My Nova Project.

[SimonTW]

Which doesn't contain a Nova as such....

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.

[boss]

i fookin love that yellow one do your new one like that looks like you no what your doin with cars mini is nice aswell

[Connor]

Like the previous cars and also the current mini, loving the look of that yellow nova in first pic.

[SimonTW]

I loved the yellow Nova. It was Jamaica yellow but repainted to BMW Dakar Yellow (E36 M3 colour) It looked like it should be okay but it was just bodged all over.

Current Mini is my fave car so far. I'm looking forward to being able to take off the road and strip it down once the Nova is done. I can't see myself ever selling the Mini. It's a brilliant car to drive on and off track.

I'm thinking of doing the Nova a dark none metallic grey. Like Audi Nimbus grey and do the chassis metal work in a blue similar to that on the Mini. I think the yellow of the previous one might look a little dated.

[Connor]

The grey colour you mentioned does sound awesome, but i think that jamaican yellow would look even more awesome

[SimonTW]

LOL. Will have to have a play in photoshop.

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.

[Mazz]

Awesome project's you've had, personally I think you remake the yellow one with an MOT this time though!

Nice work with BBS', but what do the bolt holes look like now?

[SimonTW]

I don't have a picture but will sort one out. They are hidden behind the caps obviously so its not a mega neat job but I used a 60deg countersink to drop the recess for the proper wheel bolts in there. Due to limited space under the caps I also had a set of tuner bolts and turned them down to make them a little narrower and shallower on the head.

I'm just doing a little more planning on the Nova project today and was thinking about having the track rod end connection on the hub carrier welded up and having the tapered hole inverted to run the ball joint upside down so the track control arms sitting a bit more level. Anyone had any experience with doing this and know if it's worth the effort for cars running really low?

[Benn]

Love the wheels, awesome work rebuilding them. Never seen that done before. They look fantastic.

Love the yellow Nova, thought i'd seen it before.. Then saw the red one.

[SimonTW]

Cheers Benn!

Here is a picture of the wheel redrill.