Devils Tower

Devils Tower

Sunday, July 14, 2013

The NOVA tow vehicle Part 1

So, I picked this up a few weeks ago for the new tow vehicle. I decided to chronicle the build to sort of document it for future reference.
   The project was about 75% complete.  It had new paint, new motor, new transmission but was still lacking the interior and the wiring.  It has a brand new small block Chevy out of a 89 Suburban with the entire serpentine belt system still in place.  The interior was pretty rotten.  The seats were trashed, headliner and carpet missing. 

 The floorboards are awesome.  It had one bad floorboard that was replaced by the previous owner.
I am trying to approach this methodically, because I have AADD,  (Automotive Attention Deficit Disorder).  I am starting with the inside first.  I have ordered a quart of POR-15 to coat the floors with.  
This stuff is pretty tough stuff.
I also decided, after much research to try Fat Mat.  It is a sound deadener, similar to Dynamat, but way cheaper.  I am going to cover the entire floor with it, after the POR 15 dries good.


I bought the 50 mil material.  It comes with a roller and some seam tape. This stuff will be a good base.  The thing that drives me crazy about old cars are the harmonics caused by crazy vibrations.
I also ordered a carpet kit from http://www.stockinteriors.com , we will see how it works out.  I ordered the heavier carpet.  It has something called "mass backing".  That should also help with road noise.
We recently decided to sell our modern SUV and build something a little cooler.  So we did, now we are committed.   I want this to be a utilitarian, daily driver so I opted for a rubber style mat rather than a carpet.  I ordered a roll of a material known as "coin mat".  This one is a little different than the standard coin mat because it doesn't have a circular pattern, these are more square.  Basically, the same material though.  This will cover most of the rear cargo area.
You can pick some up on Amazon.  Coolio mat for hot rod heroes

In the meantime, I need to stay busy waiting for my stuff to show up, so I started by removing the seats and prepping the inside for the POR15.  I started by pulling the outside air vents.  I didn't want to get the floor all clean and then have dirt and leaves contaminate the fresh surface.  It was a hunch, so I pulled them to see if over the years the leaves hadn't fallen down in the cowl vents.

Both sides were exactly the same.  50 years of accumulation.  Luckily, no rust down inside.


It all looks pretty solid.
Mama Root sanded the back of the seat panels.
Before we started.
Seat back during sanding.
 After primering.

We even primered the seat hinges.  
Now to wait.

No comments:

Post a Comment