My mk1 nova show/track car little project

[peester]

As some of you know it was (about 2 years ago) a finished, mag featured (Total vaux. summer '06) example, half interior, caged, 1.4 16v.
John kept and/or sold some of the bits over time/ for new project so I bought it like this..

(mobile pic)
I normally buy standard, as nice/new as poss cars if I'm planning to treasure/project it. (This car has barely any history, or originality with it) But I couldn't ignore this with its 'as if its just been painted' appearance, so it was just a matter of finishing it off, rather than start from scratch. Plus I want a car to go to nurburgring next year, get into tracking/sprints a bit too so it should do an ok job, its up the right street.

I'm not a mechanic, have little space and tools; so progress has been slow considering there's not really much it needs.. Also I used to have loads of nova spares, but spent '06 selling all of it off, so having to kinda re-stock up there too..

Anyway, heres a few project pics as its gone along.. just a shortened 'catch-up' to today..

Got it home..

Stuck some lights on it..



Interior, as it was/is...

had barely any wing bolts holding it, so..

no clocks, so fitted these..




Cleaned drivers' floor up a bit..


Carpet and Seats then trialled..



Up to current day, as you can see from the dates, lol.

From here ill update the thread more often so..

Staying on the Interior first, finsihing that. Will be all in and sorted soon, then move onto the mechanicals. Brakes and just to pop a backbox on.

Have a set of 4 BF Goodridge brake hoses on order and just picked up the some new clips:

Backbox is coming early next month so use the new rubbers to stick that on.



To be continued...

[SRimon]

Cool

Love this Nova, so fresh, so clean..

Good luck with it!

[Tracy]

Looking lovely, great project!!! That colour is lush too

[CraigGreen]

Good luck with this mate. Nice shell to start from.

Not keen on the coordinations on the steering wheel, heater switches look cool though.

[peester]

Good luck with this mate. Nice shell to start from.

Not keen on the coordinations on the steering wheel, heater switches look cool though.

lol.. i do agree, they look greener than the blue of the car too..
Alas, i do have a new mountney all black 3 spoke wheel to go on.. just need to sort a boss.
The heater controls are redundant - so x3 auto meter gauges to go in, again slightly later date.

Thanks tho matey.

[CraigGreen]

You can always count on me for totally biased advice.

[Gordon Livsey]

whats the script with the blue carpet, where did you get it from

[The Simps]

blue carpet I assume is from antibes??

nice looking project. really coming round to mk1s.

TIP:- The lighting loom that runs along the top panel, if you reverse the clips to the inside of the panel the loom will hold in underneath outta side

[Gordon Livsey]

cool, i didnt know the antibes came with a blue carpet

[The Simps]

blue and red i think,

[LongLiveTheNova]

Yep, very rare too /\

[The Simps]

Yep, very rare too /\

Looks like peesters got a very clean one too! either that or the rattle cans came out! I sprayed my grey carpets with matt black rattle can - came out really well!! lmao

[peester]

Thanks for the comments guys - yes it is genuine blue antibes carpet - it is in good nick, (wasn't cheap as seller knew its worth and i had to hold off a battling queue other peeps wanting it..) - i have additionally had it wet-vac'ed so im guessing if it was painted/ dyed we would have known... Has come up sweet.
Simps, the lighting loom is actually just zip tied along the slampanel so yeah shouldn't be tricky to hide that; ill source some clips from somewhere - one of the many 'icing on the cake' jobs to do once its on t' road..

[jij16v]

looks good mate wat is that colour called?

[CraigGreen]

Looks like peesters got a very clean one too! either that or the rattle cans came out! I sprayed my grey carpets with matt black rattle can - came out really well!! lmao

On that note, Pactra model car spray paints are designed to etch onto plastic. Could be a good idea for spraying carpets?

[peester]

looks good mate wat is that colour called?

errrrr...
supposed to be called Toyota Clear Blue. I was told. But ive not found a paint by this name. Closest i found was a Toyota Clear White.. lol.
Some Jap peeps thought it was a hummer colour?! (when i tried to seek help)
But at work we've got quite a close match so far, from a Fiat blue varient; by lightening it a bit..

[nova-myth]

Ahh so you've got johns old car, wondered what happened to it!

Excellent base to start your project with mate, and with the engine conversion already done...

[peester]

**wee update**
Not a lot has gone on since last update. The weather, finances and a lil holiday saw to that..
But what has been done follows below..
-Brakes; originally i mistakingly bought the older 8valve delco type calipers. Recently ive managed to acquire (thanks kev/c20letboy) some ATE calipers, so cleaned them up and providing they still work; theyll now be going on:

Yukky

Yummyer. Hammerite spray, yellow.. amazingly. - tis brighter than pic leads on..
-Interior; all the action still is in here. After fitting the carpet the pedals looked a bit too rough; (still old bodyshop dust n dirt)

Yukky

Yummyer. Just washed them down, hammerite spray, done.


After that i hit a problem with my cobra seats, The nova gsi/gte subframes john sorted for me (many thanks) dont match up to the cobra seats at all..
So ive taken the plunge (very reluctantly lol) and shelled out for cobra tayloured subframes.. Not arrived yet but will update when they do. I got them at a very good price so can't complain; my one trade contact sorted me out. Still weren't cheap tho at a little over trade..
But the rest of the interior was put together; excluding door cards, as im still waiting on window winder/mechanisms which are next to do.
So with the seats just placed in for now,


These front window surrounds are a late 5 weeks wait off ebay.. some are bit damaged but most ok.. see what comes of it.

Lastly big shout out to Nova Boy Roy he sorted me with this:

Top man, good price, quality part. Hope it fits
Thats all this week, next week; or so - backbox seats window mechs and hopefully maybe even brakes should be on n sorted then interior can be finished and the car should be mobile...
Yay.

[peester]

*Update*
Got quite a bit done last couple of evenings,.. took pics so heres an update.
Sunday afternoon, after work - were keen to try the O.E, direct fitting - exhaust i picked up off John (thanks mate) mainly so the car didn't upset the whole street whenever we wanted to move it..

So a temporary item until the car's MOT'd n legal then i can take it better places to work on and fit the stainless magnex i acquired.
Then whilst the back of the car was in the air, we decided to make a start on the brakes; long overdue.. so gave everything a check up and fitted the Braided Flexi Hoses:


I just gave the wheel a clean n smart up while it was off.
All back on:

One side done. We will need to return to both rear flexis again however, just to nip up the pipe screws; didn't have an 11mm brake spanner between us..
The next day; i set about nailing these seats. It seems like its taken forever to sort; the situation up until that morning being the drivers was bolted in at the front but not at the back (where these tailored frames need x2 holes drilling in the floor) and the passengers wasn't even trial-fitted yet.
Both the Cobra Tailored Subframes were fitted with x4 spacer/collet/sleeves that bolt the slider part with the base part of the subframe... In order to lower the height of the seat; it seemed removing these would help a bit and be perfectly safe.. so with the passenger 'frame's spacers moved -went about fitting it.

Offering up the 'frame..


Holes done..

Fitting up..

Done..
The seat was in pretty solid. There was a little play if you shook the top of the backrest part of the seat but i just think the backrest isn't massively tight to the base of the seat.
The drivers-side needed to come back out- have its spacers moved and the holes drilling and fitting up properly then

All done.

Fookin whoopeee.
Although i am generally happy with the look; I think maybe next time ill look into side mount 'subframes'; its the only way of mounting most bucket/aftermarket seats in your nova; without any massive riffraff or height issues or £££'s... maybe.
Anyway; to round up this update; once the seats and subframes were in, sorted - took to the other rear drum to finish up on the rear brakes..
So now x2 Goodridge Braided Brake Hoses at the rear are done.
Next update; hopefully at the weekend or next week. Fitting front brakes.
Then not far off MOT me thinks..

[The Simps]

Looks like some good progress made. Can I make a small suggestion...

While you're working on the drums, drill a hole in the back plate enough to fit a screw driver in so you can adjust up the brakes without having to take the drum off each time. Will also save you having to hammer it to centre it and chip all that nice new paint

Simps.

[peester]

*Update*
This weekend we continued to focus on the brakes; thus far we've not taken the front end off the floor so after doing the back last week; this was the last 'area' that could spring a few unwanted suprises..
Starting on the drivers side we firstly trialed the calipers up ; then cleaned everything up and started fitting away..



As we got things into place we were having jip with the calipers' piston firstly seizing then it fell out completely. These ATE's were donated to me weeks ago and were worth giving a bash but theyve had it...
So just out of well, desperation, we tried the old Delco calipers i had knocking about (not very old, good nick) but ...

Nah. No go it seems.

So no go with calipers this weekend. But we carried on and did the other side reguardless...



It was here where we found the only slight unwanted suprise..

So we've fibreglassed it - tho pic of that didn't want to upload for some reason.. lol
We also fitted a new horn as the passenger side was up so another 'for mot' issue sorted. No pic of that tho.

Couple of mincy pics once all back on the ground..



I ended the weekend pratting with the front window frame surrounds; ive bought two sets in the last few weeks and hope to have enough out the two to make a goodun..

Painted; to fit this week..

So ok progress, glad that we've now been throughout the car and theres no more trouble it would seem that needs sorting. . More updates soon; getting tired tonight.. meh.

[SRimon]

is the rot just on the ****catcher in the wing? Shame looks a good shell other than that...

[LongLiveTheNova]

Yeah looks like its the splash guard, they always rot like fook.

Looks a great shell, paint work still looks like it was sprayed yesterday.

Nice work

[draper]

nice work peester

[peester]

thanks chaps; there will be more cleaning/painting done to the underside of the car but i'll be doing that after the car is mot'd, for now we've just done the terrible bits - but hopefully it'll look even tidier.
The shell is in good condition. As LLTN says it has that 'just out the bodyshop' look still but it is at least 3 years ago the car was painted. Just been graged/little use since. That passenger-side splashguard is the only rot that needs sorting; the only other bubble is in the boot floor but its a way off yet. Still, was a bit suprised to find it.