Between 1995 to 1998, I drove the Nova 'as is' with the bone-stock 350 2bbl, TH350 and 2.73 Posi Rear end. I wasn't allowed to tweak or make any changes to the car because it had to remain reiable for my Grampa.

As I was learning more and more about cars, we began to make some repairs/upgrades to the Nova.

Summer of '98, the drivers side spring-plate broke at the shock mount and we were unable to find replacement plates as they were long obsolete. We scour the wreckers, and called around but came up empty-handed. Dad had suggested we install some Lakewood Traction Bars on the car, as they the stock spring-plate. We went down to Canadian Tire, ordered up a set of Lakewood Traction Bars.

August of '98, the odometer rolled over. I hit the 100000 mile mark!! Doing some simple math, I've put on over 35000+ miles since I started drivin' & cruisin' in the Nova. 13 years later (2008), another 90000+ miles have been added bringing the odometer to 162000+ miles. Most of the mileage comes from just everyday driving, and ALOT of cruising around.

Summer of '99, I began to pay more attention to the detailing and taking care of the little details here and there. I wanted my Nova to look it's best. I added a set of hood louvers off of a 70 Nova SS. I LOVE'EM!!, they added a nice look to the car.

I began to do some detailing under the hood. I went to town cleaning everything I could, even did some painting here and there. To clean things up under the hood, I pulled off some the emission control equipement, the air pump and all relating piping. I swapped over the manifolds to a set from a 74 which had the air tubes plugged, packed up the emissions stuff and boxed it up fro storage. Just incase one day ...

Over the years, I've done a few things to make my car kinda stick out such as my "Happy Face" Air Cleaner lid which I painted up. I added an authetic Aroo-ga Horn which has become sort of a trademark sound for the Nova. I love driving around and startling people... :D

The Aroo-ga horn wasn't enough. I installed another novelty horn, a musical horn which plays 'La-Choo-Ka-Ra-Cha'. It's fun to honk while driving around and getting some people smiling and cheering and TONS of requests to honk it again.

In 1999, I became a new job where I met a gentlemen named Glenn Evans. Glenn was quite the gear-head himself and had offered up his knowledge, time and a garage to work in. We talked about some small things we could do to step up the performance of the Nova. At the time, I wanted to keep the Nova as stock as possible.

Spring 2000 brought a WHOLE NEW IMAGE to my Nova! With the aid and guidance of Glenn Evans, we did some small upgrades to the powertrain. The Stock setup was put aside and Project: MEAN GREEN began. We started by changing up the top end of the motor abit, adding an Edelbrock #1406-600cfm 4 BBL, along with Edelbrock #2101 Intake. Ripped out the Points-Distirbutor setup and installed a stock HEI distributor with ACCEL 8.0 Wires. A cam swap was also on the plate, swapping out the old stock cam for a Crane Energizer CAM 272H10. Added a double roller timing chain, replaced the Stock Oil Pump and finished it off with a set of HedMen Heddars. While we had the top end apart, the Heads where sent out to be cleaned and rebuilt. I've devoted a section with a more detailed story & pictures in the Project: MEAN GREEN Section.

Spring 2001, Project: MEAN GREEN continues and began with having the rear-end rebuilt and a gear ratio upgrade. We swapped in a set of Richmond 3.42, replacing the stock 2.73's. I wanted a little more jump in the car while still having the ability to drive it on the highway or at higher RPMs. Thought 3.42 ratio would be a good choice.

Thruout the later Summer, the Winnipeg Police Service started doing a crackdown on 'Modified' Cars, and performing 'Safety Checks/Inspections' on vehicles. One of my Nova buddies was pulled over and was subjected to one of these inspections on his Nova. After they where done their 'safety check' on his Nova, he was cited him for 8 infractures. I became worried as I wasn't sure what kinds of things they were looking for in this 'Safety Check'.

I obtained a copy of the Manitoba Safety Manual and went over the Nova and did my own 'Safety Check'. Had a few minor infractures that needed to be attended too. I had small holes behind my back quarters going into the trunk, the LakeWood Traction Bars hung below the rim of my wheel, and I have a small area like half the size of a dime in my drivers mirror which had peeled. Turns out a musical horn would fail, only if wired as a primary horn. Not a worry tho, I still have my stock horn setup.

To make sure my Nova complys with the Safety Act, some small repairs were in order. Using some fibreglass patches, I fixed up the rear quarters behind the wheels. We removed the Lakewood Traction Bars and swapped in a set of Spring Plates a friend of mine made up for me. As for the drivers mirror, I didn't bother with replacing with a spare I had, because there's a little story behind it.

Many years ago when I was a kid, the mirror had broke. My grampa fixed it himself by taking a piece of mirror, cut it and fitted it into the mirrors frame. It's just one of those little things that my grampa did to try and fix and keep up the car over the years.

After removal of the Lakewood Traction Bars, I went and seeked some assistance from Glenn. Together we designed, fabricated and fitted a different style of traction bar, a traction bar that wouldn't require replacing the Spring Plate. We went with a traction bar setup, that bolted to spring before & after the plates. Unlike the Lakewood traction bars, on this set we constructed, we had the bar extend right to the Spring Eye. Last detail we address was making sure the traction bar was high above the rim of the wheel for clearance issues. (For more details and pictures of the build, check out Project: MEAN GREEN Section).

So after addressing the issues, the Nova was back out on the streets and I was cruising around, enjoying my car without the worry of the police or any 'Safety Checkstops'.

BIG changes were in the works for 2003. With the assistance of Glenn Evans, we discussed possible builds for another motor. Something to give the Nova, some more attitude.

Glenn spoke of building a killer-400 for his 85 firebird, as I was thinking along the lines of a 383 Stroker setup myself. I kept my eyes open for a 400 block for Glenn's build. After reviewing Glenn's research/plans, I decided to go ahead and build that same 400 combo for the Nova.

My friend Kelly Holmes hooked me up with one of his friends from Saskatoon. His friend Chris was selling a 400 small block as he needed money towards his wedding. Chris was willing to sell the motor to me for my Nova, as he wanted to see it go to someone he knew, and someone who would appreciate it and make good use of it. Upon finding a 400 block, I had to give Glenn the good & bad news.

'Hey Glenn, GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS !!. Good news, I found a 400 block! Bad news, I've decided to build a 400 for the Nova.'

For all the details and ALOT of pictures of the 400 build, you can find them in Project: MEAN GREEN Section.

The 400 build/project was kept quiet. Only 4 people were aware of it being Kelly, Kyle, Glenn & Dan Klim. Slowly the word got out, but not before surprising a few of my friends first!

Along with the new powertrain, some further changes and upgrades were still needed. We changed out the old 2" exhaust, replacing it with a nice 3" Aluminized Exhaust with Flow-Pro VForce mufflers. A set of Competition Engineering Subframe connectors were installed to stiffen up the body and help keep the car from twisting.

The upgraded 3" exhaust system really gave the Nova a whole new sound. The setup is a little too loud for my liking, but my friends all love it. Kyle (as seen in insert) gives the new setup, 2 thumbs up!!

Spent much of the past few summers cruisin' around, beating on the car. As the Fall season was approaching, it seemed the car didn't quite have the jump it once did. One night while driving it hard, my friend Kris & Glenn A. told me they could smell that 'burnt tranny' smell when I was loading it up. Once we stopped, I pulled the dip-stick and the fluid, well it was NOT good. It was a grey/black metallic color and it stunk. After dropping the pan, all we saw was grey metallic goo covering the whole bottom. It was so thick in one corner, it left an impression of the tranny pump. THAT CAN'T BE GOOD! After a fluid change, the Nova was driven for maybe another week before being put away for the Winter season.

Over the winter, I spoke to my friends Chris Derksen & Nevin Preston, asking them if they would build me a strong TH350. I needed something REALLY heavy-duty which would stand up to my hard-driving habits and constant beatings. Word around town was these were the go-to guys. Chris owned and built a 69 T/A Firebird which runs high-8s in the 1/4 mile. I explained to them that I wanted a transmission strong enough to stand behind Chris' motor. Come spring time, the guys came through with a built TH350 for me!

2006, Spring came a early and I was eger to get the Nova out and drive it. Went to fire up the Nova to see if I could get it out of the garage and was shocked and amazed that the car was able to move under it's own power. I had to drive the Nova very nicely until I was able to get around to doing a transmission swap. Shelly was kind enough to let me have the use her garage over the May long weekend, to do the swap. Thanks to Shelly & Brandon for ALL their help in the swap and to Shelly for the use of her garage. Thanks Again !!

When the track opened in Gimli at the end of May, I took the Nova out to the Drag Strip to see what kind of times the car would run. I drove out with Shelly who her 73 Chevelle SS. We met up with some other friends and all pitted together at the track.

I was running the Nova 'as-is', in full street trim/radials and exhaust. My first run was an embrassing 15.25, I just wanted to keep drive and leave the track. After a few more runs and getting a better feel for the car, my times started to drop. I played around with my launching, and learnt where my shift points were. The times started at 15.25, and began to down into the low 14's, running 14.34 & 14.17. After making a few passes, we tinkered around with the car and went to watch some of my other friends race including Shelly who was running low to mid-13's in her 73 Chevelle SS. Dan Klim came over to chat, giving me some much needed advice. After making some adjustments, I made got back in line to make another pass. I definitely needed to paid more attention to my shift points. After the 14.70 run, I ran a 13.99. I WAS EXCITED!!, I broke into the 13's. Quite happy at that, I was content. I feel victim to peer-pressure from my friends to keep going and run it again. I did, and my FINAL pass of the day was 13.65 @ 100.89MPH.

Sadly, I haven't been out much cruisin' around or been attending car shows as in previous years. I started playing ball hockey and have been very involved in the WAH Ball Hockey League (WAH). When I did have some time and wasn't playing hockey, I was now spending alot of my time on another project. I purchased a 74 Olds Omega in spring of 2005. My original intent for the Omega was to part it out. After going through the Omega, it seemed that it wasn't in too bad of shape and with a little work & TLC, it could probably see the road again. The Omega had cut into my Nova-time, abit ... no, ALOT! and was on the road in Spring 2006.

I found myself using the Omega more as a daily driver, driving to and from work and running around doing errands. When night times rolls around, it's time to cruise ... it's NOVA-time !!

The Nova has suffered alittle in the maintenance department. I've been putting off alot of small tasks, due to having no time or money because of the Omega. It was nice to have the Omega around to tinker on too.

Come August 2008, the Nova finally had a place to call home. Had a 26x26 garage built at my place, where the Nova now rests indoors and protected from the elements of our climate. No more parking outside on the front street, no more running and parking/hiding in parkades when it storms outside! NO SIR! I can now rest assured, that my Nova has a cover over it's roof.

One of the biggest benefits besides security is when I work on my nova, I don't have to worry about tying up my parents driveway when I have the car in pieces. I don't have to rush, when I get frustrated, I can leave things as is and come back to it.

One thing I do miss dearly, are the Spring-time projects out at Glenn's place. Over the past years, Glenn has always had some garage space set aside for me to tinker or fix up any of my cars at his place. I have learnt an amazing amount of skills and information from Glenn. Thanks again Glenn!!

As far as things go between having the Nova, and the Omega ... The Nova will always be #1!!

Despite having the Omega, the nova is starting to really show it's age. I needed to start search and pricing out getting the bodywork done professionally. After learning what I've learnt from doing all the work on the Omega, I don't want to risk or dare ruinning the Nova.

My bodywork budget took another big blow in 2009, with the purchase of a 88 Ford Mustang 5.0L LX. I bought it off the neighbor next door to my parents place. He was looking to get rid of it, as he never drove it anymore and it just sat in storage. He wanted to sell it to someone who would continue to look after it. Little did I know at the time, that my brother-in-law and cousin passed on it. When I caught wind of the sale, I bought the car. I couldn't pass it up for the price. The Mustang is all original, bone-stock with 59K on it. I have no plans or desires for this car, it's just gonna remain stock/original.

So after blowing my bodywork budget again, the search for a shop continues as I start saving again. Not much to report on in 2010 ...

Some minor upgrades were done to the Nova, giving up on the ol'quadjet and swapping it out for a Holley 650 Double Pumper and added a MSD Streetfire HEI distributor. After rebuilding the 355 motor in the Omega, I was very impressed with how responsive and how well that Holley carb was working out. It's just what the Nova needed.

For years I have been plagued with a hesistation/breaking up I used to get after shifting into second gear. I went thru the whole fuel system, trying different fuel pumps, different q-jets. I also tried heat sheilding on the fuel line thinking it was getting too hot. Nothing I did fixed anything.

For my birthday, my parents bought me the Holley 650 DP and a MSD Streetfire distributor for the Nova. NIGHT & DAY !! Turns out my hesistation problem was the old HEI distributor I had been using for years from my Uncles old 77 Impala.

Took the Nova out to the track to see if I could better 13.65. In full street trim, radials/full exhaust, first pass out was 13.55. Second pass, started to skid out to the side and got off of it. Threw on the drag radials from the Omega and the times slowly came down to a best of 13.30 @ 101.57mph. I was quite pleased with the Nova.

Unfortunately that was it for the Nova for this year. Once I got home, I changed the oil in the Nova and didn't like what I saw in the drain pan. Copper and Silver bits in the oil.

So, it looks like the ol'406E is gonna need to come out over the winter season and have some TLC applied.

After the great work of Dan Klim building the 355 for the Omega in 2011, I enlisted his services again to help freshen up the 406 in the Nova. Talking things over in the garage with Dan and my dad, the plan was to pull the 406 and go through it over the winter.

As the ideas are flying around, Dad quickly jumps in with ideas on how to go faster, what do we do to touch 12s. From experience, Dan starts throw out some ideas, some combos and what parts we would need to touch 12s. We would need a bigger cam, aluminum heads and Dad spending my money agreeing his ideas.

The 406K build begins in March of 2012. My brother in-law was nice enough to sell me an old 400 SBC he had lying around and the plan was to use this block for the build, codename - 406 Black Block. Stripped the engine down and Dan sets off to clean up and machine the block. As Dan began to assemble the block, it turned out the block had an issue with a cam bearing in #4. Bearing would just pass through. So we had some options on things we could try, but not wanting to chance or risk a motor, we put the block aside and the hunt for another 400 is on. My brother in-law Clint pulls through again and finds another 400 block, codenamed - 406 Blue Block.

Now, to keep all these 400's seperate amongst work and conversions, each was given a codename. The 406 which was originally in the Nova was called 406E or Orange Block. The first 400 block we acquired turned out to be unusable was painted black, thus named 406 Black Block. The second 400 we acquired was painted blue, thus we named it 406 - Blue Block. Later on it would change to the '406K'. The 406E was originally spec'd by my friend Glenn Evans back in 2002 and we built it in Spring 2003. This new build was spec'd completely by Dan Klim, and we went with Dan's recommendations on what parts and everything to use.

The 406E was quickly refreshed, new rings and new bearings installed and sealed up and tucked away while the 406K build begins. I was really impressed with how well the old 406E held up considering how badly I thought I was beating on it for over 8 years.

More to come ...