My Nova Rebuild Thread...

[Pistol Pete]

Havent done one so here it is!

Started life as a 1.4 SRi. Used to owned my a Novaload user, Freak. I kept the car pretty much as i bought it, fitted a backbox and meshed the front grill, painted the alloys. Used it in this state for a while, did a few sessions round Castle Combe, great fun!! I then got bored so took it off the road with the intention of building a C20XE to put in it and got abit carried away...





How it looked when i bought it.



I had the wheels painted, added some side reps and that was about it.



The strip down starts!! Out with the old C14SE (which was a bloody good engine, made my mate in his saxo vtr look silly. Not hard to do i hear you say!)

[Pistol Pete]

There was alot of rust/rot within my engine bay, so first port of call was to remove the front panel and crossmember (what fun!!) and replace it. I also cut out the rust from the inner wings and pplated them up.



front panel off.



Rot on the inner wings. This was all cut out and plated.



I constructed a chassis stand, so as the car could be moved. I had removed all running gear.



Front crossmember removed. I braced between the engine mounts and fitted a strut brace. This was more a precaution than anything.

[Pistol Pete]

I then set about grinding back all surfaces that needed welding. This included areas for the Harry Hockley plate kit.









My good mate Stu doing the welding. He works in a bodyshop, so his expertise were welcomed at this stage of the rebuild.

[Pistol Pete]

The bulkhead was also seam welded.







Once the cross member was welded and the engine bay was seam welded, i gave it a ll a good coat of primer. This rebuild was done in stages so didnt want rust to set in a ruin all my (our!!) hardwork.





The front panel was then fitted and a trial fitment of the wings. They turned out to be crap! Pattern wings!

[craig green]

Some nice touches. I always liked breeze blue SR's.

I look forward to seeing it unfold.

[Pistol Pete]

I then bought myself a compressor and painted the engine bay to colour code it all!





Nothing missed out on a lick of paint. The upper members, inner wings, wheel housings, the lot!



The underneath of the car didnt go un-noticed! It probably will when it hits the road though Will have to construct some special mirrors!





Firstly is attached a wire brush attachment to my angle grinder a cleaned it all up. Wasnt fussed about the removal of the underseal.

[Pistol Pete]

All fixtures and fittings were removed, then it all got a coat of primer. What a labour of love!







Then i painted it all to match the rest!

[Pistol Pete]

Couldnt just slap my rusty rear beam back on so...







...and some repainted shocks and springs.





mmmm, freshly painted lovliness!!

[Pistol Pete]

I then set about getting the car ready for the paint shop.







Took out all the windows, windscreen (which cracked!) lights etc. Borrowed a mates electric DA and went for it!! Took no time at all to rub down. Will give it a final DA before it goes for paint.

[Pistol Pete]

Stupid really but looking back throughthis thread, doesnt look as thoughi have done an awful lot in the last 3, nearly 4 years!!! Trouble is i have never "just got on with it"!! Not long after i started the rebuild me and my g/f moved in together and that took up all my spare time and of couse, money .

I also got slightly sidetracked with my daily runners! Firstly had a Renault 19 16v, tidied that up swapped it for an E30 BMW 325, sold that bought a Cav GSi, tidied that up then sold it bought a Cally 16v off Ernie, tidied that up sold it.... you get the idea! Trouble is any money or time i had got took up with this! I then decided to buy a house with my g/f (even less money to do the Nova!) and do my bike test, something i had wanted to do for years. Which kind of brings us up to date! Passed my test august last year, was making some progress on the Nova. This summer was looking to get it painted and maybe engine in. But it was not to be...

Firstly my mum and dads garage caught fire, the Nova and all my tools, parts etc were in there not to mention my dads tools. This is what i was presented with...



Luckily (well not really!) the fire was mainly in the roof. The car escaped bar some smoke damage. Trouble is all my interior, lights, engine parts etc were in the roof and subseqently got either melted of smoke damaged I know from the pic it doesnt look bad but it was. The whole roof had to be replaced as all the joists wre charcoal, what the fire didnt destroy the smoke did! My bumpers were just a plastic shape! My doorcards were, well, charcoal.

...But thanks to Lee H off here i managed to replace the majority of lost parts. So i intended to commence the rebuild throughout the summer, but...

I crashed my bike in June this year. Seriously! I hit a tractor whilst overtaking a car and the tractor. It turned right and i connected with it! A 2 week stay in hospital and multiple injuries (of which im still off work now!) hence why the rebuild will have to wait til after xmas at least

But im going to get it finished. I want to "do" the Nurburgring before im 30! I was 26 last week so ive got time!!

Sorry for blabbing, on ill get back to posting pics up!.....