sorry ive been slacking on updates. holidays had me ultra busy at work, and ive been busting my butt on this car in all my spare time.
everythings been mocked up. car is torn apart and back on the rotisserie having the exterior bodywork done. ill update you on a bunch of the things weve done.
down bars became a problem with the shocks for the hood hinges, so i made some new bars using a jegs outrigger kit.
in my opinion the new bars are much cleaner then the old ones and they clear everything, most importantly.
here is the engine bay all mocked up, minus the aftly mentioned down bars. the tank in the passenger side front is the 1 gallon coolant reservoir for the supercharger.
here it is outside, with all the panels minus the trunk. i got all the panels fitting pretty good, and theyll be perfected in the body work stage.
exhaust all tacked together
with the heat exchanger and a/c condenser in front of the radiator, the stock hood latch wasnt going to work. we found out my daily driver, a cobalt ss, had the exact hood latch we needed, so we went to the junkyard and plucked a cavalier latch (same thing). i made a new latch for the hood side, and a frame to mount the latch on the bottom, and after much head scratching and a few failed attempts, we have a functioning latch. it will be operated by a cable release from lokar that will mount by the kick panel.
we purchased front a rear seats from a crashed 2011 regal for the car. the front seats are the right height (which we found to be difficult to find and have the right look and size, i hate too tall of a seat in a muscle car, they just dont work) the back seat took a lot of work. its built to fit the regal floor, which wouldve been way to low in the nova. so i cut the bottom out of the seat to fit a 4 inch chunk of foam in it to build it back up, and built a wooden frame to mount the seat. the back of the seat didnt take much, just a little cutting down. coincidently, my moms daily is a 2011 regal, so she should feel right at home in the nova.
after the engine was pulled, i went to work bending up brake lines. did them in all stainless, using my new rigid flare tool. i couldnt have done this without that tool, ive got tools that cost three times as much and cant do the job this one does.
back on the rotisserie, i seam sealed, and smoothed the bottom.
after a ton of discussion with the boss, we picked a color. i was hesistant with it being purple. i didnt want the car to look like a box of fruit loops. i prefer more subtle, richer colors and this is step in the wrong direction. im starting to get used to it now. in fact i think its gunna be pretty awesome.
after i got the bottom all smoothed out and sealed up. i decided it was time to spray the bedliner and color on the bottom. sorry the picture sucks, the lighting and glare in the garage isnt so condusive to professional photos.
a better shot.
so now the car is in bodywork, the fresh paint on the bottom is tightly wrapped up in plastic to protect it. while im doing body work on the body im also smoothing and painting small parts, so ill have some updates again fairly soon. im shooting to have the body in paint by the end of march.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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