In high school, the movie Grease played a large role in developing a passion for hot rods and classic cars for this car enthusiast known as Nova Lee. As a teenager, his first hot rod was a 1976 Chevelle Malibu. He lived the 80s dream through the view of the Grease movie, although he had the big hair and hard rock look from that era.
When he was in his early 20’s, he bought his dream car, a 1969 SS Nova. Soon after acquiring the car, he got married and shortly after, he started raising a family. It came as no surprise that he named his daughter after a 1958 Plymouth Fury from the Stephen King movie, Christine. As a young father, he had much bigger priorities and had no choice but to sell his dream car. However, he ensured that someday he would purchase another hot rod. For many years after selling his car, Nova Lee spent much of his time serving in the Army Special Forces and often went to car shows desiring to have his 1969 SS Nova back. Thirty years later, he re-entered the car community with a vengeance building a 1972 Nova SS called, The Punisher.
The 1968-72 Nova body style was his preferred hot rod he was searching for. After extensive searching, he discovered a clean Nova for sale at a car museum in Illinois. After having it shipped to his house in Alabama, it was time to take it apart and rebuild it the way he visualized the car to be. It originally had a 20-year-old restomod build with old school technology. Everything was removed and replaced with updated components. His vision was to not be like any other Nova out there. It was built to take to car shows and occasionally attend drag racing events.
After the restoration, something big and exciting came his way. As a car movie fanatic and having a huge passion for hot rods, there was an opportunity that he could not pass up. Mythic Picture was producing a suspense thriller called Roadkill which is currently in production in Panama City, Florida. This particular movie features a driver with Nova Lee’s hot rod going through many chase scenes in this movie that takes place along backroads. The Punisher is the co-star in this soon-to-be-released movie in 2023. More excitingly, his 1970 Powder Blue Nova called Stone Cold makes an appearance in the action scenes as well.
The Punisher has a Dart small block 428 stroker motor that is naturally aspirated. A 350 turbo trans was built to handle 1000 hp with a Moser Ford 9-inch rear end with 430 gears. The MSD 6AL ignition box was mounted inside the cabin under the passenger side dash to all computer connections to monitor everything, including the seven AutoMeter’s Ultra-Lite gauges. The gauges include the 5” Tachometer, 2-1/16” fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature, trans temperature, and voltmeter. Nova Lee states “I always felt that AutoMeter helped protect my investment and made a perfect complement to this unique build. I, ‘Nova Lee,’ highly recommend AutoMeter gauges for reliability and accuracy!”
To stay informed of this 1972 Nova, check it out on Facebook at Nova Lee, the Circle City Cruisers and the Mythic Pictures movie Roadkill!
The Punisher and Stone Cold in action scenes
