Restarting My '70 Nova Project

[BravoXray]

Gave the blower motor another coat of paint, let it dry while I cleaned out the inside of the car, including vacuuming out all the pieces of wire insulation and metal chip from drilling holes. After a neighbor stopped by to drop off his chipper that won't run and shooting the bull for half an hour, I installed the freshly painted blower motor, hooked it up the the battery to make sure it ran and didn't rub on the housing.
Rolled the body upside down, heard a few things roll around in the trunk, I know I lost a couple of connectors back there, and I see I need to readjust the balance as it's pretty top heavy.
Drug out the two boxes of DynaMat sound deadener I bought probably 10 years ago to put on the roof and floor to quiet and insulate the car. I set up a folding table and cut some pieces to put on the roof. I'll work on installing them tomorrow, probably. I may work on the chipper first.
By then it was after 5:00PM and I had to go to a friends house to set up a WiFi network at 6:00PM, and after sweating all afternoon, I needed to clean up and change clothes so I didn't smell like a wet dog.

 

[goeduck]

What are going to charge me for your immaculate Nova when you are done?

Seriously, you are doing a GREAT job!!

 

[BravoXray]

Thanks for the compliment.
Being somewhat of a perfectionist with OCD, someone else could probably slap it together in a couple of months, but that ain't gonna happen.

My plan is to drive it until can't drive anymore. I drove it for a little over three years after I bought it, and it's been torn apart for 10 years, of course that wasn't the plan when I started in on fixing the rust. In my will it goes to my son, but he has no place to keep it in a garage, and he lives in Phoenix, so he'll probably sell it. I have the numbers matching L48 350-300hp engine that has been overhauled, as has the numbers matching Muncie M21 four speed trans. I am putting a 434 stroker small block and a Tremec five speed in the car when it goes back together, and the originals will go with the car.

Got all the Dynamat put in the roof this afternoon. I also added a couple of pieces to the underside of the cowl area behind the dash since it was much easier with the car upside down. Then I laid the headliner out and got all the bows snapped into their clips and used paper clips, the type bankers use, to clamp it fast to the perimeter rail and help get it stretched out a little bit before it gets glued into place.

Moving on...

 

[IH3444]

 

[BravoXray]

Oh, C#$@&t, I hate that stuff. Never going on my car.
I may pull the harness out and wrap it with harness tape, but I still have a cruise control I just purchased to wire in. Plus, I may run a cable into the passenger compartment so I can mount the hand held controller for the MSD EFI under the dash.

Today, my friend Van came over and we got the headliner installed. It wasn't as bad a job as I thought it would be, it went pretty well. A couple of seams came unsewed, but I think the adhesive we used will hold it together until I get the edging installed. There are a few wrinkles, but as we did on a couple of other headliner installs, some judiciously applied hot air from a heat gun will usually eliminate pretty much all the wrinkles.
I'm about to the point where I need to get the carpeting ordered, in case it isn't readily available. Lately, a few things I've ordered were on backorder and took a few days to a month to get back in stock and shipped out. First though, I have to get the sound deadener installed on the floor, and with all the irregular surfaces, that might take some time.
Still pondering just where to mount the MSD StreetFire ignition module and the MSD Atomic EFI power supply module, as space on the firewall is limited. I'm leaning towards mounting them on the cowl area on the driver's side inside the fender, behind the inner wheel well. They would be mostly out of sight, protected from rain and able to access by removing the wheel well.
I'm also seriously considering applying some protective material to the underbody. Maybe something like RhinoLiner or some type of bed liner protective coating. Going to have to do a little research on it.

 

[BravoXray]

Back to working on the electrical system today. I finally decided where to mount the MSD Street Fire CD ignition system and the MSD Atomic EFI power module. After some shecking, I see that they will fit onto the front of the cowl that sits behind the left front wheel well. I have an MSD 6A CD system, but it's too large to fit in that area, so I bought the Street Fire system that is smaller, has all the features the 6A has, plus a rev limiter, which the 6A doesn't have. Drilled some holes and got the units mounted, and by mounting the Street Fire upside down, the access for adjusting the rev limiter will be accessible with the fender on. Ran the wiring and have it pretty well laid out where it needs to be, except for the switched power wires for the units and the tach signal feed wires. There is an ignition feed coming out of the firewall, and when the cruise control gets installed, there will be three wires running off that feed, so I'm going to add an ATO fuse block so each one is separately fused. I'm waiting on that block to get here from Amazon. The tach feed from the CD system has to be connected to the bulkhead connector to feed the tach in the instrument cluster, the EFI system and the cruise control module, so I'll need some type of junction to connect them.
The EFI and CD systems both have a 14 ga. wire that is to be connected to the positive post on the battery, as is the main feed to the car on the bulkhead connector. After pondering the need to run three and maybe four separate wires all the way to the battery, I decided to put a power point below the bulkhead connector and run one 4 or 6 ga. wire to it from the battery to feed everything. Simpler and fewer wires, makes sense to me.
Along with that thinking, I'm going to run the same size cable from the battery negative post to the subframe, engine and car body. I don't want any grounding problems, those can be a pain to sort out.

 

[BravoXray]

Took the day off from the Nova yesterday, was just ready to head down to the shop at 1:00PM when an old friend from northern Michigan and his wife stopped by to visit. many pilot, trucker and freight broker stories and 3 1/2 hours later they left. I really like seeing them, but by the I was out of the mood to work on the Nova.
I did go down and work on it today, though. Searched through my small parts bin for the screws that hold the instrument panel to the dash. Found both the old ones and a new set, also found the tinnerman nuts that are used at the top of the panel.
I started installing the sound deadener on the floor. All the irregular pieces, bucket seat mounts, bumps and depressions made it a real challenge, but I just used big pieces where I could and filled in with small pieces where needed. I got about 2/3 of the floor done, but I'm going to do the trunk divider and the wheel houses too. I may try to put some inside the quarters below the quarter windows if it isn't too big of a hassle.
The foil on the material can get sharp as a razor, and you have to watch what you're doing or you'll start leaking red stuff.

 

[scootr]

Progress is looking good
That stuff really makes a difference. I put it on the walls and floor of my van before panel and rubber mat, really deadened the road noise etc.

 

[MossRoad]

....
The foil on the material can get sharp as a razor, and you have to watch what you're doing or you'll start leaking red stuff.

That's the beauty of the red stuff...

If it's a slow leak and you can stop it, you can make some more at home in no time. You don't have to take another trip to the parts store.

 

[BravoXray]

That's the beauty of the red stuff...

If it's a slow leak and you can stop it, you can make some more at home in no time. You don't have to take another trip to the parts store.

Yep, it auto refills. Good thing too, I donate it on a regular basis. Over 50 pints so far.