Heres my 1963 Chevy II 300 series, 2 door sedan. Originally a black car with fawn interior, 6 cylinder, and 3 speed on the column. I bought this car from my buddy in January 2009. At the time I was still living in Maryland, and the car was in Washington State, about 3,000 miles away. So she sat. Someone used this car as a parts car before my buddy got a hold of it, they hacked up the floor and striped it of its chrome before he saved it. Sedans always get a bad deal when it comes to hardtops unfortunately, but I really dig them. The car sat in my pals backyard for a couple years, eventually someone came along and not knowing what to do with the car he sold the doors, and some of the parts. When I finally came to my senses and snagged it up it was just a shell. I thought it would make an awesome altered wheel base car. Well in the past year I changed my mind 100 times on the build, and I decided I wanted a really nice daily driver that would get close to 30mpg and be fun to drive. Heres what she looked like when I got her; I usually have about 10 cars at any given time, so ive just been collecting parts for her over the last year. This may look like alot of work to some of you, but its super solid - especially to someone from the east coast. Ive had all the steel ive needed for awhile and finally got some shop time to get her on the lift and work. Heres what she looks like nowadays; I work with Novas all day long, and own 3 right now, so I decided to spice this one up with a little Acadian Invader trim.
One of the great things about Chevy IIs, and Novas is that there is a lot of aftermarket parts that fit reasonably well. Heres my new quarter skin, going on in a couple days. One piece replacement floor pan. The one piece floor doesnt include the toe-kick section of the firewall. But were in luck! we have about 25 Novas at the shop, so I said tag your it, and killed a rusty 65 Nova wagon to be a donor for that hack-job that the previous owner did. I got interrupted for over an hour and a half doing my Buddy Chris' brakes on his O/T car, messed up my time line pretty good. Chevy IIs are uni-body so I must of drilled 300 spot welds today removing the firewall/toe kicks from the front frame horns. The toe-kicks are still going to need patches at the bottom, but its just a flat part with a 70 degree bend, so it will only take about an hour or so to fix. A customer needed the transmission tunnel from this one, so a simple Hack job to get what I needed took the better part of ALL FREAKING DAY. I put the car on the lift and have been clearing out all the old mess of a floor in preparation, of installing the one piece tomorrow. My goal is to have the floor mostly done tomorrow. Work all day in the shop on Christmas is the plan, have diner and then go back out. Typically a floor is about a 10 or so hour job. Im probably looking at 14 hours or so total investment because of the firewall.
When I first got it we joked about it being an "AC" car, in one of the pictures looking up through the floor, you can see I scored an factory underdash AC unit. Ive collected alot of factory options for it, AC, Power Steering, tinted glass, parking brake warning light. Looking for a stock power brake booster still. Oh, and you can find my Chevy II wagon in the classifieds... For reference, heres what its supposed to look like...
I got the firewall toe kick welded in 50-60%. The rest of the floor in preped to go in tomorrow some time. I wasted alot of time messing with the welder settings, the gauges are broke so I had to eyeball it and play around, I took me a while to get it set right. I really screwed my self earlier, and it killed most of my evening. I in my infinate wisdom didnt realize that a 65 has a different trans tunnel than a 63. The complete firewall will interchange but the arc of the trans tunnel is different, my goal was to fit it so no one would know it has been repaired. Im going to have to pie cut it to fit, it will look nice but wont look 100% stock. Luckily for me that area is behind the heater box, and the trans covers the other side. But im no hack, so its getting done right. I got way too much time in this part of the project. Its just a floor anyway but im an overachiever, if I had of realized I would have either replaced the whole firewall, or just made one from scratch. It will be done tomorrow for sure. I left the camera in the shop so i'll post the pics in the morning.
Spity -- In Sept I went to a party in Illinois where a guy unveiled a Bill Tomas Nova gasser he had just bought. He also owns the '63 Nickey Nova that appears in many books and magazines. The next day we went to see a guy in another town that had a building full og Novas (including a famous drag racing wagon from Maryland). I'm a writer and took photos of all these which I can share. I can't figure how to attach pix from mu own computer to these messages but if you email me at [email protected] I will send you some. Also, when I was with a publishing company I hired Doug Marion (former editor of SUPER CHEVY) to do a book for us on Novas and I still am selling my last copy on eBay right now. I sell them at about half the normal price and my eBay code is 087gunner.
I have a complete set of '64 Invader trim, several NOS pieces. Gauge cluster, hubcaps, badges etc. I also have donor pieces from an acadian for the tin around the tail lights. ...like I said been collecting parts for a year.
Floors in, about 90% welded it. The front frame rails didnt want to suck up to the floor so I had to reposition the lift to lift them to the floor, turn out great, im going to weld them up tomorrow. The toe kicks look like pure shit, but I'll fix that in short order. Still gota fix the trans hump, im going to wait a couple days on that until my head cools. Overall im happy with the floor, it was about 5/8 too narrow which i cured with a fine set of hammers. Seam sealer will take care of the rest. On my diner break we decided to eat then watch a movie which was great so i came back in well rested and knocked alot of work out. I decided to finish buttoning up everything tomorrow afternoon and then start on the wheel tub repair, and the quarter panel. Doing pretty good on my NEW time line. Although I wanted to have it painted by september originaly... But I bought a couple more cars this fall which I couldnt pass up, so i pushed back the paint. Shooting to have it done for the power tour next year in june, and as a fall back plan the Nova Nationals, or the Nova mini nats in september. I did all the work solo, it helps that we have a lift at work, plasma cutter, welders, and everything i need to do this stuff. It wasnt always that way, i did my last set of floors in a parking lot... Coulda used a hand lifting that floor into place it was heavy.
Koolkemp, they would have to be damn neer perfect. mine are at the chrome shop, they are on hold incase i could come up with a better set.
Good build, good thread, good information and excellent picsKeep it coming. My floor pans should be here tomorrow. Scott http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429748&highlight=chevy+ii+project
Cut the quarter panel out today, starting cleaning up the outer wheel tub for patches. Originally I bought a repop one but i can get by with just a patch and some brass brazing in there. I stopped early because Im headed to school early(working on my machining degree). The hole looks alot worse because its wet, from when i pushed it outside, to work on the shop truck. I also wire wheeled out some bondo around the tail lights preping the metal for the new tail lights. I dont know why someone filled it in, it was good metal, and good factory paint under their. You can see the body line they filled in, original this was covered by a trim peice. I also cleaned up the bottom of the driver side quarter panel to see how bad some of the small bubbles were, turned out really nice! Only going to have to do a small patch, I dont think I can get by with just brazing these, because theirs some pine needles back there and I suspect heavy pitting. Im stoked though, going to have to get the stud gun and get a couple dents out though. Id like to meet the high school shop class teacher who was teaching kids to use bondo instead of their brains.
More work today. Took my time. No rush. I whacked out the tail-light area in prep for the new tail lights. Had to adjust the trunk lid alignment, and beat the quarters out from an old wreck to correct fitment. Then I measured, trimed, remeasured, test fit, measured, trimmed, etc etc. I didnt want any drama and the hardwork payed off. I had to remove the fender, and the door to adjust the hinges to get everything lined up, didnt want to align the new quarter panel to the crooked door. Special thanks to Leo, for helping me with door alignment hes been doing it for 30 years and what would have taken me an hour alone we whipped out in about 8 minutes. Good gaps though, way better than my '62 hardtop. Worked on the quarter panel, only took 1 test fit, and I got it lined up awesome on the first try. Its coming back off tomorrow morning so I can clean everything up. Grind it smooth, and start welding it all back together. On the left is a Nova, on the right its Acadian. Originally I was going to build this car as a 100% accurate clone. Now im thinking more a mild custom. Who knows.
Cutting them up is the easy part, getting them back together right is the ... fun part. No less than 7 cars so far have donated serious metal for this one to happen.
Coming along pretty good . You think you will have this on the road by Goodguys? I really dug the 2 door wagon last year
I enjoy seeing these little cars get saved. It is on my TO DO list to build one of these into an alcohol injected gasser. I have found the car just have to finally talk the owner out of it. Been sitting in a field for YEARS and the floor pans were hacked out but other than that the car is mostly there. Been trying for about 10 years now to talk him out of it, one day I will have something he wants or needs and I will name my price as that car and he will give in.
Looks good. The Acadian emblems (Invader) you got look perfect. They are hard to find, and are not made in reproduction. I got a lead on one Invader emblem that is suppose to be in good shape, have not seen it yet. Anyone know of places to look for Acadian trim and emblems? Nothing much on ebay anymore.
Did you see the ACADIAN hood letters on Ebay recently? It had one spear broken off and he still wanted good money for it. When it didn't sell it got re-listed with the other spear broken off to match and the price went up! .
Anyone know of places to look for Acadian trim and emblems? Nothing much on ebay anymore.[/QUOTE]I have two Invader emblems in my hand right now
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