In 1969 I was in the US Army serving in Vietnam. Someone in my squad had a copy of the July issue of Hot Rod Magazine, which when he was done with it, was passed down to me. In it was an article entitled "13-Second Grocery Getter" about the 1969 Chevy Nova Super Sport. After reading the article several times, I figured this was the car for me.
At the base post exchange, there was a guy who was selling new cars through the General Motors Overseas Distributors Corporation. He was also selling Chrysler and Ford products all in a program to sell cars to service members to be delivered to them once they returned home. Since the timing was such that I would be buying a 1970 model from a 1969 catalog and he didn't have a photo of the Nova, but he did have one of the new Dodge Dart. He tried to convince me to buy the Dodge, but I stuck to my guns and went with the Nova. A wise decision, one of the few I was making in that stage of my life.
Anyway I put up $500 as a deposit and went about the task of trying to get a loan for the remainder. Eventually, buy joining the Non Commission Officers Association and obtaining a Letter of Recommendation from my command officer, Captain Robert J. Walden, I was able to secure a loan from the Broadway National Bank in San Antonio, Texas, of all places. My payment after kicking in another $500 would be a whopping $62.91 a month. What did I pay for the car you ask? $2899.00.
So, upon being discharged from the Army I returned home in one piece and had to wait another month for my car to be delivered. The car was being delivered to Los Angeles, so on the appointed day, with my current girlfriend at the time, we flew to LA and took a cab to Kenneth Chevrolet, signed a few documents and drove off in my first new car.
And it was a hot rod...350 cubic inches, 300 HP, 4-speed, and posi traction. I could burn rubber in 1st 2nd and 3rd. And burn rubber I did, going through tires and clutches like nobody's business.
It wasn't long before I got married and the hot rod Nova became a family car. First my beloved wife Cathie sort of took the car over and I was relegated to a $200 61 Ford Galaxie. We had kids and it became our family car. We put a trailer hitch on it and towed a 16' travel trailer with it all the way to Canada and back. Then in 1983 I got a company car, we bought a Volvo station wagon and the Nova sat. It sat for so long at times that the battery would go dead and we would have to coast it down the hill popping the clutch to get it started. It sat for a long time under a eucalyptus tree and gathered dust and dead leaves. A neighbor ran into it putting a sizable dent in the passenger door. Then in 1990 I decided I should be taking better care of it. So the dent in the door was fixed, a new paint job and new interior. Still it didn't get driven much, so at Cathie's urging we sold it in 1993.
Brad, a young man in the Navy bought it for $4500. I remembered him telling me that he was from Florida and would be heading home when he got out of the Navy. I had kept and the documentation from when I purchased the car and I gave it all to Brad. It wasn't long after selling it that I regretted my decision, but I knew the car was in Florida and it was a goner.
Over the ensuing years on occasion, I would see a Nova driving down the highway. That made me regret selling it even more. Every once in a while I would go on-line to try to find one for sale, but with prices out of my reach, another Nova was not in the cards.
Then in February of this year, Cathie and I were meeting our grandson for dinner. It was dark when we pulled into the parking lot and while searching for a parking spot, we saw a blue 1970 Nova. Cathie said to me "Would you every want to by another Nova?" My reply was, "It's not gonna happen, they cost too much." So we parked and as we were walking to the restaurant, we walked past the Nova. It looked just like our old one right down to the color. Upon further inspection we noticed a sticker in the rear window for a police origination that I belonged to with the date of 1984 on it. I put the sticker there. This was my Nova!
I couldn't believe it, here it was back in San Diego and we found it. We went in for dinner, but I couldn't eat. I went out and left a note on the windshield asking the owner to call me. I must of got up from the table 4 or 5 times, running out to see if the car was still there. My grandson thought I was nuts. Finally when we finished eating and left it was gone. Now the waiting began.
Would the owner call? That night, no call. The next day, no call. Nor the next or the next. After a week still no call and I figured it was gone again. Then two weeks later the owner called and lo and behold it was Brad, the young man I had sold it to 27 years earlier. I told him I would sure like to see the car again. He said, come on over and take it for a spin if you want. So, I did just that, but being afraid I might hurt it, I just drove it down the block and back, reeeaalll slow. After my ride, I told Brad that if was to ever sell it, to please give me first. He thought for a while and then said that because I was the original owner he would sell it to me. He stated a price and I told him I would have to think about it. On the drive home Cathie and I both agreed that we had to buy it back. After a few days, I called and made a counter offer to Brad and he accepted.
Brad it seems likes old cars and has several that he has restored in he yard. So he know the value of the provenance of old things and still had all the documentation from my original purchase. We finalized the deal, and the Nova is once again home, where it will stay. How much did I pay for it you ask? I'm not telling, but it was a tad more than the 2,899 I paid for it new.
The story of getting my car back has gotten some attention and was published in an on-line magazine.
So now the car is being restored. The engine is in my shop and the car is at a restoration shop nearby. I'm saving my allowance for all the new parts I will be buying and will slowly be making it look like new. It's a pretty big project, but that's a story for next time.
