Check Out this 1963 V-8-Powered Nova Sleeper

 

Just because GM didn’t offer a Chevy II with a V-8 before 1964 didn’t mean you couldn’t buy one brand new. Soon after the car debuted in 1962, GM started producing the parts necessary to make the non-ordained marriage possible. That the conversion more than doubled the price of the car itself means dealer-converted models were exceedingly rare even when new.

 

Charles Pinchak’s V-8–powered 1963 is all about rarity but it has nothing to do with the L79 wedged between its spring towers. The particular series of 327 he swapped didn’t exist until 1966 so that makes the car inauthentic, which Charles willingly admits … if asked, of course. But his Nova is far rarer than one of those documented dealer-swap cars—in fact, you could call it one of one. “It’s my first car,” he revealed.

It’s also likely more storied than any of those real examples. That Charles even got a Nova is a story in itself. He asked his grandfather, a mechanic of 40-plus years, to go car shopping with him. “He said he’d find me a nice Mustang,” Charles said.

That his grandfather turned those wrenches for Ford didn’t seem to matter before Charles explained that he rather wanted a Nova like his friend’s ’64. “His response, ‘Who in their right mind would buy a Chevrolet?’” he recalled.

They say the greatest gift one can give is unconditional love, which is what Charles’ grandfather offered the day this particular Nova turned up. “My grandfather looks it over and shakes his head and finally says OK,” Charles remembered. In retrospect, to do otherwise would’ve been foolish. Exceptional for its age, it had 93,000 miles. Exceptional for the wet side of the Pacific Northwest, it had no rust to speak of. Exceptional for anywhere in 1986 for such a solid car, the sellers were asking $900. As he was three months away from his driver’s license, his grandfather swallowed his pride and drove the Nova home for him.

Naturally, Charles accumulated stories along the way. His fondest, he admitted, began in 1995, the year he disassembled the car to restore it. What makes the chapter so special was that his grandfather, the career Fordophile who begrudgingly consented to shop for a Chevrolet, helped.