New car to build - 1963 Nova Super Sport.

This car has been sitting for a while and now its finally coming time to start on this project. 1963 Nova SS .. and I have a TON of parts for this, enough to fill up a whole room in your house with boxes. I am building this car for a customer / good friend. The car currently has the Inline 6 cylinder engine.

The first thing to address will be the body / paint .. obviously, the entire trunk floor pan will need to be replaced - possibly the rear quarter, and part of the driver side floor pan. And i will be taking pictures of the process along the way, customer requested this for his build book.

Here are some of the parts I will be installing .. I cant say how much money is already invested / will be spent on this project in the end.

Chevy 350 - ZZ4 crate motor w/ Cam
Custom build trans + rear axle
4 wheel disc brakes ( 13" up front ) with Chrome calipers, etc
Chris Alston's chassis works - Full front Drag frame clip with A arms, Rack, etc ..

I dont know how many followed the buildup on my DOHC Tbird from last year .. and this is swinging way far to the Chevy side - so if you guys dont want me posting any more chevy garbage here, let me know. I lost my hosting at the baggedbirds website / forums .. my other hosting went down, and now I have been considering starting some type of Auto blog or something to post about the cars I actually build. I dont post many of the non ford projects I do here, but I thought this one was cool enough to be appreciated by all classic enthusiasts.



- Dan

I can't wait to see more about this...I love Nova's!!

A 4.6 DOHC would be really cool in there..Always loved the box novas

Lets make some hot rodders mad..

what about a 20B 3 rotor rotary.

ha ha ha ha

or a BMW v12/6speed manual.

now that would be something to see

You sure you want to chrome the calipers? Brake dust is pretty rough on chrome. I'd recommend a nice powder coat instead.

Is that a stovebolt? I would LOVE to have one on a stand. Post pix of the engine.

Chevy, Ford, Dodge...who cares. They are all made by the same drunkin' dopers.

SWS

Its a 3rd generation 230 CID motor ( 3.8, 6 cylinder what ? )

As for the calipers .. they might be Polished billet, but Im not 100% sure, probably all Wilwood setup with slotted rotors, etc . Oh yeah, and its not coil over he went with the Air suspension option ..


- Dan

Ddubb said:

Its a 3rd generation 230 CID motor ( 3.8, 6 cylinder what ? )

As for the calipers .. they might be Polished billet, but Im not 100% sure, probably all Wilwood setup with slotted rotors, etc . Oh yeah, and its not coil over he went with the Air suspension option ..


- Dan

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One good thing about the engine bay as it sits now - you can WORK on that beast!

I had a 1993 Biscayne with the 250CID (big brother), and 3 on the Tree.

Got 30MPG through Arkansas with that sucker, 25 normally.

Strangely, the Cougar doesn't get but about 22 or 23 - and the Malibu can do 30, but just.

I still wonder why we don't get far better gas mileage with the fuel injected cars than we did with the old carbed cars ...

RwP

RalphP said:

I still wonder why we don't get far better gas mileage with the fuel injected cars than we did with the old carbed cars ...

RwP

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Because at this time, technology is just now catching up. Fuel can only be so efficient, no matter what the source of the burn. Carbs do not get bad milage if they are tuned correctly. If they are out, they still don't do THAT bad...unless you can see a problem. I can tune a carb and have a soft spot for them.

SWS

Nothing wrong with carbs but what that car NEEDS is a 2010 315hp V6. Talk about one-of-a-kind hot rod. That's what I'd do.

I personally would do a complete restoration of the car....

It's a 2 door coup and a survivor.....

It will be worth way more if brought back to factory specs than it will as a hot rod, no matter how much moola you put into her....

I had a 4 door Chevy Nova II in high school....

YES .. Three on the tree .. I hate these things and it has one currently. I cant remember what he bought for a replacement.

I'm just the guy who builds the car .. and test drive it.

Im all for restorations, but thats not the plan for this one - just a hot rod street cruiser. I also have a customers 1965 Olds Cutlass that I am rebuilding the original 330 motor for .. but it will probably get some of those shiney paint jobs and big wheels when its finished ...

.. next years project, I have a 1951 Mercury .. still has the original Flathead in it still but the Owner ( he is 14 year old now, his grandfather asked if he wanted the Mustang, or the Mercury .. ) wants a newer motor, I will be making another classic into a hot rod so he will have a car to drive when he turns 16.


- Dan

the-big-e said:

It will be worth way more if brought back to factory specs than it will as a hot rod, no matter how much moola you put into her....

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I have to disagree with you on this point. If it left the factory as a V8 car, that would probably be true. However, there's not much value in a factory 6 cylinder car. Further--and I admit, I could be wrong on this--my understanding is that it's very difficult to prove that any early Nova is a true SS because the SS option wasn't built into the VIN or documented well in other ways.

And besides, the value of an old car only matters if you plan on selling it. For the past couple years I've seen well-restored early Thunderbirds more than double in value at Barrett Jackson, but I don't regret for a second putting a 4.6 DOHC in my 57 because I'll never sell the car. Its value is completely irrelevant.

Ive seen one of those engines built an dturbocharged making sick power...That would be coool

I have a 63 Chevy II as well..As you can see I have to use the old girl once and a while to get the SC going.

PM me if you need any info or hard to find stuff. My old man is a Nova Guru, he's go another one about 95% ready for a paint booth.

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spetz01 said:

I have a 63 Chevy II as well..As you can see I have to use the old girl once and a while to get the SC going.

PM me if you need any info or hard to find stuff. My old man is a Nova Guru, he's go another one about 95% ready for a paint booth.

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Thanks Spetz .. I might actually have a few questions I will send you when they come to me. We may also be replacing the Rear quarter panel due to some Rust rot behind the wheel well and rust on the channel for the Trunk weatherstripping ..



Trunk pan .. after I removed the loose rust debris ( top half layer of metal )



I pushed this out with my bare hands .. no tools necessary .. scary, this thing was HOLDING up the gas tank. Well, I suppose it was good that the gas tank had a Hole in the bottom of it also, less weight ..



Starting to seperate the layers of metal .. spot weld removal bit works prety good. Seam sealer has been removed from the panels .. All of the seam areas are Rust free thanks to the sealer.



Here is the new Trunk floor pan, we picked up the whole One piece design, rather than weld in a patch panel for the trunk only. Came from Classic Industries .. to be honest, Im not really all that impressed by some of the quality of their parts / and the fact they are made in China .. or Taiwan, or whatever Non North-American place it came from.


... makes me wonder, if there will ever be a need or availability of the Thunderbird body replacement panels in the aftermarket many years down the road ..

- Dan

Since you are obviously a body man (after seeing your T-bird setup and now this one), is there an appropriate thread or place to show you what I have/need to get fixed? Rust at the rear bottom lip of the rear wheel lip.

Then seeing the last sentence just about makes me mad as I WANTED to put a new panel on it but...ya know.

SWS

seawalkersee said:

Since you are obviously a body man (after seeing your T-bird setup and now this one), is there an appropriate thread or place to show you what I have/need to get fixed? Rust at the rear bottom lip of the rear wheel lip.

Then seeing the last sentence just about makes me mad as I WANTED to put a new panel on it but...ya know.

SWS

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Go ahead and post it up here or send it in PM, either is okay with me.

I had most of the back half of a Tbird in my yard for a long time, both rear quarter sides were in great condition .. "just in case", but I ended up scrapping them, taking up too much room they were just so big.


- Dan

When you think of the super sport package, you would assume it would of came with a v8, but I guess it was just a trim package in 63, rather than performance oriented.

Bay_Bird93 said:

When you think of the super sport package, you would assume it would of came with a v8, but I guess it was just a trim package in 63, rather than performance oriented.

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.. in 1963 the marketing campaign was " six cylinders for the price of four "

The SS trim package was about $130 option ..

- Dan