drip rail) edge of the sail panel. The small reinforcement piece is welded in the corner of the quarter window. The faux spot weld dimples are in place along the wheel lip (foregound).







Everything is sealed with primer and scuffed where trunk spatter will apply.
The green tape is a small dam on the metal bracket to assist in catching the fusor foam which is later sprayed onto that ledge to dampen vibration to the sail panel. A lump of foam sandwiches between the inner and outer panel along that ledge.

[Pro Stock John]

Do you have a background in body work or fabrication? I'd love to learn how to do my own stuff, I guess I'd first need to learn how to weld.

[L78_Nova]

Originally Posted by Pro Stock John

Do you have a background in body work or fabrication? I'd love to learn how to do my own stuff, I guess I'd first need to learn how to weld.

Nothing formal...
Caught the car bug early from Uncle Norm that was a little car crazy; 69 Roadrunner 383, 67 Camino 396 4spd, 55 chevy P/U hot rodded. Then a couple older cousin's with a 66 Fairlane, 66 Beaumont, 67 Beaumont, 71 Cutlass 455.

In high school a good friend picked up a 70 Malibu which we pop riveted patches on and started slinging bondo. Shortly after another friend Steve, was in formal auto body trade school and we were soon hacking on stuff in his garage. He taught me quite a bit.

A friend's friend was the auto tech teacher for a small town High School. He offered to put on a one evening a week "school" for about six of us at the school's auto shop. We did about 10 nights each winter for two years. Essentially we just brought in our projects for the night and he guided us along on how to do it. Around the same time a towing buddy (with a Mig welder) helped me put floor pans in my 78 pick-up. For the "school" I put quarter skins on it and hung new doors on it. Then Steve painted it at his work. The second winter at "school" I did a complete repaint on my Dad's ford shortbox truck.

My 78 Shortbox in it's 80's glory. We don't need no steenking alignment !!


Somewhere along the way I stared at this article for waaaaaayy too long....





So... when I snapped an axle powershifting to second and lost a tire resulting in some quarter damage....

I went out to the garage and cut the inner tubs out of the car with a cold chisel and a 5lb sledge hammer.



It was game on after that. I've had a lot of help from friend's in industry along the way

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by L78_Nova

Nothing formal...
Caught the car bug early from Uncle Norm that was a little car crazy; 69 Roadrunner 383, 67 Camino 396 4spd, 55 chevy P/U hot rodded. Then a couple older cousin's with a 66 Fairlane, 66 Beaumont, 67 Beaumont, 71 Cutlass 455.

In high school a good friend picked up a 70 Malibu which we pop riveted patches on and started slinging bondo. Shortly after another friend Steve, was in formal auto body trade school and we were soon hacking on stuff in his garage. He taught me quite a bit.

A friend's friend was the auto tech teacher for a small town High School. He offered to put on a one evening a week "school" for about six of us at the school's auto shop. We did about 10 nights each winter for two years. Essentially we just brought in our projects for the night and he guided us along on how to do it. Around the same time a towing buddy (with a Mig welder) helped me put floor pans in my 78 pick-up. For the "school" I put quarter skins on it and hung new doors on it. Then Steve painted it at his work. The second winter at "school" I did a complete repaint on my Dad's ford shortbox truck.

My 78 Shortbox in it's 80's glory. We don't need no steenking alignment !!
Attachment 214049

Somewhere along the way I stared at this article for waaaaaayy too long....

Attachment 214052

Attachment 214053

So... when I snapped an axle powershifting to second and lost a tire resulting in some quarter damage....

I went out to the garage and cut the inner tubs out of the car with a cold chisel and a 5lb sledge hammer.

Attachment 214051

It was game on after that. I've had a lot of help from friend's in industry along the way

That magazine Nova, Dreamweaver- looks a lot like this one I took at the street machine nationals in the early 80's in Pomona, Ca

Another of my favorite Novas...with a dana 60!

[SPEEDYB]

Bruce, thats the car for sure, I'll never forget that big block w/ gold moroso valve covers and matching Dana cover.
A street racer among fairground pro street cars, stared at it for hours!

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by SPEEDYB

Bruce, thats the car for sure, I'll never forget that big block w/ gold moroso valve covers and matching Dana cover.
A street racer among fairground pro street cars, stared at it for hours!

I loved that Nova...and NovaJoe's Nova. Mine wasn't even close to those two