Forgot to update this, have done a few bits and pieces over the last few days.

I started stitch welding by running 3 welds and then welded in the rear strut brace. Started cleaning the crap out of the inside and cleaning the seam sealer from the roof etc

Engine bay





Crossmember strengthening




Powerflex ARB polybushes



Welded in rear strut brace



Boot floor




The pond



The mess that is the interior



Did some work again on the Nova which consisted of more than just standing around smoking and looking at stuff.

Removed steering column, pedals etc




Found some rust which I knew about but I didn't know the full extent of the damage due to fibreglass lol. Easily sorted though.




Removed the suspension from both sides.



Stripped everything from the engine bay bar the fuel lines etc which are still to be removed from under the car and the tank.





Suspension with Powerflex bushes and hubs




Started cleaning one of the hubs up.




Finished stitch welding the passenger rear turret which also included some small fires to make things interesting. Will primer it up when I actually get some.

:cool:

Vandalism happened at my mates shed a year or so ago, we were up finishing off some welding and getting it ready to go to paint and then came back the day after and it looked like that.

i prefer the mk1 prefacelifts grill

Thats the problem with novas, arseholes thinking they are shit cars and vandalising them, I remember I saw some dickhead throwing a nearly full bottle of juice at mine, so repeatedly hit the cap end off his face (because its harder), the idiot never saw me a few metres behind him and his mate ran away :boggle::lol:

Rat look :o

Was done about a year ago when my mate owned it, we had finished all the welding etc and was ready to go to paint then came up to the shed the next day and it looked like that although was worse.

ffs, im guessing it gets worse before it gets better?

quote:

---

Originally posted by davieslim
wtf happened to it?

---

Now thats what you call a minter :)

wtf happened to it?

Got the Nova back to my shed tonight, looks a lot worse than I remembered, it was previously vandalised and I never noticed the cock on the rear quarter. It definitely got some interesting looks on the back of the recovery truck lol

First job is to clean all the crap off it so its at least clean to work on then start the tedious job of removing underseal and sorting a few bits and pieces of welding, the shell will then be completely stitch welded.










Quality of the picture's isn't fantastic as I'm crap with a camera and it was dark.

This should be a good read soon :)

Looking forward to it :cool:

Here is my new car, it is a 1987 Merit. It has 47,000 miles from new but has been off the road for about 2 years. It was my friends car but he has since got a new Nova so this one was going spare!

The car is being built to compete in the Scottish sprint & hillclimb championships therefore will have a 1600 16v engine so needs to be light, handle well and accelerate quickly which will partly be down to the final drive I'm going for.

Currently has a welded in cage, seam welded engine bay and that's about it!

First off is to clean the shell right down underneath to bare metal and stitch weld the whole shell for strength then get it painted underneath and the inner arches etc.

I have a colour roughly picked for when it gets painted and also a bodyshop lined up to paint it too, have decided not to sort out a date as i dont want to have a deadline to meet especially when the work beforehand is so time consuming (scrapping underseal off and welding)

Here's how it looked before coming off the road








Here's how the car looks at present






Some bits and pieces i've collected so far

Cavalier GSi brakes



Cavalier internal gear shift



FIA battery cut off switch



Compbrake bias pedal box



Also ordered Goodridge hose and fittings for brake and fuel lines to be run inside the car.