Update time

Words and images courtesy of Southways again

This Nova's going to be a completely different car to drive! We decided we really weren't happy with the driving position as it was designed, not to mention the fact the steering column was fixed to a flimsy bit of GRP, so set about making a brace to both support the column, and allow it to mount very slightly higher.

This is what we came up with.

The rusty bit was the original mount.

Now the column sits about the height of that square tube, erm, higher.

With the column raised, attention turned to the dash and steering wheel. The original shirt button was something our customer was keen to get rid of, so for mock-up purposes we attached this wheel (a used spark plug to anyone who can identify it). The driving position is instantly better. It's almost as good as a Lamborghini Espada, which doesn't sound like high praise to anyone other than those who sat in the Nova previously.....

The dials are mocked up. Easy way to design the dash - print them off and stick them on until you're happy with the layout. That's when you get the drill out!

We have a new engine in the Nova, we have most of a cooling system, a heap of wiring and some uprated suspension. We even have stick-on dials! But we don't have a fuel tank....until now. Doesn't fit very well, mind....

.....Ah! Turn it round the other way!

The tank was actually a custom-designed unit, so it's bespoke for the Nova.

It includes a sump, so if our customer is ever brave enough to hurl it around corners as fast as it'll go in a straight line, fuel starvation will not be one of his worries. He'll have MASSIVE problems in many other areas, but the fuel will continue to pump even as the car exits the brick wall and is halfway up the tree.

Final lacing for some of the loom. The body will go back on soon, and not come back off!

Take a final look at it!

Looks a bit different under the nose now. That's where the rad will sit.

And it's now a car! Body back on, and going nowhere as we've now sealed it as well as bolted it. Should add strength, eliminate squeaks and creaks and keep it water-tight.

Body back on, and going nowhere as we've now sealed it as well as bolted it. Should add strength, eliminate squeaks and creaks and keep it water-tight

Bit of a gap at the rear arches though, so we'll have to plug that with something. Maybe a seatbelt mount, seeing as that rough hole in the GRP is actually where the seatbelt used to mount!

That's the upper section! Note to Nova owners.....don't crash, unless you've improved this aspect of the design. Actually no, still don't crash! We'll come up with something for this.

We've been working on the nose of the Nova recently. Here's the front lower valance being fitted after we'd gone round the whole thing putting strength back into it with GRP, and filling in all the original holes along the upper lip, which used to give access to self-tappers. We're not using any of that now, we're going to do it properly with hidden bolts and nyloc nuts!

The radiator mounting frame and nose-support brace we made trial fitted after powdercoating. The powdercoaters remarks were "What part of a TVR is that then?"

The brace is needed because, frankly, there's not much strength in a Nova body, especially the nose area. As soon as we pop a radiator big enough to deal with 2500cc in there, and then fill it with coolant, something's going to give! The new brace will spread the load of this to the front of the chassis, as well as providing a way to adjust the load on the nosecone and alter the sitting position.

Meanwhile, on top of the pointy nose we needed a way of keeping the bonnet secure. The original layout was two great big old-school big pins, and they really didn't look great, so we've installed some aeroquip catches instead. The car will be staying black, so they're fairly well disguised and we figured it probably needs the additional security of these catches rather than just the lock at the bottom due to the fact a previous owner had fitted them! We can remove and smooth over the hole where the bottom lock went, as it all needs removing and refitting when it's painted.

The beast beneath the bonnet? Nope, wrong end! But here you can see where the bonnet affixes...

....and the new battery mount we've begun to fabricate.

The open mouth (which never used to be open, you'll remember) being smoothed and fettled.

We need to fit the grille before the radiator, which means we need to get the area surrounding the mouth nice and neat, as it'll be too difficult to access it once the grille's in place. We could, of course, fit everything, get it all running, and then pull it all apart to get it painted of course!

So far, so good. I think the Nova's beginning to smile!

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The Nova's had a good month! Most of the work in September centred around lighting. Having carried out a fair number of improvements to the alignment of the rear lighting panel (and then failing to co-ordinate enough to get pictures....DOH!) we turned our attention to the headlamps. Our customer Patrick had already expressed his dislike of the original setup the Nova had (still visible on the previous image). All of the headlamp brackets were not only rusted, they were visible! Along with the side and indicator lamps looking like they were thrown in from 10ft away, it was deemed necessary to improve this area.

To that end, a plan was hatched to fabricate some cowlings and enclose the headlamp units. The indicators will be relocated to the grille, and the sidelamps will be an LED unit positioned next to the headlamp. First things first, we needed to make the cowlings. Foam cowlings? No, this is how we made the shape initially!

Best way of designing the cowlings to encase the headlamp neatly is to actually encase the headlamp! We'll get it back out ok though.

The foam was then layed up in GRP matting before the resin was applied. The result was this! 

And this! Same both sides, of course! They'll need some more strengthening on the back and some smoothing on the front, prior to paint. Then we need to engineer them to be removable, as the headlamp adjustment is carried out from the front. We've already made one of the new perspex covers (mostly to make sure the new cowlings clear them!) and have fitted all the new fixings for those, but we'll cover those more at a later date.

They've improved the look of the front end no end though!

Turns out I hadn't visited here to update for a while so it's a bonus glut of posts for my trofriends