Restarting My '70 Nova Project

BravoXray · Oct 12, 2022

Spent yesterday afternoon and this afternoon doing more filling, priming and sanding. Got the driver side front fender looking pretty good except for the crease near the bottom, and the passenger side started. found a couple of spots so far, but nothing very bad.
Most of it is pretty straight. Worked on the passenger side of the roof also, found a couple of spots that needed attention on the rear window channel, and another spot where the A-pillar meets the roof. Put some filler in them and after it set got them sanded out and looking okay. The one rear one at the top of the rear window looked like a weld seam of some sort.
When I was sanding on the fenders, I had to be careful not to knock them off the stands as they are just resting on some 2X4s, so I used some long Ty-Raps through bolt holes to tie
one of them down to the stands, which made it a lot more stable to work on it. Going to do the same to the other one.
Still have a problem spot between the door jamb and rear wheel opening on rhe left side, but I'm getting closer on it. It probably wouldn't be noticed, but I know it's not quite right, so I'll try to get it as close to perfect as I can.

goeduck · Oct 14, 2022

Looking good!

BravoXray · Oct 25, 2022

Been working on the creases in the lower area on the front fenders, and have them looking good. Forgot to get pictures of them though, will get a couple tomorrow.
Also been working on the forward wheel openings where the quarter panel and rocker panels meet. There were pie shaped gaps in the metal that needed to be filled in with patches, so I did that on Sunday afternoon. Sloppy looking weld jobs, but I was having a problem feeding .024" wire through the .035" liner in the feed cable to the MIG torch, it kept binding and wadding up between the feed roller and the entrance to the cable. I have done this before, but for some reason it wasn't cooperating this time.
Got it welded up and ground down then applied filler (a couple of times), sanded it down, applied more filler, sanded some more, and added more filler just to be sure, sanded tha down and shot some primer on the areas.
I think both areas look pretty good now.
Brian will come over this week and put some primer in the insides of the front fenders, and they will be pretty much finished other than a close inspection for any flaws I missed.

dodge man · Oct 26, 2022

I used to into the vintage Mopars from the same era as your Nova. They have a car auction about three times a year in a nearby town, Carthage Illinois. The prices some of these cars are going for has sort of turned me off to the hobby. I saw a newer Gran Sport Corvette go for what I thought was cheap, something lije $38,000. I saw someone in two days time put up an ad selling the car for $60,000 on Facebook Market Place. It could be a scam but I suspect it’s legitimate.

It makes me fell good when I see your work and what I consider a true hobbyist. Keep the pictures coming, I’m enjoying them.

BravoXray · Oct 26, 2022

dodge man said:
It makes me fell good when I see your work and what I consider a true hobbyist. Keep the pictures coming, I’m enjoying them.

Thanks for you kind comments.

When I bought the car I knew it had some rust issues in the front driver's side floor, any car that lived in CO, ND, MN and WI all it's life is going to have rust. I don't know if the owner I bought it from knew about the poor rust repair in the rear wheel wells, since you couldn't see it unless you took out the rear seat and upholstery panels. When I was disassembling it I couldn't believe what I saw, looked like tar and fiberglass. There was the same material on the front fenders between the wheel wells and rocker panels, that you couldn't see until they were taken off the car.. But when that attempt to repair the rust was done had to be when the whole car was painted, as all the paint matched as nearly as I and my friends could tell.
Amazingly, the rocker panels are the originals and are solid, I even ran my bore scope the full length of both sides to check them out. Other than a little dirt and debris they look fine.
I never purported to be a body man, but all this work has made me appreciate those that can do a good job of body repair and painting.

Dodge man, I don't know if I posted a picture of my friend Brian's 70 Charger R/T, so I'll post one here, should make you drool. He did a lot of body work on it after he bought it, and another friend and I put the drive train, electrical, brakes and complete interior in it over a five year period. Later, I installed a FiTech FI system, Pypes SS exhaust system, and a 4L60E trans. I even rebuilt the motor that opens and closes the headlight doors.

dodge man · Oct 27, 2022

Nice looking Charger and I see a modern Challenger in the background. In the late 1980’s I restored a 70 Challenger convertible and when I sold it after about 10 years I bought a restored 70 Road Runner. When I redid the 70 Challenger I did everything but the body work. Parts were tough to find and while some restoration parts were available not like they are today. It’s a lot of work. I own a late model Challenger and a tough day of work on it is a wax job. Continued good luck on the Nova.

BravoXray · Oct 28, 2022

That's a 2010 Challenger R/T with the 5.7 Hemi and a six speed, the same B5 blue as the Charger.

BravoXray · Oct 29, 2022

Brian got the insides of the front fenders primed today, so they are ready for paint.
Need to work on trimming the lip of the driver side read wheel opening. The edge is pretty uneven and needs to be made a more consistent width. The inner wheelhouse metal sticks out in some places as you can see in the last picture. A little work with an angle grinder and a flappy disk should fix it up.

BravoXray · Nov 8, 2022

Well, as near as I can tell all the prep work on the car is done. I called the paint shop and the owner is going to come over and take a look at it this week to make sure we haven't missed anything. The only thing I'm working on now is getting templates made for the holes to mount the simulated louvers on the front fenders and locating holes for the trim at the bottom of the vinyl top on the rear quarter panels.
An interesting twist is that the paint shop has a new owner, and when I talked to him and explained that I had talked to the previous owner and explained what I had in mind, he said he was really interested in being involved in the project, so that is encouraging.