'85 Vauxhall Nova 2 Door Saloon Resto Project/ First Car

[Calamity Josh]

I suppose the first thing i ought to do is introduce myself,
My name is Josh i'm 16,and i live in Essex (England)
Got my first Nova aged 10 ...
and i can confidently say that i've never been one of those that has had everything brought for them, i pay for everything, nova's, motorsport e.t.c.....

enough of me, i'd like to introduce Olivia:
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Soooo, where to start....
I picked this bargain up off ebay a year ago,
With only four previous owners and 70,000 miles from new lol it has the old style d/s mirror and the p/s mirror blank, a brown dashboard with the vent blanks and a awesome green cheq interior, here's some pictures of when i got it home:





The drivers side door has a slight rust bubble









Well She (OLIVIA) needed abit of a clean so after a evening of close fettling ready for a local classic car show the next day:

[Calamity Josh]

I have just brought another old two door loon and i'm going to put the lowering springs off it onto this one, also i'm looking at getting some brand new weller wheels with 7x13 fronts and 8x13 rears and i have a really old school roof rack to do on it that just needs to be restored, i know where there is a green snowplough bumper... i might get the sills replaced aswell and i'm just gunna tidy it all up with a near nut and bolt rebuild




Bit of an update, i picked up the other day kiwinova's old saloon which i'm stripping for parts and then the bare rolling shell will come up for sale probably with all pannels apart from the bumpers so here is some pictures:














the main things i'm taking off to put on my nova are the rear seatbelts, scuttle pannel mesh bits, shocks and lowering springs, uprated front brakes and quite abit of other stuff.
Right a small update from yesturday, mainly the day was spent stripping more parts from the red saloon but i did get in some time to go rust hunting on my little gem, and i have tonnes of pictures to show what i found... it's actually really solid, i know at some point it has had the rear quarters sprayed after some new rear arches and the front wings repaired which is quite a result really, the pictures don't do the car much justice really:
i poked the d/s wing:

surface at the bottom of the d/s wing:

Prodded the d/s door and it was only surface:


Behind the bumper on the d/s:

P/s headlight area:


D/s headlight area:


An overall front view:

The boot centre:

[Calamity Josh]

Rear arch to boot sill:

Rear d/s arch:

D/s sill:

Boot:

P/s arch to boot sill:

P/s Rear arch:

P/s sill:

P/s Front arch:

Front of the p/s wing:

And where the mudflaps were:


In all i'm chuffed that there isn't really much rust at all on it for a car of it's age, i think for the moment i'm just going to rust kill and primer the parts but in the long run it will probably have new sills, headlight sections and wings before next summer when i'm planning on getting a full outside respray done, just because i'm a perfectionist...
Today didn't go anywhere near to plan as i'd wanted it to, the idea was to wash it, polish it and fit my rear seatbelts, BUT SOMEONE STOLE MY SPONGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol so i ended up just doing what i could with the seatbelts, i didn't get round to finishing fitting them as i'd left two of the bolts up the workshop, i'm also not fitting the lapbelt as a) i cba b) it'd look scruffy
Fitting the recoiling bit:

My technical way of making the holes in the lining through to the captive behind:

That side half finished:

the other side half finished:

Any idea how to get these bungs out of the floor where the hole is for the bottom half of the belts, i've tried mauling one it didn't help but was good anger management:


I'm also after a pair of these headrests (green with the hole in the middle) if anyone knows of some as they are damaged:

And... half an hours work concluded:



I will keep you updated on any more advances;
p.s anyone after a 1 owner from new nissan 280 fairlady z about to come up for sale:

[Calamity Josh]

So then, i've not had time to properly update in a couple of days, in the meantime i took loads of bits off the red nova, polished part of the roof of the green one, and half lowered it so far.... it has rake! lol
you can see here that i have gave the p/s of the roof one coat of polish:

And after taking the suspension off of now possibly the worlds highest ex trackday nova:

I got round to putting the front 75mm drop springs on my nova ( the backs i'm going to do today, it does look quite good with rake tho!









oh and there is a speed ramp at our yard...

And how it was left for the day, at the moment its outside but it will soon be going inside when we have got rid of some other cars

MAJOR UPDATE!
well, yesterday i had a bit of time spare and got round to lowering the back... and then after merris's offer things had to be done! So first thing this morning i was round at merris's house drooling over bretts old nova and picking up some new rims! There a pair of banded (to 8j) sr steels painted with silver lips and hurricane grey centres, for the moment i have tryed the wheels both on one side for pictures and then finally put them both on the back of the car! i might have three standard width sr steels coming soon which will be put on the front of the car and one will be a spare eventually the 8j rears will probably be put on the front with the fronts banded to 8 or 9j for the rear of the car, i also got round to finishing the rear seatbelt conversion anyway here's some pictures:
The nova alongside my racing car after being lowered:


The wheels:

and both wheels on the same side:

How the front sits:

How the rear sits:

Rear:

Front:




Both on the rear:







Fitted the rear belts:

The wasp that scared me in the process:

And how the car was left for the night, it's inside for tonight and will be outside again for a while afterwards, until we get some more cars gone from our workshop:

[Calamity Josh]

Not much of an update but i had a spare ten minutes to put the bumpers back on:






That's about all for the minute and i havn't got much more time to work on it before friday when i'm going on holiday to Cornwall, then after that i should be cracking on a fair bit with it, also i should have a coin tray coming for it soon...
Been really buisy with school and gcse's recently so havn't had time to do loads on the nova, but i finaly found a day to crack on with it!
so here goes:
i rubbed down the d/s door and made a slight hole which will have to be fixed:

p/s wing off, rust killed any bits and some paint till i fix any major rust:









D/s wing off and same again:













The d/s wing had completely fell through:

So old ones were put to one side:

And new ones are here (i didn't pay that much for them), i bent one bringing it home which needs to be straightened properly:


Rubbed down and primered door shut section on d/s:


I also killed the rest of the rust i could see around and about so some finished pictures for today:





also the d/s rear wheel to rear sill has rotted through which needs to be sorted:


I have got a set of replica dealer plates made, also have some new headlight protectors and a early p/s mirror!
Discovered the colour is LEAF GREEN,
heres some pictures of the headlight protectors i picked up two sets and the others are currently up for sale:





And the mirror:
The textured black plastic is spot on with no marks or damage.

It is all complete but is currently seperated but it goes back together really easily with a couple of dabs of glue.
Arm is metal and the paint it peeling, it unscrews so it is easily painted with some satin black.


This is the only damage and it is minor, the shiny pastic rim has a slight chip taken out of it. I suspect it was from the old boy reversing and just clipping it. Just needs a tiny bit of filler and gloss black to make it mint.

Right not much of a update as i'm hectic at the moment with Gcse's but the nova should be going into our workshop over the next week/ two weeks. i have also managed to pick up 3 more sr steels, so i now have two banded ones and 4 standards (two of which will be sent off for banding to 9j soon)

and here was a 15,000 mile 1 lady owner garage stored from new nova that's down the road from me, she won't sell but i have first dibs:




i also saw a clean white 2dr f rej hatch the other day in tescos carpark but sadly no pictures

[Anonymoose]

Looking forward to seeing the pics later, welcome to the site!

[Calamity Josh]

Got the loon off the drive and took some pictures before loading it on the trailer:



Then when i was up the yard some more pictures before i gave it a clean:




Just hit 70,440.0 miles:

mmmmmmmm, what are these :

I jacked up the front, put it on axle stands and this was how the back sat before i put that up aswell:

Then all the shocks came off (which are now up for sale):

It's now left hovering with no suspension, and sheted up to protect from grindings with some awsome green blankets!:


Ohh and heres some pictures of my brothers saloon just after he sold it :'(












Cleaned the bonnet:

Rad out, rust behind:

Cheap mint gear gaitor:

New mudflaps x4:

Belmont i found down the road:



Some digging in the battery tray:



I wire wheeled inside all the arches, the d/s sill to boot section with more digging:





and this fell out (size of my fist...!):



p/s sill to boot section:



infront of the p/s arch on the sill:



what colour leather for my bonnet bra???????:

had a go at seeing how low i can get the back...




with lower profile tyres, strech and the arch lips turned up i recon i can still go another inch up into the arch!!!!

and as far as the pannel work is concerned, i have the wings, just need two sills, pair of rear arches and a battery tray! i'm going to get the sill to boot sections professionally done

[Calamity Josh]

For christmas my car presents have been a hella grille, i <3 my nova mug lol and this rare gamma model...



complete with sr steels! looking through the other opel models they did you can get tones of different ones including a silver early sr with plough and fogs, heres a website with some of the 90's models and i'm hunting trying to find a list of the earlier opel models they made: http://www.bulgariancollection.com/g...n_bulgaria.htm
brought a pair of the small sport mirrors... ebay-bargain!!!

some new euro rear lights-

out with the old-

in with the new-

Not sure on the new alloys, opinions??

exhaust off and some pictures underneath-


cleared some room in the workshop-

ENGINE OUT!!!-


Started cleaning the engine bay-

Also got some oem rubber mats-



thats all for now folks

[Calamity Josh]

Thanks for all the help with the adaptors guys, i'll have a look into them more,
did some more cleaning on the bay this weekend:




also brought a brand new mk1 bumper (mum wasn't happy about it in my wardrobe lol ):

Also brought a brand new grille, d/s floppy mirror base plate, p/s floppy mirror base plate, p/s blanking plate and floppy mirror rubber seals- in GM packaging

[Calamity Josh]

Thats the thread up to date with where things currently are, sorry for the rubbish picture quality in some bits, my phones rubbish
i've managed to buy a rollover jig for it now aswell, along with a pair of sills, rear arches, and a battery tray. also in the next couple of days i should be picking up another (crash damaged) late mk2 four door saloon and a set of 14" parelli p-slots...

[Bkwarros]

I have a 4 door, yours is very nice, I really like the color of the car!

[mcmuda]

The true meaning of "picture heavy"

This is one cool build..keep it up!

[Madhatter]

I must admit, as i was skimming through the threads, and i saw "nova" i was thinking of the old muscle car, but this was no disappointment, great work, and all this coming from a 16 year old? Im 15, and i have alot of ground to make up to do the work you do! great build man, anxious to see more.

[w201e34]

I must admit, as i was skimming through the threads, and i saw "nova" i was thinking of the old muscle car, but this was no disappointment, great work, and all this coming from a 16 year old? Im 15, and i have alot of ground to make up to do the work you do! great build man, anxious to see more.

dude you're only 15?? i didnt know that!

but what the hell i actually like this little thing, its friggin sweet!

[Modlendingen]

Nice work, and nice Nova