Introducing Project Nuckin Futz

[jst8a5.0]

Beautiful car. You are changing my mind about big wheels on x bodies. For a while there I thought only 15's could look good. Please more pics of the stance and wheels!
Micah

[jaronson]

I am Jamie and fairly new to this forum, but have been reading nonstop since I started. Now I feel it is time to contribute something and hopefully not bore everyone to death.

I am currently garage-building a pro-touring 1970 Nova with my friend, Travis (street3285). It is a 50/50 build, which would make you think it should take half as long and cost half as much. I assure you this is not the case in this situation, but it is more fun.

To begin this thread we need to go back in time a little. Back in August the two of us bought the Nova at the Good Guys show in Pleasanton, CA. This is interesting because we live in Orange County - which is over 6 hours away. We did not have a truck or trailer to pull the car home, but bought it anyway. (Not sure if Nuckin Futz better suits the project or ourselves)

Nonetheless, I present to you Project Nuckin Futz:



Luckily, we met up with Jon from Drivers Inc. at the show and he offered to tow it back for us. (I am not sure why he does not offer this service on his website)

The Nova had a straight six with a Turbo 350 and ran… Barely.
We figured we would caravan back with Jon and try making the drive down the 5 through the ridiculously hot Central California…

We made it about 10 miles.

Didn’t realize the gas gauge didn’t work and ended up coasting into a gas station. We figured why push our luck and had Jon tow it. Here she is en-route:



Got the car back safely and started ripping it apart and to our surprise was it kinda straight, fairly rust-free and in pretty good shape… so far:







Here are the plans for Nuckin Futz:

Custom belly pan and front valance
Camaro taillights and bumpers
Offset cowl hood that runs into the dash
Procharged 572

Ok, I’m joking, that car is ridiculous and we will have to live and build in the shadows of Notorious, but I am ok with that.

Here are the real plans, nothing is concrete, just plans…

468 BBC with a DS-1 ProCharger
4L80E
Chassisworks subframe and suspension
Chassiworks G-Bar
Vari-Shocks all the way around
DSE Mini Tubs
Currie 9”
18” Schott Americana’s

Plan is to do as much of the building ourselves as possible with the limited fabrication tools in a two car garage. We both have fairly moderate experience, so hopefully won’t ask too many dumb questions.

We have made progress since we have been working of this for 7 months, but I am going to break it up over a few posts.

I look forward to the comments, advice and opinions and glad to be part of the community, just be careful with the opinions because Travis is a very insecure person.

I hope you enjoy…

[street3285]

Is everything Ok? Do people like it? I am not that insecure, am I?

[awr68]

Congrats guys on the project! Like the word play on the title and you really had me going with the initial project outline! I was like "what the hell?"!!

[Hdesign]

Very cool project! These Novas are really starting to take off in popularity.

[fesler]

Welcome to the site and the car looks like a fun build, if you guys run into anything let me know as I am building a 1970 Nova right now as well and have run into issues that we have worked through like fitting the

19X9.5 with 285/35ZR19s front and 19X12 with 345/30ZR19s rear. This is a super wide tire and looks just sick on the car and can be done with not that much extra work.

Good luck and keep the pictures coming

We will be building a set of billet hood hinges for this car so if you are intested let me know.

[7TSS]

Nice starting point. 3rd gen Novas are starting to get popular around here.
Enjoy the build guys.

[jaronson]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

It is funny you mention the tire/wheel sizes. We were just talking about that this week. I would love to fit 12's on it. Do you have to replace frame rails? or is it the body that hits? I was told by DSE that 315's were as big as we could go on the Novas.

I think the 3rd Gen Novas are becoming popular is because there are no more '69 Camaros left.

[XcYZ]

Welcome aboard.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Welcome, we will be waiting for updates.