I suspect heavily that my vehicle shares a number of parts with the same year Chevy Nova. Does anyone know of a list I can use to identify all the interchangable parts? Specifically I need near weather stripping for both doors and the trunk, can anyone tell me if the Nova parts would fit the bill? Also can anyone tell me what the name of the platform my car is built on? Any pointers to any other information would be helpfull too as I am just getting started on my quest for knowledge with this vehicle.

Thanks!
Tyler

Tyler, yes there is a lot of parts interchangeability between the 79 Skylark and Nova. Same goes for the Oldsmobile Omega and the Pontiac Phoenix. All of these cars are built on the X-body platform.

The three engines available in the Skylark were also available in the Nova and Omega (Buick 231 V6, Chev 305 V8, and Chev 350 V8). There were a few other engines available in the Nova and Phoenix that were not available in the other brands.

79 was the final year of that design, other years back to 75 are essentially the same. The 1979 models are a bit scarcer as far as parts cars due to a short model year. Production on the 79 X-bodies was shut down early, by March or so, to gear up for the 1980 X-body cars, GM's first low-priced front-wheel drive models.

The best source of parts info is the original GM parts books. These are still available for reasonable prices on ebay in paper or microfiche format. The catalogs cover 76 to 81 models. A separate catalog is required for each GM brand. These will show matching parts between brands and between different platforms of the same brand. There is a GM Standard Parts Catalog as well that is handy for identifying common hardware parts, terminals, decals, paint etc.

As an example, the door weatherstrips are the same on all 4 brands of X-body cars from 76 to 79. 1650297 is the left side part no. for 2 dr models; 1650296 is the right side no. I didn't pull the microfiche for the 75 model out, but I would expect it to be the same as well.

The rear compartment weatherstripping that covers the pinch-weld flange is a bulk item, no. 20490800, purchased by the roll. It is the same aross X-body brands and covers several other body platforms as well.