Slide 1

Every piece of the Nova’s original chrome trim has been brushed to a satin finish
for a sleek, stealthy look. “It killed me to have to do that to the door handles,”
says Ed. “The original ones were so pitted that I had to buy a new pair, then I
immediately scuff them up!”

The added color depth in the bumpers comes courtesy of a nickel coating (rather
than traditional chrome), and the whole look is finished off with a custom billet
fuel filler cap.

Slide 3

The Chevy LS2 nestled in the Nova’s TCI Engineering tubular front clip was sourced from a 2006 GTO—Pontiac’s own ill-fated attempt at a musclecar revival. Later, Ed would come to find that this particular example had spent some amount of time at the bottom of a saltwater canal in Florida, necessitating a .010 overbore and a set of matching Mahle forged pistons to reverse the damage.

Slide 4

If the sound emitted from the cammed LS2 and custom-bent exhaust isn’t doing the trick for you, Ed has equipped the cabin with a cleverly hidden Secretaudio SST stereo system. The head unit is tucked away in the Nova’s glove box, while the receiver is concealed behind a removable panel in the trunk.

Slide 5

Originally Arctic White over a blue vinyl interior (coincidentally the same color combination as the Nova Ed drove back in high school), the ’65 now wears a House of Kolor two-tone paint job, applied by Ed. The bottom is wrapped in Platinum Pearl, offset by a black pearl accent stripe. Ed achieved the custom Gunmetal Gray upper hue by simply mixing the two colors until he was happy with the result.

Slide 6

With the widespread adoption of fully independent suspension, today’s musclecars are finally beginning to shake their reputation as drag strip devotees. To bring the Nova up to snuff, Ed ditched the ancient front subframe in favor of a tubular steel front clip from TCI Engineering, lowered on QA1 front coil-overs and 2" drop spindles. Out back, Calvert Racing rear leaf springs and CalTracs traction bars keep the tires glued to the pavement. Weld RT-S S71 wheels and BFGoodrich G-Force Super Sports round out the handling package.

Slide 7

“Looks like new” would be an understatement! When the Nova rolled off the assembly line in 1965, initial quality was a bit more…relaxed than today’s standards. So when it came time to replace much of the Nova’s rusted sheetmetal, Ed called in his long-time friend and body shop veteran, Joe Enderle, to piece it back together with a modern eye for fit and finish. With 50 years of experience, he’s been reassembling daily drivers and hot rods since the Nova was new.