Toms Nova Rally Car Build
Greetings.
This is my first proper post so ill give you guys a bit of background on me before i talk about the project. I learned to drive as a teenager in my girlfriends nova SR (around about 1998). After this i had about 4 or 5 novas and would not even consider driving anything else until my mid 20s when i started driving honda preludes. From the age of about 18-23 i worked as a welder fabricator and always dreamed about building and driving a rally prepped nova. I bought a wide arched shell with a rollcage but never even got round to picking up because i didnt have a garage and the place i was going to store it fell through. Then i managed to get my workplace to let me keep a stripped out nova at work but the reality was that i didnt have any money and when i left that place the nova ended up going to the scrapyard. So, fast forward 10 years and i now have a fairly decent job working in London doing IT networking. I drive a 1.2 clio as a runabout and most importantly ive just bought a new house with a decent sized garage... awesome!
Managed to talk the wife into letting me have a little project although she still maintains that i will never finish it. Before i even start working on the nova i decided that i had to prepare a decent working space. I decided to deck out the roof space in my garage and use it for storage. I also decided to remove the railings that line my drive as in the future i anticipate having to keep another nova on the drive to use as a donor car and to add to that i would also like at some point to get a road going nova as a daily drive!
2 Weeks ago i bought an absolutely minter E-reg non-sunroof shell from a guy on here (stareso). Went down to Fareham and trailered it away back up to Gloucester. The shell had been in dry storage for 6 years and was like finding a rare jewel. Perfect base for a rally car!!! Anyway, here are some pics of the sh** state of my garage and driveway before i began tearing things apart:
A bit of angle grinding, Root pulling, digging, forking, cleaning, scraping and general grafting later.... We have a spacious driveway and a well-prepped clean work area for the nova:
Have a ordered a roll over jig, a harry hockley plating kit and a custom cages full weld-in cage. Tomorrow im going to a local welding suppliers to get some abrasive discs, welding gas, 0.6mm wire and some other consumables so i can get my mig welder working (purchased last week, not tried it yet). Ive also just bought a 150litre air compressor which im gong to put behind the garage in a little outhouse and pipe it into the garage in 13mm copper pipe.
Plans for the car are really just to get the shell seam welded and get the cage in. Cant really afford to get it shot-blasted so may hire one and do it myself in the garage. Have bought a 1.6 16v engine but am still considering dropping a 1.3 in it to begin with. I have a feeling i may exhaust my budget trying to tune the 1.6. Still kind of undecided about that!
The other alternative is that i end up buying a rally car that is already prepped and keep the shell as a spare since rally shells have a finite lifespan.
Looking forward to hearing peoples ideas and advice.
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garage looks like it will be a nice place to work in as well 
Originally Posted by chris gsi
