Bucket List Achieved 5/24/23: Own a Nova Liftback with a 4AG engine.
I had been on a constant changing and evolving journey deciding what cars I really want to keep in my stable. I had been an AE86 owner for 17 years and the biggest appeal to me with that car was the fact that it was not a common car at the time, especially in my countryside region. With the exponentially increasing popularity and value of the AE86 as seen in the online world, I wanted to find something a little less famous and a little cheaper to own and find parts. I jumped into the AE82 world (with the FX16) and the costs and popularity was starting to rise as well. Jumped off the map and landed in the MR2 (AW11) world and that is also increasing as well. Upon further research, I looked into the 1988 only Chevy Nova 4 door sedan powered by the famous 4AGE (they only came in black from the factory).
Not quite a fan of getting my hands on one of the 3,300 limited cars produced (as they are already well sought after for what has survived 35 years later), as well as not liking the 4 door body style, I decided to look into making one that was never produced from the NUMMI factory: a 5 door Liftback that only came with a 4ALC, or a diesel in other countries. Pictures below shows a Corolla Seca from overseas for reference, which we never received.
I had been quietly keeping my eye on accruing a 5 door Liftback, knowing full well that I’d have to do the complete ’88 Nova Twin Cam conversion from a black sedan. I had already spotted a good Twin Cam donor candidate in a junkyard. I had wanted to hold off on buying the sedan donor until I got my hands on a Liftback first. I was browsing a Facebook page of the JCVA group and found a post of someone selling a 1988 Chevy Nova Liftback with a 4AGE already in it.
The seller had already sacrificed a very rusty and high mileage FX16 GT-S for the conversion. This is good news for me in terms of saving time, as I could move on to the next chapter in the project.
The seller had repainted the original silver body a nice custom blue color using a combination of leftover paint cans from his storage. He had done a naked shell repaint prior to starting the Twin Cam conversion; door jambs, under hatch, and under hood were covered in the new color. He had turned the auto into a manual, converted rear drums to disc, and swapped in a baffled EFI fuel tank. He looped the lines on the power steering rack to make it a temporary manual rack for less complication in the engine bay. The FX16 gauge cluster had been swapped in to include extra gauges as well as the tachometer that the carb’d Novas never received from the factory. He had also installed sound deadener everywhere where the carpet would have touched the metal unibody, as well as in the quarter panels.
When I saw the car, it had looked like a completely original car with only Scion xB factory 7-spoke wheels thrown on. The xB wheels did not suit me well largely due to not looking period correct, and I’m a fan of keeping it ’80’s as best as I can.
I absolutely love getting my hands on old books.
Upon my new ownership of the car, I had done a thorough interior cleaning, an alignment, and threw on more period-correct looking wheels. In my collection, I have a set of Superior brand (stamped 1987) Monte Carlo P-Series model 14×7 wheels. The model design focused on selling to FWD cars (based on their offset) that would hope to carry the trend into the ’90s. The chrome was long gone and covered by plastidip before I got my hands on them so I threw on silver paint.
The model name has nothing to do with the car, the Chevy Monte Carlo, but seems somewhat fitting that I installed American aftermarket wheels on a Chevy largely designed by Toyota. The cherry on top is that I have installed center caps from a 1995 Saturn SC1 found in a junkyard, which is a GM product placed back on a GM car.
(Also note that the California Clipper wheel in the picture above is essentially the same Monte Carlo P-Series wheels with wire wheel center cap. I’m aware it wouldn’t suit the Nova, but imagine how hard it is to find survivor examples today.)
I had picked up a used set of TechnoToyTuning custom coilovers from my good friend who I know is the most dedicated and hardcore racer of an FX16 in the Mid Atlantic region. I was able to use a set of Cusco camber plates I had found in storage (yes, parts hoarder for future Swayton to not sweat over later when the time may or may not come) that requires an Aw11 rear bolt pattern.
The rear coilover install netted a 2″ drop with 7/8″ left if I want to do further lowering. I am still missing front camber plates to complete the conversion, so pardon the Corolla-lina squat pictures below as I wait for 7 days of shipping from T3 at the time of this writing. I had owned the car a week and only put 5 miles on it. I really wanted to go out and put the car through the paces when the weekend arrived and see how the rest of the car is.
You can see in the following pics that the Superior wheels came with center caps (on the front wheels) and I threw them on to see if I like it. I’m more of a fan of the unique Saturn center cap setup seen on the rear. There’s high chance that I’m the only person in the world running this oddball wheel/cap combination, and that’s just part of the fun and appeal to me. Think unique, uncommon, strange.
Found the most fitting road sign during my shakedown run this weekend.
Fun (not really) fact: this isn’t my first time “accidentally” Corolla-lina squatting. It’s been done before on my other AE82 chassis, the 1987 Corolla FX16. I has offered to help a friend relocate a stack of MDF panels while shuffling the contents of his garage around by placing them on a trailer ( to keep them off the ground) and resulted in too much tongue weight.
Next step is to look for a set of OEM sway bars, see if power mirrors are feasible, and do a few cosmetic improvements on the car.
Stay tuned for more updates on this car in future articles, as this will be progressing towards an ultimate road trip car in addition to hitting up Trackcross events. On to finding more FX16s to harvest some more parts for the Nova!
