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Old 06-04-2009, 08:32 PM
jasonL78 jasonL78 is offline
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Default 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Never did post my car for sale on the sight so I thought I would give it a try. Looking to get 45,000 for it. If anyone is interested pm me.

Jason


My e-bay add a couple of monthes ago.

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately and I have decided to part with what I believe to be an original 1968 Nova SS with the L78 option. For those of you that are new to the 1968 nova big block cars I will give you some history of what I have learned about this one year only Chevy 2. GM built 901 BB nova’s in 1968 they were a limited production run from late April to mid July of 1968. They built 234 /350 HP cars and 667 /375 HP cars and 50 of the 375HP cars were the Fred Gibb COPO cars which had the turbo 400 transmissions.

I have owned the car since 2001 and I did a complete restoration from 2004-2006. This is not a numbers matching driveline car. I have tracked previous owners back to 1978 In Pleasant Valley NY and the original L78 motor was long gone in 1978. I will provide the new owner with all the previous owners’ names that I have. In 1978 the car was complete from what I was told minus the motor. The new owner from Highland NY in 1978 put a small block in it and ran it for a year or so before selling it to his friend. That friend also from Highland NY took the whole car apart with intensions to restore it around 1980 time frame. This is where the original transmission and rear-end was separated from the car. The next 2 owners did nothing with it except store it with again intensions of restoring the rare car. The car spent almost 23 years in Highland NY before I bought it in 2001. I also feel it might have been sold new from Louis Smith Chevrolet in Highland NY because I still have the old leather key chain that was hooked to the keys in the ignition which has this dealers name on it. This is just an educated guess?

So not knowing it’s rarity until I started doing some investigation work on these BB Nova’s, this is what I found. The car had the 6000 redline tachometer in the dash and this was only put into 375 HP novas. It still had the 1 year only 4 speed pedals along with the original BB transmission cross member. The car still retained the original BB motor mounts 1 year only for 1968 BB nova’s. It also had the BB nova core support with the 23 Inch opening for the radiator, along with the BB heater box. When I removed the heater box the heater core was an original Harrison unit with a date code of M67 which is December of 1967. It also had factory 4 piston power disk brakes, and the car still had the original booster, master cylinder, metering block, calipers and 2 piece rotors. This option was only available on the 1968 Super Sport Nova’s. Also on the drivers side frame rail I found the dual exhaust plate welded to the frame rail. This plate was welded to the frame rail on the assembly line when a car was equipped with dual exhausts. The next important thing that I found about the car is that it had a build date of 05D which translates to 5 the fifth month May and D, the 4th week of 1968. So the car falls right into the months the BB novas were built. After going through the interior with years of neglect I found an original broadcast sheet for the car in the back seat. So one would think this would tell me if it was an original L78 car. For some odd reason my broadcast sheet has no motor, transmission or rear-end information? This is not uncommon because I know of other 68 BB novas that don’t give the motor suffix either. On the build sheet the car was 4th car in sequence on the assembly line on May 31, 1968. After talking to a lot of Nova people which all have became real good friends about the car, myself and others believe this to be, an original 1968 L78 396 4 speed car. But since it is not a numbers matching driveline car it is what it is.

So now let me tell you about the car! It has a date coded L78 spec. motor with a date coded M21 Muncie transmission, and a 12 bolt rear-end which is not date coded to the car with 373 gears. I will give all the date codes I have later in the description along with a break down of the codes on the broadcast sheet. The car has Ivy Gold bucket seat interior with the console and gauges option. According to the build sheet the car has the deluxe interior option with rear arm rest and shoulder seatbelts along with other interior accents. The car had a factory wood simulated steering wheel in the car when I bought it, so I am going to assume this was original to the car. It now has an aftermarket OER wood wheel because the original was cracked in several spot’s. Now onto the exterior, the car has factory soft ray tinted glass. The exterior color is known as Sequoia green almost silver and it draws a crowd when ever the car is shown. I think this color was only available in the 1968 model year for GM. The car was also ordered with the optional black vinyl top. I don’t know of another 68 BB nova with this color combination and all these options which in my opinion make it one of a kind.

Let’s talk about the restoration of the car. The car has had a complete ground up restoration, everything on the car was taking a part and either replaced with new or restored parts. The paint is PPG base coat clear coat and it does have a couple of chips. Look at the pictures one chip was from having too much seam sealer and when I hung the door after I painted it the first closing hit the seam sealer and chipped the paint. The other chip is a stone chip. I would rate the paint an 8 out of 10. The vinyl top was new and installed by me. All the mechanicals have been replaced or restored. The interior was all new during the restoration and shows no wear or defects. Some of the original parts may have some scratches do to they are not reproducing that particular part or are impossible to find. Overall the car is a very nice rare driving show car that could easily be brought to the next level if someone wanted. I didn’t want a trailer queen when I built this car. So it is what it is, like I said earlier. I am an honest guy who just decided to move on and I realize I will never own a car as rare as this one again. I have a couple other projects going on so at this point I have decided to let this one go for my own personal reasons.

Like I said earlier in my description I will decode all the drive line dates that I have on the car. This is what I know about the motor. It has a February 26 or 28th 1968 /440 casting date block and it is still standard bore with stock TRW 11/1 pistons. The car has 3919840 April 1968 head’s along with the correct 3933163 rectangle port intake. The car has a date coded water pump D-10-8, a date coded starter E-17-8, and a date coded alternator 1100814 of D-12-8. The engine pad has no Vin or suffix code on it. This was removed prior to me owning it. I bought this motor as a short block assembly and I was told by the seller it was removed from a car in the early seventies with low miles. The Muncie M21 transmission has a date code of April 30th of 1968. This past winter I installed the motor with all the date coded components. I sent the headers which are hooker competition headers with 2 1/8 inch primary’s back to jet hot for there extreme sterling finish. The valve train is all comp cams, (solid lifters, valve springs, roller tip rockers and cam.) The motor run’s and sounds strong with the flow master 2 ½ inch American thunder exhaust.



I will also decode the build sheet that I have for the car.

A01= Tinted glass

D55= console

A51= Bucket Seats

C08= vinyl top

ZJ1= Custom interior
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  #2  
Old 06-04-2009, 08:35 PM
jasonL78 jasonL78 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

link to members rides! I f anyone want's pictures I can post more or send them to you?

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/show...e/9#Post210864
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Old 06-05-2009, 04:57 AM
jasonL78 jasonL78 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

A couple of pictures from this spring with the new motor in it.

Jason










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Old 06-05-2009, 07:43 PM
PPPJJJFFF PPPJJJFFF is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Highland New York.....just one town over from me. I remember a couple of old chevy muscle cars running around at that time. I had an L78 SS Chevelle at that time. Street raced a couple of those Highland boys!!

Patrick
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Old 06-05-2009, 07:53 PM
jasonL78 jasonL78 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Do you remember my car? Or know someone that would. Like I said in my listing I know of all the owners to 1978. I would like to find more history on the car. Pm me if you can help.

Jason
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  #6  
Old 06-06-2009, 08:42 AM
JK396 JK396 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

sweet
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Old 06-07-2009, 06:00 PM
lbnaz lbnaz is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Is it my eye sight or are the marker lights on the fenders in different locations?
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Old 06-07-2009, 08:42 PM
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brent396 brent396 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Jason super nice car good luck with the sale.Very rare car 612 ever made .You sure you want to sell your gold plated chicken lips.
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  #9  
Old 06-10-2009, 08:00 PM
jasonL78 jasonL78 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

E-bay link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...K%3AMESELX%3AIT

Does anyone have any opinion on what I am asking? Do you think I am to High? Just wondering I haven't got 1 e-mail on the car? This is the second time it has been on e-bay.

Jason
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Old 06-10-2009, 08:15 PM
gb70 gb70 is offline
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Default Re: 1968 Nova SS L78 4 speed car!

Change your listing to reflect a buy it now price or best offer.
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