Hello All
I just bought a Nova, and have now joined your very friendly looking forum.
I think I had better relate the tale (rambling though it is), seeing as it culminated last week (began?) with one of the most stressful days I have had for many years... Take a deep breath, this post is way bigger than I intended...
Back when I was 20ish (25 years ago), I, like many others devoured "Alternative Cars" and "Kit Car" magazine every month as the possible means to my dream car. The first kit car I saw was in fact a black and white shot of a Nova from the three quarters rear view angle, and I immediately fell in love. My other dream car was a completely different proposition - a Triumph based Spartan 2+2 using the long wheelbase Spartan chassis. The latter I wanted because it is built largely from aluminium in the way that real vintage cars are.
The Nova was out of my reach; far too much money for me then (and besides, I knew I needed something at least a bit practical), but dodgy second hand Spartans could be bought for less than a grand and after a couple of years of searching and saving (amazing how much work you can pack in when you're young) I bought one and rebuilt it from the ground up over several years. I still run that car every day now and still love it (I consider it one of the best Triumph Spartans around - but then I would...).
But that hankering after a Nova has never gone away.... and this year I had to sell some company shares. The company I work for gave all its employees several hundred shares in the year 2000, with the caveat that they had to be sold by 2010. I sold them a couple of months ago and cleared just over five grand. Excellent - I could fix a load of things around the house, get that big HDMI telly me and the wife wanted, replace my aging PC and have some left over for emergencies (such as the leaking roof that I now have...). But, I just happened to be surfing e-bay one night and idly put in "Nova Kit Car"... Up came a MK1 with just the right wheels and ride height, and no apparent bodywork modifications (I prefer them stock/original). It read like a good runner too - very unusual as I now know after months of looking at/for Nova adverts.
After much heart thumping and thoughts like "no, I must be mad, I can't take on another project..." I confessed my continuing obsession to Alison (my wife) and surprisingly she was fairly positive on the subject - once she had seen the pictures anyway....
Most of you are likely to have seen it over the last few months - it's the dark blue one that was also advertised on Volkszone as well as E-bay. It was located in Stoke on Trent and myself and Alison travelled up from Eastbourne on a beautiful sunny day a few months ago. The owner was a very pleasant guy and gave us both rides in it, total access to examine the car, and answered as many questions as he was able to. The car looked great, albeit with a fairly average paint job, but the interior and many of the fitments are typical kit car - an unfinished mess with virtually no working instruments, although the owner has done a very good job with the carpets. Not surprisingly I loved it, but Alison was shocked by its unfinished nature (especially the 'graunching' squeeky steering wheel) and absolutely detested it. After much 'discussion' (and silence) on the way home 'we' decided that I would not go for it - at least not at the price advertised as "buy it now".
The car did not sell - not even a bidding war, and did not go on Volkszone either (I was watching). I looked in vain for another cheaper Nova (not a bodyshell - relatively loads of those around but I have neither the time nor money for a full project) and soon realised that good ones come up very rarely indeed (shame I missed Nova Nigel's and that Alfa based rebuild - I wasn't looking then). Those of you (Lauren/Spacenut) who have videos up on You Tube might have noticed the view count tick up recently - that's me (The T33 Green Machine sounds absolutely incredible by the way - Alfa power is the way to go).
From various posts on Volkszone I was aware that the blue one was having a newly rebuilt engine fitted and in the absence of other Novas to buy I convinced Alison that it was a good idea. She agreed - although part of the price was the new telly too.... Long story short - I bought it, for two grand more than I wanted to - because that's how much the engine had cost the owner. I definitely paid over the odds and I was/am taking a big chance - because the new engine comes with absolutely no guarantee and the builder is not answering my e-mails so far.
And so at last we come to Saturday the 21st of November - when myself and a good friend (and fellow Spartan owner) took the train up to Stoke to bring the car back. We had to go from Lewes (a nearby town) because of Engineering works. No problems getting there - 10/10 to National Rail/Virgin.
It's raining..... Okay..... Loaded the car up - very crowded with all the bits and bobs we are taking away (e.g. nearly but not quite finished interior parts for the canopy, engine cover - which currently doesn't fit because (annoyingly) bits have been cut out of the bodywork to get the twin dellortos to fit).
Down comes the canopy (hydraulic - Smith's pump) and at this point the first feelings of claustrophobia start to appear - largely because having had the owner adjust the side mirror for me I am realising just how little you can see behind you (left hand one is purely cosmetic) and just how much water stays around on the rather scratched perspex side windows - preventing you from seeing the mirror anyway.... Seat is a little too far back for me (even though I am five foot 11) but I can just reach the pedals, not ideal, but I can manage. Said pedals feel very weird - loads of free travel and all at the wrong angles because I am of course virtually lying down (I know you all know this already... sorry) Headroom is absolutely fine - this car has very deeply lowered floorpans.
Okay.... just a little apprehensive I ease it out of the driveway (yes, I stalled it a couple of times of course.....). First impression is seriously HEAVY steering with no self-return, and the wheel still squeeks.
Moving down the hill now having waved goodbye - towards a roundabout. Switch the wipers on.... the view disappears entirely as what remains of the wiper blade scrapes across the RainX and grime coated windscreen. There is no wiper blade! Just the remains of the plastic fixing with enough rubber left to not actually damage the glass.
Did I panic for this reason ? No - I panicked because at this point I discover there are apparently NO BRAKES ! There's about half a foot of movement on the pedal before I can feel anything, followed by some resistance but no apparent braking, followed by me pushing the pedal with all my might (and accidentally reving hard at the same time because the damn brake pedal is so close to the accelerator pedal) and just about stopping before we hit the roundabout.
I am sure my companion was highly reassured by my cry of "Sh*t! No brakes! Arggghhh!..... as we careered down the hill (well - probably only 25MPH really - but there's no speedo anyway).
Okay.... so we're in a city we don't know, in the rain in a car we can't see out of, with death trap brakes (I really don't think I exaggerate) and indicators located on a small switch in amongst some other small switches.... :-) We pulled over, cleaned the windscreen as best we could, followed the owner's perfectly well described instructions and got lost anyway, asked a kindly passer by or two and after several more utterly fear-filled encounters with the requirement to brake did manage to find our way out onto the motorway.
At this point I started to relax just a little because at over 30MPH the Nova's well known party trick started to work - the rain was running off the windscreen without the need to use the useless windscreen wiper. Not that we were going fast - we estimate between 40and 50MPH because the engine is essentially brand new and needs running in. Once you can actully see properly, the view over the bonet is excellent of course.
Getting through the toll booths at the Birmingham bypass was fun - too low to get the money up there without releasing the four point harness, climbing up, climbing down, driving through and then making the poor guy behind wait whilst I struggled back into the harness and lowered the canopy.
The car was running OK - lots of spitting back from the carbs - will have to sort that out before the filters are chewed up - but running fine, for an hour and a half; after which we suddently lost power dramatically and found the car struggling to climb even mild inclines. It was time to eat anyway so we pulled into the next Services thinking perhaps it was overheating (no temperature gauge connected up either). Our first encounter with a speed bump revealed that the extra scoop under the front valence (there is an unplumbed radiator there - the previous owner started the process of going water cooled) is uncompromisingly low - scrape, graunch, phew.... and after another "oh my God - no brakes" moment managed to park up and go eat. My ever relaxed friend ate a hearty meal whilst I stared glumly at my apparently tasteless Chilli Con Carne and thought along the lines of "oh my God, what have I done?...". The enormously impressed guy admiring the car when we got back lifted my spirits just a little and we pressed on - power was apparently back but very shortly afterwards went back to just barely ticking over. We pressed on - we didn't want to be driving it in the dark and rain.
The rain stopped for a while.... huzzah.... Eventually we have to get petrol - loads of speed bumps at this Services - scrape, graunch, bump, scrape, uh oh - there's a Cop behind me - hope he can't see I am barely in control of the car! Petrol has to be "eased" into the tank, but OK, will get used to that or find the solution some day. Will also sort out a way of holding up the louvres whilst doing so. Crowds of people stop and stare.....
This is taking a LONG time (so is this post...) - the journey from Stoke to Eastbourne should be four and a half hours at normal speeds, but we've been crawling along for six or seven hours at least and the night is closing in as we go round the M25. The rain now sets in hard and joy of joys, the bl@@dy lights are less than useless - we might as well shine torches through the windscreen. Have also now discovered that the ultra-raked Nova windscreen means the sodium lights shine and reflect/refract straight through all the rain droplets causing momentary blindness when directly underneath them.
We had left my companion's car in Lewes - a medieval town with lots of narrow streets and it's rush hour... and now a yellow light is flashing on and off on the dashboard. That was scary.... but we made it through with my friend doing the navigation/thinking for me and whilst I wait for him to get his car (the speed hump by the carpark is too big to get the Nova over - we noticed that when we left the car in the morning) I text/phone the owner to find out what the yellow light is - yes I know I should have asked that one before we left! No answer yet. I'm parked outside the front of the train station so I hear many comments; many crude and along the lines of "Jesus '*******' Christ man, that is seriously '*******' hardcore...." which makes me feel slightly better.
It is now pitch dark, there is a full scale howling storm on and there are pretty much no overhead lights between Lewes and Eastbourne so the only way to get it back is to follow my companion's car as closely as I dare so I can hang on to his tail lights - I really cannot see anything else at all now. Very dangerous, very stupid. About halfway there the car finally dies altogether - on comes the yellow light permanently along with all the ignition lights and off goes the engine. There's a lay-by ! Pull in - oh, bugg*r, it's not a lay-by, it's a turning, can't brake - CRUNCH!; there goes the underscoop as it hits the kerb on the other side. Switch everything off..... silence apart from the drumming rain and traffic........Feeling just a bit depressed now.... The owner phones and tells me the yellow light is oil pressure...
My friend returns shortly afterwards and we decide that actually, we don't really fancy looking at the problem in the pitch black cats-and-dogs pouring rain and gale force winds, so we phone the nice RAC man. There is a huge lit up sign proclaiming "Middle Farm" right ahead of the car (it is a well known local farm shop's entranceway) which I use as a landmark for the RAC guy to find us. A few minutes later the sign goes out with a fzztt... This did actually make us laugh out loud.
I'm thinking depressing "blown engine" type thoughts but my ever positive friend points out that there have been absolutely no other untoward noises, just the power loss; it sounds fine when it goes. Both of us felt very stupid when the entirely unphased RAC man turns up an hour later (he didn't even mention the unusual nature of the car) and shines his torch on the coil - which has dropped off the tinware and fallen into the engine bay, causing the power loss and eventual failure when the wires finally came off. One gash bracket later (it won't tighten back onto the tinware), a little scratching of heads and voltmeter use to work out which wires are which (one seems to be redundant...) and the car starts and runs perfectly. By the way - any advice on the best place to put the coil on a Beetle engined Nova gratefully accepted since I have not sorted that out permanently yet.
The rest of the way home was still exceptionally scary - I continued following the tail lights to get there with no windscreen wiper or apparent lights, but we did make it without further incident - albeit smacking several more speed bumps that I couldn't see in time. I parked it up at a friend's place - I don't have a second garage to put it in yet.
Oh, an addendum - overnight one of the headlamp covers blew off and was found in the garden next door...... Such is life - at least it didn't come off on the way down.
I did not, by the way, relate too many details of that excessively stressful and indeed heroic day to my lovely wife, who is very keen for this car not to be "another project". Oh dear.
Yes, yes, yes, but do I have anything positive to say about it ? you ask...
Well - it doesn't leak. Not one drop, and it hasn't stopped raining here for weeks (the car will go in a garage eventually, but not yet sadly). This has to be unique among kit cars..... and RainX is definitely good stuff - no problem with the interior misting up despite the heat exchangers not being plumbed in.
It's a Nova, and I've wanted one for over half my life, so how can I not still love it ? Plus it has (largely) not been mucked about with body wise, I like the Nova shape exactly as Richard Oakes left it - just my personal preference, I have no problem with any of the wild and whacky mod's that people have made to their cars, but this one is staying stock bar the interior and wing mirrors.
However the car is not moving one more damn inch until I have sorted out the following:
Brakes: Please tell me it isn't just that Beetle brakes are really seriously rubbish; the brakes on my 1964 Spitfire based Spartan are like a Ferrari's by comparison... Currently fitted (Nova) are disks at the front and drums at the rear - all a good size so I see no reason for them not to work perfectly adequately. Handbrake feels tight but fairly useless - you can tighten up worn out or glazed brakes.
Steering - stupidly heavy at the moment, especially for a car with no weight at the front, and there's that annoying squeek to look at - basically it steers exactly like a Go-cart right now.
Pedals - they just feel all wrong; I press both the accelerator and brake at the same time constantly - and sincerely hope something can be done about that. There are elastic bands all over the pedals and the throttle linkages, presumably to speed up return and so prevent overrun.... gulp...
BIG wing mirrors - there were some really good looking ones on a Silver Nova with BMW 3 Series Headlamps mentioned in another thread - must see if I can find out what those were. I do like the look of the chrome bullet ones on there now, but practically speaking they are useless.
Rear view camera - much research required, but surprisingly not anywhere near as expensive as I thought.
Quick release pins on the canopy arms - I'm a glass half empty type so I want to feel safe when that canopy is down. There is a glass sunroof on this car, but I suspect it has been sealed permanently - I have not had a chance to check yet since it will not stop raining.
Ignition barrel switch to be replaced - right now there is a hole and an old socket held in place by gaffer tape to prevent the steering lock from suddenly activating.... very worrying....
New headlamps - either the BMW solution mentioned above or projector lamps I think - again twins if they will fit. I would rather fit oblong lamps (Allegro/Metro mentioned in another thread) since I do think they look much better, but the quality of light output must come first.
The now damaged under-scoop (not as bad as I thought - mainly the grille smashed in) is not actually necessary and will have to be removed to aid ground clearance.
Fit remote air filters to the Dellortos so that I can re-glass in the missing bits of bodywork and hopefully put the original cover back on to at least keep some of the rain off the engine.
Then there's all the stuff that I THOUGHT was all I had to do when I bought it - basically tart up the interior and add some nice instruments. I fancy something vaguely Space 1999 / 2001 (i.e. retro-futuristic), but suspect finding and fitting said instruments/senders will be problematic.
And finally there's the really expensive stuff - ideally glass to replace all the perspex bar the headlamp covers, a quieter stainless steel exhaust and a better gearbox some time (suspect what's in there is from a 1300, which is not ideal).
I am told that a load of work has been done on the chassis, but I will not truly know how good or bad it is until I can get under there; obviously I am hoping that the news will not be too bad. I did read a slightly worrying post yesterday from a previous owner who said they knew what needed doing though.....
And that's it. So do I get the record for the most ridiculously long first post ever ?
If anyone is interested I will post some pictures when my PC is back up and running (as is normal whenever anything expensive is purchased, pretty much eveything has gone wrong since I bought this car - and the internet filter at my workplace prevents me uploading pictures), but in the meantime thanks for reading, and I look forward to badgering you all on various issues. I do promise to try and find the answers on the forum first though.
Regards from
Vasco Da Gamer (Steve)