bought a 66 Nova SS 118376 W rolling chassis - VIN # details?

[byndbad914]

Hey all, went off the deep end (actually plotting and planning in my head for awhile now) and managed to pick up a straight, very little rust 66 Nova SS V8 4spd chassis over the weekend in central CA. I have no idea what the original color is, nor interior; I am guessing black given the well worn headliner and rear seat panels are still there and black - all else is gone.

So I am trying to determine what the best source would be to search the actual production portion of the VIN that would dictate exactly what that car was. Would just be fun to know what it was in its glory days before I get the sawsall out and start building a full chassis.

I suspect folks that are into these cars will be upset to hear my plans but I intend to hack the daylights out of it and build a road racer that can serve some street duty on nice days. I have a destroked 400 and a sequential transaxle in my Porsche 914 that I intend to move over to this car (Vette style with a custom torque tube to attach the two), as well as my custom designed dual A front and rear suspension on the Porsche. Should be an interesting project, the torque tube concept is coming together but still a few items to fully science out, after that it should just be a matter of time, cutting and welding.

I buy, then I really think, sort of how I ended up with a 525HP 914 with a sequential 5 spd and fully custom dual A suspension :unibrow: I intend to run that car a few more track days this year then trailer the Nova out here in November after my annual Vegas SEMA trip - I have it in Orange County currently - and start the winter project season.

[TomM]

Here is a good decoder for vin number and cowl tag.....VIN tag is in the driver's door jamb, cowl tag is on passenger side firewall....good luck, and let us know what you have......

http://chevyresource.com/nova.html

http://www.novaresource.org/rpo1.htm


T,

[Steve68]

great vin pages!! thanks

[byndbad914]

Tom - that wagon is SWEET. very cool project. And I agree with Steve, thanks for the great links! I am stoked right now, getting really lucky:

E = sheetmetal color is black = what I would want
765 = black bucket seats = stoked, exactly what I had hoped for
H-H = now this is really awesome as I love Willow Green. It is all black now but I intended to copy the paint scheme on my 914 onto this car as I love black with dark or camo green like I have attached here!! I can use Willow Green on the top half with a satin finish, following the upper body line like I did on the 914 (and the standard split line on a 66-67), and then use satin black on the bottom with black interior and have an essentially all stock, factory original paint scheme on the car. My Friday just got a whole lot brighter!

Will use the tires and wheels off the 914, all that. I am kneeling to show how low that car is - around 3.5" ground clearance - and I intend to get the same ground height and stance with the Nova, it will be a bit taller overall of course.

my poor mom, 5' 2" and 64 yrs old, told me she actually climbed into the engine bay to look at this stuff and unfortunately all of the option stuff she can't make out; it has been beat up over the years and probably scuffed badly when someone R&R'd the engine at one point. I know it sat for a long time - at a body shop for like 12 yrs at minimum - so I am thinking the 64K miles may actually be original too.

She is making a sandwich and looking for her magnifying lens and hell bent to get back in there tho' so I gave her a bunch of pointers on what to look for so we will see! Sucks to own a car that is sitting 1000 miles away...

[byndbad914]

is there a code somewhere that would dictate what V8 this car had?

Also, the rear end is a monoleaf setup with the little coils on the shocks and someone was saying those weren't on the V8 cars, some claim they were - anybody know for sure?

[TomM]

is there a code somewhere that would dictate what V8 this car had?

Also, the rear end is a monoleaf setup with the little coils on the shocks and someone was saying those weren't on the V8 cars, some claim they were - anybody know for sure?

Kinda hard to say on the engine, it's a 118 car, so it was born a Super Sport. More than likely it had a 327 in it.

As for the shocks, they are probably an aftermarket add on, spiral shocks were the norm on most cars.

If you want, PM me the details, VIN #, and cowl tag info, just like it's on the tag, and I can email one of the Nova gods that can probably tell you what kind of tires it came with... LOL

T,

[byndbad914]

here are some shots of the car, asked my mom to take a bunch so I could take inventory of what I need to replace everything in the interior and exterior, figured I throw a couple up here. Rather bummed that something went wrong with the paint when it was done - you can see in the left side images that it was nice and deep and smooth and everything reflects in it. The right side looks like they ran it along a thicket of rose bushes, let alone what is up behind the door, and then the trunk has chunks of paint breaking off. Sucks to think I am probably taking this all the way down again, but that said, black shows the car is pretty straight and that is what was most important to me.

[Steve1968LS2]

Cut it up and post a video on YouTube.. people get too upset over modding cars that have little collector value in a restored state.

Have fun!

[byndbad914]

I hear you Steve! One thing about the old Novas is I see way more cut cars than restored ones, so probably not as sac-relig as say, I dunno, a Camaro :lol:

[Musclerodz]

I don't think you can tell if it was a L79 car without documentation or original drivetrain installed. L79 #'s match and docs would be the only way I would put it back stock. Otherwise, sawzall is your best friend.:D

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Ahhh don't worry about it, your car go to town. Can't wait to see it go together. Mind if I asked what you paid for it? Another reason to hate you. LOL. : D

[byndbad914]

While I don't mind the question, honestly I feel I got a decent deal on it and what I have seen some others state they paid for rusty non-SS rollers, probably best I just keep it to myself ;) That and I have seen comments on this forum that stating prices seems to be a no-no and will spin this thread completely out of control.

I went through the Classic Industries catalog the guy gave me and I can see why he let it go - most people don't realize how much all the little stuff will nickel and dime you on a car like this and he had a lot of items marked. I made up a spreadsheet and including niceties like new bumpers and rear taillight assemblies that I don't really need, it hit $10K without carpet, seat covers, suspension or engine/trans. I suspect he saw numbers around $25K to get it all back together. I expect that, he didn't, so I think it worked in my favor for the haggling part.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Check with Matt's classic bow ties. Site Sponsors may give you a better price.

[byndbad914]

thanks for the recommendation - will check them out!

[byndbad914]

Picked the car up and trailered it home after SEMA last month, so getting ready to start digging in. First order of business was designing up a full frame chassis for the car with 2x3 .095 wall tubing and 1.75 .095 DOM for the cage. Sort of nice being an engineer and having access to analysis software; I removed about 50 lbs of triangulation that, while looked like it would matter, had little to no effect on overall rigidity.

The orange bars at the rear don't seem to make any difference but I sort of can't let them go :lol: That main bar across there will have the transaxle mid-mount welded to it so I feel the need to tie it in better, and the fuel cell will be mounted on that "cage" as well. The gray door bars will be removable (which will be a PITA keeping 4 break points lined up perfectly) as well as the bar across the main loop for belts as I would like to have a rear seat setup if I can manage to keep the tunnel small enough with the transaxle torque tube and low stance pushing things up in the body.

At least that is the plan - those things have a way of changing :D This is probably the 5th chassis design in the last month as I go out and lay under the car periodically and then search this forum for all the chassis cars to glean ideas as well. That and being an amateur always makes for "dynamic" progress.

One thing I am considering is keeping the chassis/engine/trans completely level to ground and then raking the body on it v. raking the suspension pickup points and then everything is raked relative to ground. That is why the outer rocker rails appear to run at an angle... because they do. I don't see this done with other cars so maybe I am over thinking it, wouldn't be the first time :yes: