Brian's Old Blue
/When I first saw a picture of Old Blue, it was in an eBay auction, #130678746966. I had been looking at Nova items but had no intention of buying a car or anything really. However some interesting pictures and likely a glass of wine or two had me bidding one hundred bucks over the last guy. All the time thinking that there was still five days to go and one of those 23 other bidders will certainly bid again!
That didn't happen and there I was the new owner of a neat old Nova that just happened to be located in Williamsburg, Virginia! I got hold of the seller and had more than a few phone calls with him. This guy had, according to his profile, a pair of very nice '69 Z/28's and his future plan for the car was to make it into a Z/28 Nova. In preparation he had been stockpiling in an empty garage bay all sorts of goodies and original spare parts and trim. In the meantime though, it was going to be a driver for his 16 year old son and the original six was going to left in for the time being just so the kid wouldn't kill himself right away! Towards that aim he had done a front disc brake conversion, installed a five-speed transmission out of a mid-80's Camaro with a Hurst shifter, a steering column and box from a Nova a couple years newer. All of that looked really good in the pictures and even though he offered me the chance to back out, I sent the money and hired the same transport outfit that my good friend Joe Ball had used to bring home his old Ford roadster pickup. Joe also volunteered his enclosed car trailer and truck to drive down to Blaine, meet the driver and then bring the Nova back to the Island.
In one of several calls the seller offered me first crack at the goodies he had been collecting for the car. I took him up on a bunch of those items, all new old stock or reproduction, that included rear multi-leaf springs, chrome drip rail moldings, front and rear bumper guards, rear taillight assemblies, marker lights, rocker trim, hood edge trim, front eyebrow trim, Nova sport mirrors, a complete dual exhaust kit and a new tinted windshield. Over time I added several other bits of outside trim even managing to find NOS GM 250 engine numbers for the front fenders.
Somewhere about this time I was selling the house in Ladysmith and I managed to talk another good friend Larry Beurlin who runs Cassidy Automotive to take on a project and get her running and certified to British Columbia. Old Blue as she was now known, was there for several months and during that time we added power steering and a power brake booster. After several months of working on her in between keeping his shop running, I was able to pick up a temporary license and drive her home. After registration and license I was able to drive around and have fun!
After a few years of that Blue was really starting to show her age and I decided to see about getting her all fixed up. I soon discovered that almost all body shops wanted nothing to do with an old car. There was not enough money to be made out of them for the time and effort needed to do any kind of a good job. I was fortunate to find Eugene and the crew down at Highway Autobody in Duncan who were willing to take on the work. As with all things the work needed evolved as bits were removed and hidden damage became readily visible. The shop worked magic and cut out and replaced the rocker holes, rebuilt the front and rear windshield channels, took out the small dent in the wheel well and made everything look smooth! As well they refurbished some of the original trim that sported black highlights and made them look new as well and they even refinished the places you would not normally look but would notice if they weren't done. Highway spent a lot of time on Old Blue but these guys enjoy working on the old cars and to them it is a labor of love!
I wanted her to be the same original Astro Blue and Eugene got it really close but with just a little more “pop” to the finish. The result speaks for itself, a really deep sky blue with subtle mega hints of metallic! It seemed to take forever but watching Blue fall apart and barely looking like a real car with her bits scattered and then seeing her slowly coming all back together was amazing! Old Blue has a new lease on life and is absolutely beautiful!
