Restarting My '70 Nova Project

[BravoXray]

I took a break from working on the Nova for a few days, had to help a friend with some computer problems, and had another friend that needed an extension for the ram on a hydraulic jack used on a homemade cherry picker. I gave him an unused air operated 8 ton tall jack that was one of a pair I had bought years ago to make aircraft jacks for my Debonair, but it was about six inches shorter than the old one, and wouldn't lift as high. I used a piece of 2" hot rolled bar stock and was able to turn it down, bore one end to fit over the jack's ram, and drilled a couple holes to secure each end.
This afternoon, I got the actuators installed in both doors of the Nova so I'll have remote/keyless locks in the doors, They were easy to install, screw the actuators to the mounting brackets, remove the latches from the doors, drill out a hole on the locking lever and install a retainer clip for the link from the actuator. Reinstalled the the door latches with the actuators and was done. Was a pretty easy job.
Still need to run the wires and install the ducts from the door to the body that they run through, but I need to mount the control unit first.
I'm also mulling over putting a connector in the wires so the door can be removed without cutting the wires. I have several types that will work, just need to decide which one to use.
I think I'll have a couple of friends come over and get the trunk lid mounted tomorrow, it's ready to go.

 

[BravoXray]

My friends came over this afternoon and we got the trunk lid put on the Nova. It took a little adjusting, but it seems to fit pretty well. The torsion springs seem to be adjusted just right, as from closed to open about a foot or so, the lid will stay where you put it. I have to repaint the catch that the lid latch locks onto, because the paint wrinkled up on it, and it looks like crap. I'll blast it and paint it again to morrow, if we don't get blown away, some nasty storms are predicted tomorrow.

 

[MossRoad]

That last picture of the trunk open reminds me of throwing three of my friends in the trunk of my 70 before heading into the drive-in theatre.

Great memories of a great car. Thanks and appreciate the photos.

 

[civilian]

That last picture of the trunk open reminds me of throwing three of my friends in the trunk of my 70 before heading into the drive-in theatre.

Great memories of a great car. Thanks and appreciate the photos.

Moss, were you nice and let them out for the movie? Jon

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, were you nice and let them out for the movie? Jon

Of course! (they had the beer )

 

[MossRoad]

One thing I miss about those 70ish Nova's is how easy they were to work on.

 

[BravoXray]

One thing I miss about those 70ish Nova's is how easy they were to work on.

Yep, those were simpler days, didn't have to have a scanner or computer to figure out what was wrong. With a handful of tools you could fix anything on them.

 

[BravoXray]

Well, some days it just doesn't pay to expect a simple task to be simple.
Decided to put the driver's side door handle on, I had bought new rubber gaskets that go between to handle and the door, but the small one at the front attachment didn't fit worth a damn, so yesterday I made one out of some thin rubber I had. Today I went down to the shop, grabbed the handle, mounting bolts, and ratchet with a 5/16" socket, and got it mounted up, all good so far.
Closed the door, and pushing the button on the handle wouldn't open the door. I tried to to cycle the lock mechanism, thinking it was locked, but it wasn't. Finally was able to crawl inside the car and get the bolts out of the handle. Checked the depth to the arm that the rod on the button pushes against to unlatch the door, and the rod was about 1/2" too short.
This is the original handle, but the door is a NOS door for a '68 model, that is supposed to be identical except for location of the interior door lock. The body man had taken the affected area out of the old door and transplanted it into the new door, but that couldn't have affected the latch mechanism. I pulled the right side handle out, and the rod was the same length as the left side.
Sooo, I thought no problem, I'll just weld a little extension onto it, and we'll be good to go.
I cut a piece of 1/8" flat stock to the right width and proceeded to weld it to the existing rod. Well, I tried to weld it. The wire refused to feed to the torch, and after a lot of cussing and tearing it apart, the liner had slipped away from the feed roller and the wire had wadded up inside the end of the cable. Managed to get the wire (.030") pulled out. Not sure what the problem was, but I pulled the liner out and installed a used but good liner I had. Loaded the wire back up, put everything together and in 15 seconds I had the extension welded on. Ground the weld down to look a little more respectable and after I verified how long it needed to be, I trimmed the extension down. Went back to the door, bolted it up, made sure the latch wasn't locked and tried it out. Worked perfect.
So, a 10 minute job had now taken about and hour and a half.
That done, I bead blasted the adjustable latch that bolts to the body in the trunk, since to silver paint I applied to make it the body color reacted with the black paint that was on it, and turned into a wrinkle finish. I Put a piece of cardboard on the bench, gave it another coat of silver, after that dried, turned it over and sprayed the other side. Decided to sit down and have a drink (Diet Coke) when my house guest walked in, we talked for a few seconds and she walked to the bench just like there was a huge magnet pulling her, and before I could react, picked up the freshly painted piece, realized it was wet and dropped it.
At that point, I shooed her out, locked up and went back to the house.

 

[MossRoad]

Had to smile at your day. Sometimes it's like that.

 

[BravoXray]

I know it's been a while, but I had a little derailment in my recovery from the back surgery, on the eve of Easter, my gallbladder decided to get extremely angry, so I spent Easter Sunday in the hospital getting it removed. For about five weeks after that, I just felt like crap, pains from the muscles where they poked four holes in my abdomen, a constant feeling of being bloated and frequent heartburn.
But, I'm much better now, back to concentrating on back surgery recovery, which according to the doc when I saw him Monday, is going better than he expected, the fusion looks very good for the point of recovery I am in. That was great news.
So, I have been working on the vent window assemblies, getting the new seals installed, mounting the windows in the frames, assembling the friction washers in the correct order, and installing the stainless trim on the inside and outside of the vertical tracks.
As usual, tracking down the parts takes 10 times as long, or more, as it does to install the parts. This was the case of the stainless trim pieces. After searching through every likely storage box, I finally found them wrapped in paper towels secured with rubber bands. I unwrapped them and got the ones for the passenger side installed, and the onside piece for the drivers side installed too. But, I couldn't find the one for the outside of the driver's side. Back to searching through boxes and anywhere I might have stashed it. Another search for the channel the door glass slides in came up empty too. Apparently I never ordered those, so I ordered those this evening from ChevIIOnly, should have them in a couple of days, then I can get the door glass in and get the doors fully assembled.
Once I get them done, I'll pull them off and roll the body upside down and get to work on the headliner.
It might end up taking me two years to get this thing back together, you never know.