Book Reviews
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This is the National Nostalgic Nova club's Nova Times, which is the only monthly magazine devoted to Novas. Ful of tech tips and how-to articles, along with color feature Novas, this is a must read for me each month. There are always Novas and parts for sale, which are not listed anywhere else. You can only get this by joining up with NNN. |
Muscle Car Color History: Nova and Chevy II, by Steve Statham. This is a fairly new book, it is filled with many large and high quality color photographs. There is a complete history of the Nova. I found this book to be excellent, very entertaining and informative. |
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ChevyII Nova & SS Brooklands Books, Compiled by R.M. Clarke. This is a collection of magazine road tests of Nova as they originally appeared in Car magazines when the cars were new. Very entertaining, but you may notice that the technical information in some these articles is incorrect. The photographs found in the old road tests can be very useful if you are restoring a Nova. This book is all in black and white, but it is no big problem as the original magazines were almost always black and white too. There are road tests from eack year from 62 to 72, except 65 and 67. There is a newer version of this book available than the one that I am showing, but the two books are very similar, containing mostly the same tests. |
This is the newer release from Brooklands, and is still available. It is the same book as the one shown above but with the addition of a few more tests. This one covers two additional model years. This one has an article about Bad Bascom, a 63 Nova with a 327 engine conversion by Bill Thomas, an article about a 73 Nickey L88, and two compact car comparison tests from 73 and 74. This is in addition to all of the tests contained in the earlier version. |
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Nova SS, a source book, by Edward A Lehwald. Actually, most of the information is written by Chevrolet. This book contains reproductions of the original sales brochures and advertising for Novas. There is no information on 62 models because the SS was introduced in 63. The brochures which are reprinted here do cover all models of Nova though. Each model year has a short introduction, with limited production numbers included. Very limited coverage of Novas later than 1976, as the SS was not available in those years. This book is a very useful tech refrence as to which options and colors were available. There is Acadian sales information included also. The book is all in black and white, and the materials are reduced in size with respect to the originals. |
Nova SS Volume II, also by Edward Lehwald. This book is similar to the one above, but with some of the material that would not fit into the first volume. More emphasis is placed on magazine ads and more obscure sales material. There is more Acadian related material also. It's odd that here again they include information on the 77 to 79 models but leave out 1962. I often pull these two books off of the shelf to find tech information for readers of the web page. Even if you have both of these books, all of the original Chevy II sales brochures are not in here. So, if you have an interest in a particular year of Nova, it would be a good idea to also find an original sales brochure to make sure that you have a complete refrence. |
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Chevy Super Sports, by Terry Boyce. When I first started to look for Nova related books many years ago, this is all that existed. Terry tells the history of all Chevrolet SS models, and includes photographs mostly taken from Chevrolet promotional material. Production figures are included. The book is all in black and white. There are some engine codes in the last section that were very useful to me in the 1970s and 80s, when this information was scarce. |
Chevrolet by the numbers, by Alan Colvin. This is available in three volumes, covering 1960 - 64, 1965 - 69, and 1970 - 75. This is a very useful book for looking up all of the numbers that you can find on a Chevy. No other source comes close to this one in terms of the amount of information available. For checking cowl tags and VINs on cars, or checking casting numbers of parts that are for sale, this book is well worth the (high) cost. Very concise. Alan has chosen not to include cowl tag option codes in the book, to prevent the information from being misused. I strongly disagree with the author on this issue, but these books are still the best ones available in this category |
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Chevrolet parts interchange Manual, by Paul Herd. This book attempts to specify which Chevrolet parts are interchangeable with parts from other Chevrolet models. Model years 1959 to 1970 are covered. The information is well laid out, and very useful as far as it goes. The book has quite a few illustrations and photographs, and some of the parts have descriptions or dimensions listed. The major flaw with the concept is that parts from other GM makes such as Pontiac and Oldsmoblle are also interchangeable with Chevrolet parts, but could not be covered in this book. I would suggest getting freindly with your local junkyard, and using the Hollanders Interchange manuals that are almost always used there. Or check out the book below. |
Nova, 1965 to 1979, from ADP Hollander. This is a new book, it contains information about interchangeability of parts between various makes and models with the Nova. Very useful, especially since parts for other models are often cheaper and /or easier to find than parts for Chevys. This book says on the cover and in the advertising that it covers the 1965 to 1979 model years, but this is a mistake. The book actually only covers 1968 to 1979. There is no information here about the early Novas. In comparison with the Chevrolet Parts Interchange manual shown above, the descriptions of the parts are not as good. Also this book has none of the illustrations found in the other book. There are some grille pictures to help in model year identification, and some hubcap and wheel pictures. Still, even with its shortcomings, the book can be very useful, and will probably pay for itself in parts cost savings. This book can be bought online directly from the publisher. |
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What's this? Why it's our own Nova News, the newsletter of Golden State Novas. You can get this each month by Joining Golden State Novas. This is where you can find out where and when the next meeting is, read what the officers have to say, and genrally keep up with the club. |