Brownnova’s eponymous vehicle... It might be over for my Nova.

[big_al_granvia]

unusual to get one that isnt a stock rod on the short ovals, max powered in terms of bodywork but still a 1.3 or a pile of dust. i hope you keep it standard instead of the usual 2 litre redtop, basic spec classics have feelings too

[Tenmil Socket]

5 hours ago, brownnova said:

Boom!!! 
 

One brown Nova! 
 

My view as I walked out the front door... 

So yes, wasn’t too hard to work out that it is indeed a Brown Nova. The story of my username is that my very first car was a Brown Nova (but in SR hatchback flavour) and it was well known (and ridiculed) among my friends at the time. when @cms206 shared one for sale on my facespace I was determined to resist... but my willpower isn’t strong. 
 

So brown.... 

 

Massive respect to @worldofceri who had it at my door at 7am so I wasn’t late for work, quick look round suggests bodywork is not perfect but ok, interior looks pretty good.  

Has been dry stored for a long time, so recommission needed. P.O. says he had it running and driving before sale, time will tell. I’ll have a proper poke around later. 

But now I’m stuck in work wishing I was at home living out my teenage dreams in a Brown Nova! 

I had a burgundy 2 door 1.2 when I was younger. It was one of the most fun cars I've ever driven for some reason. I bought it off a colleague for £30 as he was going to scrap it as it had run out of MOT and needed a lock set. I fitted locks from a scrappy, gave it a wash and it went through an MOT with just a couple of advisories!

[Cavcraft]

Absolutely epic, hat truly doffed.

[paulplom]

Needs wolfrace alloys, stick on bonnet vents and a red top. Plz.

[danthecapriman]

That is absolutely EPIC! Bonus points for the colour, unfashionable saloon, and the early style Nova. I’ve not even seen a hatchback version in years.

One of my mates at school was in the sixth form (year above me) and he had one as his first car. His was C319 UBY, a 1.3 saloon in that weird green-ish gold-ish metallic colour, his had a vinyl roof though bizarrely. 
We used to go out at lunch break to the car park and get one of us on each rear arch and lift the back end up off the ground, then we’d either rotate it around to face the opposite direction he left it in or ‘wheel barrow’ it into a different space with the non handbraked front wheels only! It was so funny seeing his face when he came back to it.

It died in 2001 according to dvla. Nearly 20 years ago! Doesn’t seem like it.

Shame you don’t see many about anymore, but I suppose the MaxPower lot fucked up as many of them as rust did!

[dollywobbler]

YES! The first manual car I drove was my dad's Nova 1.2 Merit 4-door saloon. This is top peer pressure purchasing.

[Slowsilver]

6 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Typical AS behaviour. Everyone else buys a car then gets a manual for it, but not us. We do it the other way round. Hoped that the free manuals would be of use to someone but didn't expect any of them to lead to the actual purchase of a (hopefully) complete car. And a brown saloon for maximum shite points. Good luck with it and hope to see it soon.

Hope this isn't going to set a precedent. Fortunately most of the (about a dozen I think) surplus manuals I had were claimed by various FoD visitors, but I still have 3 left.  Does this mean I now need to find a Volvo 240, a Renault 16 and an early Metro to add to the fleet? Rhetorical question (I hope!). At least I now don't have to find 12 more old bangers.
 

[chaseracer]

8 minutes ago, Slowsilver said:

Does this mean I now need to find a Volvo 240, a Renault 16 and an early Metro to add to the fleet?

Yes.

Yes, it does.

Carry on.

?

[Roobarb]

3 hours ago, brownnova said:

Nearly forgot... 

Nice dealer sticker and rear plate... 

 

How cool is that! Wow those stickers have survived well. 
My Grandad bought his Nova hatch from the very same place. The Uphill garage. Not far from where I used to live (Brean). 

When I was learning to drive, they had an amazing yellow MGB Roadster (rubber bumper) that was almost as exciting to me as Sam Fox was at that age. 
Real Wayne’s World ‘One day, it shall be mine’ stuff (the MGB that is, not Sam Fox). 

[2cvspecial]

Brownnova is definitely BrownNova now

[ETCHY]

Bloody cool, more pics required please. It's so incredibly original looking, great to see.

I dunno why but i wasn't aware they did a 4 door saloon, I thought they were all 2 door.

[bunglebus]

Very similar to the brown 2 door saloon that used to be seen pootling around Brentwood,  but that one had an awful roofrack and no passenger mirror 

[Zelandeth]

... Hopefully at some point this evening the forum will actually let me view the images...

[eddyramrod]

MrsR had a silver 4-door when we met, with the 1.2 engine.  Good luck with this one!

 

[captain_70s]

L cars best cars. Just a fact.

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Roobarb said:

Not far from where I used to live (Brean).

There seems to be an alarming amount of people on AS who have lived down in North Somerset way. You are the sixth person that I can think of!

[brownnova]

6 hours ago, sloth said:

holy fuck, an early 4 door 1.3l in chestnut brown. only the saloon 4 door got the 1.3 in l flava. fuck im wet af for this. brown tint glass is rare af now, as are some of the dash trim peices.  it may have a 1b1 pierburg or a weber carb, some of the non sr spec 1.3's have an odd carb and mani setup.  if its rocking a 2e3, its sr spec as fook. 

im a serial nova stroker. had x3 4 drs, x1 2dr and x6 3drs.  

moar pics please. 

 

*goes to lie down

Now I’m no carb expert, so I’ll probably take a pic and let you tell me! Glad you like it tho especially as a serial Nova licker! 

5 hours ago, big_al_granvia said:

unusual to get one that isnt a stock rod on the short ovals, max powered in terms of bodywork but still a 1.3 or a pile of dust. i hope you keep it standard instead of the usual 2 litre redtop, basic spec classics have feelings too

Standard is likely to be the way it goes. Any mods will be subtle... The temptation to make it into an SR saloon is quite high, and to put the wheels my old one had, but... the urge to keep it standard is also high.... first job get it started and spend some time evaluating what it’ll need to get back on the road. 

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

... Hopefully at some point this evening the forum will actually let me view the images...

Oh no!!! Hope you’ve seen them now... il put more up shortly.... 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I was down in Dover harbour about three weeks ago and a boy racer went by in a lowered, bodykit-strewn, cherrybombed Nova.  I laughed like a drain because I hadn't see that in years.

This.  This is special.  Saloon is a major force multiplier.

You are a winner.

[brownnova]

So after a tough day for the Mrs (the baby had injections today) I decided to take them out to Parkgate for Ice Cream in the 2CV... meaning that time for Nova licking was limited as it was already going dark when I got home... 

So I’ll take some more tomorrow, possibly after a wash. 
 

Key L badging... 

1.3 litres of pure power... 

@sloth any good for identifying the carb? 

Interior shots: 

Mmmm brown... The seat covers are hiding some rather grubby beige seats... time will tell the future of the seat covers, but mrs_b quite likes them. Overall, interior is pretty damn good. 

 

Oh talking of brown... what’s the rust situation? The underside looks amazingly solid overall, nothing which would get a testers knickers in a twist anyhow. Obviously with it being a Nova (and even with dry storage for 18 years) theres some grot... here’s the worst. 
 

Aaand that’s it... 

Boot floor is ok, (picture looks worse than reality) 

So overall rust wise I’m fairly happy. 
 

It got proper dark... so I’ll resume tomorrow! 

[Marshall]

8 hours ago, Talbot said:

That's not a Nova...

Indeed. It’s actually an Eagle SS. That said, I’m loving the Brown Nova. Fantastic! 

[Marshall]

Those bumpers need some of this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PoorBoys-Restorer-Interior-Exterior-PB-TR16/dp/B004ZLB0W2

I bought some yesterday. It’s amazing stuff!

(No I don’t work for them)

[Slowsilver]

£16.99 for 473ml. No way. I bet boiled linseed oil does a better job and my local hardware store sells a 500ml bottle for £4.99

[captain_70s]

6 minutes ago, Slowsilver said:

£16.99 for 473ml. No way. I bet boiled linseed oil does a better job and my local hardware store sells a 500ml bottle for £4.99
 

It's what I use, because i'm tight.

Lasts a month or two depending on the type of plastic and degree of fade, the Volvo's mirrors are pretty extreme!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Great find and the ultimate purchase to go with your username. Have you got any photos of your original? It looks to have had a really low number of keepers-  I guess it's been previously giffer owned and then stored for a significant time? 

My brother was Nova crazy for a few years, although I've only ever owned one - a 1984 jamaica yellow SR in 2000. I remember wobbing the hell out of the bottom of the doors, rear arches and bootlid before selling it, only to find the fella who was buying it was going to use it for hillclimb. I'd imagine it would have all dropped out again after a couple of meets!

Is the interior of yours the brown/cream stripy one? 

[Uncle Jimmy]

Christ what a decrepid pile of shit. 

Well done, keep up the good work .

[High Jetter]

I'd give it the boot. Never mind it already has one. Well bought sir.

[Marshall]

45 minutes ago, Slowsilver said:

£16.99 for 473ml. No way. I bet boiled linseed oil does a better job and my local hardware store sells a 500ml bottle for £4.99

I don’t know about that tbh. I’ve tried similar myself and it doesn’t last that long. Saying that, this treatment might not either. Mine was £14.99 and you need hardly any... like it would probably last you a good ten years minimum. We shall see. 

[brownnova]

The bumpers are (I believe) supposed to be grey. Black was felt to have clashed with the brown paintwork, so they did the bumpers grey... 

At least that’s what I was led to believe many years ago when I had the original brown nova. 

[Marshall]

1 minute ago, brownnova said:

The bumpers are (I believe) supposed to be grey. Black was felt to have clashed with the brown paintwork, so they did the bumpers grey... 

At least that’s what I was led to believe many years ago when I had the original brown nova. 

Yes, they will be. That was mainly my reason for suggesting the product that I did. Back to black or similar would make a mess of it. But colourless stuff would hopefully return them to their original colour (I have no idea of the benefits of linseed oil as opposed to the product I suggested in comparison to it). Love the car. Looking forward to more updates.

[sloth]

carb is a 1b1, so the same as all thw 1.2 models just slightly tickled jets. if you find someone with a 1.3 sr inlet and carb its a streaight swap and looks stock. or go for a weber 32/34, again on an sr manifold. will bump power massively and an easy fit. these little engines sing when twaeked a bit, and parts are pennies.