Using a plasma cutter and reciprocating electric saw, Phil cut the entire rear floor pan and axle hump out of the car.

After he made the perimeter cut, the rear floor pan drops to the ground. Note that the stock wheel housings are still in place here. Phil elected to attack the Nova’s inner structure before turning his attention to the external body panels.

Here’s the rear axle hump after being moved forward 10-inches and tack-welded in position. While the stock wheel houses could be mini-tubbed for added tire clearance, it is a time-consuming operation.

Instead, he trimmed a Competition Engineering steel wheel tub kit (PN C3003) to fit and welded it in place. With retro-looks, they easily clear the 29-inch tall Mickey Thompson 10.00-15 nostalgia slicks. Because the relocated wheel tubs occupy the same space as the rear side windows, the windows must be installed in a permanent raised position. And naturally, the rear seat is a thing of the past.

Turns out, former Hot Rod staffer Will Handzel originally bought the car less drivetrain with the idea of making it into a magazine project car. He got a 1975 vintage 250 straight six and air cooled Powerglide and installed them just to get it running again. But Will lost interest, the car never ran and it was sold to Petralia and his pal Marty who intended to make it into a 9.90 Super Gas car. That was all back in 1995 and before long these guys lost interest and the car sat in Marty’s mom’s driveway with cats crawling all over it.

Yesterday, Saturday November 8, 1997 I drove to her house for a look see. Their original asking price was $1200, then $1000, then $750. All of the price drops came without any attempt to negotiate on my part. These guys just wanted the car out of that driveway in a hurry. A quick inspection confirmed the Nova’s general excellent condition, it had original paint, no significant rust, some spare parts, and only minor dents. I said “I’ll take it” and gave them a $200 deposit and agreed to pay the balance of.  I’m Jungle Jim, I am!

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On the following Monday morning as my editor Ro McGonegal and I traveled to the SEMA convention in Las Vegas with the rest of the Hot Rod staff, I mentioned my plan to transform the Nova into a streetable altered wheelbase funny car and he said; “Do it for the magazine”, meaning, do it for Hot Rod. Further encouragement came from several SEMA exhibitors that expressed interest in supporting the project.

The golden rule is that this will be a much simpler process than if I were attempting to restore the car. Less can be more and the objective is to construct a crude but clean tribute to all those famous Sixties match race cars without pissing anybody off with an unauthorized clone. I’ll make it my own and want to go through the exact same construction experience as did Jungle Jim, Randy Walls, Doug Thorley and others who built independent (non-factory assisted) funny cars back in the golden age of drag racing, when so many things – like altered wheelbase machinery – had never been seen before.