ANY help is very much appreciated

Hello all,

Happy to receive any guidance from anyone who has the time. this is my first post, and I hope I'm not wasting anyone's time. But I have somewhat of a burning desire to get my first muscle car, and use it as a daily driver.

Let me start by saying that my experience under a hood is novice, not amateur, but I'm by no means a gear head. I grew up driving a 1986 Jeep Grand wagoneer. I had to do some daily maintenance with my dad's help to keep her running well beyond 250,000 miles. I am aware how much more modern even that technology is compared to what I'm looking at getting, which is a 1968-1974 Chevy Nova. I have no aspirations of getting, or turning this Nova into a performance racing machine. I'd be looking to more enhance and enjoy my commute everyday, the way I figure it is..you gotta drive everyday pretty much, may as well enjoy the heck out of it. So not a show car, but a solid ride, no frills, I don't need power steering or even AC/Heat. I don't mind at all if the parts, even the engine, are after market, infact I know they are going to have to be. I'd like to find one fuel injected with front discs brakes. I can convert the engine myself if need be. Manual or automatic doesn't really matter to me. I'll convert it to a overdrive transmission at some point too.

I have been and also in the process of doing my research, I know the head aches involved in making a muscle car a daily driver, but I feel like if I can do some modifications that I will still quite enjoy this experience.

My budget is anywhere from 10k-20k total investment. I'd be looking to probably make a purchase at around 7-9k and then do the modifications for about 5k, with some of the work being done myself, and other larger things being done by a local shop (cost unknown).

I'd really love some insight into whether my intuition is completely off base, or I'm moving in the right direction. Please let me know if this is a fools errand, and I'm wasting my time. Please feel free to speak to me as an idiot since I am out of my element, and need the honest feed back that hurts.

I appreciate any help again,

thank you for taking the time to read this and responding

Underneath the skin, the drivetrain and suspension of that generation Nova is more or less the same as a Camaro, so upgrade and performance parts should not be an issue. The big thing I see is finding a good car to start with - you didn't mention where you live, but unless you're in a part of the world where rust is not an issue finding one that's not rotted away could be tough. Here in Minnesota, outside of show cars I haven't seen a Nova on the street in 30 years.

whoops I should have mentioned that I'm in Southern California. Also, it will be stored in a garage.

In that case you're much better off than us poor souls in the rust belt.

The disco Nova has a much better front suspension. The 74 and older never came with disc brakes, and had 60's design front suspension. All that is fixable with cash, but it can get involved.

Great choice...there's a 1968ish two door near me on blocks(the old NFS I'm gonna fix it). Even the '74-75 four doors had me juiced up. Tuck the bumpers, small block w/5spd, big brakes, BoooYaaa!!!!

The 1968-74 Novas did have front disc brakes as an option, same brakes as the 1967-69 Camaro/Firebird. The 1975-79 Novas shared the front suspension and disc brakes with the 70-81 Camaro/Firebird. Fun cars with plenty of performance parts available. The 75-79 cars are a bit cheaper than the 68-74 cars, but both are cheaper than same year F-bodies.

So far I feel pretty encouraged. Anyone know how much it would be to convert it to a front disc brake system? new master cylinder? etc.

I own a '72 Nova SS. 350 4 speed. Factory Power Steering and Power Disc Brakes. Very civilized to drive compared to most 60s cars. Has been in restoration for going on 5 years... I bought a "rust free" car from a "Nova person" on EBay that wasn't.

Almost everything is available to restore/recondition a second generation Nova. Classic Industries has a good catalogue and website. I've spent tons of money with them.

Join this forum: http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/ Super resource for all things Nova related.

Look for rust free. You are lucky to be in California but travel for a rust free example. '68 is an oddball year. Lots of '68 only parts that are hard to find. '69-'72 are the preferred models, higher prices, better parts availability. '73-'74 share many '69-'72 parts. Their suspension is shared with the '67-'69 FBody Camaro/Firebird. Stuff like brake and suspension upgrades are easy to accomplish from several vendors. Later models have far less support and parts availability.

FWIW. No one wants a 4 door Nova. Therefore they are very cheap. When you dump a ton of money into one, it will still be cheap. If you will ever need to sell the car, stick to a 2 door. You will always get more for a similar 2 door than 4 door.

In reply to maj75:

If I may ask, is your's fuel injected? do you have an overdrive transmission? is power steering a must? what kind of gas mileage do you get? what would you advise looking as far as purchase price wise?

My Nova is going back to stock after serving as a bracket drag car for years. I rebuilt a period correct 350 with a Muncie 4 speed. Technically, the '72 Novas came with a Saginaw 4 speed but I saw no reason to source one of them since the Muncie is better. I installed a factory 3:42 Posi rear end. It is a street cruiser, hot a high speed touring car. Power steering and brakes are not required, but make the car so much more enjoyable to drive. I can cruise with 2 fingers on the steering wheel and execute turns easily. I had a '65 Mustang 2+2 with manual discs and steering. Absolutely terrible to drive compared with any car built in the last 20 years. I actually enjoyed driving the Nova because it didn't require hard work.