Thanks! Not much has happened in quite awhile. The owner has been busy with work, and I was first busy with my engine rebuild, and now a complete kitchen remodel. Hope to get back to normal in a few weeks when the kitchen gets done!

 

Long time since we've done anything to my neighbor's Nova, but we finally got some time today! He got a stock Chevy points distributor to replace the questionable Mallory dual point, so we dropped it in today, and checked spark. Looked great, but the stock distributor cap wouldn't quite clear the tunnel ram, so had to grind off a lot of material around the window to get a bit of clearance for setting the timing. After clearancing it, I dropped it in, and we gave it a shot of gas down the carb. It fired right off, and after a brief warm up, it ran like a Swiss watch! Man that engine is smooth, and revs nicely too!
Still have wiring issues, but I had wired in a 80a. relay, and an auxiliary fuse block the last time we messed with it, so began to wire up things like the wipers, line lock, and blower motor to the new fuse panel, and installed toggle switches to operate all three items. He needs to cut out all the junk wiring, clean the rest up, and reinstall the carpets, seats, and shifter. Then we can bleed the brake system, and it's ready for a test run!
He might even get it to one of the local cruises before the season ends, and see the reaction from the crowd there.

 

Been awhile since I've added anything to the Nova build for my buddy's car. We decided today was the day to finish it up enough for a test drive. Needed fluids filled, and brakes bled, and turned out a clutch adjustment too. We tried a couple times to bleed the brakes, but couldn't get a pedal up. I finally looked in the master with the lid off and saw only the front reservoir had any signs of fluid movement. I guessed the rebuilt master, or the power booster was bad. Pulled the master to try another bench bleed, and noticed the booster operating rod was very short! Checked it against the hole in the master, and it was 1.25" short of bottoming out! I turned out a short filler plug for the master on my lathe, and dropped it in with some grease to hold it. Reassembled the master and bled the brakes, and all was good!
We started to test the clutch in 1st and reverse, and when he pushed the clutch to the floor I could hear the clutch disc hitting the fingers on the pressure plate. A quick adjustment to keep it from hitting before it stopped at the floor, and all was good. We did a few back and forths in the driveway, and then took it for a spin around the neighborhood. Drives beautiful for the short trip, and a wonderful ride, that seems plush compared to his short wheelbase '48 Austin! The 4 wheel disc brakes stop fantastic! We made a list of a few small needs, like adjusting the E brake, the stop light switch, and an issue with his electric cutouts that's probably a fuse or something simple.
It's great to see it actually out in the street where we could really take it all in from farther back! Wish I had my camera with me, so I could have gotten some pictures from farther back. It has a great stance, and really has a lot going on when you take it all in from different angles. Hopefully we'll have some decent weather over the fall and winter, so he can take it out a bit and enjoy it!