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Big delivery finally showed up...

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I ve also been reading carefully and stock piling other necessary parts for the build

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Like a kid on Christmas! Except I don't remember having to break down n recycle this much cardboard,lol. Prolly because we didn't get this many presents at once

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More parts...Startn to get to the good stuff

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14" rotors/6 piston calipers. I was shocked at the actual size. I'm quite sure these are probably overkill for this little light car. But after building a 700rwhp ford lightning with stock brakes, I didn't want to chance it again. That truck was very hard to stop at kill speeds

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Finally ordered and received my entropy radiator and fans. Thanx tony! ordered it and it was here 3days later.

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So, these are some of my parts going into the build. What isn't present yet is my 2006 gto I bought from a buddy with 12k miles as a donor car. Its cosmetically totald out, but still runs and drives.
Id like to do a head n cam combo(TEA or AFR) on the ls2. Defly gunna swap in the t56. Prolly build it up later as I'm initially lookn for just a drivers car to see if I absolutely love how it is at that time. Ultimately, I believe these headers are goin up forsale and I'm going twin turbo or procharged. Id like to make ridiculous amounts of power on the streets, even if its unuseable. My lightning made 705rwhp on pumpgas,..it was fun, but I didn't fear for my life like I thought I was going to when smashing the gas pedal...FORD:doh:

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so what I havnt really mentioned yet is my plans for the back half of the car. Well that's just it...gunna backhalf it.
I realize that plug n play systems(tci 4link or TA set up) currently available are both very affordable and functional.
I started out really wanting a killer set of wide rear wheels..pro street vs. protouring kinda. I wanna run some bfg rival s 335-35-18 outback
So I'm gunna have the floors cut out, custom built 4link, tubbed, caged, trans tunnel, ford 9" nodular rear(narrowed), fuel cell, battery relocate, etc done to complete it as a rolling chassis. Prolly drive it like that for awhile before I commit to big power build. Which will most certainly involve a sleeved block stroked and a huge power adder(s)
Its a lot of work, but its what I want and I can already picture it in my head.

this build is gunna be very time consuming and slow going. But I ll document a lot of it with pics and tons of questions. I'm lookn to build a clean pumpgas street tire car that can open up a can of whoop *** when needed. Lookn to surprise some people here on the jersey shore. But there are some very fast street cars running around here these days

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So, just a fore thought before some slow going progress pics. I'm almost 33 n life is good..But I'm of the "i want it now generation and cant fathom disappointments",lol. Having said that, I knew building a 50yr old car was gunna suck, I knew it wasn't gunna be easy, I knew there were gunna be 1step forward 2steps back moments, I knew id mostly be in over my head, and I knew that it was kinda tight niche project(as oppose to buying a new vette and procharging it. Or gettn a new Camaro n doing bolt ons,etc).

Sorry for the run on and poor grammar.
BUT, I'm thrilled to be hands on ***** deep into this project. I have an end goal in mind...and it looks glorious in my head already. I ve never been a real gear head. Payed out the butt with hard work and $ to have my last ride built. It was MEHHHH,...OK. So with limited and I mean limited mechanical ability and knowledge of anything automotive, I started my build this past sunday.
I'm an HVAC mechanic/installer by trade. I own and operate a small hvac company on the jersey shore. Couple that with some common sense and I will get thru this project.
I am officially submitting to the I don't know everything gods. I am however upgrading my knowledge of all things automotive to-GENERAL +. LOL
So I will share as much knowledge n pics dumb or useless along the way. And I'm open to all constructive criticisms

First pic-nova on the lift for good. Drove it for last time as a 50yr old car with junk 327 in it...same morning

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Jumped right in on tearing stuff out and down. Couple of sad notes. I'm scared of lifts bcuz I ve never owned or worked on under one before. 8min into project n I was loving it and its usefulness. Kinda a necessity in my opinion n age. I salute all the driveway concrete car builders who get shyt done! On another sad note, I was shocked and upset at the true condition of my car, the lift and teardown will reveal everything. Even as I took stuff apart, I was jus getting depressed and feeling regret. So I became humble knowing that I'm saving these heap of crap that looks like its only 5yrs behind the RMS TITANICs condition now. I'm passed the point of no return and am gunna push thru and correct whats fixable, and fix what aint! Lol.

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also sad to know that I'm not keeping or re using much of anything on this car. I should have spent less money on just a better body to start with. Hindsight=20/20

So I started by removing exhaust with sawzaw, pulled driveshaft.
Than I slowly took apart the front end sheetmetal, bumper, grills, lights etc. mostly all scrap for now I'm guessing.

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I'm happy to know that power block nation and hp tv were on the whole time in my shop while I worked on my nova..So cliché!
I hit a road block on the nova when I got down to taking the radiator support of the car and it appears as if I must grind off factory rivets to remove it. I stopped there for sunday. It was a big day n I had all of that accomplished by lunch with no major issues or setbacks otherwise. I ll resume this week with a new cut off wheel. I also broke down my tci preassembled spindle/wildwood brake set ups. Trying to get everything ready for the powder coater as my teardown to firewall is moving faster than id thought it would. By Friday night(day 2) I should have the engine n trans out.
On a sidenote, everything I ve encountered or handled from my TCI order appears to be of top notch quality and craftsmenship. I'm hoping the whole build goes this way. These monster brake set ups are insane. CANT WAIT!

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So I'm gathering together all my pieces for powder coating while I await my new aluminum core support to arrive on Monday. It to is getting powder coated to match every thing else. I'm having trouble choosing what to powder coat which color. I think I'm gunna satin black everything and accent the engine n its accessories. Kinda a PT factory look?!?! I dunno.

In the mean time I'm gunna do my best to refinish the firewall. I followed Toms thread n found it to be a worth while mod. I hope my turns out half as nice as his. nothn crazy, jus a basic sand,prep, prime, n repaint.

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Parts back from powder coater...it is go time...decided to have the firewall sandblasted($150) vs. sanding n grinding forever.

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before and after crushed glass media blasting...

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primered using Rustoleum self etching primer. FWIW, I'm quite happy with the over all results of the firewall.

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used an epoxy paint of sum sort that the powder coater gave me. It matches the powder coating semi gloss he did very well. Same stuff he used to paint the parts I couldn't powder coat. cheap spray gun n compressor did the trick just fine.

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Time to finaly start the fun stuff. TCI PT front clip assembly. Spent my bday weekend gettn this done. So excited to have made it this far already. I'm no ace mechanic, but for the most part, this went together rather easy and straight forward. Only problem I had was all the hardware was in the bags mislabeled. We figured it out tho

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down bars and hood hinge bracket installed next...