We last saw (or first met) our protagonist almost two months ago and I happened to stumble across it (him, her, them?) again the other day. I immediately realized that time was almost up for this one, as in the high turnover junkyard the cars are placed in rows one after another and when the crew reaches the end of the lot and runs out of room for new arrivals, they start over at the beginning and move a row out to the crusher to clear space for the next lucky arrivals. The row behind was already cleared so in the next few days it would be this Nova’s turn in the crusher once those spots were filled and more space was needed.
I originally found this car on September 12th, the mark on the rear side window indicates it was placed (or at least staged to place) a few days earlier, September 9th. I then shared it here a couple of weeks later but for all intents and purposes it was a fairly complete car. Now at the end it is unlikely that much more, if anything, will be removed from it but its molecules will likely be born again in a dishwasher or a bridge or something. But let’s take a look at what was actually taken from it over the approximately ten weeks that a resident of the General Motors section at my favorite (i.e. closest) junkyard gets the opportunity to be a donor. It did have the advantage of being the only Nova on-site during its entire stay.
Right off the bat it’s obvious from the before and after shots that someone (or multiple parties, we’ll never know) decided they needed pretty much the whole front end except for the radiator support. And not just the bodywork either but the subframe, suspension, and everything. I wouldn’t have thought most of the sheetmetal was usable as it wasn’t in overly good condition but I suppose it’s cheaper to buy a used part that needs work than some kind of repop that probably needs work as well and almost certainly is in better condition that whatever’s currently on the recipient’s car. And the front bumper was in great shape even if the grille wasn’t, at least most of the metal up front was more or less straight. Someone rolled up the driver’s window for some reason as well. The broken grille is laying in the foreground, no need to take (and pay for) that.
It was a little shocking to see the whole engine just laying there, usually the engine is what’s removed rather than everything surrounding it, but I suppose there isn’t much demand for the old inline-6 when V8’s are a dime a dozen.
The view from the rear is a little more of a puzzler as to what’s gone. It’s almost like one of those games where you have to spot the differences, somehow my angle is virtually identical for this one. It looks like the trunk lock is gone, as is the side marker light. The taillights are still there because they were all cracked, otherwise they would surely have been removed by now.
The window-winder was at work again, this time lowering the passenger rear window. I’m a little surprised to see the bumper still attached but this is a smaller yard that doesn’t post its inventory online, so it’s very much luck of the draw or word of mouth that gets some of these parts sold as opposed to the larger corporate yards that can alert you via e-mail when a certain vehicle arrives and posts everything on their website.
At first I thought someone had actually tried to get the “Dashboard Of Sadness” gauge cluster out of this car judging by the damage at the left. Then I remembered that a crafty owner had installed an aftermarket temperature gauge like a Honda-bro might install a boost gauge these days. Apparently it was well attached and said “Fight Me!” when someone tried to remove it.
The other biggie here is the radio. Someone decided that they wanted it, and the same seems to go for the seat belts, at least the ones that used to be in the center of the bench. Everything else seems to still be complete, the shifter is now out of the Park position, no surprise since it’s not connected to anything anymore and the car will soon be moving on, clearly it’s readying itself for the short journey behind the wall.
I’m a little surprised that the radio was gone, it’s an AM-only Delco unit, so most likely what this was sold with. Are these collectible or something? This would probably be the first thing I would yank and take to the junkyard if this was my Nova, rather than pay to take it back out of the yard.
Another puzzler, the backrest for the rear seat gets to live on. As do the rear lap belts. And the window winder. Maybe the person that moved the other windows was testing them to see which winder worked best before selecting one. It seems a bit odd that they left the bottom cushion, it was in decent shape besides a layer of dirt. I still like that pattern too, it rather reminds me of a pair of pants that Marcia (or perhaps Jan?) Brady would have worn a few years earlier.
And our final before and after pairing takes us to the other rear side. Someone took this marker light as well. Oh, and the rear axle looks to be gone too in its entirety with a yellow (Bilstein? Doubtful) shock left dangling. The 2.73 rear end can’t be in demand but I suppose that can be changed easily enough if desired.
While there’s still some meat on the bone here, the yard probably did okay overall and especially with the drivetrain laying on the ground now it’ll be taken away rather than get the oh-so-desirable among the condemned “Reset” tag wherein a less picked over car gets set in a new spot for the next cycle with the original date crossed out and the new date marked on it. This one took up a space for less than three months, likely paid out a couple of hundred dollars or so ($140/ton for complete pre-2004 cars) to whoever brought it here but enough valuable bits were removed to easily make up for that and then some. Now to crush and shred all that’s left onsite and then send those bits off to whoever that bulk buyer may be, By next week there’ll be a different car in this spot for the cycle to continue again. And maybe we’ll even feature it here.
Well picked over its interesting to see the before and after Ive seen two of my old cars like that in their final resting place, my 68 VW van not a bolt missing 12 years later and my 73 VJ Valiant wagon the one the wrecker ytold not much demand for these old heaps anymore $50 take it or leave it,I took it, I saw it a year later while looking for a carb for another Valiant nothing left on it just a bare bones shell sitting there, no removable panels even.
no demand, really.
Regarding seat belts…
At all of the DIY yards I’ve been to, they have these giant rolling steel a-frames, with a chain fall attached, for pulling engines. But a single point lift is often useless for pulling an engine, so people cut up seatbelts to make 2-point lifting slings. Apparently, they’re strong enough.
In a past life I used a hand truck (aka 2-wheel dolly) and I usually moved similar loads. I took a manually-adjustable center lap belt out of one of my Volvo 240 parts cars and bolted each end to a vertical rail on my hand truck. Voila, easy-peasy load strap for the hand truck!
Hi Evan, can’t believe what a small world it is. I read this story and always look at the comments as I find them interesting. And here is a name from the past for the second time in several years. Still in Nashville but moving back to Grand Rapids asap. Probably a year. Glad you are still hanging in there with the Volvos. Steve Spain
Google’s Spanish translators tells us “Nova” means “not going”. Oh, but it is.
Born with the double whammy curse of an awful color and a straight-six, it went. Kinda, sorta, and not enthusiastically so it lived in a way that somewhat reflected the Spanish definition of its name. It was the 1970s, after all, when engines were rather emasculated.
In its death, this oh-so basic Nova will be able to spread its DNA into countless new contraptions. It’s doubtful the governor, or anyone else, will call a stay of execution. So it is now indeed going.
But this Nova is leaving this world lavished with attention, that breathtakingly rare event when an otherwise forgettable car is showered with international exposure and, perhaps, admiration.
So, in the end, this Nova is living up to its English definition, ending its journey in the spotlight of attention. A true Nova, indeed.
I can’t understand all that fuss about “Nova” meaning “No Va”. Nova means exactly the same in Spanish as in English, and I can see some eventual jokes from that, but they would be forced. Just to make a point, the Mitsubishi Pajero was justly renamed Montero for Spanish speaking countries. Nobody would want to move around in a self satisfying vehicle. But things like No Va can only be made up by people who don’t have Spanish as a first language. Nova, as in English, has an accentuated first syllable, while No Va will sound as accentuated in the second. All told….when my Argentinian cousins visited in Uruguay, they would ask what ind of car was ours. We told them, it’s the same as your Chevy! Oh, ok…but we don’t have Novas in Buenos Aires, only Chevies. Go figure.
Quite right. And if you enter “nova” into Google’s translator to Spanish, it correctly gives us “estrella nueva”.
No one in Latin America would ever mix up nova with no va. Snopes has long dismissed this as having anything to do with the sales of the Nova in Latin America, which actually sold just fine. Especially when fueled with Nova gasoline, the top domestic brand in Mexico!
Okay, so I’ve had a run of things not going as intended. It seems to continue. 🙂
In my defense, below is what I obtained from Google before I typed the comment but admittedly it was Spanish to English, which I inadvertently overlooked. Had this not been the result I would not have used it. But it was simply the starting point to the flash of light Nova at the end, the conclusion I was working toward.
On a only mildly-related note, languages and their overlap are fascinating. The first thing that comes to mind is the variations of the word “fuck” from around the world. That combination of those four-letters has really taken different meanings in different locations due to language.
Here’s what I got from google:
And that translation is listed as being “community verified” as well, which usually adds a greater degree of confidence as far as Google Translate goes.
That just goes to show the limitations of such translation software. It’s simply factually incorrect. “No va”, in two words means that, but not “nova” in one word.
We did have a whole post about the “Nova – No Va” Urban legend here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/qotd/qotd-whats-an-automotive-urban-legend-or-misconception-youd-like-to-clear-up/
Literal translation that is. Not one in contexts. Can we mention again Austins Allegro meaning Crazy and or unreliable in Italian or Buick Lacrosse meaning self abuse in French Canadian?. Old one for you. Rolls Royce looked at naming the Shadow the Silver Mist until they were told it means the Silver Shit in German. ” At 60mph the only thing you can hear in the Silver Shit is the clock” . Hasn’t got the same ring has it?.
Mist is manure, not shit. You don’t take a mist in Germany, but you do spread it on your fields.
….
Some thoughts on the destiny of those missing parts.
There was a time when the Nova/Camaro subframe was the hot ticket for putting IFS and a 350 in an old, usually Ford, pickup and occasionally cars. That time has long since past, in part of course because the supply had dried up.
Now if the person was after the subframe for that purpose they probably didn’t want the sheet metal. So as they disassembled things to get to the subframe things like the fenders and hood were thrown in a pile, likely behind the car, or on top of the one behind it, to get them out of the way. So when the crew was sent down the row behind it to prep it for removal those items were stuck in the back of what ever vehicle they could fit in.
Regarding the back seat if the seat belts weren’t missing I’d bet that it was taken out for someone to use as padding while removing the subframe on this or to access something under one of the cars near by. In dry warmer weather the carpeting out of the back of a hatchback or SUV is good enough but when things get muddy, or in particularly rocky yards a seat back like this is a frequent choice.
Now the fact that window cranks, seat belts and marker lights does make it more likely that someone snagged it for their Nova and since they charge by the piece if the back was all that was needed then that was all that was bought.
However the window cranks, seat belts, radio and things like that may have been removed by someone to put on E-bay or Craiglist. There are people out there that just do that, get those small parts to sell on E-bay. Many of those types of yard do have a 30 day return policy, so it if doesn’t sell before the time is up they just return them. Yes it is for store credit, but there are of course new cars being set every week.
The hood and fenders were nowhere to be seen, I’ve never seen anyone take anything off the front of a car and throw them behind the car, people don’t walk that far. Usually they end up on the ground in front of the car (next to the engine block in this case), or tossed on the car in front of it. Or the one next to it. Or on the roof of the subject car. Someone took them.
When you are pulling the subframe you need space and of course you need room to get it out. So no you wouldn’t pile them right in front of the car, since the subframe had to come forward a couple of feet to be clear of the wheels the body is sitting on. In an operation like this it is also likely that they used one of the rolling frames with chain hoist if they have them at this yard. So again you need room for that to straddle the front end and of course room to roll it and the dangling subframe up front.
Sure it is possible that someone did buy those items, but just because you didn’t see them now doesn’t mean they weren’t stuffed in one of the cars in the row behind it before they were crushed.
Fascinating to see this progression — this is sort of like watching the stages of an animal carcass being processed; eventually only the bones and the entrails are left.
I would love to know the story behind whoever took the AM radio. I just looked up examples of this radio on eBay, and it seems that restored versions sell for about $25 — so it’s not like these are a heavily collectible item. But then maybe someone wanted a simple radio to take apart and learn from, who knows?
I bet the rear seat back is somewhere else in the yard. Someone likely snagged it to lay on working on the underside of another car. Better than laying in the dirt/mud I guess.
Yup, standard junkyard procedure to grab a seat back for a cushion. The seat back may have been initially pulled to get at the trunk, if the trunk lid was originally locked. Trunk divers can find all sorts of tools and stuff in there.
The front end sheet metal and subframe likely found a home. There is always a call for that stuff, to fix the front of the car a teenager put into a post or into the back of the car in front of him at a stoplight. If not, go look in the back of that pickup next door. The parts may have been pulled and were lying around, but the people running the lot may have scooped them up to get them out of the way, and would have thrown them into the closest suitable place.
Looking for small change? I’ve seen plenty of cars in wrecking yards with the rear seat cushion pulled forward six inches. In a land where we have $1 and $2 dollar coins, some cushion diving can be a small win.
My record was almost $15 in change in one car, there were quarters everywhere! Think I paid for the parts I removed with it actually lol
Most junkyards have a $2 entry fee, if you have time to wander you can definitely find enough change in cars to recoup it and/or throw in your tool bag to pay for future trips. Scavenger life hack
I learned this the hard way, early on in my junkyard adventures I had found a mint condition Tbird supercoupe with the unique 91-93 black tweed seats, I wanted them but I didn’t have the right sockets to remove them. I decided to come back the next day, and to my horror the rear seat bottom was awol, and the passenger front seat had a muddy greasy differential sitting on it… Guess where I spotted the bottom? Yeah, under the back of the pickup next to it, in a puddle.
Despite that disappointment I do the same thing now 😁
I
WANT
THAT
REAR BUMPER.
Mom’s ’77 rusted-out the original, and the replacement. And there are no NOVA rear bumpers around here that are any better than the perforated junk on the car now.
The problem, of course, is the difficulty and expense of shipping the thing.
Is this a LKQ owned yard?
No, it’s an independent.
I saw a negative comment in regards to the Nova’s Thirftmaster six. I must defend the honour of these motors. Firstly, in real traffic they didn’t feel a whole lot slower than the 305. The 350 was a completely different animal. It had serious scoot for the day.
My dad did something incredibly stupid and bought the taxi company where my bother was driving. This was about 1981 and the first five shares he bought all had this generation of Nova with the Thriftmaster in it.
It’s easy to see why the previous shareholders failed. The cars were so beat it was amazing they ran or drove. One was so bad it had nothing covering the bare metal of the floor. It was just sheet metal under your feet. There was a hole in the passenger rear floor pan which was covered over by a steel can lid affixed with silicone. All were absolutely thashed but the old adage “Nothing runs bad longer than a Chevy” was certainly true here. I doubt in 100,000 km any of these cars had seen an oil change. They just kept adding. A couple were running on four or five cylinders but they started, ran and drove. They might even stop, too.
Naturally we scapped these cars in short order but I did have a lot of respect for their inherent toughness and easy repairability. We replaced the with B Bodies and they were much preferred by the customers over the Nova, which had not the greatest rear legroom.
I like the proportions of these Nova sedans; they’re about all that carried over to the concurrent Seville – both cars seem to sit just right.
These must be tough cars; a guy a couple blocks from me was using one as an all-season daily driver up until a couple years ago. One of the subframe bolts or mounts had failed, and he was driving around with the driver’s rear of the subframe hanging down. Even then, all of the body lines looked normal; nothing else seemed to sag.
They were extremely tough and actually had decent rust-proofing, too.
Back in the day, one would often see Novas with the subframe detaching from the rest of the car.
Just another chapter in the Automotive Circle of Life. Just like Nature, wrecking yards can seem cruel, but they are just part of a Cosmic plan.
The longer I look at these the more I appreciate the basic shape and styling. They are certainly an improvement over the Nova sedans of 73-74. But there is one thing – what is with that plastic vent on the C pillar? These things continue to ruin the car for me.
I agree with most others – it is good to see that some of the parts are being adopted for reuse, but sad to see a basically solid car being dismembered.
In the early 70s GM was sued for exhaust fumes entering cabin of the vehicle. GM did things to rectify this, air vents were one of these attempts. Earlier attempts ere more crude, such as louvers in the trunk lid.
Chevy straight six with AC, not so common.
These were the most common GM car I drove when I worked as a transporter for Hertz in ’77 and ’78…of course back then Hertz seemed to specialize in Fords, and indeed I drove mostly Fords for them…but no Mavericks, instead Granadas, and in 1978 Fairmonts. Since these were about the size for Maverick, wonder why Hertz bought so many of these but not any Mavericks.
Back then it was a pretty boring car, most cars were front engine RWD…but in retrospect it almost seems exotic…funny how time can change your perspective on a once-common model.