General Information
Most of you already know the story of my car. It was my Dad's first 'vette, and I bought it from him with my Iraqi Freedom money, yada yada yada.
This isn't about THAT car.
In the early spring of 1997, as the bus dropped me off at my house in the afternoon, I noticed a brown 1972 four-door Nova sitting in the driveway. It had 28,000 ORIGINAL miles on it and the paint was burnt from sitting outside for so long but I was in love. I told Dad that it was beautiful and that I didn't care about the paint or the fact that it was a four-door, I loved it.
That's when Dad informed me that it wasn't mine, I felt foolish for assuming it was but naturally when a 17 year-old kid comes home to an old car in the drive-way, it seemed like it was a given. It turns out my Uncle had bought the car through my Dad, Dad was just a middle man. I was very disappointed but I got over it pretty easily.
Two weeks later I was sitting at home after school doing my homework like every good boy (no, not really, I was slam-dancing to metal) when Dad came home with a grin on his face. I asked him what was up and he told me to get in the car (his '71 elCamino with a solid lifter 454 and 4.11 gears). He then took me outside of town about four miles and turned onto a dirt road, I figured we were going to check out something cool he had found while at work but instead he pulled up into a driveway, a driveway that had a cream-colored four-door Nova sitting in it. The old man that owned it had bought it off an old lady who's husband had passed recently, and she no longer drove, he said that he didn't need the car and was willing to sell for $2200, I checked it out and it was cherry, the only difference between then and when it came out of the factory was age and a set of seat covers. The old man insisted that we go down to the court house and exchange ownership right then so we did, when we came back, the old man handed me the keys and told me to take car of her. I told him that I would and he said that he hoped so because that odometer was 100% correct, I looked at it and it said 38,020. My eyes about jumped out of my head. I drove my '74 home slowly making sure to check that everything including the air conditioning worked.
I drove it everywhere, in about six months I had put another 20k on it. Needless to say, the old 350 2bbl was tired so we began putting together another 350. After we installed the new engine I got back to driving it again and loved every minute, I delivered many pizzas in that car and was able to haul around all my buddies with no problem. In 2000 I left for the Navy, little did I know that Dad had begun working on it.
A couple years later I actually got to see the car again. I was stunned, it was the perfect color, and the perfect vision that I had for it. It still ran, but not like it used to time had taken it's toll on the engine.
I got home from the Navy in November of 2006, and began working on her to get her back up and running again. After checking everything three or four times I hit the key...nothing...I hit the key again and it didn't fire. Instead I heard water running. Six years earlier when we built the engine we had installed steel freeze plugs, after replacing the freeze plugs and head gaskets, she was back on the road! It was awesome. The Nova is the first car that I actually "loved" and being back in it was great even though it was a 15 second car.
On June 2, 2007 I was on my way to work, when a guy in a pick-up jumped over in my lane suddenly and hit the guy in front of me, I had been working on the four wheel drums and had them operating in top condition but they just weren't good enough. It was a terrible day, but no one was hurt except my baby, but she's rebuildable, and she will be rebuilt. Until then the 'vette has to get me around. I can't wait to get the Nova back on the road with a warmed over 350, 700-R4 and the stock 2.73 rear-end she ought to be one serious highway cruiser.
This isn't about THAT car.
In the early spring of 1997, as the bus dropped me off at my house in the afternoon, I noticed a brown 1972 four-door Nova sitting in the driveway. It had 28,000 ORIGINAL miles on it and the paint was burnt from sitting outside for so long but I was in love. I told Dad that it was beautiful and that I didn't care about the paint or the fact that it was a four-door, I loved it.
That's when Dad informed me that it wasn't mine, I felt foolish for assuming it was but naturally when a 17 year-old kid comes home to an old car in the drive-way, it seemed like it was a given. It turns out my Uncle had bought the car through my Dad, Dad was just a middle man. I was very disappointed but I got over it pretty easily.
Two weeks later I was sitting at home after school doing my homework like every good boy (no, not really, I was slam-dancing to metal) when Dad came home with a grin on his face. I asked him what was up and he told me to get in the car (his '71 elCamino with a solid lifter 454 and 4.11 gears). He then took me outside of town about four miles and turned onto a dirt road, I figured we were going to check out something cool he had found while at work but instead he pulled up into a driveway, a driveway that had a cream-colored four-door Nova sitting in it. The old man that owned it had bought it off an old lady who's husband had passed recently, and she no longer drove, he said that he didn't need the car and was willing to sell for $2200, I checked it out and it was cherry, the only difference between then and when it came out of the factory was age and a set of seat covers. The old man insisted that we go down to the court house and exchange ownership right then so we did, when we came back, the old man handed me the keys and told me to take car of her. I told him that I would and he said that he hoped so because that odometer was 100% correct, I looked at it and it said 38,020. My eyes about jumped out of my head. I drove my '74 home slowly making sure to check that everything including the air conditioning worked.
I drove it everywhere, in about six months I had put another 20k on it. Needless to say, the old 350 2bbl was tired so we began putting together another 350. After we installed the new engine I got back to driving it again and loved every minute, I delivered many pizzas in that car and was able to haul around all my buddies with no problem. In 2000 I left for the Navy, little did I know that Dad had begun working on it.
A couple years later I actually got to see the car again. I was stunned, it was the perfect color, and the perfect vision that I had for it. It still ran, but not like it used to time had taken it's toll on the engine.
I got home from the Navy in November of 2006, and began working on her to get her back up and running again. After checking everything three or four times I hit the key...nothing...I hit the key again and it didn't fire. Instead I heard water running. Six years earlier when we built the engine we had installed steel freeze plugs, after replacing the freeze plugs and head gaskets, she was back on the road! It was awesome. The Nova is the first car that I actually "loved" and being back in it was great even though it was a 15 second car.
On June 2, 2007 I was on my way to work, when a guy in a pick-up jumped over in my lane suddenly and hit the guy in front of me, I had been working on the four wheel drums and had them operating in top condition but they just weren't good enough. It was a terrible day, but no one was hurt except my baby, but she's rebuildable, and she will be rebuilt. Until then the 'vette has to get me around. I can't wait to get the Nova back on the road with a warmed over 350, 700-R4 and the stock 2.73 rear-end she ought to be one serious highway cruiser.
