It's like a giant airfix kit crossed with a nova.....(56k unfriendly peeps)

[porchie]

bloody hell !!!!!! thats what i dream of doing to a nova, must have cost you a fortune though, looks like your having fun mind. keep us posted your doing bloody good

[bmwrossco]

Great project, only thing id be slighty worryed about is getting the inner wings/turret tops and chassis rails back in the correct place.

[ashtal]

Are use useing any kind of jig to re-align the legs and turrets ?

[draper]

pure porn, well done matey !!

makes me wanna go and teach myself to weld/get off my arse and do somethink worthwhile to the nova !!

[CraigGreen]

Great project, only thing id be slighty worryed about is getting the inner wings/turret tops and chassis rails back in the correct place.

I'm sure he will.

This project is absolutely inspirational.

[Grant_nova]

Wow !!!!!!!

[novacabrio]

Fantastic work!

[KeithRobinson]

^

[KeithRobinson]

^

[KeithRobinson]

Get the shell of to www.surfaceprocessing.co.uk once its finished. That should stop it rusting again! - Thats where mines going in a few months.

Keith

[Jimbo]

Alot of people thought/think that this kind of carry on can't be done without laser jigs etc. But what people forget is there hasn't always been fancy bits of kit with computers and lasers etc to tell you what goes where. before the car was started hundreds of mesurements were took on mine and other novas. Suffice to say with a tape and the power of mathmatics the car is very very straight infact most makers allow a +/- 5mm tolerance on cars my car is +/- 0mm apart from the back chassis legs which are between the two of them 3mm out. But when you see what I did there you'll let me off plus it's still 2mm inside what vauxhall allowed!

Any how I've cleaned the surfaces up and zinc primed them befrore we start the new front end..............





The the trial fitting of the chassis legs......





You'll notice that they done make mole grip big enough to hold stuff like this together! So they're held on with self tappers! This means you can check it fits without tack welds and adjust if needs be also it pulls the two surfaces together for a good fit/weld....

Some more prepping with zinc..






Cost a bomb in screws!





That's the chassis legs in place now need to check the innerwings etc....





A few grips to help hold things in place. Times like this you wish you had another pair of hands.....




Of we go again self tapper city!






Well after alot of checking, double checking, thinking about it and checking again it's time to start welding and grinding and hoping you really did have it spot on!

[Dai G]

wow! i thought i had my work cut out with my engine conversion if it wasnt for threads like this i wouldnt be doing a conversion.awesome project mate

[novacabrio]

Hell of a lot of work!! Hats off to you, I thought about a jig etc and alignment but very true wheat you say about the good old days

[g111mds]

great project!!!

have you got any pictures of how it used to look / what it was like before you started stripping it??

[ashtal]

I was thinking more of a bracket jig ! Will you be fitting a harry hockley kit to the chassis ?

[bmwrossco]

Yeh fair comment about the jigs and good luck to you, ive pissed about with a Nova back end and stitch it back together using a tape and string and it drives fine.

I hope its the angle of pic 16 but the N/S front turret looks wrong.

[Jimbo]

Honestly i've been cutting welding and painting cars for well over a decade now I've got one or two qualifications on the subject and kicked about a few bodyshops for a living. So i suppose I can say with a degree of certainty it's the picture angle mate.........

[bmwrossco]

Cool, its what i do for a living to, just wanted to make sure, crack on, this is going to be mint when done.

[CortraGTE]

Very cool project, its gonna mint once finished some serious work going into this one!

[GaryVaux]

Fantastic, just sepent last 15mins or so reading the thread (when i should be wiring my nova, but hey)

Love your enthusiasm, surprised nobody has come up with the usual comment "why dont you just get another shell"
Another nova saved, will be better than new when finnished, or better rust proofed im sure.

keep up the good work

[Jimbo]

More frontage pictures.........








As I pointed our earlier there was a leak due to a replacement windscreen being a little to small. I've removed the dash box section and cleaned it up a bit then I added a bit of strength by running over the pitted areas with the mig and grinding back. A method I've used with great and very long lasting success for many years.......






I was shown this several years ago by an "old timer" its a good way of breathing good as new life into areas that aren't in need of cutting out and replacing but are a little bit "worn" from corrosion. Or the area is simply to complicated to remake. The important thing is to make sure you don't leave any gaps between your runs or weld otherwise it will of course corrode through and kind of defeats the point of the very very time consuming exercise!

Abit of refabrication here.....



And there..............




Stick it back together and jobs a good un....



Next on the list is the ****shields. Sorry lower dash panel (that's what vauxhall call em)



There was a few sections to replace between them and the floor then sections where made and welded in. For some reson although I ordered them three times I ended up with three passengerside repair sections so I battered one flat and made a template for the drivers side and made my own minus the arial access hole cause we all have beestings now...




The passenger side..............





Then the strut top plates.........





and a few look what I've done shots of the front end.............






Nice.


Coming up next you'll just ******* love what I did with the rear chassis legs. I know I didn't love it one jot! Good for a giggle.

[Drizz]

You have too much time on your hands lol, Still a TOP TOP job!

[GaryVaux]

i know its a long way off, but im guessing your planning goin the 2.0 route due to the chassis modd? any idea on styling, colour etc?

Also where did u get the genuine repair pannels from? Because there pretty scarce as there not produced anymore

[Ghost_Walker]

i think the only nova you could find with less rust would be the one in the hertiage centre

[novacabrio]

i think the only nova you could find with less rust would be the one in the hertiage centre

http://www.novaload.net/forum/showthread.php?t=68132

lmao