My Nova Project

[SimonTW]

Which at the moment doesn't include a Nova as such. But here is a bit of background of where I'm coming from with it.
Back in 2002ish I set about building my first project. I went for a Nova, picked up a rolling shell and set about kitting it out. At that time my only ever modification was a mesh grill for a Saxo.
After about a year or so of tinkering I ended up with this...


Sadly not knowing much about cars I managed to buy a bit of a bodged shell. It failed the first MOT and I was advised it wasn't worth saving. Luckily the second time round I knew what i was looking for to find a mint shell. I set about re-shelling the Nova I literally just finished building. While doing all this I decided to put a C16XE in it. I spent another long while putting this new car together, sourcing new parts for it. On it's first drive out the engine jammed itself. The bottom end cap on cylinder 3 wasn't tight and I managed to fire the piston into the head. By this time I was completely loosing patience with the car in general. I had been sourcing a lot of parts from my local Vaux dealer so I decided just to buy a new engine from Vauxhall. Again, the car was back in the garage but I got it finished and I took it out for it's first trip at the first Performance Vauxhall show.




Once the car was built I got bored as I had nothing to tinker with so sold it on and bought a Ford Ka.





It was a bit quirky but at the time was the right choice. It didn't last long as a gypsy in a luton van cut into my lane and wiped me out. Anyway, 2 more Ka's, an Audi A3, Golf Cabriolet with a VR6 conversion, bike engined kit car and now my current car being where i'm happy with it being at I want to get something new to mess with so want to go back to my first love and do a Nova as I still have a few parts to work with including a full C16XE conversion in the garage.
At the monent I'm lacking time and space to start with a full car so my plan is to rebuild the engine conversion ready to drop in. And put together a full front and rear running gear set-up togethor. This should keep me busy for a while and get me a lot nearer to having the car finished when I do have the time to grab a shell.

This week I have mostly been collecting bits.
Rear Beam
Hub Carriers
Steering Rack
Protec VW rear disc conversion
Rose jointed TCA mounts
Coilovers
Alloy topmounts
Wishbones
Wishbone plating kit
Polybushes
Bearings
Plus a few more bits I probably forgot

It's just going to be a simple, clean daily/track build I can use when I want to take the Mini off the road to keep nice as at the moment it takes a bit of a battering at the moment.

I just wanted to add this thread to document it, and also ask questions from people in the know as I go along with the build.

And a few of my Mini for those who are interested. Recently featured in Redline magazine. Wrapped in RAL5012, usual power and suspension upgrades with totally one off BBS wheels built by me.

[SimonTW]

Thought I'd also add a little bit about the wheels on the Mini. Might interest a few people.

I bought some BMW 328i RC041 wheels for about £50 (7.5x17" 5x120 PCD)


But being 5x120 and not being able to use adapters I had to fill and redrill so bought a lathe and made some plugs






As I was going to so much work on the inners I decided I should make the barrels wider. For this I had to cut the lips of them. I didn't have a big enough lathe so this was done by hand.


I then ordered new lips from image and set about drilling them for the new wheels.



Then I drilled the new PCD using a hubcentric spacer


And then once everything had come together I ended up with 7.75" and 8.75" BBS RC041 with staggered lips in 4x100.



I have had these on for about a year now. I have just split them down to do them blue to match the bodywork. I have also ordered a wider outer lips to make the rears wider and then run the rear lips on the fronts. Just to give it a bit more poke and look a little more stanced.

[rc]

great history of cars, looking forward to seeing another nova

[_Joycey_]

I have pictures of the red/yellow nova's on the wall in the garage they have been up there years

[SimonTW]

Cheers Joycey!

Just a little update.
Bought a few bits to rebuild the running gear. I also bought some compbrake topmounts, rose jointed tie bar brackets, coilovers, fully bush kit & a golf rear brake conversion.


Had the lower arms plated up



Had a bit of time and some paint left from the Mini so did the brake calipers.


I also dropped off a load of bits at the powder coaters so looking forward to picking those up in the next few day.

[Melv]

All sounds good so far for the Nova.

Ka - each to their own lmao

Mini - There's a lot of work there and the amount of work in the wheels in staggering.

[Kev_G]

Simon you gay badger i didnt know that mini was yours it looked awesome at detailed show. Yes you may remember me but i doubt it. will be watching this alot

[SimonTW]

The Ka was definnately an acquired taste but handled brilliantly as the RST engine was actually lighter than the standard 1300. Even more work going into the wheels at the moment as they are all stripped down. I've gone for a slightly wider dish on the rear now just to make it pretty extreme looking.

Hi Kev. Yes I think I recognise the user name from the old cruise north wales days? Small world both being at Awesome. I only turned up for a mooch and was directed to front of show. Pics of the car even made it into Performance VW Mag.

Did a bit of shopping on ebay.de.

40 euros delivered which is a bargain.

Next on my shopping list is :
SR/GTE bumpers to get smoothed out
Wheels - Gotta be BBS splits
I really like the look of the optimum balance pedal boxes too. Nice, neat compact and will clean the engine bay of excess stuff.

[SimonTW]

Picked up my batch from the powdercoaters. I had a look at them at the powdercoaters place but then they were all wrapped up so here is a picture of the hub carrier I unwrapped just to have a peek at.

[Craig-S]

Excellent work on the wheels. Truley staggering (pun intended, Not sure if Melv's was though?)

I have a straight pair of GTE bumpers for sale...

Pm if your interested.

[AquariousRS]

Looking forwards to watching this take place.

First seen your Mini at Cumbria Vag. It looks superb.

[SimonTW]

I like the pun ha! Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words AquariousRS!

Unwrapped a few more bits. I was hoping to assemble the beam up but I didn't get as much time in the garage as I'd hoped. I have the Golf rear disc conversion assembled onto the stub axles and the bushes fitted so shouldn't take too long to bolt together next weekend.


Mocked up the BBS for the Mini


Put the coilovers together with the compbrake topmounts


And quickly dropped the bushes into the lower arms.

[pie]

looking good fella

[Admin_Steve]

Amazing work so far! Looking good

[Corsa Georgie]

Cracking thread so far si , loving the progress on the mini keeps getting better , ill keep an eye out for a nova shell for you ill race you and see who finishes first my white corsa or your nova p:s glad your back on the vaux scene George

[Corsa_LET]

you must have some talent to do that to your wheels, im well impressed! i love the attention to detail like colour coding everything from calipers to springs! cant wait to see how this pans out, hopefully see it at a few shows next year im not the KA's biggest fan but i like it when people do something different and original so respect for that. keep up the good work and all the best with the nova

[Benn]

Have a missed pics of the Nova it's self?

Love the rest.

[Corsa Georgie]

Have a missed pics of the Nova it's self?

Love the rest.

He needs a nova shell lol hasnt got one yet

[SimonTW]

Yeah, thats right. I haven't actually got a Nova yet. I'm a real moron with some of my lesser known projects. I buy them and don't finish them or they sit for ages as I pick them up and put them down when I feel like.

Mk1 Golf with 24k on the clock and every mot from new. Bought with good intentions. Never really did anything other than fit this massive wheel. Ended up swapping it for the vynil to wrap the Mini.


The plan is just to build and collect everything I need to convert the car. Then find a shell and drop it all in. It's pointless buying a shell now as I'd then need to save for bits while the shell sits festering on the drive. I can hold out for the right car as I'm doing it this way too.

I actually got close to getting this one done but a change in the SVA to IVA and also the rules on cars needing reverse gear would have meant stripping the chassis back down to modify it to fit a powered reverse setup so just sacked it off and ebayed it. A dude came from Lithuania and took it.

[Valesidecc]

top work on all our cars!! love em

[SimonTW]

Cheers! Much appreciated.

[Craig-S]

A dude came from Lithuania and took it.

Slough then.....

[SimonTW]

Ha, no. He came over and met a Lithuania freight lorry at my house that had a few motorbikes, and a dax rush in it. We loaded my stuff into it and off he went to pick up some more stuff. When it sold on ebay I saw where the bidder was and thought "great, this aint going to happen!" then one morning a lorry pulls up outside. I'll never doubt an international bidder again. It was the smoothest transaction I could have hoped for and because he turned up with Euro's when I said GBP I got a better exchange rate as I named my own exchage rate lol

[Kev_G]

Hi Kev. Yes I think I recognise the user name from the old cruise north wales days? Small world both being at Awesome. I only turned up for a mooch and was directed to front of show. Pics of the car even made it into Performance VW Mag.

yep same kev and RB and BTTOS and you know my mate Tom S from Halfords

[SimonTW]

I've not seen Tom since I was building my Ka. What's he up to these days!?

I had a bit of time this morning so I partially stripped the steering rack, installed the front hubs and mounted the front coilovers. I also fired my compressor up for the first time in years so I could remove the nuts from the tie bars.

Also knocked this up.




Then I found some braided brake line from when I built my kit car and some fittings so made up the lines to fit between the flexy and the caliper.