When it comes to finding a classic car, many times, luck has to be on your side. For instance, you either happen to be at the right place at the right time and see it for yourself, or you happen to hear about it from another person. For Mike Schanuth, a trip to the auto part’s store was his lucky break in finding this Nova.

“I was actually at the part’s house getting stuff for another car,” says Mike. They know I rebuild cars, and one of the guys behind the counter said he had seen a Chevrolet Nova that I should look at. He knew I rebuilt classic cars and thought it would be a good one to restore. I had a 1972 Nova when I was in high school, and I saw this as a chance to build that car again.”

By the time the mid-to-late ’60s rolled around, Chevrolet’s econobox Nova had become a true muscle car.

The Nova was gray with a black vinyl top, and it had a 350 with a four speed to motivate it. Inside was a blue bench seat and a brown dash pad. “I bought it for a whopping $900 and took it home. The first thing I did was strip the interior. I actually found a Super Sport that was wrecked and had a great black interior, so I bought it,” Mike stated. That interior upgrade was only the beginning.

“I thought I would rebuild the engine, and when I disassembled it, I found it was a four-bolt main block and had domed pistons,” Mike said. During the reassembly, he added a 650cfm Holley double pumper, Crane Cams Energizer cam with .500/.500-inch lift and 246/246 degrees of duration at .050-inch lift. The car came with a Saginaw four-speed, and Mike put it back in service. Behind that is a 3.73-geared 10-bolt rearend.“I completely rebuilt the suspension, and this thing is a blast to drive,” says Mike. “In fact, a lot of people think I kept the car I had in high school. I’m going to be 60 years old in November, and I’ll be a motor head until the end. This all started in 1993, and I will keep it until I can’t drive anymore. When that happens, I’ll give it to my grandson, Cody. He’s 4 years old and already a motor head.

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].