My long term Nova rebuild (started in 1999!)

[Peanut_119]

Great work.

rep+

[Old man Jimbo]

After the fun of removing comes the inevitable headache of replacing with new parts..




and the other side..




The short version is you line up the chassis legs by holding them in place with self tappers. This allows you to check everything is lined up correctly before you weld it up. Looks and sound a bit hard but it was surprisingly easy. But then that's what I used to do for a living so it should of been for me!




So with the two main legs on and temporarily held in place with screws I can now use this collection of clamps and loads more screws to line the rest of the front end on!

Good times..

[Old man Jimbo]

Next step then. Lineing up the strut top/inner wings..





The after some welding and grinding back.






More to come..

[shed-on-wheels]

i think this is going to be the cleanest nova on earth!!!

[Old man Jimbo]

So a bit more welding and grinding..





....and now I can start to weld the front panel on...






Cool!

[scorge01]

Amazing work mate wish I hatd the time and energy to do a build of this scale good on ya

[Old man Jimbo]

i think this is going to be the cleanest nova on earth!!!

Cheers! Nah there is nicer novas out there than mine. Mine was/is a personal challenge and and exercise in what I can do and my battle with OCD

Anyhow earlier I showed a picture of what happens when a water leak goes unchecked so I had to fix it..

I ran weld over the water damaged area and ground back the fresh metal..




Then I cut out and replaced the lip..


..and cut out and replaced the rot on the dashboard panel..


..Then welded the dash panel back in. Jobs a gud 'un as they say..

[nova_saloon]

oh wow, all those precious bit of formed metal.. this is so impressive so nice to see full legs being done as nobody can get hold of those types of parts anymore! top stuff well done.

[Old man Jimbo]

As I'd mentioned earlier about the bottom of the A piller where it meets the sill etc needed a lot of work and replaceing inner skins etc another area is behind the lower dash panels (**** sheilds) behind this area where sill meets door piller meets chassisleg out rigger meets floor.

Well you get the idea! You can see some of the multilayers of metal in this picture..



Then much more replacing and repairing of shatsheilds..





Then some strut top plates..




...and some finishedish front end pics..

[nova_saloon]

oh you going to have it dipped. if you gone through all this effort its really pennies, as it will last a hell of a lot longer, even galvanized it'll be a first for a nova probably!. as its definitely all metal no filler!