Thread: Hello! from Tucson, AZ

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Welcome, Steve. I am fresh as a new snow on this site, too. The '66 sounds like a good project.

Appreciate your service and sacrifice and welcome home!

I am a newer member to this club than you are! I have a '67 Nova SS that I've owned since I graduated from high school in 1972. If you've got questions about '66/67 Novas, there's a good chance I'll have some answers. I've certainly had lots of do-it-yourself experience, mostly out of necessity since most people didn't know or care about these cars till sometime in the 80s or so.

I personally have no military experience myself outside of two miserable years in Army ROTC at my local college. It was such a bad experience that I avoided any military type situations from that time forward (about 1974/75). Lucky for me and a bunch of other guys that the draft lottery ended my second year in college or I would have been off to Viet Nam. I didn't want to go to Viet Nam, I knew plenty of guys who had been and served a tour of duty, and they were plenty screwed up from the experience. It was a BAD time to be a vet, no recognition, no honor, nothing but disrespect and obscurity. Those guys mostly were drafted, they didn't go to be heroes, and the ones that made it back were profoundly changed. I honestly don't feel one bit guilty for missing the whole mess. So there it is, I wasn't a draft dodger, but I'm not a vet either, so, I hope that's OK with you.

Hope you get back to me with your Nova questions. I'd enjoy sharing my experience on the subject with you.

Best regards,
Randy

Welcome from the Cold Frozen wasteland of Canada,,,*Just joking*,,,i live on the west coast of British Columbia,,,sgtsteve,,i'll bet you ran into a few Canucks in the "Stan" and got drunk on Canadian beer's right??
Anyhow,,,,Welcome,,,and nice choice of Car,,,,the 66 was the first car i ever gave to my Brother in 1973,,,he wrecked it on the first night out.
But he has never forgotten that car.

Cool,

Another Nova owner that can understand my questions/problems!
I'm currrently working on my 66 Nova 4 dr, which looks pretty darn good I think regardless of what others say. I am not hot rodding this car out, staying original as possible. However, I do have my eye on a 66 2 dr hardtop close to my house. It looks to be in pretty good shape, but I don't think it's an SS.
I wouldn't mind to take that off the owners hands, and maybe hot rod that a little bit. 66 is the cutoff for emissions testing here in AZ, so if I had a 67 it would have to go through emissions.
You wouldn't happen to know where I could find a bench seat in decent shape ??

Welcome from the Cold Frozen wasteland of Canada,,,*Just joking*,,,i live on the west coast of British Columbia,,,sgtsteve,,i'll bet you ran into a few Canucks in the "Stan" and got drunk on Canadian beer's right??

Thunderbucket,

Well, I did meet some nice fellow soldiers from Canada and would have loved to share some beer with them. However, we were restricted from alcohol, and it wasn't available for purchase.
The closest we got was non-alcoholic beer which is pointless.
But it's probably better that way, I would hate to see a bunch of drunk, pissed off G.I.'s mixed with M-16's, SAWs and live ammunition.

Sgt Steve

Steve,

I don't know of any Chevy II benches locally. I do know where there may be a couple of buckets, but whether they're any good or even for sale I couldn't say. The car is a '66 Chevy II SS with a black interior. It has set for at least 20 years, and I'd bet the interior is trash. Besides, you may not even care for buckets. I'm always on the lookout for '66/67 Novas in any shape or iteration, but this junker is the only one I've seen around here in at least 5 years! They are very rare in this part of Oklahoma, most of the salvaged ones that I used to frequent in my younger days for parts have long since been sent to the masher.

I would guess at this time, that eBay is probably your best bet to finding a decent bench seat. I was initially very skeptical about using eBay for anything, it seemed to be such a yuppie thing. But I have since found it to be a good if not excellent source for old car parts. I have a '68 Mercury Montego that I have found many good trim parts for on eBay. I have only seen one other Montego in Oklahoma since I bought this one in '98; and that one was a '69. So I have found some fairly rare and good parts for a reasonalble price for it on eBay. Just be forwarned, anything pertaining to '66/67 Novas or Chevy IIs, SS or not, commands high prices on eBay. Sometimes an item will go completely out of site, regardless of its intrinsic value. People get into bidding wars and ruin it for everybody else involved. That said, I would still look there first.

Meanwhile, I continue to keep my eyes open for other Novas/Chevy IIs of this vintage. If I just happen to locate a decent candidate for a replacement seat, I'll contact you immediately through this website.

Randy

Randy,

Thanks for looking out for a bench seat. I've already bought parts off of Ebay and know about the high prices, hence looking for a seat from other places. Yeah, I laugh to myself when I see those bids on Ebay going above the price you could buy them for from an online/magazine retailer. I'm also after a decent, not show quality set of taillights. I know you can buy aftermarket ones for around $70-$75 a piece, so I wouldn't want to pay more than that.

Steve