More from last weekend.

The lower sail panel after a few more tack welds.

This is a dark shot but if gives some idea about the new door gap fitment. the area near the side moulding needs to be reworked and set in some more.

Down low shot of the new trunk to fender gap and the new tail light section. It has been welded from the back on the pinched tabs.

The tail light and quarter weather strip section with the lower part temporarily screwed to the lower trunk lip.

Work that will be done in the future. We have the left and right sides of the new floor now.

Work from last weekend.

Did some fitting to the rear quarter. I think I am going to fill in all the seams on the car at the body panel joints just to smooth things out. After many hours of work and rework I am finally getting some where. It will by no way be perfect but it will look good.








Top left is the lower corner for the rear glass. The tacked edge in the middle is one of the seams I am smoothing out. Lots of slow work.












This one is a little bright. I took this approach on attaching under the sail panel from a fellow member on Steve's nova site forum. He did this on his two door. I cut the top edge off the quarter and welded it to the car the fitted it all together.










On a two door you get a door jamb to work with. I have a four door so I do not get that luxury.
I have no prior body work knowledge and I could not find any reference photos of doing a four door quarter. I fitted the quarter as close as I could then I cut the door jamb section out and started fitting to the quarter. Originally the Jamb was creating a large gap at the lower door area. I could not get it to go back. I took about 1/8th out of the inside jam and it moved the gap back closer to where it should be.

Inside of the top trunk weather strip lip. It came together better than I thought it would.

Some late updates on the Nova

The rear quarter when we got it to the shop. Looks like it had been repaired before this last incident.

The ability to see the floor in the shop was a scary time. When a car in in the weeds for years this is expected. I will have to take lots of measurements to make the front suspension body brace located correctly after cutting and installing the new floor pans.

The gas tank is under the trunk so when looking at the car in the field I thought there is a little rust neat the back. We opened it up and dropped the tank. The old green shag carpet was holding the floor together. After making the cuts for the new quarter and trunk pan, Riley went in to investigate. We will have to replace the tail light panel also. next are some of the new quarter pictures.

Visualizing the many hours of work ahead. I had no idea.

The Boys

The oldest is Riley. He is in to everything that I do. He just likes what I like. If it has wheels and a motor he is mesmerized. Here is a pic of Riley clowning at the Kart race at Oak Hill Raceway near Henderson, TX. and one of him in his first Kart ride with Papaw James giving instruction at MSR Houston. We hope one day we can get him there more often to see if he has any talent. Riley in front of the 07 Civic SI sedan new 30" mud tires for the ATV just came in.

Tucker is the baby. He likes to give bear hugs and look for papa bear. More on that later. He also has the shortest fuse and he is tough. He gets banged up and it never slows him down. He loves to go fast. He loves trains (Thomas), lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners and any thing Riley has in his hands at the time.

The 1963 Nova project.

After seeing this 63 ChevyII sitting in a yard for a few years I decided to make an offer on it. I know it is a four door but it was affordable and I was looking for a project the kids could fit in comfortably. We picked it up on 1/19/08

I have had many ideas in my head on this one. Every thing from a low rider, G machine, Stock original, no way! Well not all is up to me as James has some ideas for this one also. I have the new floor pan sections and the left rear full quarter to replace along with the trunk pan. The floors will be the easy part as there is only about 12" in the far frontal area to do. The rear quarter is going to be a pain. The only new part is for a two door and I will have to make it fit my four door. The best part is I am not a body man and I am learning and doing tons of research on the web. Thanks to stevesnovasite.com for information and inspiration and Ground Up Restoration for the sheet metal.