1967 Casper Nova Part II

Previously on search and restore

there. It is. We met the Wilsons, a Tennessee family chosen for an unprecedented TV makeover one Nova one month, all donated parts

and a professional and volunteer build team set to make dreams come true

and honor a dedicated mother and wife who lost her battle with cancer. Today the build begins everybody ready to build a car.

Yeah,

it's quiet in the power block shop after the two days it took to remove every nut bolt and fastener on the 67 Chevy Nova too.

It's on its way to the media blaster which gave the crew a few days to research. This is a look of satisfaction.

This is a look of stress and hurt and wonder about what lies ahead,

Tim, what's on the agenda?

We're waiting for the car to get back from blasters. Ian's on his way. Is it gonna be as solid as it looked when it left? I don't think it will be. I'm holding my breath that it will

more important than the chassis inside. This trailer is the inspirational story surrounding the family picked for our first search and restore project.

Andy, isn't your typical dad. He works by day as a mechanic by night.

He's a cook,

a comforter. You take a deep breath and dry it up

and a single parent raising three little ones by himself. After his wife, Jessica died of colon cancer two years ago.

She was such a naturally gifted mom. Her number one goal was to take care of those kids.

Now, they're Andy's number one

and the Chevy he intended on restoring low priority. First time I ever seen it. He and Jessi showed up in my driveway just as proud as a newborn parents. I think it will help them in their memories of their mom.

You know, they can remember

riding in the car, at least Gavin can I think.

I, I'm not sure he's ever really let himself stop and agree

because he's been so busy. He's a good man.

He's done what very few men I know could do

take care of

three

babies

and now it's up to Tim Strange and the lock tight build crew to take care of the Nova

tearing it down and building it up. Not to one of those TV cars that look good but won't run. But a real honest to goodness bona fide class, a hot rod.

Thanks to summit racing and blueprint engines. The Novo will get a serious shot of adrenaline starting with this 383 Stroker short block Ryan shand and Lock Tights Lauren

Nass are looking to end up with a small block making 450 horsepower.

Lauren is a technology manager for the Hankel Corporation and has wrenched on hot engines from vintage nail head Buicks to his own 383 Stroker,

but it was a motorcycle crash in 87 that took his arm and leg. It's never been a handicap for me. To me it's always been a challenge. I'll tell you that I miss a good knee just so I can get up and down from the ground when I'm working on cars a little bit easier. Uh The arm I never miss, I haven't found anything I can't do with one hand. To be honest with you,

I always see myself as anything anyone else can do. I can figure out a way to do. I've always been like that.

The call went out and lots of power block sponsors chipped in

and to amp up Andy's enjoyment. Comp cam sent in a hydraulic roller cam.

And as you might expect, the guys are using lots of lock tite. So this engine goes together right and stays together

with everything from thread locker and lithium grease to R TV, sealer, bolt sealer,

anti seize compound and gasket dressing

to let the small block breathe. Vic Edelbrock donated a set of aluminum heads and intake

and when we're done,

this motor will pump out four times more horsepower than the original straight six.

This car is not only going to look good, it's gonna run great.

After adjusting the valves, we used a bead of silicone to seal the block before installing the intake.

Next, they'll stab in a mallory Unite

distributor and add an aluminum water pump and we'll button it up with the Summit Street strip oil pan.

What was first? A promising bill

becomes a near nightmare

when the novo reveals a wrinkled skin,

a little wavy, not bad

where we're going.

It's gonna be a blast

since a serious restoration starts with bare metal. The team called Blast from the past in Lebanon, Tennessee and owner Vance Gregory.

He heard about what we're doing for Andy and his Nova and agreed to donate a full eight hours of media blasting.

First thing we're gonna do is roll this car into the booth, flip it on the side and clean the bottom up.

Then we'll spin it over and blast the top and have it ready for body work. We're gonna spray the body with a good fine crushed glass to give it a good smooth finish.

Vin. We really appreciate you helping us out with this. Right man.

Yeah, I here at blast from the past. Anything we can do to help his family out would be more than happy to take care of it. Thanks, man.

Appreciate it.

This is a really big moment in the bill because what the team finds inside this trailer will determine how many late nights they can look forward to

it. Sure. Looked better with the roofing tar on it. Ok. There's a Tommy Bosh,

you're saying it's cave it and pave it.

This has been caved

and paved

and now we see it uncovered. This is a patch that's a patch. That's a patch patch patch. When the car came back from the blaster, I was very worried. We looked at that car

from top to bottom. Why we were tearing it apart with all that roofing tar. It didn't look that bad. But once it came back from the blaster,

it showed some stuff that we didn't know was there.

We're gonna have a little bit of sheet metal work to do, but it ain't no biggie. It's just, they still make all these panels

just got some time to put in on it.

Be a nice ride when we're finished,

we have quarter panel skins here already. Floor pans are on the way

and we're gonna cut both quarter panels off at the same time, which is usually not a very good idea.

We're gonna put some cross bracing in the car to hold it.

So it doesn't

when we cut it apart.

Classic Industries has almost every panel for this model Chevy. So all the parts needed are just a phone call away.

I say we roll with these so we can at least get the quarter panels on where we're waiting for the floor pans to show up. What do you think? Yeah. And that way we make some progress because we gotta have floors. Yep.

Quarter panels aren't fun.

Rockers aren't fun. Floors are absolutely the worst, don't you agree?

We've done.

Sandblasting is great for removing surface rust, but it can be messy. So, clean up is in order before starting on the sheet metal

on a marble that was hiding out in that car somewhere.

I've heard the stories of guys putting these in the frames from the factory

just so it's got this really weird noise and stuff may be really true.

The gaps are pretty good in here when these doors closed. So we're actually just gonna cut it and weld the gap right there. So I don't have to mess with the door jam itself.

Not bad. Just a little surface rust.

What loctite has is two different types of rust treatment. They call it extend. If you have to get back into a panel, you can spray it. But since our quarter panel is off,

I'm gonna brush it on

and when it changes color,

it's a neutralizing the rust.

See how it's changing all purple

means it's doing its job.

Next one of the most important stages of restoring a muscle car, the mock up stage

and later on, we'll connect with our car owner via webcam for a taste of what he can expect. See this roof

parts runs are sometimes an hourly occurrence when tackling a project this size. It also gives the guys a chance to fuel up themselves. You've been working us like dogs. Why don't you stop and get us something to eat?

Hey, look, there's KFC. Let's do chicken.

Welcome to KFC. We actually

charge double

$5 everyday meal today. Sounds good. How many we got to feed?

15?

We'll take 15 of those delicious meals. Thank you and pull up to the window.

Hi there. How are you doing today, sir?

All right,

right.

Here we go, sir.

Got some bags for you here, sir.

Feeding a lot of mouths today. Are you?

Thanks man. Have a good day.

Maybe

back at the shop. Lots of prep work to be done before the panels go to primer.

First part ready for prime,

get on there.

You can't really body work it all together as an assembly because we just flat out, don't have the time for it. So if they're sending pieces over to me, I'm bodywork them and getting some primer on them as I can.

Ok? What I'm doing here

since we're a little rushed for time, I'm gonna grind this whole panel, this whole sides, but I will skim coat this whole thing and block it smooth.

We knew the one side had a hole in it and when it had it sandblasted

another hole blew out. So I'm just gonna cut this area out here, bend a piece on the sheet metal brake and weld it back in

right now. Me and Tommy is finishing up some rust repair patchwork. He's finishing up the other taillight housing area. I'm repairing a stress crack rust area in the lower door jam. We found out there was more patches in the floor pan than we originally thought. We had some small floor pans here already

there. Not big enough. So we're waiting on a full one piece floor pan. So we're doing some stuff out of different order because we're still waiting on parts. But we've got plenty of mock up stuff that we can do.

Ok? Before we mock up the front end and the exhaust and the engine and transmission, we're going to put the car on the lift, get it off the rotisserie so we can have access to all the mounting points.

Yes, the suspension is here from, he

got the good stuff.

Instructions

hates him. He says measure twice, weed once

I cut it twice and it's still too short.

What this does is bring this whole car 40 years ahead in time. This is better technology, tighter, steering, better dynamics is going to give the car a whole different feel

what we're doing here. This is his mock up stage on the build of the project. Hold it.

So we found an empty block around here, empty heads just to fold stuff up with the headers. We got our TCI tranny on here. We're gonna put it in, put the headers on so we can build the exhaust,

hang the rear end and measure for the drive shaft.

Good.

The loud maker.

You know, they say loud pipes save lives.

Let me grab a pair of flyer. You got that Tommy gag. I'm good.

All right now, even though these are brand new parts, still a good idea to run them through the parts washer. Make sure there's no metal shavings in there. This cheap insurance

I'll hold it expired.

Is there a plan

kit

slice down one of them, put an elbow coming right out of there

to nominate a worthy candidate to donate or to volunteer log on to search and restore tv.com

let thou

hose

installation commence

day seven of the bill and spirits are high as the car continues its mock up stage.

This bill couldn't have happened without the corporate sponsorship of Loctite who hand picked a half dozen employees from the US and Canada to take part in bringing happiness to a family who suffered a tragic loss.

It's

heartbreaking and, um, almost uplifting at the same time.

And I see that gentleman up there

and all I can think of is I have three Children and I lost my mother to cancer. So I definitely have that. I'm thinking what if it was my husband having to raise my three Children? You know, and the hardship that that would be. And,

and so immediately struck a chord with me. I, I really felt connected and immediately wanted to say, ok, what can I do to help and you know, then it comes back and we see this car and this opportunity to really bring some life, some spark back to him and just bring back

the wife in a way that has meaning for all of them, not just him, but also the Children, but they also associate their mom with this car. And it's just, it's an opportunity of a lifetime for us to really do something tangible to give back to somebody.

Our cameras have been capturing all the action in the shop from start to finish.

But this high def camera compliments of life size video conferencing,

lets us connect with Andy from his living room in real time. HD.

Hey, Andy, where are you at?

We don't see you.

There. You are. How you doing,

man? Hey guys, hey,

you missing that nova yet.

You know, I am a little bit but the extra room is pretty nice right now.

So we

keep it then we'll keep it.

Uh Well,

let me retract that. Um

We've been working on it hard night and day and we found some pieces and parts on it that uh

you probably wanna see what it's looking like.

Yeah, I'd love to see it.

This was the one side

that we had some rust concerns on

and it was actually a panel that been replaced

and then on the inside here,

see this roofing tar.

Oh

yeah,

the hole underneath of that car was held together by that stuff. That's no good.

We haven't been sleeping much at all

and we got a couple of other pieces here that, uh,

do you know where that goes?

Um,

not really.

That is actually where the tail light is supposed to be.

Oh, we don't need that.

We just won't put that back on.

That's what's left of the original suspension.

I don't really remember where that came from.

The roof was cherry.

Yeah, the roof was pretty good

until Carlos danced on it.

He smashed it all in so

it's now gonna be a convertible.

Ok.

Remember we have you on film saying you trusted us, whatever we wanted to do we could do.

Yeah, I remember saying that. Yeah,

sucker.

Hey, we have a couple of other things we wanna show. You, bring over those wheels.

We got this old crusty looking rally wheel and a little bitty tire

and we're thinking a nice set of BF good riches and some billet specialties. What do you think of them babies?

Those are nice. Really nice. You can see things through the holes. They're so big.

Awesome. Huh?

You can't see what's sitting right over there. They're not gonna let you see it right now. I think you'd be really impressed with what the progress that we've got in the short amount of time. We've had it. Everybody look over there.

Oh.

Oh, see, that's no fair.

We'll see it soon enough. If these camera guys ever get out of our faces and let us work on this thing.

Yeah.

Ok. Well, I just wanna tell all of you guys. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. What you guys are doing?

No problem. I think you're doing a great job. Ok, we're gonna get back to work.

Let's go guys.

Thank you guys.

Next time on search and restore

more good stuff arrives when the car gets blown apart for custom paint

and will surprise Andy and the kids with a look at what will power their very special note.

What do you think about Tim? Strange, Tim. Strange. He's an all right guy. He's got his quirks but, you know, hey, everybody does. No, he, he's a great guy. He's not really,

uh, pushing people around but he's making things get done

and that's what we need in here because there's a whole lot of work that needs to be done,

man.

Child,

child.

I kind of think that was a setup.