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Ma wee Nova project

26K views 98 replies 19 participants last post by  noukabaia 
#1 · (Edited)
*Edit* Had planned to get a Corsa. Ended up with a Nova, instead. Never mind :cool:.


After getting shot of the Corsa, i'd bought for a tenner a while back.

Wanted to build a project car again (after Astra CDX I had), this time it wouldn't be a my everyday car. Melv's Corsa and Jack's old Corsa project had been giving me ideas too lmao.

So I bought a 20XE off a friend.


It's needs a good amount of work as the woodruff key snapped and mashed half the vavles:doh:. But with block, loom, ECU and a F20 it only stung me £60. So i'll spend a bit of time rebuilding the XE. Even managed to get a Corsa/Nova XE exhaust manifold too.

Then started looking for a shell for this lot. Thought I’d stuck lucky again with a chance of a black Corsa Sport. Even better was the 1.6 was shot too. Price of it too was VERY keen at £150 with some goodies attached to it. Had to pay it up though as my other car needed tyres at the time. No front seats either, gutted! Some really nice Cobra buckets too :doh:.





Then a surprise when the guy I bought the car from told me what it had nailed on to the 1.6.....



Which changed my plans. As I now quite fancy a X16XE now and the Sport shell is not the greatest either :doh:.

So i'm going to look out for another Corsa and break the Sport. That said i'm not in rush either. Which means it'll be slow progress for the time being.
 
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#90 ·
Started taking bits off the Nova. Instead of ripping the thing to a shell. I've made up my mind of doing things in sections. Instead of having a pile of bits, then going "Oh fu*k, how do I put this back together!!" :lmao:.

So i'm starting with the front end.





TBH it's not that bad. After a bit of thought, it needs the front panel replacing. The orignal has seen too many patches. Plus towing eye is missing. Opel Classic parts had that section so i'll patch that up. Then the rest if I need to can be done with some made up patches. Front wings are shot too.
 
#92 ·
More parts refitted to engine and some paint splashed about. Rocker cover might not suit, but I like it.



Also manged to get my old 4-2-1 4-branch exhaust manifold back. It is for a Astra so the Nova exhaust, will need some modifying to make it fit right. Worth it just for the note that a 8v smallblock gives off with it on.

(Pic of it when it was in my old Astra Cesaro).
 
#93 ·
As you'll probably know I think this is a very very cool car, think it's the wheels that do it! I still think the 1400 8v is the perfect Nova engine. Did you do any head work before you put it together? I noticed a good difference when I did mine, though it took ages with the pikey Dremel I had!

Needs an F13Cr though, wonder if you could change the final drive to something even lower... :D.

Maybe I'll get another Nova one day but my fear of rust puts me off! The idea of a low tax band back road warrior does appeal majorly though!
 
#94 ·
Thanks Lucas :beer:.

Never thought of doing anything to the ports TBH. But was in a rush to get the head back on. Quite damp in there, so worried about the bores rusting up lol. Thanks for the tip tho.

Also thought of using the final drive from the 4-speed in the F13 I got. Or i'd been offered the gear set out of a CR.
 
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