Project Live Wire
 

Hey guys. Im building a 69 pro touring nova. Im 17 so its kind of a budget build. For a 17 year old i know a good amount about cars but any info you guys have helps.
im calling this project "livewire" because its going to be a pearl orange that looks similar to the mountain dew livewire. Now about the car. i bought the car in the intent of doing some light body work and then spraying it. Well that plan changed. The car ended up going down to bare metal and getting a few panels replaced. As of right now the motor is about to come out so i can do some smoothing to the firewall. Then the body work begins.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/phot...87-300-225.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4931494_n.jpg
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6374451_a.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2625313_n.jpg
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...94803225_a.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...03055080_n.jpg
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...90333274_a.jpg

Welcome! You came to the right place a lot of smart talented people here and some great info. Good luck with the project.

Nice to see someone your age interested in some old metal. My advice would be not to take the project to far. Get it drivable and enjoy it on a light budget and you can always improve it down the road when you have more funds available.

Great starting point. Welcome to the site. :thumbsup:

Great advice. If they stay off the road to long it's hard to keep motivated. If your young storage can be a problem.

As said in the movie Jarhead, "Welcome to the Suck." :thumbsup:

tell me about it:(

thanks guys. yea im just doing all the body work and stuff the write way then its gona be on the road and suspension and other stuff will come once i recoup from all the other stuff lol

Todd, that is great advice!
Good luck with the project.

Good luck with the project.http://www.50centloseweight.com

this weekend should be productive. the trunk should be getting put back in. also the motor should be coming out soon to clean up and smooth the firewall. im debating on getting solid body bushing and the del a lum bushings for my stock control arms. what r your guys thoughts about that? thanks

motors out!!!!!!!
 

over the weekend got the motor and tranny out of the car. now its time to sandblast the firewall. after pulling the motor i noticed the frame appears to have been hit and is tweaked. so im not sure what im gona do about that yet. :/

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...53527330_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...39156818_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...09297466_n.jpg

now that the motors out im prob gona do some suspension mods. what mods should i do thats the best bang for the buck? i was thinking just use the stock control arms with prothane or del a lum bushings. i want to do a rack and pinion but thats kind of pricy so i was thinking of getting a new gearbox with a better ratio. help me out guys im only 17 and dont know all the lil tricks to the trade. ANY info helps. building on a budget sucks.

i stripped most of the firewall down and its kinda rusty. so im thinking im prob gona smooth it. while looking at my car i noticed my frame appears tweaked so i grabbed a tape measure and sure enough looks like it got smacked on the passenger side at one point. so i think im gona try and fnd a stock replacement off craigslist. so once the firewall is smoothed and the trunk is done and frame problem fixed the body panels go back on and shes gona look like a car again :) ill post pics when i get a chance.

heres an update since its been awhile. i smoothed the firewall and pulled my frame off. bought one with power steering and power disc brakes for 200 bucks. now im cleaning up the frame and gona paint it and finish up the firewall and paint it. now ive been working on the rear end. i found a rear end and rear suspension from a 97 trans am for 150 bucks. the trans am and camaros have a similar torque arm design to the speed tech nova. so since its a budget build im cross breading the trans am suspension into my car. ill post pics tomorrow of all the progress!!!!

Wow great job on cost savings and doing yourself! Now let's see some pictures :thumbsup:

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...10588536_n.jpg
old rear end.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...47216516_n.jpg
most of the new rear end.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...07633005_n.jpg
test fitting in the car.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...34994919_n.jpg
baremetal firewall.

the new used frame got stripped and painted today. went with a PPG single stage gloss black.

primer.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...21053370_n.jpg

GLOSS BLACK :)
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...03900105_n.jpg

got the firewall all primered up and its looking GOOD!!!!!!

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...70503416_n.jpg

10.5 wide z06 wheels :)

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...79855222_n.jpg

Hows the clearance on the rear wheels?

they stick a tad bit to far out... so im gona have the backs of the rims shaved to suck them in. other than that they fit realy good and i DIDNT mini tub it.

Nice looking Nova. My uncle has a 69 as well and I am trying to get him to do something like this. Nice work.

thanks. shes comin along.

ok i know its been awhile. life and its problems happened. had a scumbag who was workin on the car with me end up taking practically all my tools and stuff. so ive been regrouping from that and had to take time to finish up school and graduate. but im back at it. shooting for the hot rod nationals in october. ive got the new trunk in and new floors in. pics coming soon

The fire wall looks great, its all looking good. Nice work.

heres a few pics of some things ive painted so u guys know im not making it up when i say i do paint and body work.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...20251077_n.jpg

motorcylce tank i did as a decoration piece for my teacher who retired. (the lighting was kinda weird)

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...93118769_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...12174444_n.jpg

friends bug i sprayed

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...61141653_n.jpg

kicked the nova out for a weekend and sprayed my dads car in the garage lol

now we go some progress going again. Got some of my floors all painted up and looking good. then i got the nice subframe and got it under the car and bolted up. SHES ON 4 (ugly and 2 reversed) WHEELS AGAIN!!!!!!!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...82946790_n.jpg
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...40155414_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...79345742_n.jpg

now that i can move the car around it was time for a much needed cleaning. fenders, doors, hood, and trunk lid soon to come finally :)))))))

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...46643863_n.jpg

starting to look like a car again! i see alot of people starting to build sweet novas so i gotta hurry up and get it done!

https://sphotos-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/h...28220019_n.jpg

will be in primer soon just got it on wheels to do body work. will be sitting low soon. more pics to come!

got a friend to do a quick drawing. got the second style stripe drawing coming soon. (second stripe is similar to the yenko stripe down the side)
lets see what the thoughts are.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...17768496_n.jpg

dang man i'm impressed! I'm 25 and you are getting more done than i ever could on my car when i was 17.

As advised don't go too far! but i think you have already done that haha. Get the body work done and back on the road! If you move away to college or something its hard to get a project finished. Ask me how i know! lol

Anyways, good luck on the rear end. Those 10 bolts are kind of a weak link on the LS1 cars from the factory, just don't put a lot of power to it and you will be fine. Factory wise, they attach the torque arm to the transmission which is hard on it. Since the wheelbase is obviously not the same, all the aftermarket company's sell a bracket to bolt the torque arm to a cross member which would be a good way to go i'm guessing.

What about cutting the brackets off your factory rear end and welding them to the new one? I know the leaf springs aren't ideal but i would think it would be cheaper in the long route maybe?

The first rendering i dont care for, looks like an 80's-90's style paint job. if your other rendering looks like yenko stripes i'd go for that!

Hopefully i wasn't being too much of a negative nancy

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3699/nova2z.jpg

kind of reminds me of this.

I ditched the whole rear end idea. I'm just gona leave it leaf springed for now. Once I regroup money wise from the whole build I might do some suspension stuff. But the goal is to just get it put together painted and on the road. Ill tell you this though. Building scar by urself in a one car garage isn't easy ahah. And Thanks for the input on the stripe hopfully my friend will have the other pic done soon. I'm looking for opinions on the stripe cause I want to do somthing different but not to different were people are like what happened to that car lol.

Hahahah very 70s and 80s lol they did have a Baldwin motion nova with a stripe similar to the drawing. That's where the idea came from.

ill transfer some of my ideas over to you then lol.

45th anniversary camaro stripes
http://www.ridelust.com/wp-content/u...SE-019_001.jpg

stole this from another guy on here lol
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...NALPRINT12.jpg

could give the Yenko stripes a new lease on life, put....serrations in it like so:
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...e/IMG_4974.jpg

Hmmmmm deff some more ideas to think about. The cars gona be somthing similar to tangelo pearl orange with pearl white stripe. Thanks for the input

well i never got the drawings completely done cause my "friend" screwed me over on those... so i had my brother photoshop some renderings up. I need opinions baddddd lol let me know what you think.

FWIW I like the bottom design more.

ahah thanks im tryin to get opinions cause im stuck between the two. i like the baldwin motion style cause its different. but it might be to different lol. i wana see what peoples thoughts are.

theres only one way to do yenko tribute stripes on a Nova.

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0001_large.jpg

although that Baldwin Motion version rocks!