Vipers Hang Out

Vipershangout

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12/14/2002 11:00:10 AM

Finished Pictures Page 18

My 1975 nova has been a project since 1995 when I bought it for 200 dollars and put lots of busted knuckles and sweat into her. She has come along way from the day a friend drove over to the house smoking in a car that reeked of gas on the inside. It seems the trunk rusted through the top of the fuel tank and the cars interior had filled with fumes. The car had 350,000 miles, it was a 2 owner car both in the same family. The Car was silver and had roofing tin over the rusted rear quarters. It was powered by a 262 v8 and ran really good, just a little smoke on startup, The rear springs were real tired and the shocks were exhausted. The interior had been recovered with ( DUCT TAPE ) great job too. The heat was controlled by a screw driver but let me add that heat in this car rocks in 5 minutes, it will have you opening windows. It still had the original grocery getters on it (steel rims and hub caps).

The first thing we did was remove the roofing tin and treated the rust. We patched it with aluminum panels and riveted them in place. We Bondoed, sealed, primed and painted it. We also gave her a good tune up replaced the carb with a new 2 barrel. Hey ok but I was planning on driving it to and from work for a while, 120 miles a day through Washington DC traffic. Man people with those import cars tend not to cut off a car that big and made of steel . I drove it for almost six years only having small problems here and there, and changing the transmission 4 times. That's what happens when you forget to fill the torque converter, crack a fly wheel, and get junk yard transmission.

Then I got and idea after all this time my Nova had been put through the test and never left me hanging or had to have to a ford come rescue it. I should give it a real treat. So what's a car want ?? Well maybe to look better then the next guy and run faster to the next light. Well hey I have something in common with this, I like to go faster and dress up once in a while so we found a 1965 Chevy impala that had a 283 with 50 to 80000 miles so we excepted its donation to the cause.

When we opened this engine up we were blown away, it was so clean it looked better then some newly built ones. We checked all the torques, changed the push rods, checked all the bearings, put the 262 manifold, carb and Accessories on it, bolted it to the trans and slammed it in. The neighbors here think I am a nut. It seems I am the only person that takes a car apart from the doors forward to the core support. I've done this on numerous occasions and put it back together by the end of the day then drive it, but hey I just like having room to work, and it saves time. Anyway, we bolted it up turned the key and she had a new heart and wow it pumped well

I drove it for about 6 to 8 months then said well lets do the body. We decide that if it was rusty we would cut it out. We did. This time we bought the new steel except for the trunk. There we used 0.50 aluminum and hand shaped it all and riveted it in place. Man the trunk looked good and the rest is still in the works. Enjoy the pictures now that you have the story.