1963 Nova Wagon
 

Some of you saw the road trip that Rob (FE Torino) and I made last year to Alabama to drive back this wagon to CA. Well that was mostly about the road trip and after a year we have made some nice mods to this car that I wanted to update and share the nice work done by Vince @ Meanstreets Performance Fab.

Since the "winter" passed here in CA I have been driving this thing tons (my wife too) and have taken my 3.5 year old to school every day so far this week. Loving it.

As we picked it up back in January 2017 in Birmingham.

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The main mods as delivered:

TCI IFS subframe w/ manual rack
98 Camaro LS1
Stainless Works long tube headers
4L60E trans
Speartech Harness
Rick's stainless tank
Classic Instruments gauges
Optima red top in rear cage mount

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Mods done in the past year include:

-Car seat brackets and hooks for the kiddos (now 3.5 and 1.5)
-Power steering (leftover Ford rack from my Camaro)
-Replace the blown rear gas shock and left springs with Ridetech 4 link and coilovers
-Hidden battery cut off switch for security and battery preservation
-Powdercoat steel wheels
-"Stielow-spec" Trucklite LED headlights

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Shout out to Vince @ Meanstreets Performance Fab in Gilroy. The guy is great to work with (as many of you know) and he really takes care of business in a fun and fair way, and he has great skills. No wonder he is so busy!! :D

Thanks V :cheers:

Really liking the wagon! You Chevy guys have all the cool body styles.

Wholly crap, you weren't kidding about the cage for the battery, that thing must weight 200 lbs.!! Does it double as a trailer hitch?

You are so ass backwards...LS in a foxbody and foxbody seats in a Nova, I love it! What’s your take on the headlights, are they worth the cabbage?


The armrests, wheel and center console are classic. :thumbsup:

Oh man it is beast. Has a cotter pin that drops one end of the whole thing and it comes down. I seriously think it affects the tail happiness of this car a bit. :headspin:

Yeah, Foxbody stuff everywhere. Geez....

The plan with the headlights was kinda temporary-ish.... was gonna eventually swap them to the Camaro.... they are absolutely bad ass lights but not sure the look is right.

Awesome family wagon; might be inspired now to make an offer on a mint Falcon wagon that’s parked on the street near me and make similar upgrades. Happy to see you’re hitting up some of the classic eats of Oakland.

Love your wagon.

Nice "project," Dave! What kind of mileage does it get?

Thanks.... that's actually exactly what started the search for ours... we saw a little old lady white 66 Nova Wagon down the block from our 4plex in West Oakland... I talked to that lady twice about it over a few months but no dice. She owned it since early 70's. So we moved on and found this one.

Go get that Falcon!

Thanks! Dig yours too.

We got 19 steadily on the trip back from AL to CA... and that was fairly "sprited" :)

Oh you know I can turn a done car into a project..... :rolleyes:

Where did you score the ridetech 4 link? Thought they were discontinued, Nice wagon btw! Also any info on the car seat brackets, looking for something similar

I like it all except for the 90's sunglasses. :lol:

very cool!

Got it through a friend who is a Ridetech dealer. I never heard of it being discontinued but I don't know about current status.

Thanks! The car seat brackets were just whipped up and fabbed by Vince. I told him what I needed and he just made it happen! :thumbsup:

The 4 link did need some modification actually. I see if I can dig up those pics and post them and elaborate. Nothing major.

LOL... killin me... don't make me post the pic of you wearing the same pair. :peepwall:

Thanks Joe!

Oops. Not a big deal to fix but was an interesting discovery. Guessing the kit was test fit on a coupe and the wagon has a different situation here.

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Vince preferred to decrease the shock angle while we were trying to get the tire rub under control.

We also had to swap for higher rate springs as Ridetech ships the kit with 175#ers. This was not near enough for a wagon with all the extra weight back there. Bumped up to 250# and that did the trick.

FYI Ridetech was very helpful during the process and was impressed with their customer service and people over there.

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‘Daddy...tell us about the legend of BMF again...’
 

1 hour later....

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#workseverytime


:D

lol... :D

Love this ride, every aspect of it. Can't wait to try to find and build some sort of something similar now that I'm in the land of rust free cars.

:lol: Got me... :hitaxeonthehead:


Thanks Lance. We're absolutely loving it.

What do you guys think of the Trucklite LED headlights for this car? I have gotten about 50/50 feedback on these over the stockers.

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When is the next road trip?

I dig the LED headlights with the black wheels. Looks killer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed.

Both are a nice contrast against the light paint color.

In about 4 hours down to the Montessori school... :gitrdun:

:thumbsup:

What? No more trips to Marfa planned?

Oh yes.... will definitely be back there... my wife BADLY wants to go there.... the Nova is perfect cruising through that weird town.

Maybe Rob or Weld can watch my kids for a week? :idea:

I'm sure the kids would love to hang out with Ranger, Ringo, and the cats for a week, but do you really want them exposed to Ninkasi?

Fixed some of that....

my kids exposed to Ninkasi? Heck no.... I am barely ok with Rob consuming that stuff. :bitter beer face:

"abandoned Fords", harsh and funny at the same time :clap: