the total birth, life and death of my wide arch nova! LOTS OF PICS!!!!!!!!!!

[rc]

Well I fort now my nova is finally well and truly over I fort id post up the pics I have from the birth, the child hood, the life, the midlife crisis face lift, then finally the death!

Here it is as I brought it about 5 years ago,

A tasty little j-reg mk2 1.4 flair J





first weekend I cashed the tax in it had on it and ripped it apart!



first purchase was a set of 17s, tsw razors wrapped in yokos, those were the days when I had cash to splash
slightly wider than the standards





had bubberly rear arches so got some rear replacement panels and widened them round the 17s



wanted them as be as close as they could without touching!



front wings were also a bit bubberly, so got new ones and cut and widened them around the 17s

[rc]

but this idea was short lived and took them all off again and ordered a rally-x wide arch kit off prima racing!

Hated the square skirts they came with so decided to get some artwork out and modify novadose skirts, cut and widened



the front wings were ment for a mk1 nova with the big indicators, so I had to make front indicator holes. Lots of trial and error!



welded up the door handles and locks, and smoothed it all off





flushed the boot aswel







mk2 front end complete

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got all the arches in primer, still all been done in my driveway up to this point



as the kit is a proper rally one and not ment for bumpers, I had to make a recesses for the front bumper to sit in, seen below the indicator



with the bumpers both being ment for a ?slim-line nova? they both had to be widened out to match the monster arches









all this so far was done in my driveway, now it was time to take it down to my mates workshop to get in primer properly,

blocked it all down again

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got the bumper and arch widened perfectly





next was to get it ready in primer propley!

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my fave pic of it through the whole project







all in primer it was time to take it home again

bonnet looked a bit standard compared to the rest of the car, so got on the fone to quad conversions





fort the extent of the bad boy was a bit horrific, went down all the way to the bottom of the lights,

so cut it up to a nice even frown



so was all in primer and looking smooth





and wide!

[rc]

next was the brakes, although it was still a 1.4, I couldn?t have those tiny stoppers staying! And as for the back I hate the look of drums! Luckily a mate of a mate had just writ off his mk3 astra gsi and sold me the front legs and full rear beam for 30quid! A steal!!

Heres the standard fronts



and the 16v ones







and as for the rears well! Embarrassing!



but got to work making the rear beam salvaging the parts from the astras item







much better

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also while it was home had a bit of a change of plan and decided to relocate the filler cap to the door shut, so had to weld up the air vent



so far this part of the project has taken about 2 ? years! Along time!!!

Back to my mates workshop, and finally after weeks of staring at colour charts, I chose Peugeot tangerine metallic















got the angle eye headlights, which looked good with the bonnet over one



painted the engine bay satin black for now

[rc]

eventually got it all together!!









was on spax 60mm springs but always thought it sat too high at the back!

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tvr style door buttons to pop the doors open











once on the road the project stood at about 3 years!

[rc]

Drove it around for about a year, added a kent cam and pulley, and a few other bits, but after a while I was bored of having nothing to do!

So I brought this!





a 1991 1.6 8v gsi lump and running gear! Half been dismantled and all bits given in a box! Spent all winter stripping it down to a bare block and replaced everything from the base up, had the cranks reground, lightened and balanced flywheel, new big end shells and mains, new rings, new valve seals, skimmed head, every single gasket and seal replaced, kent cam, vernier pulley, 4 branch, and some other few bits resulted in this





re-routed all the loom under the inlet manifold



and did the box to match





seam welded up the entire engine bay while it was empty



and in it went