It's common for owners of collector cars to be enthusiastic about their rides, but I don't remember a person happier with his car than Chuck Wilmot.
Chuck owns a 1972 Chevy Nova SS, a mid-size during the day but a ride that rental companies today would call full size.
For Chevy, it was pretty much a sleeper because the demure appearance of this SS model masked the Nova's true intent; a car that would carry on Chevy's SS legacy. SS models were fierce and rippling with muscle. In short, they were cars that backed down from nothing. Not so much in 1972 since the biggest engine available in the Nova, even the SS, was a 350 cubic-inch V-8 producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 to 190 horsepower. Heck, most four-cylinder engines today pack more power and punch.
Chevrolet made three engines available for the Nova during 1972, a 110-horsepower inline six cylinder, a 130-horsepower, 307 cubic-inch V-8 and the biggest engine, the 350 cubic-inch V-8. To put it into perspective, the big block 454 cubic-inch V-8 available in the Corvette was rated at 270 horsepower.
The thing to remember about the Nova and cars like it is that the muscle-car era was sputtering badly and quickly coasting to the finish line as automakers scrambled to find a way around the federal Clean Air Act of 1970 that mandated tighter exhaust emissions. The most noticeable change the federal regulations meant to drivers was less horsepower and lousy fuel mileage.
Strangely enough the revised look of the Nova and its place on the Chevrolet pecking order, combined with the new reality for buyers who wanted to own an economical automobile worked in Chevy's favor. Nova sales got a significant bump and increased from 194,878 during 1971 to 349,733 cars during 1972.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago when Wilmot, and his wife, Michele, of Cicero, N.Y., were looking for a summer-fun car.
"We looked for about two months and only found cars that were in poor condition," Wilmot said. Some of them had bad interiors and some had much worse. In any case, 'we didn't find a car we liked."
Then they stumbled onto the Nova and everything changed. It was a good looking documented SS, with classic lines, a good interior and a 454 cubic-inch V-8, an engine that wasn't available when the car was manufactured. Someone had swapped out the engine somewhere along the line, but they didn't expect a numbers-matching car anyway so there was no disappointment.
They bought the car and immediately put it to good use. "We enjoyed it right away," Chuck said. They knew the car had been painted, but the original color was yellow, and black made more of a statement.
"The car needed a good cleaning but that was about it," Chuck added. The Wilmot's plan was to spend a few bucks on the car each year to keep it looking good and improve it as time went on, and they did that until Chuck decided to up the game a bit earlier this year.
He knew the underside of the car looked a big ragged so he wanted to have a little work done and have some rust in the rear section removed. Someone had sprayed undercoating over the rust as a quick fix, and most likely to hide the car's condition from prospective buyers.
The car went to White's Auto & Speed, in Cicero, and you can guess what happened next. Jason White, who owns the shop with his brother, Brian White, said the Nova's rear bumper was removed and when that happened it exposed a lot of corrosion and rust.
"The first thing I did was call Chuck and I told him to get over here and look at the car," Jason White said.
"We could see that parts had to be replaced, suspension parts had to be replaced, it needed a lot of work," Chuck said. The White's had the car for several months and did the work Chuck wanted, including repainting the hood to change it from flat black to gloss black. The underside of the car was powder coated.
Brian White said the car needed some engine work, too, and while they were at it the engine block was powder coated. New brake lines were installed because the original parts were corroded and a new gas tank had to be put in place.
One more step was replacement of the chrome trim around the windows and door pillars to give the car a perfectly finished look.
"My wife and I love the car," Chuck said. "We love to drive it in the summer, and now we have the car the way we want it."
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Owner:
Chuck Wilmot, Cicero, N.Y.
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Base price:
$2,351
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Length:
189.4 inches
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Width:
72.4 inches
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Weight:
3,031 pounds
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Chevrolet total production 1972:
2.4 million
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Nova SS production:
12,309
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1972:
Intro of Nova third generation
Know a car you'd like to see featured? Contact Kenn Peters: kpeters@twcny.rr.com. Previously, Kenn wrote about Rob Ryan and his Firebird: