RLP Project "1 last time"

[ian.sutton]

Right,

Where to start, since Dec contacted me and told me about his sport, I thought hell, why not, one last time.

Found a "clean" nova eventually on fleabay, won the auction and proceeded to pick it up. Never bought a car blind before and to be honest, I wasn't sure if this was a good idea.

Thankfully, all turned out good. :thumb:

The car has done 54,000 miles and apart from nothing serious on the rear arches and the bottom of the drivers door, it's a really clean car.

Oh, and some **** sprayed the roof in matt black??? :confused: :tard:

I don't really know where I'm going on this project just yet and it may be a long term project (more for the summer really)

At the moment I'm leaning for 2l 16v and a lairy orange or green. But I'm sure as time goes on, my plans may change.

Enough chat, here's some pictures.

Ian

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010017.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010019.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010031.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010022.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010023.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010038.jpg

[NovaLad]

That's clean, especially the inside.

I think's hmm Orange with black bumpers and skirts? with orange lines in the bumpers lol.

Good luck

[Riggy]

aye doesnt look too bad of a car to start with fella :thumb:

i was thinking about a green nova the other day , no idea why though just thought it would look good lol

[Steve]

looks pretty good rust wise, not sure about the kleenex interior but that dash looks to be mint.

[Plug]

defo orange but as u say plans change so will prob end up blue or yellow lol

[ian.sutton]

Started stripping the interior out last night.

Was also a good chance to have a better look at the shell.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010024.jpg
New wheel in the back, still has Vauxhall sticker on it.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010025.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010026.jpg
All good in the boot.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010027.jpg
Tailgate mint

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010029.jpg
Drivers door not so well, need to look inside the door to see how bad it is.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010030.jpg
Passenger door seems to be just surface.

[Plug]

looks good for a blind buy mate nice strong shell to start a project with

[ian.sutton]

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010034.jpg
Pleased with the engine bay.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010036.jpg
Usual surface rust under the expansion bottle

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010035.jpg
Looks OK at a glance.

[hybridturbo]

Nice start there but you should of hidden your bonfire of nova bits lol

You will upset half the forum

[ian.sutton]

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010037.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010039.jpg

Thats all for now.

Cheers guys, really wanna crack on with this, but I'm rebuilding my house at the moment (well, kind of) so my "free time" is always tied up.

The bonfired nova parts are knackered to be honest, I'll be offering anything useful or worthy to you guys on here. :thumb:

[John]

looks like a good base for a project Ian, crack on!

[Ste L]

look's to be in good condition, the bit's of rust should be easy enough to fix, then you'll have a nice minter :)

[burgo]

i hate to say it and imo i should have my fingers chopped off, blended and then fed back to me via a straw. in that colour it would make a cracking mint gsi build

[ian.sutton]

i hate to say it and imo i should have my fingers chopped off, blended and then fed back to me via a straw. in that colour it would make a cracking mint gsi build

It crossed my mind to be honest.

Then quickly flew away when I started to think about the time to source parts etc.

If I had the time to show it, and money to completly restore it, I'd say yeah.

:)

[Mike.]

looks nice and tidy that, good find :thumb:

[ade]

why would anyone spray the roof mat black?

you sure its not a replacement panel? (not sure if yoiu can get a replacement roof section) just seems very weird!

Great base project to work from though.

Good luck with it!

[NovaLad]

Spray it green, keep the roof black and pretend your in mr beans mini.

[Dec16v]

Nice one Ian, glad you're back in the game :)

Looks like you've found a cracking little shell, looking at it I wouldn't steer too far away from its current form, the graphite grey is a pretty cool colour and I actually really like those steelies... lower it a bit, sort out the rust patches, repaint the roof (or maybe blow the whole thing over) and liven it up with some motorsport decals... then drop in the valver and you'll have yourself a pukka budget track day car!

Good luck with the project mate.

Dec

[ian.sutton]

hhmmmm, got me thinking now. lol

[craig green]

Great car for a base. friend of mine had an identiacl SXi 1.2 a few years back.

I love the std colour tbh, really tastefull when in good nick. I like the interior trim too, rip the fabric off the fr seats & use it to trim up a set of GTE recliners or maybe some decent buckets??

Shell appears solid enough anyway. My mates had a rotten fr chassis leg on the drivers side & that was going back to 1998!

[krobinson]

I think you should rebuild it so its absolute Mint, Dec will give you a hand ;)

[DW-Nova]

Looks tidy mate, similar condition to mine apart from my back arches and doors are mint, anyway good luck with the build, whats the plans then? are you going to strip it to a bare shell? or just restore it whilst keeping it usable if you know what i mean.

[ian.sutton]

Still undecided iin what to do to be honest. lol

Stripped some more out last night, inside the doors don't look to bad, not sure if they can be fixed or if I need to get hold of some clean ones.

I like the colour it is now, but I'm gonna probably put in 20XE lump and I only planned to have two seats and stripped interior.

Gonna liked the idea of a mad-ish colour.

AGGGGHHHH i don't know :mad:

[Dec16v]

Mate, I recon your best bet is to stick with the factory colour. If you change colour you'll need a full body respray which will cost a bomb to have done properly. That's not to say that you can't keep the cab, engine bay etc in standard grey... touring car style?! :cool:

Would be advisable to source some new doors and rear quarters or you'll be battling with rust for here on in, gutting that I sold a mint pair of doors about a month ago!! :(

I'm really thinking an understated track day look would be a good option, something like this....

http://i5.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/de/2f/032a_1.JPG


Wanna buy my Astra GTE rims? ;)


Dec

[craig green]

Mate, I recon your best bet is to stick with the factory colour. If you change colour you'll need a full body respray which will cost a bomb to have done properly. That's not to say that you can't keep the cab, engine bay etc in standard grey... touring car style?! :cool:



Dec

I do like the grey insides like the touring cars.



Could look mint with coded GSi bumpers & Sofstars.....

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NOVAFEATURES016.jpg

Anyone got any better pics of Alan Shephards car?

[ian.sutton]

cheers craig,

the missus has suggested i do what youve posted lol

[ian.sutton]

Little bit of an update.

Removed the lights bumper and front wings tonight to see how bad the rust is behind.

I was happy to find the front panel was near on mint.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010148.jpg

Very slight surface rust behind the lights but nothing to worry about.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010149.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010150.jpg

Inside the wings looked well.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010147.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010143.jpg

The rust here needs removing and plating but again, nothing serious.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010146.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g185/troop16v/P1010145.jpg

Overall, happy with the condition and the work it would of saved me if it had been falling apart.

[Dec16v]

E, sheel looks pretty sound mate. You might wanna get the wire wheel out, scurf the rust back and see the extent of any damage. Baring the bottom of the inner wings it looks to only be superficial surface rust though :)

What are your next plans?

Dec

[ian.sutton]

Yeah, thats what i'll do mate. ;)

Next plan is to treat and weld the areas on the front end and seam seal it, then black hammerite to finish it off.

I'll refit the wings then move to the rear arches :roll:

I'll leave the front bumper etc off as the engine will be out sometime soon. :thumb:

[DW-Nova]

any progress mate?

[Dec16v]

What's happening E? Have you got the C20LET fitted yet ;-)

[ian.sutton]

No real updates really, unless you want pics of my tiled bathroom! lol

Hence, the house has been getting more attention lately.

I have stripped the sound deadening out the back and removed the rad.

The dash is also back together with all its lights working now.

Will take a couple of pics this weekend.

Hopefully itll warm up (thatll spur me on ) :thumb: