Opportunity Came A Knockin'

As you can imagine, time always moves on.  For most of us, we marry. Raise our families.  Then the kids become adults and start raising their own families (Jan and I will be blessed with our 6th grandchild!!).  I digress...  Anyway, now with a bit more coin in the wallet and the fact I never did like golf, but there was always my love of cars...and those Novas'.  So, I was telling my friend Chris how I would like to find one of those Novas and build it.  Well, Chris and I sat in front of the computer in search for a lonely 4th gen Nova.  Low and behold, Chris found a 1977 Nova Concours that had been stripped to the bare bones.  The interior was trashed and wires hanging everywhere.  I called the guy and he said he still had the car.  To my good fortune, I was able to purchase it as a complete rolling chassis.  Not much more.


This is a 77 or 78 Nova Concours.  Lots of Chrome!

 I put gas in it and connected up a battery.  Chris and had to do an some adjustment with the timing and to the carburetor and it did start and the Nova ran!!!

I drove it around for a bit, parked it and started tearing it down within a couple of days.  I have an opportunity to make my dream of long ago come to pass.  I have a vision for this cars' build and this is my story.

In the Beginning

Well, I guess you would have to go back to when I first saw the 4th generation Nova(s).  You see, I had been working at a local Chevy dealer as a 'car jockey' in the summer of 1974.  By the mid-summer, I was given the opportunity to work in a department called 'New Car, Make Ready'.  Back then, if you wanted optional (A/C, Sunroof, Power Seats or Windows, Special Trim, Two Tone Paint, etc.) equipment that was available for your car model, the dealer had to install said equipment from kits supplied by Chevrolet.  Now a days, the cars / trucks come with all the equipment already installed.
Anyway, the first Novas came (1975 Model Year) came in September.  I immediately fell in love with the coupes and hatchbacks.  The body lines of this generation are really cool.  Unfortunately, I never an opportunity to purchase one, but I sure did work on a lot of them.  The 'Rallys' I thought, were the best looking cars at the time.  They had great paint schemes and graphics.

I always hoped and dreamed, I would purchase one on these cars and be able to build it...., oh so much better, than the factory ever could.....