i have a 78 2 door nova that i love. I dont know a thing about restoring, etc, but love my nova and would like to fix some things if i can. my carpeting is falling about and there are parts of the interior roofing that is cracked. its a wierd corogated material that itself looks as if it was a replacement. the carpeting also looks like it was redone. My question is, where might i find carpeting and or roofing and is this something that I could do myself. I live in Northern new jersey, near new york city. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

welcome to the board Bobby. Classic Industries (http://www.classicindustries.com/)sells both the carpet and headliner for your car. They also carry weatherstriping and a limited amount of other parts for the 4th generation Novas. There are others that carry those same parts, but I like the customer service there.

thanks so much Phillip for directing me to classic industries....I'm a total beginner, and wondering if there is any kind of instruction manual/or some kind of guide in doing the carpeting and heading replacement

I don’t know if Chilton’s covers body work or not. But that is how I learned to wrench on cars is by reading and trying.

http://www.chiltonsonline.com/


I have being a mechanic down pat but body works still scares me. Any mechanical questions I can answer. I have replaced carpeting and seats, and even the cloth style head liners that had bows in them. The cardboard looking head liner in my ’77 looks to be glued to the roof, luckily for me it is in great shape as I have no idea how to replace it.


Big Dave

thanks dave...when you did your carpeting, did you have to take out the seats to do the job?

Depends upon the carpet. Some have sewn in slots with flaps that fold under the seat. Others I have used are one big piece (front) with a hump and the foot wells molded in and a big chunk that goes under the rear seat as the other piece (it goes in first). With the one piece you get it centered then cut an "X" with a sharp knife for the seat frame studs and the lap belt bolts.

Like I said any questions with performance or the mechanicals and I’m your guy. But this is about all I know about body work (unless you can count replacing door panels, and removing and replacing the AM radios for an Eight-Track tape deck with two Radio Shack 8" speakers).

Big Dave

When replacing the carpet let it sit unfolded in the sun for awhile. Make sure the floor area is clean and install your choice of new under layment. Lay the carpet in the car and press ir down into the bends around the trans hump and floor wells. After sitting for awhile press it in some more. I do not make any cuts along the edges until the front seat(s) are in and I am sure it is laid exactly like I want it. Then I trim the edges and install the kick panels and door sills.
The headliner is all one piece and kinda snaps into place and is held along the edges by the trim.