Rookie's First Restoration Attempt...

[tracdogg2]

Are you already back home or what ??

No; I got here on the 28th, i go back home on the 6th.

 

[stinger12]

I test fitted the front clip and new hood before I left, looks good. Still needs a lot of work, but its a good starting point. I am very happy with the shape the body is in. Learned how to do fiberglass work too. Now to get it shipped here with the rest of my parts. Missed my flight from Denver to Calgary due to weather and had to camp out at the airport, god that sucked.

 

[mrvette]

I test fitted the front clip and new hood before I left, looks good. Still needs a lot of work, but its a good starting point. I am very happy with the shape the body is in. Learned how to do fiberglass work too. Now to get it shipped here with the rest of my parts. Missed my flight from Denver to Calgary due to weather and had to camp out at the airport, god that sucked.

INteresting, you maybe got passed by my son and daughter picking up her boyfriend in Denver at that same damn time....they on the way up to see Rushmore now, before coming east.....

:smash::lol:

 

[stinger12]

I test fitted the front clip and new hood before I left, looks good. Still needs a lot of work, but its a good starting point. I am very happy with the shape the body is in. Learned how to do fiberglass work too. Now to get it shipped here with the rest of my parts. Missed my flight from Denver to Calgary due to weather and had to camp out at the airport, god that sucked.

INteresting, you maybe got passed by my son and daughter picking up her boyfriend in Denver at that same damn time....they on the way up to see Rushmore now, before coming east.....

:smash::lol:

Yeah, it was a mess. People sleeping on the floor all over the airport...apparently I wasn't the only one that missed a flight:harhar:

 

[MYBAD79]

I was once stuck at the Vegas airport for a few hours.... with gambling and beer it's not all that bad :trumpet::trumpet::harhar:

 

[stinger12]

I was once stuck at the Vegas airport for a few hours.... with gambling and beer it's not all that bad :trumpet::trumpet::harhar:

What's the age limit down their...21? Here in Calgary it is 18

 

[MYBAD79]

I was already 30 when I went to Vegas .... think the legal age is 21 like everywhere else here....

 

[stinger12]

Sweet, my rear flares are ready. They are getting shipped after carlisle

 

[tracdogg2]

Jeremy,
Are you having the flares sent to me?
Mike

 

[stinger12]

Jeremy,
Are you having the flares sent to me?
Mike

Yeah,, he still needs to get a shipping quote, so it will be sometime after carlisle though.

 

[my2nd78]

Hey Jeremy,

It was good to meet you. Bet you're glad to be out of the Texas heat.

Chris

 

[stinger12]

Hey Jeremy,

It was good to meet you. Bet you're glad to be out of the Texas heat.

Chris

It was nice to meet you too Chris. Yeah, I am happy to be out of the texas heat. Its too bad I didn't get a chance to see your car. You got any pics of it?

 

[my2nd78]

There are a few pics in the thread that I just started here in projects.

 

[stinger12]

My original trans crossmember was twisted, and would need a lot of work to straighten it out. I decided to build my own. I drew up some quick drawings of the mounts I will be welding up in a few days - it gives me all the dimensions and everything, so it is easier on my head when I am cutting all the metal...no thinking required. There will be a tube between the ears which will prevent them from collapsing when tightening the bolt. It is sort of based off the bowtie overdrives crossmember mounts, but they will be a lot stronger and heavier. Plus, the ears won't collapse on the mounts.

 

[MYBAD79]

Make sure you leave enough room for adjustments. No idea what transmission you're going to use but you'll likely have to adjust the driveshaft angle somewhat to minimize or eliminate vibrations.
I have used a few washers to move the trans tail.... I have a poly mount that is supposed to be thicker than the stock rubber mount....

 

[stinger12]

Make sure you leave enough room for adjustments. No idea what transmission you're going to use but you'll likely have to adjust the driveshaft angle somewhat to minimize or eliminate vibrations.
I have used a few washers to move the trans tail.... I have a poly mount that is supposed to be thicker than the stock rubber mount....

I will. These are just the mounts. I'm still tweaking the design of the crossmember. I'm going back with the original th350 I think. Mike convinced me to stick with it and later on down the road replace it. I don't have the money right now to buy a new crossmember to replace my twisted one, so I decided to make my own to my liking. I'm heading back to school in a week and I need to start conserving my cash for this project...I won't be able to spend a ton of money on the project until next summer when I get another full time job - I'll only be working part time now because of school. The good news is that all the major stuff for the project has been bought.

 

[MYBAD79]

The TH350 is a good and cheap tranny (if it fails and you need a rebuilt one)... not having the overdrive sux but that also depends on the gears - with my 3.55 it was painful going 70mph :suicide:

Swapping the tranny later is no big deal, live with it for a while, then you'll really appreciate the upgrade some time down the road.

 

[stinger12]

The TH350 is a good and cheap tranny (if it fails and you need a rebuilt one)... not having the overdrive sux but that also depends on the gears - with my 3.55 it was painful going 70mph :suicide:

Swapping the tranny later is no big deal, live with it for a while, then you'll really appreciate the upgrade some time down the road.

I need to start researching on how to rebuild it...that's still on the to-do list.

 

[stinger12]

Test fit of flare...



The flares are being test fitted (kind of mocked up) by Mike. This will give me a guideline for when I start working on them in a year or two from now. Mike knows more about how these parts are supposed to fit, so I am letting him play around with the parts first. I will be doing the real fit of them when I have the body on my chassis and the correct wheels.

 

[stinger12]

I had an extra steering box housing laying around, and I was bored, so I powder coated it:crazy:









Oh yeah, I also forgot to post a pic of the engine...

 

[stinger12]

Here are some pics of the paint gun I bought a while back - I forgot to post pics of it. Mike used it with me when I was down in Dallas. Pretty much top of the line devilbiss gun (GFG-670). I figure that if I'm going to lay the paint on my car, then I have to have quality tools to get the job done. I also bought a monstrous air filter for my airlines - don't want any contamination on my vette

 

[stinger12]

Had an extra steel plate in the garage and decided to finally make that bearing support plate (for setting the endplay). Too bad I didn't have this when I rebuilt my arms originally - I'll use it the next time I rebuild them I guess.

 

[MYBAD79]

Had an extra steel plate in the garage and decided to finally make that bearing support plate (for setting the endplay). Too bad I didn't have this when I rebuilt my arms originally - I'll use it the next time I rebuild them I guess.

You're still young so there's a chance you might be rebuilding the bearings again before you retire ... if rebuilt correctly you should be able to get 100K miles of service out of them..... :1st:

 

[stinger12]

Had an extra steel plate in the garage and decided to finally make that bearing support plate (for setting the endplay). Too bad I didn't have this when I rebuilt my arms originally - I'll use it the next time I rebuild them I guess.

You're still young so there's a chance you might be rebuilding the bearings again before you retire ... if rebuilt correctly you should be able to get 100K miles of service out of them..... :1st:

Lol, thanks Karsten. I might be rebuilding a set of arms for a forum member pretty soon, we will see how it plays out. I've got to call him sometime tomorrow to talk to him about the rebuild.

 

[mrvette]

Yeh, I was made aware of all the 'special tools' for those t-arms back 15 years ago, so I had the vette shop, club guru replace it all with new back then...been maybe 150k miles since then, still rolling, I check them every now and then but that red grease he loved still slick, I suppose....

:banghead:

 

[stinger12]

Yeh, I was made aware of all the 'special tools' for those t-arms back 15 years ago, so I had the vette shop, club guru replace it all with new back then...been maybe 150k miles since then, still rolling, I check them every now and then but that red grease he loved still slick, I suppose....

:banghead:

This tool is not necessary for bearing setup, you can also use a vice - it just makes it kind of fool proof for the person setting it up. It keeps everything sturdy.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Instead of fixing it to the bench with one of those carpenters clamps, why not weld a section of square tube or another section of steel plate on the bottom so you can clamp it in a vise?

 

[stinger12]

Instead of fixing it to the bench with one of those carpenters clamps, why not weld a section of square tube or another section of steel plate on the bottom so you can clamp it in a vise?

That was actually my original plan, I just haven't got around to doing it yet...maybe when I have some more time in the next couple of days.

 

[stinger12]

I bought an engine core so Mike can start building me my engine. Apparently it came from an l-82 corvette and is a 4-bolt main with cast steel crank. Got it for real cheap. Mike still needs to verify that it is a 4 bolt main. Hopefully I can get the short block for it built in the next few months. It would have cost too much money to send my engine down to Dallas, so we decided to pick up a used core. Got some pretty sweet valve covers out of the deal too apparently.

 

[js292]

You did all the other work by yourself but your farming out the engine? There's nothing to rebuilding one if you have a decent machine shop local.