Junkyard Find: 1986 Chevrolet Nova Sedan, Wisconsin Rust Edition
August 24th, 2015 8:00 AM
Share
Every summer, I go to Wisconsin to stay in a cabin on Lake Michigan owned by my wife’s family. Mostly I’m rendered too immobile by excessive cheese curd and cured-meat consumption to do much junkyard exploring, but this trip I managed to hit Green Bay to check out a self-service yard full of very rusty and/or late-model Detroit inventory. Among all the 9-year-old Malibus and endless stretches of Buicks in the GM section, I spotted this NUMMI-built Nova.
I grew up in the East Bay where NUMMI was (and Teslas are built today), and I visited the plant numerous times when it was producing Novas and Corollas, so I always get a little nostalgic moment when I see this sticker under a junkyard car’s hood.
This one doesn’t have many miles, by Corolla standards (the 1985-88 Nova was an AE82 Toyota Corolla/Sprinter behind its Chevy badges), but it has the kind of rust you expect on old Japanese cars in the rusty Upper Midwest.
I think I would not feel comfortable trusting the integrity of the suspension mounting points in this car.
The good old 4A engine, one of the all-time Toyota legends.
In this series so far, we’ve seen a fair number of NUMMI-built cars, including this ’87 Nova hatchback, this ’87 Nova sedan, this ’92 Prizm, this ’87 Corolla FX16, and this ’88 Nova sedan (not to mention this hyper-rare ’90 Prizm GSi), which reminds me that it’s about time I started shooting some junked NUMMI-made Pontiac Vibes now that those cars are getting so easy to find in the self-service yards.
{
"id": "9247498",
"alt": "",
"title": "",
"video_link": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/oeBXjNyy1Ss",
"youtube_video_id": "oeBXjNyy1Ss"
}
{
"width": 634,
"height": 357,
"showRelated": true
}
Reading the list of standard features on a new Chevy Nova can get pretty boring.
Comments
Join the conversation
"...but this trip I managed to hit Green Bay to check out a self-service yard full of very rusty and/or late-model Detroit inventory." OK, be honest, this was you, wasn't it? Don't worry, your secret is safe with us. http://wbay.com/2015/08/12/firefighters-fight-fire-on-green-bays-east-side/
Looks perfectly fine to me. In fact, somewhat tasty.