The popular definition of “barn find” is a car that’s been hidden away for years (if not decades) that someone tracks down or stumbles upon and drags out into the light of day. Question is, can you call one a ‘find’ if it’s your own car sitting in your own barn?
Troy and Sandi Brick-Margelofsky say their 1963 Chevy Nova SS convertible is a barn find, and we’re not about to argue with them. Here’s the story:
A 17-year-old Troy bought the car in 1987 after seeing it in a neighbor’s driveway with a For Sale sign on the windshield. It wasn’t perfect, but Troy loved taking it to car shows with his best buddy Tom. When Troy and Sandi got married in 1988, the Nova was their honeymoon car.
But as it all too often happens, adulting reared its ugly head. The couple went to Texas for a couple years, moved back to Wisconsin, and decided to start raising cattle and horses. The Nova was retired to an unused dairy barn on the Margelofsky’s property. It technically wasn’t hidden or forgotten. Rather, the little Chevy was taking a 30-year nap as it waited for Troy and Sandi to free it from its dusty confines.
“About once a year I would go in the barn and pull the cover off to look at it,” Troy explained. “I would think ‘some year I should do something with it’. It was really my wife kicking me in the butt to do something with the car, saying ‘life’s too short to let it rot in a barn.’”
And so it happened. In 2023 Troy and Sandi trailered the Nova to Cool Hand Customs in Middleton, Wisconsin. The original plan was to get the car going again—rebuild the engine, modernize the suspension, nothing too extravagant. That went right out the window when Cool Hand’s EJ and Amy Fitzgerald suggested that the Nova would make a really cool SEMA Show project.
Troy and Sandi gave the go-ahead for a complete makeover. We’re talking Detroit Speed suspension, a Chevrolet Performance 525 horsepower LS crate engine hooked to a T-56 Magnum transmission, and more body mods than you can shake a welding gun at.
Then Troy got himself an idea. While they were in Las Vegas for the SEMA Show, he’d surprise Sandi with a renewal of their wedding vows. To convince Sandi to bring her original wedding dress with her, Troy, EJ, and Amy concocted a story about recreating Troy and Sandi’s wedding day photos with the Nova while the car was on display at the show.
So, the last day of the SEMA Show rolls around. Sandi is waiting for an Uber to take her to the convention center when a limo pulls up. Instead of going to the show, Sandi was whisked to the famous Elvis Chapel where Troy and some of their friends were waiting. The couple renewed their vows, then headed to the show to recreate those wedding photos. Kinda hits you in the feels, doesn’t it?
Cool Hand Customs documented the Nova build from teardown to final detailing, which you can see on the Cool Hand Customs YouTube channel. The amount of fabrication work will blow your mind.
Feast your eyes on Troy and Sandi Brick-Margelofsky’s 1963 Chevy Nova SS convertible. Resplendent in its Rutland red paint and shod with American Racing VN506 Rally wheels on 18-inch rubber, the car looks like a nice mild custom but it’s filled to the brim with custom-fabricated parts and little details dreamed up by EJ and Amy Fitzgerald at Cool Hand Customs. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Barn finds don’t get any fresher than this. After serving as the couple’s getaway car for their 1988 wedding, the Nova was wheeled into a barn for a 30-year nap. The ragtop had a 283 cubic inch small block Chevy and a three-speed manual transmission when Troy bought it. Small block swaps into early Chevy IIs were so popular, the factory created a V8 option for the car in 1964. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)The factory designed the Chevy II with a removable front subframe that carries the engine and front suspension. Remove the front sheetmetal and engine, undo some bolts, and you can wheel the entire assembly off of the car. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)That’s EJ Fitzgerald of Cool Hand Customs contemplating his next weld. After wire-wheeling the paint and sealer off the Nova, EJ and Amy discovered a remarkably solid car. The front floor pans had been patched at some point, so EJ cut them out and welded in new sheetmetal. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)The Nova’s rear quarters had been patched aft of the wheelwells, a common area for rust on these cars. EJ cut out the old sheetmetal and welded in new lower quarter panels. The pitted door skins were replaced with new ones. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)This trunk spoiler is just one example of Cool Hand Custom’s fabrication skills. It’s a very subtle modification—you don’t realize what you’re seeing until you’re literally looking right at it. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Under-car fabrication magic. EJ fabricated a new transmission crossmember for the Chevrolet Performance T-56 Magnum six-speed transmission. He also made some plates to box in the underfloor area between the outer body rail to the transmission tunnel. Cool Hand must be really proud of plates as they laser-cut their logo in them. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Cool Hand clearanced the firewall to make room for the Chevrolet Performance LS525 crate motor, then smoothed it out with a bead-rolled sheetmetal panel. When the car is assembled, it will be the only part of the firewall you’ll see. Cool Hand eliminated the cowl vents for a smooth look. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)The front suspension is Detroit Speed’s Chevy II subframe assembly. A bolt-on replacement for the factory subframe, it comes assembled with tubular upper and lower control arms, single-adjustable coilover shocks, forged spindles, power rack and pinion steering, and an integral spined sway bar. The brakes are Wilwood’s Forged Superlite 6R discs with six-piston calipers and 13-inch diameter drilled and slotted rotors. (Image/Cool hand Customs)A Detroit Speed QuadraLink four-link rear suspension holds up a narrowed Detroit Speed Chevy 12-bolt rear axle with a Eaton Detroit Truetrac limited slip and 3.73 gears. The suspension comes with single-adjustable coilover shocks, an adjustable panhard bar to control rear axle movement, and adjustable upper and lower arms. Patented Swivel-Links joints allow the suspension to fully articulate with smooth, solid motion and no binding. The brakes are Wilwood Superlite 4R discs with four-piston calipers and 13-inch rotors. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)The Chevrolet Performance LS525 crate engine has a 10.7:1 compression ratio and makes 525 horsepower at 6,200 RPM and 486 lbs.-ft. of torque at 5,200 RPM. To keep things tidy, Cool Hand Customs fabricated the radiator shroud and inner fenders. They also installed AVS Motorsports SpeedCover engine covers and painted them to match the car. All you see is smooth. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Other things you won’t see in the engine bay are the brake and clutch master cylinders—they’re tucked underneath the dash. Those caps are for the Wilwood remote reservoirs Cool Hand mounted in the firewall. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Early Nova enthusiasts know the grille is not a production piece—in the U.S., that is. It was factory installed on the Acadian, the Chevy II GM built exclusively for the Canadian market. Trade barriers at the time did not allow GM to export cars from the U.S. to Canada, so it created the Acadian line for Pontiac-Buick dealers in Canada to sell. This grille was stock on the 1962 models. Learn more about the Acadian line on the Old Cars Canada website. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)Amy is the interior expert at Cool Hand, and she stitched up the vermillion red and cream upholstery for the Nova. The front seats are TMI Pro-Grand buckets, and the rear seat was cut down to fit between the Detroit Speed Mini-Tub rear wheel tubs. The highly modified dash is fitted with a Dakota Digital Direct-Fit RTX gauge panel and vents for the Vintage Air system. The center console is a modified piece from a 1969 Camaro. (Image/Cool Hand Customs)The happy couple reunited with their Nova. Troy and Sandi Brick-Margelofsky are over the moon about how the ragtop turned out and have nothing but praise for Cool Hand Customs “EJ and Amy are amazing builders,” Troy explained. “I’ve never seen two people collaborate so well on a project of this scale. EJ and Amy really let us have a lot of input on the little intricacies and subtle pieces. We would go to the shop at least one to two times a week and kicked around ideas—it was awesome.” (Image/Cool Hand Customs)
Editor, author, PR man—Alan Rebescher has done it all in a 37 year career in the high performance industry. He has written and photographed many feature stories and tech articles for Summit Racing and various magazines including Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding, and edited Summit Racing’s Street & Strip magazine in the 1990s. His garage is currently occupied by a a 1996 Mustang GT ragtop.
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