The Blue Bomb-72 Nova

[Jasons72]

Im still fairly new to this site so i figured i would start a build thread on my car, The Blue Bomb. My name is Jason and i'm 21, i've had my nova since i was 15, my dad and i found it in a guys backyard while we were on our way home from the Carlisle, PA show. We were looking for a car for me and couldn't find anything. The car wasn't even for sale but after passing it we figured it never hurts to ask so we knocked on the door and it turned out the guy had a lot going on in his life and he just couldn't get to the nova so after talking we struck a deal and came back with a car trailer and got it. The car was fairly solid, it had just been painted, had fairly new rally's and new tires, the interior needed to be gutted and the engine compartment was nothing but grease and grime. The motor had been rebuilt to a 355 but was completely stock other than the 750 carb and old SP2P edelbrock intake, it also had a th-400 and a stock non posi 8.5 rear with 3.08 gears.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2156622

Here is a link to what it used to look like. The paint had more of a purple to it back then. First i pulled the front glass since it had a crack in it and took the opportunity to paint the dash black since pea green was not working for me . I got new door panels, new headliner, new sun visors, new sailpanels, new rear package tray, new carpet, i had the dash pad recovered and my parents were nice enough to have my seats recovered for a christmas present. I used a house grade insulation that is double sided aluminum and has a foam center, i could hold it up to a spot lamp that's a couple hundred degrees and hold it without getting hot, plus it was only $50 for a 25'x4' "sample piece" which was plenty to do the whole interior. After the interior we(my dad has been a huge help through this build) cleaned the engine compartment and repainted everything.

From this point i drove the car as my daily driver for about 4 years doing little things, had a 2 1/4" exhaust put on that was a terrible job for what i paid. I put on an edelbrock 600 carb, HEI distributor, a set of flowtech headers and had the th-400 rebuilt.

[Jasons72]

Fast forward a few years and i had finally afforded enough to put a set of poly bushings in the front, half inch drop solid body mount bushings, competition engineering subframe connectors and a set of hotchkis 2 inch drop springs and 1.5" drop leaf springs. Unfortunately i couldn't afford anything but monroe shocks so even though the car was handling pretty well it wasn't anywhere near what it should have been. Over the year the car had its share of wear and tear, i came around a turn in the rain(in that first 15 minutes that is the slickest) and after i yielded and started to go again the back end decided to come around and i put the nose into a guard rail. Saved up and had that fixed and during my first year of college i was heading home from class in the rain, i was pulling onto the side road that leads to my neighborhood which is a quick left then right, when i came out of the turn i hit the gas to go and guess what, my single throttle return spring snapped!(ALWAYS HAVE TWO THROTTLE RETURN SPRINGS) So i couldn't get the car turned off quick enough and the car was all over the road, got it shut off and went sideways into a steel posted mailbox at about a mile an hour, just enough to put a creased all the way down the passenger side door. That finally convinced me to have the car repainted so i dipped into some funds my grandmother had left me and had it repainted and replaced a lot of trim and such and added a cowl hood.

Some of the stuff that needed fixed

[Jasons72]

Fresh paint and new trim







Back home waiting for reassembly





Repainted my centercaps











Can't turn your back without someone making fun of you


I even won a plaque at the Nova show.

[Jasons72]

How it used to sit


Mid mount alternator, this was back when i decided it would be cool to switch to manual steering


I needed to permanently show my allegiance to this car

[Jasons72]

I got about half a year out of the car sitting the way it was. Last summer i decided to drive it up to Doylestown, PA with my gf to visit her dad,stepmom, and half sisters. We had a great time and we headed home the sunday of that weekend which happened to be my 20th birthday. We swung by a local show that was way bigger than we realized it would be so we decided to not go in but we noticed that the brakes started to squeak a bit, no biggie though. We got not even a half a mile up the road when our light turned red, i hit the brakes and NOTHING! My foot went to the floor and the rears locked up. The best part was that no one was in the intersection but a kind driver waiting to cross the intersection perpendicular to us looked us both in the eyes, creaped out far enough into the intersection to get in my path and then stopped and i just couldn't get stopped in time.







When i hit him he literally bounced off my car and i absorbed most of it, his front left bumper was dented, but i thought i saw tranny fluid where he had parked his car after he left. Both motor mounts and the tranny mount sheared and they jumped forward about 6 inches into the radiator. The front right frame rail bent upward and the rest is very clear as to what was destroyed.















The one person other than me working on it.




Freshened the motor up


Finally home where i had to fix everything they messed up.




After two months in the body shop i finally got it back, i worked on it almost everyday after work to try to get it done faster since they drug their feet(i used to work for them, they did excellent work but since they new me they put my car on the back burner) I was also hoping since they weren't doing all the work that i would get to keep the labor for what i did...guess what they charged the insurance company $12,000 and i didn't see a penny of it. While it was there i had the firewall smoothed and painted and they got me a nice affco polished aluminum radiator instead of the $150 ebay radiator. I splurged a little and put on a Wilwood master cylinder in anticipation of doing a wilwood big brake kit in the future.

[bonecrrusher]

Car is looking good....

Just dont do this...

[Jasons72]

Made some block off panels to hide the wiring that routes through the fenders





I painted them and they were the sheen that the inner fenders and the rad support were supposed to be painted while at the body shop so i tore into the car to fix it.











Well since the front was apart i figured why not improve the suspension that is there, i got an AGR quick ratio steering box, 650 lb. circle track springs, spring adjusters, solid lca bushings, QA1 single adjustable shocks, SPC adjustable uca's with tall screw in ball joints, i already had a hellwig 1 1/8" solid sway bar, and i got a spoiler from spoilersbyrandy.

[Jasons72]

New patriot shorty headers



Solid motor mounts

















A bit too low but it looked good



Hotchkis 3 inch drop leafs (slapper bars aren't on anymore)

[Jasons72]

Back on the ground



Block off panels match now




Moved the battery to the trunk

[Jasons72]

Recently i switched to a Jegs 1 wire 100 amp alternator since mine fried. I had a new 2.5" exhaust put on with Dynomax ultraflow ss mufflers and my dad was able to find enough stainless tubing at work for the tailpipes. Unfortunately one of the mufflers had a tiny dent when we opened the box and it pops at certain rpms when you let off the gas, it sounds great at idle and i love the interior sound but when i hear it resonate off of walls and cars it sounds like its more of a farty/poppy sound than a growl or rumble, kind of like some old dog of a truck that you can almost hear each cylinder fire(but not in a good way). If it bugs me enough and i have my dad drive it so i can hear it and i don't like it i'm going to replace them with Borla mufflers. Finally after 6 years i ordered a set of wheels and tires that i actually wanted. Summit legends, 18x8.5 up front with 5.125" of backspacing and 18x9.5 rears with 6" of backspacing. Tires are Nitto 555 245/40 up front and 275/40 for the rears. I have the rear wheels and the tires but the front wheels don't ship until the 23rd, i couldn't beat $600 for the wheels and $644 shipped for the tires.





Rear Tires


Front Tires