Mostin's Nova

[CyCo]

Cyco, you mean you Rad is now underneath the new fibreglass floor ?

Certainly is. If you look on t he right side of the photo you can make out a ridge in the fiberglass. That corresponds to the photo above that, where the copper pipe comes from the top of the radiator and heads down the side.

This had an interesting effect. It created a positive airflow under the car, where the air now passed through the side pods with enough force to push out the ash trays installed by a prior owner. I'm planning on reinstalling vents in the 'glove boxes' on each side to take advantage of that air flow.

[Alzax3]

Mine did that in standard form when I first bought it - the side-pockets weren't screwed in and I had to wedge them in place with various uffage to stop them leaping into the car...... Front end of side-pods in the wheel arches are now all glassed in so it wouldn't happen now!

[Mostin]

Hi all.

Well here's an update as to how things have been going.

The Nova body was removed so i could work on the floor pan & as seen by so many that have gone before me a nice bit of rust with it.


With the pan stripped of parts all of the paint was removed back to bare metal. Which is where the welding started. The main part was to replace the bottom of the head frame due to a couple of holes.......This was a patern part but with a little hammering as it was fitted came out well.



Abit more stripping & welding.........


2 coats of red oxide & 3 coats of black hammerite top & bottom......


After sand blasting the front end & all of the smaller parts & a lick of paint i've now gone from this.....


To this..

You can also see the coil over shocks which is a Red9 Kit.


To add to the above I have also added a Red9 coil over kit on the back end. This is for a swing axle which they do but they don't show it on their web site.

Thanks.
Mostin

[Mostin]

I've just been down to add the Red9 backend Pic....



Cheers
Mostin

[Spacenut]

That's very nice work

What spring rates did you go for in the end?

I continue to be impressed by the quality of Red9 stuff.

Looking forward to seeing more updates - this is going to be a very nice car when its done

Lauren

[Peter]

I was always told that the chassis's cast ‘horns' for the rear damper top mountings wouldn’t take the weight of the car with coil overs, I guess RED9 prove that to be wrong. Looks great.

[Spacenut]

I was always told that the chassis's cast ‘horns' for the rear damper top mountings wouldn’t take the weight of the car with coil overs, I guess RED9 prove that to be wrong. Looks great.

I heard that too, but at least the Nova is a third of a ton lighter than the Beetle donor, which has got to help. The biggest danger is the shock loads, and this will depend a lot on the total weight of the car, suspension travel, spring rates and damper settings. Of course, if you replaced the shocks with solid bars, you would snap the horns off even if you still had torsion bars, so I can't see how coil overs make any difference.

Lauren

[NovaF4]

Hi Mostin. Nice work. I've got the same Red9 set up on the back of my Nova but I couldn't help but notice that the bottom of your coil overs look like they are completely accessible to adjust without any chassis retainer getting in the way. I'm curious to understand more about that and if I'm right, because on mine they locate/bolt into these ridiculous cover plate things which cover up the entire adjusting section which means that to adjust them I need to take them off. Taking them off means dismantling my torque bars. The whole thing is daft and I wanted to do something about it. I can't go through all that each time and of course the initial setting up will involved doing it many times to get the setting just right. I have IRS. Do you? Maybe someone reading this can explain why my set up has got these things and yours doesn't. And, importantly what I can do it. I basically need to cut them off and have a new unique something made and welded on so that the coil overs can still bolt securely but at the same time leave the whole adjuster part completely open to adjust.

Maybe you could be so kind as to provide a close up photo of the bottom of your coil over fixing points?

Cheers,
Giles.

[Mostin]

Hi all.

Thanks for the words of surport

Hi Spacenut I've got everything standard at the moment but I'm looking at changing the front coils for softer ones while i've got the body off. I've read your other postings & it looks like I'll be ordering 110lbs coils for the front.

As for the cast horns not taking the weight? The only thing I can say is I'll let you know if the back end comes apart but in the world of building all kit cars it could be some time

Joking apart Red9 has sold a few of these backends now & they've not said anyone has had a problem or anything needs to be done to beef things up. It goes with out saying I won't be doing any rally driving in the Nova but I'll keep you posted.

NovaF4:- I've got a swing alxe so that could be why i've got less "gubbins" around the bottom of the coil overs. I'll take some more pics & post them up for you.

Cheers all.
Mostin.

[CyCo]

Those front coil overs look a treat!! Like them muchly! I may go down that route myself, maybe. Want to find something to get rack & pinion eventually too at some stage.