welding spider gears to make a positve traction rear.

If you can get 12 bolt posi rearends that will bolt into your Nova for $300, buy all of them. I wouldn't be surprised if you could sell every one of them for at least $1000. They didn't make all that many 12 bolts for the smaller cars like Camaros or Novas. They were real, legitimate musclecar rearends and are hard to find.

But they did make lots of 10 bolt rearends. Some of them were tougher than others and have held up pretty well in lots of cars. The ones that are probably best have 8.5" ring gears, but most of them that I have looked into have the 8.2" gear. It is hard to say what your car has. You almost need to look inside to know for sure.

I think you might be able to find a good 10 bolt posi rearend in the $300 area, if you were lucky. Check those swap meets.

Another possible alternative would be a Ford 9". There are still a bunch of them out there that are about the same width as your stock rearend. The Chrysler 8.75" rearend is also pretty strong. But both use a different wheel bolt pattern than your Nova.

You might want to go back through the archives and re-read what people responded to your earlier questions. There was quite a bit of good advice there from guys that have been there and done that. You might be able to save a whole lot of money.

But again, I believe it would be a mistake to weld the spider gears in your stock rearend. At best, it would just ruin the rearend for driving the car. At worst, it might cause the car to become out of control sometime at speed which could kill you.

Good luck! And don't let your bench racing ideas ruin the usability of your first ride. HAL

If you're talking a track car, that's just fine. A solid rear works just fine. If you're talking a street car, it'll drive you nuts, and little johny-law will be following you around town writing you tickets at every turn.

Two alternatives to think about. Spools and lockers. Both are fairly cheap.

A spool is a locked rear. It works just like welding the rear, just no welding is involved. They also don't break, which welded rears are notorious for doing. They are cheap and pretty easy to install.

A locker, aka a lunchbox locker, is a drop in modification. They cost anywhere from $150-400 depending on new or used, and who's name you buy. I ran a lock-rite for some time. Others swear by ausy. Detroit is nifty but real expensive. They are quite streetable, though they definately have a personality. Turns are frequently noisy and lurchy, but much more doable than with a locked rear.