I haven't been working much on the Nova until recently. I was going to sell it to help finance a property purchase, but that fell through (and I'm actually kind of happy because I really like the car and I also like the acreage I live in now).
One thing that really (Really!) bugged me was the setup I had on the front end. I wanted to use an aftermarket a-arm setup to gain a bunch of caster in the car (amongst other things). Previously I've used thin wall chrome moly a-arms, but they always made me nervous on a street-strip car. As a result, I went with Detroit Speed components on this Nova. They're very nice pieces. Unfortunately, the mix of hardware I had just didn't work. In order to use unmodified Detroit Speed lowers in conjunction with AFCO double adjustable shocks I had to use one of those tapered coil over springs. To make it all work, Detroit Speed suggested I set the spring on the coil over seat and stuff it up in the car. Then I was supposed to position the lower a-arm up over the shock and fasten it from the bottom. Well that turned into a real Gong Show. Here's what it looked like assembled:
Because of the design the front end really didn't have great travel. This is what the spring looks like out of the car:
So I ripped it apart again (story of my life..."no job is worth doing unless you do it twice"...L-O-L). I ground out the centre of the lower a-arms and fit a set of the AFCO shock weld rings. Here's a before photo:
Once I fit the weld rings, I had a local shop (Fisher Fabrication) weld them up (Thanks Kory you did a great job!):
Springs were next. I called Rineharts Performance (
https://rinehartsperformance.com) and Marty helped me out with spring selection. As many of you know, they're a full service Santhuff dealer and Santhuff happens to offer a wide range of springs applicable to cars like mine (and yours too!). I'm waiting for the springs to arrive and then I'll button the front end back up. Marty also advised me that if I need the shocks re-valved, they can help by converting them internally to Santhuff pieces. Very interesting and definitely food for thought. We'll see how it works down the road.
Additionally, I mocked up the engine in the car. I'll show some of that down the road, but I sure did find out a lot of things (good and bad...L-O-L!).