Giving the People What They Want
Innovation is what drives the aftermarket to create new products. The various part producers that make up this great industry see a need and do their best to develop products to make customers happy. And even though a model or year range of a vehicle may already be popular, companies can always come along and offer a unique or better design.
When TMI first took a stab at creating interiors for the 1968-1974 Chevy Nova line, they not only wanted to give the restomod and restoration community some quality products to upgrade their beloved vehicles, but wanted to let the aftermarket world know as well. So TMI chose to debut their new line at SEMA 2014. The Las Vegas Convention Center and all its bright lights would be the perfect stage to unveil their new line of complete products that were designed specifically for the Nova.
New for ‘72
Creating a whole new segment of interior products is no easy feat, and TMI had their work cut out for them. Once again, the resident magicians in Research and Development worked tirelessly for six months to create all the components needed for a full interior. With all the available eyeballs looking for the next new thing, TMI debut this ’72 Nova at their SEMA booth and all the hard work paid off. The Nova debuted in the TMI booth decked out with TMI's Pro-Series low-back seats with headrests in Merlot with Charcoal inserts, black grommets, and grey stitching. A set of molded Sport XR door panels were fabbed up in matching colors, and a full-length console was created in the same color scheme, complete with cupholders. The rear received just as much love with a matching Sport XR bench seat with a console in the middle to effectively create two bench seats. A one-piece molded headliner was installed, as well as a complete multi-piece carpet kit was created. To cap off this entirely new interior, the OEM dash was re-covered in Merlot Red with grey stitching.
With the interior all squared away, an array of Dakota Digital gauges stuffed the dash, a full system from Custom Auto Sound handled all the tunes, while a Classic Auto Air A/C system keeps the car cool in hot weather.
Power on Demand
Under the hood beats a 350 engine direct from GM that came out of the crate with a respectable 265hp and 351 ft-lb which was healthy starting point. An aluminum Champion Radiator keeps things cool, there’s an Edelbrock 650 carb kit with AFE air cleaner, Eddie Motorsports provided an alternator and polished serpentine kit, with a PerTronix ignition. Spent gasses are handled by a set of Doug’s headers connected to a Flowmaster dual-chamber 2.5-inch exhaust. Power is channeled through a Bowtie Overdrive High Performance Street 700R4 with a Bowtie Overdrive 1,800-stall converter feeding a DiffWorks 10-bolt stuffed with 3.73 gears and limited slip diff.
Riding Around
The Nova rides around on Viking adjustable coilovers with SSBC 2-inch front drop spindles and Church Boys Racing tubular control arms. Rounding out the stance is a set of 18x7 and 18x9 Budnik G10 wheels front and rear, wearing Mickey Thompson tires.
Something to See Here
When the Nova arrived in TMI’s hands it was a little rough around the edges, but since it was going to be complete customized that was not a real factor. The whole body was smoothed and straightened, with the help of Johnny’s Auto Color doing the dirty work and spraying the PPG Scion Cement Grey with those ultra cool custom white and maroon outlined racing stripes. All the chrome restoration parts like the window frames and grill surround was supplied by Ground Up. The front and rear were sectioned and pulled in to help with the visual aspect of making the car leaner and a bit shorter. Dynacorn came through with a 2-inch cowl hood the juts up ever so slightly, but just fits the aesthetic so well.
With an entire product line developed for the ’68-’74 era, TMI really felt they were doing the community a service by having ready-made interior products ready to go, just to make a project car be ready that much faster. And they were super stoked to be able to build this ’72 Nova up into what it is today.
