Billy Joe Armstrong's 1962 Chevy II Nova - Stolen

Update! Car was found and is fine. The guitars inside it are still missing. 

Well, this really sucks. Bill Joe Armstrong's 1962 Chevy II Nova has been stolen and he's put an APB out on his socials asking us for help in retrieving it. There were also guitars and an amplifier in the car at the time it was stolen. He's asking that anyone who's seen it, has info on its whereabouts or tips contact Costa Mesa police, incident number 22-002015, 22-002016. Or call 714-754-5280. That's Costa Mesa police not Billy Joe's cell number, I googled it so you won't have to. Billy Joe says the little Chevy's been in the GD (Green Day) family for over thirty years. 

You would think this would be an unusual car for a rock star to be driving all these years, but California Car Culture is a horse of a different feather. The smattering of Hollywood types that I know strive to make statements with what they drive - although I'm not sure what statement a '62 Chevy II makes. Billy Joe is known as a collector car collector so that makes it more sense. It also makes him as cool in my eyes as he is cool to those that really appreciate his music. I mean, I like the one or two mainstream Green Day hits but the harder edge stuff I can do without. Like I could do without a '62 Chevy II in my classic car collection but hey, that's just my "II cents". 

 

The compact Chevy II was developed in record time after the disappointing launch of the rear engine Chevrolet Corvair for model year 1960. All but conventional compared to the Corvair, it was frontal assault on Ford's Falcon, also introduced for 1960, that significantly outsold the Corvair. In the early 1960's Detroit was finally getting around to trying to thwart off the imports. 

Billy Joe's "II" was, or being optimistic, is a "Nova" which means it was the top-of-the-line "II" with as many niceties as possible in a Chevrolet including power steering, brakes, maybe even air conditioning and the new-for-'62, 194 cubic-inch, "Hi-Thrift" inline six making one-hundred and twenty brake horsepower. Ads for Chevy II's with the six claim the new engine had the "spirit to take the measure of many V-8's". 

Chevy II's came standard with a four-cylinder engine based on the new six. At 153 cubic inches, it was Chevrolet's first four-cylinder engine since 1928 and made ninety horsepower. I knew a kid in high school who drove his grandmother's Chevy II sedan with that engine, and it was a dog even making my pathetic '74 Comet seem rocket-powered. Contemporary road test reviews peg it going from zero to sixty in twenty-seconds. I can't believe it was even that fast. Biggest problem aside from it being buzzy and shaky was the "Super-Thrift" four-cylinder got maybe one mile per gallon more than the six did. II's came with either column mounted three-speed manuals, the proverbial three-on-a-tree or two-speed "Powerglide" automatics. 

Details on Billy Joe's II are scant. I can tell you the hubcaps and trim rings, as handsome as they are on his car, aren't period correct although they certainly look like they are. Suspension looks somewhat lowered as well. Tires appear a bit larger than the thirteen-inch donuts it came from the factory with. No word on what's under the hood. Chevrolet's 283 cubic inch V-8 wasn't available until 1964 but next to anything within reason could be stuffed under the hood of a '62. 

Hope you get this back, Billy Joe! I think you will. Can't say the same about the guitars and amp. 

 

1972 Chevrolet Nova - Almost Criminal

Stumbled across this 1972 Chevrolet Nova recently and it brought me back. Way back. Not sure when exactly as some memories don't line up chronologically for me anymore. Funny how that happens as you get older. Details once so crystal clear to you suddenly begin to fade. 

Anyway, I was dating a girl named Regina through my senior year of high school and freshman and sophomore years of college and sometime during that time her older sister Sandy and her husband Wayne offered to sell me their Nova for, are you sitting down? $75. 

Even in 1982 or 1983 that was the deal of a lifetime. And, of course, I didn't take them up on it. It looked just like this '72 here save for that super-rare and strange optional "Sky Roof". Fun facts, the Skyroof was an odd, quasi-convertible top meets a massive sunroof and was only offered on 1972 and 1973 Chevy Nova's. Just over 10,000 or so were ever sold making this one here quite rare. Anyhoo, back to Sandy's Nova. 

They wanted to get rid of it because it was a hassle to park it where they lived. Parking then as now was a premium in the overcrowded commune like community of Long Beach, New York on Long Island. Many times they'd have to park one of their two vehicles upwards of a mile from their apartment. Better to have just one car to worry about. Only having one car would save on insurance, shoes and sneakers too.  

No surprise, it was far from perfect. Rear quarter panels were rusted through exposing the trunk, the finish was all but gone (like on this one) and the interior was torn up. Dash had cracks in it too. I don't remember how many miles were on it, but it had a lot of wear for a car that at the time was just ten or eleven years old. Then again, years ago cars didn't age nearly as well as they do today. Says the guy who uses a twenty-year old car with almost a quarter-million miles on it as a daily driver. 

What I really liked about it was how it rode and handled. Although it had Chevrolet's 307 cubic-inch V-8 like this car and not a "350", it had far more "go" than my Comet had. Way smoother too. Despite it having a funky, "when-is-this-thing-going-to-shift" two-speed Powerglide. The muffler was shot so it seemed as though it had a lot more power than it actually did. Sounded great too. Why didn't I pull the trigger?

Frankly, I've never been the biggest fan of these cars. Anything "Chevy Nova" to be honest. Too small while at the same time being too big, in my humblest of opinions, they have little of the design magic that many Bill Mitchell era designs have. And the safety-bumper era Nova's (1973-1979) look as clumsy as my Comet did. I also didn't think it that much of an upgrade from my shit-box Comet. Perhaps if it was in better shape but as it was, the move would have been lateral. 

In the end, Sandy and Wayne couldn't even give it away. After I rebuffed their offer, they said they'd let me have it for nothing. Save for the $1 they had to charge me for it to make the sale official. I politely declined. Again. They offered the same deal to others, and no one took them up on it either. The poor little Nova sat unloved. They eventually junked it. Seems almost criminal in retrospect.