Introduction

My wife and I purchased this 1967 Nova SS in December of last year (2011) from a guy in Florida.  He was selling it because he was getting divorced.  He spent 3 years fixing it up and the car had about 3,500 miles on it when he sold it to us.  Although it's not a "true" SS, the previous owner did a great job of rounding up all the correct trim, emblems, etc. with the exception of the trunk molding, which we plan on adding.  If it keeps the purists happy, we're not molesting a "true" SS.  Just building our modern day interpretation.

The previous owner said he had spend $35,000 alone at the body shop. They replaced every single body panel on the car.  The car had an LS1 in it from an '04 Corvette (dyno-tuned to 380 hp), a Keisler 5-speed conversion TKO 500 transmission, a TCI coil-spring front end with 10 1/2" disc brakes, and a 12-bolt rear end with 10" disc brakes.  The wheels were 17" Vintage Wheel Works V40's (17x8 in the front, 17x9 in the back) with Sumitomo tires HTR+ tires (225/45ZR17 in the front, 255/45ZR17 in the back).  

The interior was pretty much stock-looking SS trim.  There was a Hurst shifter and a set of Phantom gauges with carbon fiber bezel.  

I drove the car a couple of times and took it to one cruise night.  People flocked to this car, just like the previous owner said they would.  

After driving it a couple of times, I discovered that I really didn't like the way the car rode and the front end rattled and squeaked.  Sounded like an old Econoline van.  It was actually a little scary to drive because it felt like it was going to come apart.  So that's when we decided to start planning on some upgrades...which, of course, led to pretty much redoing the whole car.  


Soooo here we are...let the fun begin!