VetteThunder1
Member
A little background,
I have wanted a Vette since I saw a yellow 69 with side pipes when I was like 5 or so. 35 years later, I get a real Vette for a Christmas present. Thanks to my wonderful wife Kim
I drove the car for about a year to get a feel for it and also to see what needed to be done, it was a long list. Brakes, engine didn't idle below 2500, some body work etc etc.,
While I was checking out the car one evening I decided to fix the rear view mirror which would always sag and end up pointing down. One thing lead to another and the next thing you know I have the entire interior removed.
You gotta love that custom terminal strip beside the parking brake handle. It was held in place with a wood screw. I also found that there were some wire splices under the dash that had been taped up with Band-Aids. I am very lucky that the car didn't catch fire or something from the electrical mess under the dash!
There were also a number of Bubba repairs done to the fiberglas of the car.
Like this fix on the driver's side foot well.
As I worked on the car more and more I was starting to find a number of significant problems. The frame at the rear kick-ups was really rotted out and also the frame was bowed front to back and the frame between the top welds was starting to buckle. The transmission mount had be fixed at least 2 or 3 times as well.
Here are some pics of the body being pulled off the frame I made the derrick to lift the body out of 4 X 4's and had really good luck removing the body mounts 7 of the 8 came out very easily. The last one #3 on the driver's side was not so easy to come out.
I built a dolly to put the body on.
The old frame and suspension being hauled away.
And then I started to strip the paint from the body to prepare for the body mods.
I used a razor blade and removed as much of the top coat of paint as I could without gouging the body. The hard complex curvy areas I left and just used paint stripper to remove.
I then brought a couple of strippers home
Most of the primer just washed off with the stripper. It was very easy to remove. The nice thing about using Citrustrip is that its water soluable so that makes clean up very easy and it eco-friendly. It doesn't strip the skin from your hands and also doesn't smell bad.
A note to the wise, its not a good idea to be drinking orange juice when you are using CS....the oj doesn't strip the paint very well at all. :lol:
Here is what the car looks like stripped or naked...
Here is some pics of the doors. I got the doors in a trade and they were in somewhat rough shape but they were power window doors so that saved me some $$$. They also had no rust what soever on them so that was awesome. My original doorrs had a lot of rust at the top of the window openings.
The doors after being stripped. You can see the Bubba'd flares that had been extended to the doors. Under the crappy paint the doors were in outstandingly good shape.
After the body had been completely stripped, I rolled the body out and pressure washed it thoroughly. I will have to wash it a couple of more times before I am all done.
I have a ton more pics of the body in the process of being stripped and also completely stripped if anyone wants a good look at what's under the paint of an early C3 shark.
Engine and Chassis
So I made a decision to replace the frame and get a new engine and transmission at the same time. While I was at it I decided to go and get Wilwood SL 6 piston calipers for the front and 4 piston calipers for the back.
This showed up in my driveway last July.
Here is a shot of the rear brakes with a very cool parking brake set up too. One of the key elements was to get rid of the drum parking brake and the associated extra weight.
The engine is a Bill Mitchell World Products Merlin aluminum big block. It was broken in and dyno'd at the factory at about 700HP and 700 ft-lbs torque.
Monster Holley Dominator carb.
I have since added the waterpump, alternator and power steering pump all set up nicely in a kit from Billet Specualties. The engine being a tall deck really limits my choices on front pulley set up and also headers, but I am really happy with the Billet Specualties set up.
I am in the process of ordering some headers and side pipes. I also need to get a fuel cell and plumb the fuel lines and brake lines before the body goes on the chassis.
More body work
My vette had the typical nose pimple problem. So, taking a dremel to grind down the rivets and remove the steel reinforcing bar and a heat gun to unglue the bonding strip after the steel reinforcing bar was removed.
This is what it looked like underneath.
This is what they looked like once I got them out.
I have to go back and remove the bonding glue before I put in the new parts I ordered from Paragon Reproductions.
The last couple of weeks I have been working on tubbing the rear wheel wells.
I removed the front and rear splash shields that were in the rear wheel wells.
They came out very easily using a heat gun. As you can see, one of the foward splash shileds had to be cut when I removed the body last summer.
gonna have to fix that.
I had a donor body that I practiced cutting up.
The Fiberglas is suprizingly easy to cut with a Sawzall and also with a Dremel.
Here are the lay out lines that I did to help me cutting out the rear storage compartments.
And after I cut out the rear storage compartments.
Next I laid out the cut lines for the actual wheel wells. This took me aobut 2 hours of studying some pics from someone else that did the same thing.
You will note the little arrows that I drew in the help keep me on the right side of the tape when cutting.
I had a hard time figuring out exactly how to do the cuts around the #4 body mounts to keep as much strength as possible.
This is after I had finished the cutting.
Next thing I need to work on is to sand down everything and start 'glassing.
I have wanted a Vette since I saw a yellow 69 with side pipes when I was like 5 or so. 35 years later, I get a real Vette for a Christmas present. Thanks to my wonderful wife Kim
I drove the car for about a year to get a feel for it and also to see what needed to be done, it was a long list. Brakes, engine didn't idle below 2500, some body work etc etc.,
While I was checking out the car one evening I decided to fix the rear view mirror which would always sag and end up pointing down. One thing lead to another and the next thing you know I have the entire interior removed.
You gotta love that custom terminal strip beside the parking brake handle. It was held in place with a wood screw. I also found that there were some wire splices under the dash that had been taped up with Band-Aids. I am very lucky that the car didn't catch fire or something from the electrical mess under the dash!
There were also a number of Bubba repairs done to the fiberglas of the car.
Like this fix on the driver's side foot well.
As I worked on the car more and more I was starting to find a number of significant problems. The frame at the rear kick-ups was really rotted out and also the frame was bowed front to back and the frame between the top welds was starting to buckle. The transmission mount had be fixed at least 2 or 3 times as well.
Here are some pics of the body being pulled off the frame I made the derrick to lift the body out of 4 X 4's and had really good luck removing the body mounts 7 of the 8 came out very easily. The last one #3 on the driver's side was not so easy to come out.
I built a dolly to put the body on.
The old frame and suspension being hauled away.
And then I started to strip the paint from the body to prepare for the body mods.
I used a razor blade and removed as much of the top coat of paint as I could without gouging the body. The hard complex curvy areas I left and just used paint stripper to remove.
I then brought a couple of strippers home
Most of the primer just washed off with the stripper. It was very easy to remove. The nice thing about using Citrustrip is that its water soluable so that makes clean up very easy and it eco-friendly. It doesn't strip the skin from your hands and also doesn't smell bad.
A note to the wise, its not a good idea to be drinking orange juice when you are using CS....the oj doesn't strip the paint very well at all. :lol:
Here is what the car looks like stripped or naked...
Here is some pics of the doors. I got the doors in a trade and they were in somewhat rough shape but they were power window doors so that saved me some $$$. They also had no rust what soever on them so that was awesome. My original doorrs had a lot of rust at the top of the window openings.
The doors after being stripped. You can see the Bubba'd flares that had been extended to the doors. Under the crappy paint the doors were in outstandingly good shape.
After the body had been completely stripped, I rolled the body out and pressure washed it thoroughly. I will have to wash it a couple of more times before I am all done.
I have a ton more pics of the body in the process of being stripped and also completely stripped if anyone wants a good look at what's under the paint of an early C3 shark.
Engine and Chassis
So I made a decision to replace the frame and get a new engine and transmission at the same time. While I was at it I decided to go and get Wilwood SL 6 piston calipers for the front and 4 piston calipers for the back.
This showed up in my driveway last July.
Here is a shot of the rear brakes with a very cool parking brake set up too. One of the key elements was to get rid of the drum parking brake and the associated extra weight.
The engine is a Bill Mitchell World Products Merlin aluminum big block. It was broken in and dyno'd at the factory at about 700HP and 700 ft-lbs torque.
Monster Holley Dominator carb.
I have since added the waterpump, alternator and power steering pump all set up nicely in a kit from Billet Specualties. The engine being a tall deck really limits my choices on front pulley set up and also headers, but I am really happy with the Billet Specualties set up.
I am in the process of ordering some headers and side pipes. I also need to get a fuel cell and plumb the fuel lines and brake lines before the body goes on the chassis.
More body work
My vette had the typical nose pimple problem. So, taking a dremel to grind down the rivets and remove the steel reinforcing bar and a heat gun to unglue the bonding strip after the steel reinforcing bar was removed.
This is what it looked like underneath.
This is what they looked like once I got them out.
I have to go back and remove the bonding glue before I put in the new parts I ordered from Paragon Reproductions.
The last couple of weeks I have been working on tubbing the rear wheel wells.
I removed the front and rear splash shields that were in the rear wheel wells.
They came out very easily using a heat gun. As you can see, one of the foward splash shileds had to be cut when I removed the body last summer.
gonna have to fix that.
I had a donor body that I practiced cutting up.
The Fiberglas is suprizingly easy to cut with a Sawzall and also with a Dremel.
Here are the lay out lines that I did to help me cutting out the rear storage compartments.
And after I cut out the rear storage compartments.
Next I laid out the cut lines for the actual wheel wells. This took me aobut 2 hours of studying some pics from someone else that did the same thing.
You will note the little arrows that I drew in the help keep me on the right side of the tape when cutting.
I had a hard time figuring out exactly how to do the cuts around the #4 body mounts to keep as much strength as possible.
This is after I had finished the cutting.
Next thing I need to work on is to sand down everything and start 'glassing.
