If you want to look up documentation for your Canadian Nova, contact Vintage Vehicle Services.

Vintage Vehicle Services is a small group of gear heads who have directly or indirectly worked with GM as employees, suppliers, or service managers with decades of experience.

One thing that north-of-the-border Bow-Tie fans have going is the ability to document their Novas. What I mean by this is that any Nova built in Canada or imported into Canada from the U.S. can be documented with one phone call! Most Chevy lovers have never heard of this process. It is a system we can only dream of here in the United States.

Canadian Service Making It Easy For Your Nova

When I first found out about this cool service, we had purchased a ’67 Nova wagon right-hand drive that was a correct car. As word of mouth traveled, I received a tip from someone to call the Oshawa plant in Canada. That led me to George Zapora. What we received from the plant archives was a typed document listing all the information about the car. With this documentation we also received a copy of the production manifest sheet. This sheet came with about 20 cars listed on it with our car highlighted in the middle of the page. In this single line was all of the info on the typed sheet plus the key codes to the car! You could look into the production schedule of a plant in the 1960s! If I remember correctly there were a couple of 275- and 350-horse cars on this sheet along with a variety of others.

Get All Your Nova Details

If you have the copy of the manifest sheet, cherish it. It is not available any longer and does not come with the typed option sheet! If just the typed sheet were available from GM in the U.S. it would be of much value to everyone in the industry. Obviously one of the benefits about this service is finding out cool info about what was available. Other differences we discovered on the ’67 Canadian wagon were: ’62-’65-style dash, firewall painted the color of the car, die cast, pot metal taillight bezels, reversed steering box and linkage. Another of our vehicles, a ’65 Pontiac Canso—the Canadian Nova—were the die cast grille, hood latch, no SS emblem on console, white front-turn signal lenses, different side trim and hood wind split.

Shown below is one of the typed documents as received from George on our ’65 Pontiac Acadian Canso Sport Deluxe. In the states, this was called a Nova SS.

General Motors of Canada Limited

Date: June 25, 2002
Customer: Joe Grom Jr.
Vehicle: 1965 Pontiac Acadian Canso Sport Deluxe
VIN: 571837005496
Trim: 918-Black
Paint: Y-Crocus Yellow
Production Plant: Oshawa, ON
Production Date: June 22, 1965
Shipping Date: June 24, 1965
Model Number: 71837-2dr sport coupe
Engine: 283 CID 195 HP Econoflame V-8
Engine Number: 805544321
Dealer: Empress Motors, Ltd. Victoria, BC

Number produced

For sale in Canada: 274

Option Description

A02 Glass—Tinted Windsheild
B70 Cover I/P Upper Pad
C14 Wiper System Windshield Electric
M35 Powerglide Transmission (2 speed)
P67 9.95—14 4 PR Tire—Hwy—W/Wall
T86 Lamps Backup

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Comments (4)

  • Gary Cronk
    Gary Cronk October 17, 2018 at 8:33 pm

    Interesting info on Canadian Built Acadians. Im currently restoring a 1966 Canso Sport Deluxe that came from the same Dealership that your feature car came from This Dealership is located on Vancouver Island Victoria, British Columbia.Its so cool to have all this information made available to Canadians.I truly think that having this info can truly make your cars worth more money. As you always seem to hear Fully Documented many reciepts This to me doesnt really mean a hole lot but this Vintage Vehical Service Document is the real deal. I used the service about 10 years ago then ran into a fellow car guy that had the original dealership sales flyer that shows all options available this was a full color leaflet that the dealer would have to lure in the prospective buyer. I managed to talk him into selling it to me the front cover is exactly the same color as the car Im currently involved with restoration of my 1966.

    • Joe Grom IV
      Joe Grom IV July 14, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      Gary we wish they had that info available in the U.S.!

  • Anders Wiking
    Anders Wiking July 10, 2019 at 2:20 am

    I live in Melbourne, Australia and I am the second owner of a Canadian built 63 Nova convertible. (not SS). It was sold new in Montreal in 1963, I think the dealer's name was "Chevrolet Motor sales, Montreal" from a sticker attached to the rear facing part of the trunk lid. Unfortunately this sticker was lost when the car was repainted about 10 years ago. Anyhow, my problem is that the registration authorities here in the state of Victoria, Australia have tightened the rules of vehicle identification and now require the road worthy inspection to include a photo of the VIN or chassis identification number that is stamped into the body of the car. The riveted plate in the LH door jam, which has the number is not good enough, we need to find the stamped number on the body somewhere. Can anyone help with a suggestion please, this article about the Canadian service to provide a typed document listing all the information about the car made me think that maybe someone has been through this problem before.... Te riveted plate in the LH door jam says "GM of CANADA ….. 346720003. Any help would be greatly appreciated

    • Joe Grom IV
      Joe Grom IV July 14, 2019 at 7:50 pm

      The VIN should be stamped on the cowl lip under the drivers side fender. Email me a reminder and I will send some photos junior@gmclassics.com

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