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Thread: Joff's Nova Turbo Project

  1. #11
    Moderator burgo's Avatar
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    good work fella keep it up, nice to see someone doing all there own work aswell

  2. #12
    Club Member Club Member joff-turbo-nova's Avatar
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    Default It continues!

    Just to answer a few questions ?.. I was a bit concerned about the strength of the cross member so I
    decided to add the box section which is seam welded from one chassis leg to the other and stitched to the
    cross member across its whole length.

    The bonnet in the background is a Cool Louvres one ?.. in fact it?s the second one I have had made up,
    the first arrived bent so collected the replacement in person from the Cool Louvres workshop near Winchester
    earlier this year. I have had some reverse vents pressed into the bonnet which will pull air in above the air filter.
    I am still keeping the GTI-R scoop as this is the only one I have seen which is an exact replica of the Nissan one.

    Anyway on with the mission ??. Next job was to sort out the floor pan of all the crud ?. Nitromors was great
    in peeling all the muck away. All the drain holes that had been welded up were also sealed with seam sealer
    on the inside. Also took the opportunity to relocate the filler to the door shut where the vent normally lives.
    Although this looked an easy job ? it actually took hours to look right :



    As you can see I give the filler areas a top coat or red to check smoothness and I think it has come out very well !!



    Next on the list was the back panel which was more like a seive !!!! Rust had really got hold in the lower seam
    and the only way to get rid of the rust was to completely replace the whole panel. Cutting it away was the easy part :



    As the pictures show the panel was in serious need of attention.



    The new back panel was a big jigsaw in how to attach it as it was longer than both side panels as one end would
    slide in but not the other . This pic also shows my nice dolly I made up from a cash trolly from work (I work in a Bank)
    so my shell was back on 4 wheels but not really going anywhere ? at least I could push it in and out of the garage!




    I finally figured out that the rear panel needed to be slipped in from the inside of the shell. It was then spot welded
    into place and seam welded onto the floorpan and seam sealed on both the inside and outside as I didn?t want it
    rusting again!



    Well that?s it for this update.

    Joff
    Work in progress threads
    My Turbo nova :-Link
    Meriva Z20LET project :- Link

    Still not doing standard!

  3. #13
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    Superb Joff. I remember reading the older full story of your car, and how it was reshelled quite early on. Always been a fan of the car! Glad your putting so much effort into it!

    Eta?

    Keith

  4. #14
    Club Member Club Member joff-turbo-nova's Avatar
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    Yep, I did a reshell in 1989 when I originally bought my nova as a written off car with 392 miles on the clock -
    it had been bought new on 18.11.1988 and written off on the 23.12.1988. I bought it June 1989 and have
    owned it ever since! See pic of original condition below :




    The only useable panel was the tailgate - the rest of the shell was scrap - I bought a brand new shell off GM for
    ?1200 - those were the days!!

    eta = ????? I really don't want to rush this project - hoping for the back end of next show season to be realisic -
    it would be nice to get it ready for April 2005, but I think this will be a bit unrealistic!

    Joff
    Last edited by joff-turbo-nova; 02-05-09 at 10:31 PM.
    Work in progress threads
    My Turbo nova :-Link
    Meriva Z20LET project :- Link

    Still not doing standard!

  5. #15
    Club Member Club Member joff-turbo-nova's Avatar
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    Default The final frontier (for now!)

    Ok, we are now nearly up to date ?.. you will recall that I have already smoothed the inner wings in the engine bay,
    but after a couple of months the sealer started cracking so I had to strip it all off and onto plan B ? inspired by
    Keith Robinsons green/blue nova with the ultra smooth inner wings I thought I would have a go plating the
    wings with some quite thick guage metal. The idea was to weld as much as possible and use as little filler a possible .
    With a weld/grind weld/gring regime I think I have cracked it! The photo shows where the second plate is
    welded in ? the first is already in situ and partially smoothed.



    I was now getting a tad bit bored of all this grinding and sanding lark so I turned my attention to a few more jobs
    that needed doing. The rear mount needed strengthening up and the mount bolt holes had turned into an L
    shape so I started welding on some strengthening plates I acquired about 6 years ago!



    I also beefed up the lower part of the mount and then gave the whole kit a couple of coats of hammerite



    I spent most of a day stripping all the crud and cr@p off my GSI petrol tank ? I then gave it a couple of
    coats of hammerite to make it nice, clean & tidy.



    I also have bought a brand new rear GSI bumper from GM ? my local bodyshop have done a sterling
    job of filling in both the number plate light and also the towing eye recess ? nice and smooth!



    For the interior I am only going to hint at my plans ? the fronts are Sparco Torino?s which I have had recovered
    in Grey and Blue alcantara ? they guy who did these is more of a perfectionist than me !!! He had these
    over 12 months but boy was it worth the wait!!! Spot on fit with no creases at all!!! It?s a lot better than some
    of the so called professional retrims I have seen over the years ? this was done as a guvvy job as well!!!!




    And finally these arrived just before christmas .....



    These are a couple of alloy pulleys from SBD which cost about ?75 which run a multi groove BMW belt ? gets rid of
    the central rubber insert as seen on the GM one as mine was knackered and Vauxhall wanted silly money for a new one!

    For the next few weeks the main jobs are to smooth off the inner wings and get the front bumper fitting right and
    fill any small marks or scratches that are present.

    Hope you have enjoyed this trip and I will keep you up to date with the developments when they happen!

    Joff
    Work in progress threads
    My Turbo nova :-Link
    Meriva Z20LET project :- Link

    Still not doing standard!

  6. #16
    3 1/2 rods.
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    That is fantastic work

    joff, your an absolute Beast !

    i wish i lived next door to you

  7. #17
    Club Member Jim's Avatar
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    I always enjoy reading peoples work in progress. Did you ever think of buying a new shell, as it seems the current shell had one or two rusty areas. I understand if you are sentimentally attached to the shell as I am with mine.

    Good luck with it all, keep the pics coming. Could I suggest possibly resizing the next set of images so that you dont need ADSL or a 22" monitor to view the pics

    Jim

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    What a rebuild. Can't wait to see the Nova ready on the road, although i know that it'll take plenty of time...

    Keep up with the work and post here the updates.

  9. #19
    Club Member Club Member fearless's Avatar
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    Do I sence a colour change coming your way (Blue and grey seat retrim !)

    Not seen much of you at shows this year - now I see why !

    If your ever bored of your project - you can come and make a start on mine.

    Keep up the good work

    Dave
    Dave France - The talent behind Fearless Motorsport Developments (FMD), creator of many a feature car including Brett Warburton's NovaWRC TotalVX cover car - a test run for my own project !!

  10. #20
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    If your ever bored of your project - you can come and make a start on mine.
    :: :: :: How many years have I heard that!! START! ::


    Colin

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