THE STORY...

Octane Fix Online Issue 23

In 2015 on a family holiday, we went to an Americas Fastest Street Car Meeting in LA. After watching 100’s of cars pulling huge wheelies and low timeslips, Anita decided she wanted a 70’s Nova, unfortunately we did not have time to find one on that trip. We returned in 2016 for the 100th running of the Indy 500 and while there, purchased this car in LA, from only it’s 3rd US owner......we don’t recommend buying a half stripped car with only 24 hours left before flying home!! This meant sitting outside a glass shop for an hour at 8am on our last day overseas waiting on a new windscreen to arrive, then driving it 70 kms to sit it in the car, duct tape it in and pray it survived the trip home.

We then towed it to Kiwi Shipping for them to ship it back to NZ and we then drove straight to the airport and jumped on the plane home ourselves.

Upon the cars arrival in NZ we had good mate Guy Deveraux (RIP) replace a section of the hatchback weather seal channel that had rusted away. These hatchbacks are notorious for rusting out these channels along with the extremely rare hatchback doors themselves, luckily our hatch had been replaced at great cost by the previous owner, as they have not been reproduced yet so even average ones go for big money these days.

Then Anita completely stripped the patinaed, original metallic, dark green paint with an electric drill and 3m stripping discs, uncovering a rust free, never dented or damaged body shell. It was at this stage that it was decided the car was too good for burnouts, which was it’s original intended purpose. So we then got Dave Addison (DA Panelbeating) to give it a quick tidy up, before the talented team at Hammonds Collision and Mechanical laid on a fantastic coat of slightly modified HSV “Son of a Gun” grey paint.

Unfortunately, after the paint was laid on, Paul suffered a serious concussion so re-assembly took him a bit over a year as he could only work on it in short bursts as his health allowed. This included removing the indicators from the grille and fitting a 72 Nova front bumper.

We also removed the huge crash impact shock absorbers on both bumpers, then narrowed the rear bar by nearly 2 inches and tucked it closer to the body. These were then painted Satin Black along with all the door and windscreen stainless trim, which was a nightmare to refit without scratching. The bonnet and headlight trim all got the same treatment.

Although the two “Hatchback” badges remained white to stand out. As unless it is up, most people don’t even realise it is a Hatchback. Including one guy at a car show who argued quite strongly that they never made Nova Hatchbacks, yet, there it was!

Initially assembled and driven for a year with its original looking 350 engine in place, then on New Years Eve 2021 both Paul and Anita pulled the motor out and fitted the fully chromed out 383 for the Muscle Car Madness Show 3 weeks later.

Since then, due to health and work commitments, the Nova has only done 3000 miles. The decision has been made to sell and hopefully the new owner will drive it more!!!!

The 383 has been removed and will be replaced with the original, freshly rebuilt, 350 chev (still chromed out).

The garages will still be full as we have Paul’s 58 Chev Burnout/Event Car (RU5TY8), Anita’s new burnout car, under construction, 55 Studebaker (ELVIRA) also there’s a 58 Chev Sport Sedan (4 door pillarless) project and Paul’s first car, a 64 Mini, owned for 38 years. There is also a low mileage HSV VT Senator Signature if we feel like some late model fun or trips away. Along with two daily drivers, we are out of room, hence the Nova being regrettably for sale.

Previous cars:

ANITA: Mk1 Escort (first car) also a 83 Trans Am, her daily driver for 5 years.

PAUL: 4 x EH Holdens, 1 x HQ, LH and LX Torana’s, also NZ New 64 Impala daily driver for 7 years.