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Thread: Joff's Nova Turbo Project

  1. #1
    Club Member Club Member joff-turbo-nova's Avatar
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    Default Joff's Nova Turbo Project

    Right all,

    I have used the bit of spare time over the this festive period to sort out, collate and put a bit of a story together of how
    I am getting on with my Nova. I have been off the show scene for a while, really down to having no show car as
    in February 2003 I decided that it was time to pull the trusty Nova off the road as it really needed some TLC after
    13 years of use abuse and 4 different engines (1.3, 1.6, 2.0 16v and a C20LET). It hasn't helped that my wife
    gave birth to our son in September 2003 and this summer I have had to refurbish my second house I rent out when my
    previous tenants trashed the place prior to their eviction.

    Anyway, to jog your memory, my nova looked something like this just prior to the rebuild - pic was taken
    in September 2002 at Well Lane Turbo where it made 213bhp on the day - I was quite happy with that as
    it was basically standard bar a K&N filter:


    Well then, the story begins with the engine being pulled out:

    and I started stripping all the years of crud and underseal off the front end :


    On closer inspection of the front cross member it was clear that the tin worm had taken a chunk out of the offside
    and a large strengthening plate was require - I have also taken the opportunity to put on a proper strengthening
    kit. The plate around the tie bar holes is basically a U shape that goes around both top and bottom :-


    Once I had got the cross member sorted out it was time to concentrate on the underside and floor pan, Having now stripped
    the shell of all the doors, glass, wiring and suspension it was quite light, so with the aide of a few tyres and a large post,
    1 person (me!) could lift the shell on one side without any problems :



    Moving along the floor pan from front to rear I have welded up all the drainage holes as these seem to be attracting rust
    ? I had also noticed some strange bulges in the seams in the rear arches and was greeted by quite large rust areas which
    were plated accordingly. I also seam welded the area around where the shock absorber and rear strut brace will be
    mounted for extra strength. As I progressed the work was sealed with 3 coats of black hammerite just to make sure!
    The rear outer skins of the arches are rotten from the inside out so when the shell gets to the bodyshop these will be cut
    out and repair panels professionally welded in. The rear suspension pickup points also got a strengthening plate welded
    on as per the group A/N spec



    After lifting the carpet under the rear seats some of the floor came with it! It turned out that one of the holes for the vent
    pipe from the petrol tank had been letting years of crud & salt splash up onto the underside of the floor and rotted from
    the underside up ? again plated and sealed and sprayed over with primer. The general crud on the floor would be removed
    at a later date.



    Thats it for tonight, more to follow tomorrow! Thoughts and comments appreciated

    Joff
    Last edited by joff-turbo-nova; 31-01-07 at 09:20 PM. Reason: update
    Work in progress threads
    My Turbo nova :-Link
    Meriva Z20LET project :- Link

    Still not doing standard!

  2. #2
    NW BOYS Club Member Riggy's Avatar
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    looking good mate i remeber you telling us you had a lot of work to do when i bought my interior of you last year .

    so how far have you got then ?

    carl
    Last edited by Ian; 01-10-06 at 12:33 AM.

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    looks like you've put the effort in mate well done nice car

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    Jesus, I remember that First pik... i was there with Fenix afink in his Beaslty 1.2 Black Saloon :D

    Look's like thats gona be some Project for ya fella. . . Keep up the good work man

    Once it's Finished you will be ::

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    Hello Joff - not spoken for ages!!

    I was wondering if you were still plodding on with the rebuild and it seems you haven't lost interest in it!!

    Get some more of those pics up!!

  6. #6
    Club Member Club Member joff-turbo-nova's Avatar
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    Default Next....

    Next job was to sort out the inner wings in the engine bay. This required stripping a couple of layers of hammerite to get
    to the original bodywork ? Nitromors to the rescue! I then started smoothing the inner wings where the joint
    between the upper and lower sections had been seam welded. The whole lot was then sprayed in primer to see if there
    were any blemishes. Whilst I was there I started smoothing off the bulkhead panel infront of the battery tray &
    interior blower fan. I had to weld up the hole that was cut for the 2.0 16v wiring loom as the C20LET loom goes round
    the suspension turret. My clutch cable is slightly modified and hence a new strengthening plate in this area on the
    bulkhead was required.



    The other inner wing was also smoothed and on both sides new suspension turret strengthening plates were
    welded in. Also you can see where the front chassis legs have been seam welded to the bulkhead. This was done both
    on the inner wing side and under the wheel arches for double strength.




    And heres a pic of the full bare shell sitting in my garage ? the front valance you will note has a slight kink
    in it (argument with a small tree a couple of winters ago!), however this area was where my attention was
    soon to be focused :



    On wondering around the car I noticed where the wiring loom enters the tailgate a blemish which turned out to be
    a large rust hole!!! Anyway with a quick grind, plate and skim it was sorted :



    Next job, back to the front end, I trial fitted the panels as I needed to see how they fitted and also where I would
    need to cut the front end because ?.



    ?.. I needed to fit in my new intercooler that I had Radtech make up for me to the right dimensions to fit in
    the front bumper aperture :



    This job looked quite easy to begin with but after looking and measuring and due to the fact that Nova front ends are
    pointed to a V shape the front panel had to be ?trimmed? back slightly!!! In fact quite a lot! ? It was good to see
    on the inside of the cross member very little rust so this area got hammerited before it was welded up .



    Trial fitting of the intercooler ? didn?t realise it would be quite so big but it will keep the charge temps down!!!



    With everything now fitting it was time to weld in some new plates and a 40mm box section right across the
    front for extra strength .Again eveything was primered.



    Next job to trial fit everything again ? on the whole the front bumper fits round the intercooler quite well ? still needs
    a coupe of tweaks but will do for now!



    More to follow soon!

    Joff

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    Looks well, some nice pics there. Big respect for undertaking all the work yourself, mine would be in a smilar state if our garage was full of tables, chairs and other household cast-off's

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    love it mate, got a bit worried when i saw the pic of the front pannel that you had cut away, but then you said about putting box section in there,

    seing pics like these make me want to get the engine out of mine and really spend some time on the bay, (and fit an let )

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    Wow!!! I've just waited 40mins for this page to download, but its safe to say it was defo worth the wait! Thats going to be well sweet when finished mate! Love the Intercooler filling the whole of that Kingdom bumper :D What are the plans with the rest of the car? is it being stripped out? or are you keeping the interior? I notice a nice cool lurved bonnet in one of the pics.... is this replacing your other one with the big vent?

    Loving the pics, keep um coming.

    Well done.

    Neil

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    8) thats lookin mint. nice to see it all coming together mate.

    another winter minter

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