My Inheritance

[565bbchevy]

Nice car, my buddy has a red 69' Nova with a 632 BBC his was a race car turned into a street car.
I don't know how comfortable those race seats are but you might want to consider changing them for some nice adjustable bucket seats with some bolstering.
Less gear and full exhaust will definitely tame it down and make it more enjoyable to drive.

 

[DRIVEN]

I like the cheap valve covers and alternator bracket. If anything, I'd head in a more sleeper direction and hide the nitrous solenoids. By all appearances the car is a cruise-in queen. I'd never suspect legit 700hp racecar. I'm guessing it sounds pretty serious.

 

[Turbo Zach]

Thats an awesome car. Its like having a piece of your pops with you. The man had good taste thats for sure.

Thank you and it definitely is.

Sorry for your loss

I'm sure you'll do him proud!

I think he would have approved.

sorry you lost your pops. Mine has been gone almost 10 years now.. I still think of giving him a call now and again.

Not a fan of red cars but that one looks really slick

Me too brother. It was not that bad until I had kids and think about what he is missing out on. This car was my dad too a T. It shows all his personality. Maybe some day I will get the chance to line it up with the 442 from the east coast? We could have a Dad's car race.

 

[mclellan83]

This really hit home with us taking my Dad's El Camino to his funeral and left it outside of his viewing, last week was what would have been his second birthday without him. I really feel you on it hitting you hard since I ran into his best friend yesterday at Home Depot, you definitely did him proud and it is a very sharp car that you will get to go out and think of him n the good times in.

 

[L92 OLDS]

Wow, very nice Nova. Having
Previously owned a 1970 myself I have a weakness for those cars. Sorry for your loss. Cancer is a biotch.

 

[Texas82GP]

Subscribed. I love that you still have your Dad's car and get to enjoy ownership of it and wrenching on it. It's a great looking car. Still the best part is that his car, something that he put a lot of himself into, is still around and in such great shape.

 

[blk7gxn]

Now for some pictures. View attachment 161475 View attachment 161476 View attachment 161477 You can see what I am dealing with. My plan for now is to make the car more street friendly and drivable. I am going to build a new center section with some smaller gears. Finally put the exhaust on it. Fix the interior up some. Put the back window in. And change the valve covers. The list will keep going, but for now that is where I will start. Hope you enjoy. Comments welcome.

Beautiful car and Beautiful 1800 Oliver!! Best of both worlds!!!

 

[Turbo Zach]

Beautiful car and Beautiful 1800 Oliver!! Best of both worlds!!!

Thank you. I do like that old tractor. I have had a few. Some day I will probably give it to my son. Maybe the Nova too?

 

[Turbo Zach]

I had little time the past two nights to work on the car. I do have other projects that are ahead of this one, but I needed to know what I have for axels so I can order parts. I pulled the axles and center section out. It has 31 spline Mosor axels. When I was looking at the center section I noticed the pinion shaft was very loose. I found there is no preload on the pinion bearings and something is not right with the crush sleeve. I have not pressed it apart yet to find what Dad did wrong yet. I also found the inner edge of the ring gear is chipped on every tooth.

I was going to save this center section and build another one, but this one needs rebuilt so I might as well regear this one. It is a Strange steel case. I have been looking at a Eaton Truetrack. Is that good? What are your options on a carrier? The gears is were I need help. I believe the car has a 3500 10 inch stall converter in it. It has a 235/70/15 tires. I was thinking a 350 gear would work good for the highway, but will the torque converter be slipping? This car will not be a long distance driver.

 

[64nailhead]

Converter slip won’t be a concern with a well built converter. If it doesn’t lock all the time below lockup rpm during steady state driving, then you need a better converter.
I used to be concerned about the same issue until I began using better converters.

My current converter will stall to 3800, but I cruise at 2500 and the rpms never waiver unless I increase throttle a noticeable amount. And if I stand on the throttle, it will flash to the low 4’s. But it doesn’t like trying to cruise much below 2000 rpms - pretty much related to HP and cam specs.

Regarding the gearing, pick an rpm where the motor will cruise at (hopefully you’ve driven it enough to know this), and then pick a gear that will keep the rpm in that range at highway speeds. My guess would be aim at 2400-2700 based on what you’ve told us about this motor - but that is a guess only.

Looking at those chips and hearing the pinion was loose - sounds like you made the right decision to pull it apart - something unfriendly was occurring in there.

Good luck and keep us posted - Jim