Nova 1.2 *Long Term Project*

[MadCapNova]

Went out and purchased my first car today, a tidy Nova 1.2 Expression. The only thing wrong with it is that the previous owner "had a little accident with a French motorway barrier" and it now requires a new front wing, headlight and indicator.

Apart from the front end damage the rest of the car is fine, 63,000 miles with £300 spent on it before it came off the road in April, new fuel tank at the end of last year and numerous other work.

As soon as I got it home I stripped the rear end out (pictures to follow tomorrow) so now have rear seats, seatbelts and parcel shelf for sale, all in excellent condition. I am planning on fitting a full rollcage and two bucket seats so the two front seats will be up for sale soon. I am also selling the steering wheel that is on the car at the moment as I have purchased an astra gte steering wheel for it. As I am at college and only have a part time job and I am having to save my money up to buy things so this is going to take a long time before it's the way I want it to be like but hopefully once its done it should look pretty nice. I have added a referance picture below of how I roughly would like the car to look like. I would love to put a 2.0L engine in it but the insurance would be out of control, so I am going to have to stick with the trusty 1.2i for a couple of years.










Lazy b****rd didnt even bother to clean under the bonnet!


This is the steering I brought for the car.

[barryj75]

looks a good start for a project and that morgan look very nice and that looks like a nova gte steering wheel

[MadCapNova]

looks a good start for a project and that morgan look very nice and that looks like a nova gte steering wheel

Those are the pictures of when I brought the car and the bloke that sold me the Nova owned the Morgan and said that he paid £24,000 for it a year ago! And as for the steering wheel, I thought it was a Nova steering wheel as the astra one was just a plain 3 spoke one.


Also wondering if anyone wanted to swap the front and rear seats, seatbelts, parcel shelf etc in my car for a pair of bucket seats or maybe recaro leather seats?

[MadCapNova]

Small Update:

I have added pictures of the stripped out back. I don't know whether to remove the rear carpets or keep them in there. I am going to make some rear panels and boot panels or maybe buy some carbon fibre ones soon, so it should look much better! I also trial fitted my polished Sparco strut brace from nova-myth today to see if it would clear the air box that I may change for an induction kit or K&N filter later. I am going to paint the strut brace yellow as I am going to paint the car yellow like the picture above. I should be getting paid at the end of this week so I shall get a front wing and try and get a headlight for it. I can then spend my money on more important things.

I was wondering if anybody knew where I could get a genuine front wing from as I don't really want to buy a pattern one as I want to fit it without any trouble.

[Benn]

Nice start, clear too bar that wing.

[MadCapNova]

Nice start, clear too bar that wing.

Its a real solid car with no rust on it whatsoever! Its a shame the wing is damaged but it should be fixed by the end of next week.

[Gaz86]

wow! damage that hasn't crippled the chassis leg! that's rare!

I remember shunting a suzuki tin can in one of mine and twisting the chassis leg.

good luck!

[MadCapNova]

wow! damage that hasn't crippled the chassis leg! that's rare!

I remember shunting a suzuki tin can in one of mine and twisting the chassis leg.

good luck!

Before I brought the car I got my dad who's a mechanic and his mate who works in a body shop to look at the damage and they both said it has not got any chassis damage etc. We thought that before we went to look at the car it would have more damage but it didn't which was a result!

[MadCapNova]

Removed front wing today. Inner wing isn't as bad as i'd expected it to be. Just needs a little tug to remove the crease on the side. The front needs jacking up and the headlight surround bit just needs straightening up a bit. Had a look around the inner wing and found no rust which is good. There is also no damage to the chassis. Got a new wing, headlight and indicator for it so it should be road worthy pretty soon.

[Benn]

Not to bad under there really.

[harvey_1066]

that actually looks a really solid car, my mates got one in at his paint shop, or did have the other week, and when it came it didnt look to bad up front, but after he removed the wings and had a poke about inside the engine bay, and both suspension struts were SHOT! they were completley rotten, and all down behind the front wheel aswell, when i went back the next day their must have been only been an inch joining them to the car LOL but fair play yours from what i can see is one really well kept non rotten nova

[MadCapNova]

Haven't been able to do much on the Nova at the moment as I have been helping my dad finishing up on our new toy:








I did manage to do a few things on it today. I have added my new clear rear lights and a few other bits. My dad gave me a hand fitting the new pattern front wing. 4 hours later, cutting, shutting and alot of swearing it actually fits alright on the car. It just needs a few more tweeks but will do that just before I paint it.

[MadCapNova]

I am not going to be able to do much on the nova at the moment as i'm at college now 3 days a week. Won't be able to work soo much aswell so wont be getting that much money As it was nice today I decided to remove the rear bumper ready for my white GSI bumper im collecting tomorrow. I've also got a fiberglass GSI front bumper that needs a little tlc and painting. Should be sorting that out soon and getting the whole car painted, MOT'd, taxed and on the road again soon






I also decided that as the weather was soo good I would get some pictures of my bike.





As is was 'fine tuning' the pictures of the bike in Photoshop I decided to have a laugh with a picture of the nova. Lowered it christ knows how much and enlarged the wheels.. err alot! lmao

[MadCapNova]

Went and got my white bumper today. Gave it a good clean and fitted it to the car. Looks much better now I think!