Scott's 1970 Nova SS Clone
Scott bought this car back in 1977 from a local car dealership for basic transportation to get back and forth to college and part time jobs. It was a trade in from an elderly couple and was Scott's first car.
The little Nova came equipped with a six cylinder motor, ugly green bench seat interior, shifter on the tree, and rubber floor mats. During the late 70's, most of the guys Scott hung out with had hot, suped up cars with nice engines. Scott felt out of place with the crowd, so to be cool, he glued SS badges on the front and the back of the car! After some laughter and ribbing from his friends, he knew what he had to do. He yanked out the lowly 6 banger and dropped in a throaty sounding 350 Vette motor with 4 bolt mains. That sounded much better than a car that reminded people of a vacuum cleaner!
Through the 80's, the car was driven all the time and fairly hard. It endured a few quarter mile stints down Connecticut Dragway, cruised the Berlin Turnpike many times, and hung out at all of the local burger joints. Man, it really looked cool with the rear end jacked to the sky with white painted gas tank and fuzzy dice with shag carpet all over!
Then marriage hit and the car was retired to storage. After the kids started getting a little older and the car was sitting in the garage for a number of years, Scott decided to give it a full restoration and gave Ground Up a call. He was going to turn in into a 1970 Nova SS as close as he could so that people wouldn't nit pick it to death anymore telling him what was wrong.
After scouring many junkyards for parts over the last decade and acquiring the new repro stuff, the car is coming together very nicely. The car now sports a totally stock look as if it were 1970 all over again.
Scott's Nova now sports:
350 4 bolt engine with 202 heads
Black Strato bucket interior with full carpet
Complete dash tach, GM shifter, and console gauge pack
Full dual aluminized exhaust
SS wheels and/or dog dish hubcaps with steel rims (depending on Scott's mood)
3.73 GM posi rear with 4 leaf suspension
Hood "pancake cookers" and rear SS panel and body moldings(Scott even bought a real 1970 Nova SS parts car just to cut out the floor to get the correct floor brackets!)
The car should be done soon (if Scott ever gets some time away from the shop!) Scott can't wait to get it to the future Ground Up car shows to let people see just how much work is involved to transform a regular grocery getting plain Jane car into a real head turner. He knows it's a recreation, but you will be hard pressed to tell by looking at it!
This car won't be trailered around. It will be driven as intended and leaving its mark all over the pavement!
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paul@ss396.com |
