Here is the history of how I came to own this car. I recieved a call from a gentleman that lived down by the Arkansas border(2 hours from me). The man said he had recieved my phone number form a friend of mine who said I might be looking for a good project.(Unfortunatly I am always looking for a good project. It is a sickness. There should be support groups for people like me.) The man said he had a low mileage, rust free 76 Nova that they had pulled the motor out of for a derby car. He informed me the car was in nice condition and had factory air. The price would be 400.00 delivered. I figured by the time I drove to look at it I would be out 100.00 for meals and gas, so I told him to bring me the car, I would take it.

Now, I know better than to purchase a car sight unseen, as I said before this is a sickness. When the man pulled into the lot at the shop, I could not believe my eyes. This ratty old Nova was sitting on a homeade trailer that I would not have hooked up to, let alone pulled over 100 miles with a car on it. The Nova had all steel wheels, and every tire was flat. The drivers window had fallen out of track quite some time ago, the hatch was open with the transmission sitting in it with a few other parts thrown in for good measure. The car was full of rat nests. The floorboards were up to the seat level with rat nest and rat crap. You can see the ring on the back seat in picture 3. That is where we found the spare tire. When I say found found, that is what I meen. It was buried under pounds of rat stuff and parts, you literally could not even see the thing. The rear hatch was more of the same. The rats had eaten the rear wiring! We found it in pieces woven into the nests in the hatch. We never found any live critters, but there were several carcases. This thing was gross!

We had to hook to the back of the car and drag it off the trailer. We took wheels and tires out in the lot nad bolted them on just so we could roll the car in to start cleaning. What we found after the cleanup was really not a bad car. The Nova was parked in 1990. It has 78,000 original miles. Blue exterior and blue interior with air conditioning and an automatic on the column. Thats when it got pushed into storage while the parts build up took place. I got a 350 4 bolt main engine built down at Covico (the best motor shop in the area). It has flat top pistons, rv cam, holley 750 dual line carb, hooker headers and a few other goodies.

Here are some shots of the motor. We replaced the gas tank as well as all the rubber lines. Every piece on the motor is new including the alternator, power steering pump, water pump, fuel pump, fan and radiator. Mistake #1 with this build, I tried to save a buck and used a factory 4 barrel intake. Well, it was made with the first style egr valve that they dont make a block off plate for, so now the top is coming back off and an Edelbrock perfomer is going on. I did tape off the egr port so I could attemp to start the car. It hit on the first try! I was worried the wiring would be bad, from the rats. It appears they only hurt the rear portion, even the under dash wiring seams to be fine and it looks good.