The car was purchased new from a dealership in Missoula, MT late in '79. It was purchased by a woman in her late 20's and I ran into her at an oil and lube shop about a year ago! She recognized the car right away (its pretty uniquely optioned anywhere, let alone in Montana). She told me that she originally bought the car new for her retired mother to drive with the idea that, when her mother was too old to drive, she would get the car back. Unfortunately, her mother died a few years later with only 15,000 miles on the car's original engine. Apparently, the car brought back too many memories and she decided not to drive it at all and let the car sit out in the weather for nearly fifteen years. Her husband began driving the car again in '93 but, after years of sitting, the engine began to have serious problems. She sold the car to its second owner in the spring of '94 and he immediately swapped the original engine and trans for the current '77 305 and automatic TH-350. Mike had intended to turn the car into an SS, but had too many projects going and his wife decided that the Nova had to go. I bought the car from him a year later (spring of '95) with only 35,000 miles on it and the same SS-conversion intentions. I installed a Holley 4 barrel carb shortly thereafter when I discovered that the two barrel just wasn't any fun! The car currently has about 47,000 original miles on it. Unfortunately, fifteen years in the weather didn't do it very many favors and I've had to do some work to it here and there.

The car is pretty much in exactly the same project state now as when I bought it 2 years ago. This is largely due to the fact that I was able to find an SS striping/decal kit immediately, but couldn't find an SS grille emblem until early March of this year ('97). With any luck, the conversion will be complete sometime this summer and I'll own the world's only 1979 Nova "SS"! The conversion will also include the removal of the original turbine-style aluminum wheels (I found a nice set of Keystones), the removal of the gargantuan winter windshield wipers (ugly, but a necessity), and a trip to the tint shop.