My 'car(s)' story...

I was asked in another thread if I would be interested in starting a thread about my old Nova that I had before my Corvette.

Sorry in advance for the long post!

Here goes!

I found the car in Ohio. 1966 Chevy II SS. Had a BBC on spray (250 shot) in it when I got it. Ran it like that for about a year. Then decided I wanted to go a different direction with it. So: I tore it down. Really down. Engine/trans out, the whole front clip/subframe. Down to a shell. Re-did everything! Did all the work (except building the trans and engine machine work) myself. Smoothed the firewall, tubular front clip, disk brakes all the way around, and built a 408 cube F1 Procharged, blow thru carb'd monster!

The car was a blast to build. I had so much fun in every spare minute I could find working on it. The Mrs was not very thrilled, because we only have a 2 car garage and I kicked her out as my 'project' took up the complete space...for 2 years! (she was thrilled when she finally heard it fire up and go around the block on its' own power...lol)

Anywho, I cruised around and did a lot of local shows/meets/cruises with it for a few years. Had a lot of fun and met a lot of really good people.

I started to get 'bored' and wanted to do something else, maybe modern muscle, but did not know. I put the car up for sale without any luck...as we all know the market a few years ago took a crap and car prices plummeted!

One night while at a local cruise in, a gentlemen expressed interest in my Nova...he wanted it more than I did and a deal was struck. Enter my ZO6!

I researched and joined a few Corvette forums while I still had my Nova, I guess I really know what I wanted to get into (!), and had my ducks in a row.

I absolutely LOVE my ZO6. It does everything so damn well! It even has a/c and heated seats! (the mrs likes this). You can even hear the stereo while driving around! Now, don't get me wrong, I really loved the old Nova, and it was a really cool car. It got tons of looks! It was just a limited type of vehicle whereas the vette can do it all.

I miss being able to really 'work' on a car. I do perform as much work on the vette as I can: maintenance, brakes, engine work, I just can't tune it---there's no carb! lol. And I can't weld on it...which is a passion of mine. Love it!

Summing it all up: I miss and love classic hot rods/muscle cars and think they get much more (well deserved in my opinion) attention than a modern muscle car, but the modern cars do so much so very well, it's hard to beat them.


And now, the guy I sold the Nova to sold it and it has made it's way to FINLAND!! Holy smokes, my car is in Europe! I actually talk via email with the current owner and he has expressed interest in my visiting him in Finland so I can see it...and I imagine help him work on it and show him all about it since I know all of it's nuances! My wife and I are actually considering taking a trip over one summer to visit!


My story so far...now some pics of the old: 1bad'66!


Build up video:







Walk around video:

Love the old box style Novas and Chevy II's:thumbsup:
HAd one waaaay back in the day, but nothing like that.

That's beautiful!

Thanks, for sharing.

great story, loved the SS Novas back in the day...My favorate era were ALL the 1969 cars...Awsome time to be alive...:yesnod:

Thanks so much for posting. I just can't imagine parting company with something like that, even for a Vette.

You can tune your Vette with a laptop and HP Tuners. It's not difficult to learn the program for the easy stuff like timing, fuel, idle. If you really want to get into it work with a local tuner until you learn what you need or want to do. You definitely have the talent and you don't have to be a computer jock.

If you need more info email me. My email address is in my signature.

Beautiful Nova and great story.

Very cool that you are in touch with the current owner.

Thanks for the post and photos. :thumbsup:

Awesome post. Thanks for sharing. I loved the engine and blower set up. Way COOL. And now its in Finland giving someone else some joy. Think of the looks he's getting in Finland. :thumbsup:

Thanks everyone! Glad you enjoyed my story! I will build something again one day...just don't know what! So many choices...

:thumbsup: Great story !!!

That is PURE sex!! I like the 66 better than the 67 due to the rear trunk insert. That is a piece NOT made in repro yet and a flawless one is worth a ton.

I need to dig my old one with a 6-71 blower coming out of the hood.

Of all the cars I've had sure wish I would have kept that one.

Love it & thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

RevXtreme 1 said:

That is PURE sex!! I like the 66 better than the 67 due to the rear trunk insert. That is a piece NOT made in repro yet and a flawless one is worth a ton.

I need to dig my old one with a 6-71 blower coming out of the hood.

Of all the cars I've had sure wish I would have kept that one.

Love it & thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Isn't that neat. I saw his website in another thread and as soon as I saw the car I asked him to post info about it. At that period in time I was not a real Nova fan but that car is sure impressive. I would love to see it in it's new home.