'76 Nova From Disco to DTM

Hello everyone, this is my build of my disco nova. A little bit of background, I've the car for over a decade now and in that time it's had a few different combos. When I got it, the car was bone stock with only 50k miles and a absolute creampuff. I was in the process of building my first engine and was actually looking for an old truck to toss the sbc in. One of my friends suggested a nova and that's how I stumbled across my car. 1976 isn't exactly the most desireable year for these cars but it's what I could afford at the time and it was the nicest car I was going to find. For my first go around it went surprisingly well. Engine lasted for 25 miles before I flattened the cam. After it did that I decided on making a bigger change and I put in a 4.8 crate motor I traded a set of SBC heads for. Eventually it saw a 6.0 with a turbo and 4l80 combo, then I put in a 9" and hated how it performed with leafs and ended fabbing up a 3 link which was a bit better but it being a drag car and no local track I tore it back down. That puts us to last summer, thats when I got a C5Z front subframe assemby. I dropped it off at a fab parts store local to me where they have someone who was able to scan it and design a plate that allowed me to use 2x4 frame and the factory subframe/geometry. While they were getting it laser cut and cnc bent I was working on the rear subframe mounts. I essentially built my frame in a couple sections. I built the rear first then the front section. I basically joined the 2 after that and spent 1.5 hours just getting it square to 1/32-1/16 which I was pleased with. I got pretty wrapped with work for a few months and I was also at an impass with my push rod design. I wanted my coilovers to lay a certain way but couldn't figure out a way to do it and also make it look good. I know it's a real stupid reason but it stopped me from progressing for a few months. that more or less brings us to today. I mocked my front end onto the chassis earlier this week at it's original ride height and knew I would have to widen the car to fit the wheel and tire combo I'm running. If I was going to do that and I'm in it this deep already I figured I cut even more stuff to get it low to the ground. With that in mind I cut 5" out of my fender to bring the rocker panel to the bottom of the chassis. I did that and got everything mocked up to keep my fender lip, looks like instead of adding 1.5" to each side of the car it looks closer to 4"+ because of the way the fender tucks itself towards the hood. If you've made it this far you'll notice I tend to ramble and it won't get any better. I've always been terrible at taking picture but I've been pretty good lately and will try to remember to take plenty of pictures as well. I also typed all of this up before I dumped these photos into this. So if something is out of place, apologies in advance.

They say there are no cool cars left. BullE36 M3.

This is one hell of a start of a build thread.

Bears repeating!

"This is one hell of a start of a build thread."

Wow! Looks great so far!

That got my attention!

Are you working with Send, Cut, Send for the sheet metal parts?

Curious what 3D drawing package you are using. 

In reply to NOHOME :

I'm not using send cut send for any of my parts. I have a plasma cutter I can use to make parts but mostly use it for cutting things up. There's a shop local to me I'm pretty friendly with that sells various tabs and brackets. If I have something that is intricate I want cut out I just give them my blueprints and they get them cut out via plasma table or laser. I'm pretty fortunate that my area has such helpful and capable individuals. As for which program the subframe brackets were drawn up in, I believe Solidworks was used but I can always ask when I see them next.

In reply to Spoonfed :

Thank for reply. Just curious if you had ur own solidworks seat for ur projects.

In reply to NOHOME :

Of course, I'm happy to answer whatever questions there are. I definitely left a lot of details out because I didn't know how many would care about those details. I also figured if anyone wanted to know how or why I did what I did, I would be happy to share.

In reply to Spoonfed :

This crew,  as a whole, love minutia.  Add whatever details, big or small. We dig it.

Real nice start and one of the cars I was looking at before I started mine.

Well the set up as it sits is my homebuilt frame comprised of 2"x4" .120 box and 2"x2" .120 as the major structure or primary structure. The 1"x2" I would class as a secondary structure that I added mostly for visual appeal. I'm using an aluminum Ford 8.8 center section for the rear with a 3.73 and lsd, C5 factory subframes front and rear along with the corresponding arms and spindles. The pushrod set up is comprised of 1.25" .120 DOM, 3/4" heims, and qa1 coils. I snagged some sweet BMW X5 seats from the junkyard and obviously the rear wheels which I have on all 4 corners. They're a 19x10 with 305/30r19 Yokohoma Advan Apex's. The powerplant is a ls1 with a very large cam and rod knock. I've been tossing the idea of doing a destroked LS7 but that's a little rich for my blood. The transmission is a used tr6060 with a nice McLeod twin disc. The crown jewel is my intake which is an RHD unit from Australia. I've lusted after ITB'S since before I could drive. I went with this particular one because it used factory LS sensors. The owner even has  full assembly and install videos on YouTube along with him firing it up and driving on a factory tune. His square port units produce equal to slightly above a factory intake throughout the entire rpm range while still producing more top end horsepower than a holley hi-ram with dual quads. ITB's also hold the unique ability to calm down very rowdy cams. I originally expected to only have to widen the car 1.5" on each side but with the channeling and the body shap of the car it looks like it will be a bit more than that. I'll be doing everything myself and I'm on the fence about sprinkling in composites or rivets as a nod to my aviation background. The rivets would not be on any exterior panel, just the interior/engine bay, but I'm undecided and that's a ways away. I hope to drop the body on the chair later this week,  just need to get the floor cut out and ready.

I for one really like this body style Nova. Great build, keep it coming.

"I'm using an aluminum Ford 8.8 center section for the rear with a 3.73 and lsd," I'm way in so far, but this pumpkin in the photos doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. I'm no expert on modern diffs, but this looks very similar to the getrag diffs I've had to deal with in my 2010CTS-V......#4 is toast and I'm about to replace it with a Ford 9 inch from GForce1320. Carry on ..... 

Does the 2010 CTS-V have the same Getrag diff as the first-gen CTS-V? The first-gen diff was garbage, and the 8.8 IRS is waaaaay better. I've owned cars with each.

I've seen pics on the internet of an 8.8 IRS Cobra that allegedly broke the rear cover, but I've never seen it in person. I have seen high-power Supercoupes break the stub axles at the diff splines in person.

Anything can be broken, but the 8.8 IRS is pretty tough.

In reply to Will :

sent you a PM

In reply to 759NRNG :

As Will said, these are pretty stout. It's a common swap into miatas and rx-7's as well. The axle stubs are the only thing I'm concerned about being a weak point in this particular set up.

I dig the BMW wheels. I always like them on GM cars/trucks.

Appleseed said:

In reply to Spoonfed :

This crew,  as a whole, love minutia.  Add whatever details, big or small. We dig it.

This.

Don't hold back.

Well these past few weeks I've spent bracing the chassis up and liberating it of all of it's unwanted sheet metal. I almost feel bad about cutting up the floor since they. don't re-pop these anymore but really it's just steel like anything else. Nothing is sacred over at this house.

Part of my initial design of my chassis was based around where the pinch welds are under the car. I used them as my reference point since they were nearly undamaged and pretty solid. I began by marking 2" to the outside of the pinch welds and those were my cut lines. The firewall and trunk areas I went to excess and removed way more than I needed to only because I'm going to be making all of that from scratch. I already have the quarters and fenders to do why not everything else while I'm there? The body is channeled 4" so the bottom of my rocker panels and the bottom of my frame meet at the same point. I like the look it gives the car and if I'm motivated enough at some point I could have a flat bellied car. If you notice as well Looking down on the car it looks like I have a 6 cylinder but it's still an 8 cylinder. That's exactly where factory C5 engine mounts on a C5 subframe place the engine. I'll have to cut into my cowl for my ITB's to clear and figure out if I want to keep the hood traditional or tilt forward like a corvette. I'll have to sit and dwell for a while. Next steps are to affix the body to the frame permenantly and knockout my front suspension so it can sit on it's own weight. 

I like this shot a lot

Wow, it looks like somebody got an A in wood shop. (Line from Meet the Parents)

I approve of this project, can't wait to see the finished look. 

My first car was a 77 nova hatch, purchased at 14 with paper route money of course.  I removed the subframe pucks, welded it to the body, put hubs from a full sized wagon and axle from a truck to get bigger brakes.  Then came the worst engine ever built my a teenager, all the cam, small valve heads, dual plane intake topped by a 600 Holley.  Headers and dumps before the axle so I was loud.

Carry on, just went down memory lane.

Any updates?

Oh hell yeah another front-mid engine Corvette parts pile monstrosity! Love the build keep the updates coming!

I do have a question about those trick C5 front subframe and suspension mounts. Did you design those or were did you get them from?  I have considered building another frame around C5/6 parts rather than the C4 stuff on my Ram50 currently.

This is Fantastic.  Really good work so far.