Fred Gibb / Dick Harrell Nova out of 44 year hibernation

[belker6]

Pretty excited. Landed a deal and car is now in my garage. 1968 COPO Nova with Harrell mods: Cragars, super-tune, headers, slapper bars, gauges, air shocks. Fathom Blue, blue interior, 28k miles. Original engine gone but i have leads. Currently has a 327. original trans, rear. Was in a garage on jack stands basically since 1975-1976. Owner i purchased from is second owner and only put 1500 miles on it. Great docs ( POP, Fred Gibb docs, etc., including a bill of sale from Harrell's shop signed "Mrs.Dick Harrell." Car is number 40. Was repainted in 1970 with black panel painting. Dave

[BOWTIE67327]

NO PICS FOR 2 DAYS??:dunno:

[belker6]

1

[belker6]

Where car sat all those years. Never moved. He said he layed carpet under it in the winter and put it on jack stands and in the summer let it down. He had just taken it off of jack stands and filled tires/shocks with air.

[belker6]

On trailer. Pics look better than actual. There are bumps / bruises / lacquer cracks and some lower rust.

[belker6]

Harrell badging on hood and center console

[belker6]

t

[302moz]

Nice find!

[belker6]

guages in dash. Guy i bought from thinks owner added tach?

[belker6]

Owner put carpet/sill plates/seat belts, etc in trunk to preserve them and prevent moisture on floor. That is original spare / jack assy and an 8 track that was in car and trunk matting rolled up

[belker6]

crappy shot of traction bars and hi-jackers

[PeteLeathersac]

'

W:eek2:W and BIG Congrats!
Looks like amazing condition, great to hear the original rear also trans are there and best of luck backtracking the original lump!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[belker6]

I believe this is the engine that was put in it in 1970. Why? Noone knows as original owner passed about 25 years ago. It has a HM suffix code.



The 1964 Chevrolet L76, 327 cubic inch displacement (CID), 365 horsepower (HP) engine was the most powerful production standard small-block V8 built until the Chevy LS6 came out in 2001.

The Chevrolet L76 327 CID top end carbureted V8 engine produced 365 HP at 3,200 RPM. Its bore and stroke is 4 inches by 3.25 inches with a torque rating of 350 foot-pounds at 4,000 rpm. The compression ratio is 11:1 with a compression rating of 140 pounds per square inch.

Production of the Chevrolet small-block (small for a V8) engines began in 1955. They were known as "Mighty Mouse" motors for their high-performance ratings. The 327 CID, 365 HP, L76 small-blocks were built from 1964 to 1965

[belker6]

Thanks Pete, I am trying to be optimistic. Last known car it was in was a 55 chevy.

[COPO]

Great find Dave. Congrats.

[belker6]

hood plaque

[belker6]

Thanks Charley!

[L78M22Rag]

Incredible find. Congrats!!

Looking forward to hearing how you found it, and your plans for it. Enjoy...

[belker6]

Thanks Helmut! Plans for now is clean carpet, reinstall it and seatbelts & console. Clean gas tank, and car thoroughly. Original cragars are in exceptional shape. Those nylon L60-15s and front tires are going to need to be replaced. They could be the originals. Then get it serviced and try cranking it over. As far as finding it, a few people know of it. He didnt let many people see it. I know the original owner was a very good friend of Gary Holubs and they street raced it a lot in it in the late 60's / early 70's. I know Schoney has seen the car and knows about it. I actually met the guy at my business as he was trying to sell me paint about 15-20 years ago. A conversation led to him telling me about the car. I asked him to let me know if he ever decides to sell it and a couple of months ago we began negotiating. It was very tough for him to let it go after all of those years, in fact he backed out a couple of times.He did rebuild brake system a couple of years ago, and said it did start but only kept running when gas was poured in carburetor. Thats promising!

[Steve Shauger]

This thread was taken down because there were some inappropriate comments posted and not in the spirit of this website.
In addition I had a joint phone call with Dave &Ken who were directly involved, and agreed to have some of the thread restored.
This is historically significant and great car. I just wanted to clarify why the thread was removed and restored.