Nova News - Tidying Up

[phil_lihp]

I seem to have done something a bit silly. This morning I was having a quick skim through some eBay items as usual. This evening I have committed to buying one of them and it's being delivered on Sunday. Still not quite sure how it happened.

 

It's a povo-spec 5dr 1988 Vauxhall Nova 1.2 Merit in glorious Blotchy Pink . It has been off the road for an unknown number of years, has no Mot and a rotten battery tray. Coupled with a brown interior, it seems to be classic shite.

 

On the plus side, it runs and drives well (or so I am told), the seller seems genuine enough and it was fairly cheap. I'm aiming to learn the mechanical skills I have always wished I had so not too worried if it turns out to be too far gone but fingers crossed it'll be ok. A friend of mine had a very similar one of these many years back and I always liked it, rock solid mechanicals but the rust killed it in the end.

 

Anyone got any experience living with these things?

[Micrashed]

I wish I was brave* enough to do things like this.

 

Well done.

[Craig the Princess]

Pics or it never happened

 

Good luck with the Nova, I'm jealious.

[phil_lihp]

Can't get pics yet but will stick some up when it arrives

[dollywobbler]

No pics on the Ebay ad that can be 'borrowed' or have you REALLY bid blind?

 

Second car I ever drove was a Nova 1.2 Merit (four door saloon!). They're not bad little things really, but the rear suspension mounts rot out for fun I believe. I'd check that out before doing any work on it!

[Morgan84]

I have a rust free 92 Luxe model,and its not a bad little motor at all;not too bad to drive,and pretty good on fuel,but them little Nova's did feed many tinworms ! A pretty user friendly little motor,and should be quite straight forward to look after

[jakebullet]

Saloon or the freaky 5 door hatch?

[Cavcraft]

5 door will be a hatch. I (obviously) cannot wait to see this and learn more about it.

[phil_lihp]

It's the freaky one

 

Got the pics, couldn't do it on the tablet I was using...

 

 

 

Looks a relatively tidy little thing and I am told the floors are rock solid. We'll see!

 

Apparently it had been on ebay several times with every winner failing to even make contact, this was the last attempt to sell it before it got weighed in so I feel like I did something good, even if I can only take the seller's word they'd have put it over the bridge.

[Morgan84]

Whats freaky about the 5 door hatch ? The 2 door saloon looked a bit oddball,but then again they still sold quite a few

[Morgan84]

It's the freaky one

 

Got the pics, couldn't do it on the tablet I was using...

 

 

 

Looks a relatively tidy little thing and I am told the floors are rock solid. We'll see!

 

With a proper T-Cut and wax polish,and some bumper dressing on it ( dont you dare back to black it ),thats going to come up a lovely little example;looks like you might have done ok with this one

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Looks good bar the door rot. Look forward to seeing more once you get it.

[messerschmitt owner]

an old giffer in the next street has one of the two door saloons in faded pink...

 

he also has a Viva too in rust and faded pink...

[idiotboy]

My Dad used to have a 1983 Nova 1.2 Swing in Silver and he loved it.

 

I don't think it ever let him down either and he did some serious miles in it. Nova's used to get nicked a lot as I think they were easy to steal.

 

Good motors though.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I admired this a few times, looks a great buy for 200 notes

[Split_Pin]

Cracking little motor this. Seems the 5 drs are the only ones yet to be barried by the Redtop dickwads.

 

Totally can't go wrong with this mechanically. One of my mates had an identical saloon version to this E576WJA, totally standard, everyone loved it.

 

As said, just watch for tinworm. These can rot in places unseen like a good 'un.

[Cavcraft]

It looks pretty MEGA to me and the rear arches look straight and rot free which is a bit of a result.

 

15/7, no room for improvement.

[phil_lihp]

That's a pretty resounding thumbs up so my confidence is high. This'll probably end up carting a surfboard around on odd weekends if it ever makes it back to the road, I was impressed by the bodywork in the photos bar the scabby door, will have to wait and see if it's really that good though. Battery tray is certainly holed but they all go there. No plans for much in the way of mods yet, nice to see an original one.

[Split_Pin]

Definitely space for a standard one, so many are modified now!

 

Would I be wrong in saying that these had the same chassis as a Corsa B???

 

Just thinking about repair panels as I know Hadrian do them for the Corsa (I bought a replacement front crossmember for mine)

[Morgan84]

Yes,its a sad thing when so many nice genuine examples have been transformed from pure original examples to yet another modified pile of crap

[phil_lihp]

Well at just gone midday today a nice chap turned up with a Shogun towing a trailer. My Nova is here

 

He was a friendly, genuine chap and the car was exactly as described. He bought it five years ago to turn into a grass track racer but never got around to it. Remarkably, considering its condition, it's actually been sat in a field since 2007 (last tax disc still in the window). Unloading it off the trailer was mildly amusing, seeing as the battery was knackered we rolled it off the trailer before jump starting it but the brakes were partly seized so it needed a push down the ramps, gravity alone not being enough .

 

One booster pack attached and it started instantly with just a bit of choke and settled instantly into a quiet, smooth idle. Frankly, I was astonished, particularly when he told me he has done nothing to it whatsoever since retrieving it from the field, so it was running on old plugs and stale 5 year old petrol. The engine seems in rude health (only 62,000 miles) so hopefully will be fine with a good service.

 

I spent the afternoon giving it a thorough once-over followed by a quick wash and t-cut to see how the faded paintwork would come up. Not bad, as it turns out (please excuse the crappy photos, they were taken on my phone):

 

 

 

The pictures do it a lot of favours, it isn't really that red or shiny yet but it's not bad. The interior is tidy enough, full of cobwebs and dried mould but nothing that won't clean up. After slinging in a good battery, the only thing I could find that doesn't work is one indicator bulb. Result!

 

All too good to be true? Well, yes, a bit. I knew it had one rusty rear sill and sure enough, a poke with a screwdriver revealed this:

 

 

Not the end of the world though and the rest of both sills are spotless. I also knew it had a rusty battery tray but I had no idea how bad it was. Pulling out the old knackered battery caused my heart to sink as, after a put of scraping and poking, it revealed this:

 

 

It's too weak to even take the weight of a battery and the whole thing's a mess. I'm really not sure if this is even repairable. Most of the bits I dislodged from it ended up in the drivers footwell, it's gone through completely.

 

However, in true autoshite fashion, I fixed up a repair so I could install the replacement battery

 

 

I reckon that'll get through an MOT no worries!

 

The priority is a new cambelt (various bills, MOTs and reciepts supplied show this last done in 1998) and unseizing the front brakes, followed by a full service and some fresh petrol (getting it over the little ramp into my garage with partially seized brakes took some effort, the stale fuel was definitely starting to show). After that, I need to find out how much this welding's going to cost although I do have a friend who's into bodywork who might want to help.

 

The remarkable thing is, considering where it's been for half a decade, the holes in the battery tray and one sill end plus the slightly frilly passenger door bottom are the only bits of real rust on it, even the big scrape on the drivers door caused by a tractor isn't rusty. It's clean and solid underneath, the strut tops both front and rear are fine and underneath the brand new spare tyre, not even a spot of rust. Both front tyres are new too.

 

So, what's the general opinion? Also, prior warning to the community, I forsee a glut of stupid questions will be coming your way very shortly!

[cort16]

Looks great that. Im sure the battery tray is doable wi a bit of tickling from the pointy mig stick.

[Pete-M]

My mum had a C plate Nova 1.2 Merit 4dr saloon. In that orrible maroon / dark red that went flat almost as quickly as Pogweasel Pinkâ„¢.

 

That old thing rescued me from not having wheels for about 10 years. Everytime something I owned broke I'd borrow the Nova to go and fetch bits. Mum got it on 24k and it was abused to 100k when it finally died after mum gave up driving and it sat around for months quietly rusting. I may still have the handbook somewhere. The Nova was worth about £50 when the scrapman collected it, and needed at least £200 spending on it which is why it wasn't saved. Disposable motoring at the time, people weren't queuing up to buy rattly thrashed Nova saloons, weirdly enough.

 

Servicing it received was incredibly minimal. The cambelt was done at 60k or so and never again. Oil changes were very rare and the cam knocked like a Pinto. It got through loads of tyres and brake pads as it was driven quite hard when I used it, but other than the coil going once and the vacuum advance unit packing up the thing would not die. Mum crashed it a couple of times but the damage was limited to headlights and indicators. Scallies broke into it a few tmes, so it had a couple of steering lock replacements but was never actually stolen.

 

In my hands it was crap on fuel, mid 20s normally and up to 35 on a run, but as most long runs it did were on missions to collect bits for my stuff they tended to be at higher speeds than usual for a 1.2 Nova.

 

The thought of dropping a 'red top' in it and making a quick sleeper was tempting, but in truth I couldn't be bothered.

 

Nice to see one being saved though.

[Cavcraft]

Looks bloody ace. You did used to be able to get replacement battery tray panels for them, possibly worth joining PNG ( http://www.pngclub.com/forum/ ] and seeing on there. It used to have more than it's fair share of WKD KIT M8 members be warned.

[phil_lihp]

Thanks, yes I've seen them on ebay but they seem quite pricey, still if it has to be done, it has to be done. I'll get some other eyes on it first though. had a couple of offers of help on the bodywork so will make the most of it!

[HMC]

Not bad at all for the money. Cant think of the last time I saw an unbarried one, still less a 5 door model!

[jakebullet]

The holes don't look too terrible. And if you did the traditional battery tray repair of p40 then the cars the right colour to hide it

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

That is great, that.

 

Are these the ones with the hilarious upside down hazard light switch ignition bypass glitch?

[vulgalour]

The battery tray is no worse than what was left on my Polo, welded in some bent sheet and he's not been a problem and my feet have stayed dry. I think you've done really well with that, a very nice little project and great to see it in stock condition. These Novas have one of my favourite sets of wheels too.

[Lord Sterling]

Nove looks great. Its nice to see an unbarried one. Cleans up great and it'll be a great car once you get the rust and corrosion sorted.