My '76 restoration (long post)

Years ago I saw a post, maybe it was in that forum, maybe it wasn't,
a guy resorted to cutting up his hood skin so he could access the locking mechanism and open the hood.
At the time I suggested he could have loosen the hinge bolt and get a non destructive reach of the hinge lock.
I was rebuffed on the ground there was no way you could reach those bolt, radiator being on the way, and since my car was still missing a lot of parts (like the radiator) I assumed they were right.
Well, not so.
I can confirm now that on a reassembled car you can reach the hinge bolt if you remove the wheel, and reach those bolts from the dust shield hole of the wheel well.
You'll need a low profile ratcheting wrench like this one :
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It's tight, but I've seen way tighter in this car.
That allowed me to loosen and tighten them with the hood down thus getting a perfect fit without any back and forth trial and error.

So here it is, if your hood is stuck and your release mechanism is broken you can still save it without being destructive.
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that hood is one of a kind, very nice Denis, and I'm sure it will be reproduced.
Without your (over?)trustful support none of this would have been possible.

Me: "It's gonna come off with a little compressed air"
Michel: "yeah, sure...."
:rofl:
 
Holy crap those videos really show the result of what (4) ??? Years of hard work !!! This Vette is going to be a true eyecatcher. Looks like you have to align the left muffler though :)))
 
Holy crap those videos really show the result of what (4) ??? Years of hard work !!! This Vette is going to be a true eyecatcher. Looks like you have to align the left muffler though :)))

I bought the car in Spring 2010, so it's more 5 years running 6.
Thanks Karsten, feels good to know all this sanding was not in vain, and yeah, the mufflers are all wrong and are missing the tips.
 
At this point I'd rather be doing bodywork or a suspension rebuild .... So tired of working on this house, it's been 1 1/2 years of drywall, tile, plumbing etc... Started to work on several things that initially I just wanted to leave alone but now it's finally getting close to being finished ... 2016 projects are: painting my Mustang (again) ... This time a good job, not just a weekend "sand and shoot" ...... The Vette needs some attention too ... Looking foreward to some greased ellbows and turning wrenches ....
 
At this point I'd rather be doing bodywork or a suspension rebuild .... So tired of working on this house, it's been 1 1/2 years of drywall, tile, plumbing etc... Started to work on several things that initially I just wanted to leave alone but now it's finally getting close to being finished ... 2016 projects are: painting my Mustang (again) ... This time a good job, not just a weekend "sand and shoot" ...... The Vette needs some attention too ... Looking foreward to some greased ellbows and turning wrenches ....
I can easily imagine, I'm into that right now (on a totally different scale, mind you).
The good side of things is that it's a real investment, unlike the cars you can expect to cash all this work out when you sell the house.
Keep it up my friend.:drink:
 
Yeh, I been in this house 18+ years, it was built in '72 same as the vette.....it's only 1200' as built, with a 2 car garage, and a widened driveway by p/o.....I have taken down 5 huge oak trees around the house, have two more to go.....but outta $$$ for that crap....1/4 acre lot....hillside for drainage I put a room addition on back 22x14 off the back master bedroom, blew out a window into a doorway arch.....had the block work and slab poured and built the rest myself this all about 15 years ago, rented it out with the Mbr as an apt. for about 3 years....kitchen setup off the old master bath in the addition.....18 years ago I replumbed this entire house, up and over with CPVC, the galv iron rusted out in the slab....

PO had the kitchen redone into the old dining room with sliding door out to back patio, patio had a porch on it at one point, so I poured over the slab and enlarged it, because of a tear out of a glass room addition, that looks like a Wendy's with the curved glass on the back corner/away from the house....I helped a guy take it out, for the aluminum and glass so I rebuilt it on back of my house, and tiled the interior floor, also blew out the garage window on side, and put in a workshop 5' deep and some 15' long plastic and metal roofing, old shed against house is more storage this all near the driveway....

when wife Linda came on board, she was trapped cooking on a crappy white smooth top electric range the house came with....so out with that and put in a gas range...running BBQ tank for gas....and the stove was still in a crappy position, hidden behind the fridge and facing a blank wall, so when cooking, she was isolated from the flow of the house.....like like my mother was decades ago, so we played around with designs, and so I blew out the bearing utility wall between kitchen and garage, moving it toward the gasoline ledge in the garage, adding 100' to the kitchen space, bringing the washer/drier inside into their own hutch......chipped up the floor, ran gas and electric power conduits to the center of the room, where the range is now, facing the family area....made my own range hood with my welder buddy's help......had to put steel in the attic framing to redistribute the load ....also moved the HVAC unit out to the garage....water heater out to the old shed,

Made the kitchen cabinets myself in the garage, European style, no face frames, solid Maple doors off internet shipped from Arkansas......made my own counter tops, formica covering......blew out part of another wall to open up the kitchen to the living area a bit more... put a 2'x4' skylight in the living room, replaced ALL the windows in the house with white vinyl lo E insulated glass

Front door was found in the trash around the corner, some idiot chopped the living hell outta the hinge side of that solid Honduran Mahogany door, took it to the cab shop and had them cut it nice and straight, found some matching grade/color wood and fixed the door good and solid, sanded down and finished in urethane, tore out the crap OEM door, and jamb and upgraded the entire install, thing opens and closes like a bank vault now, solid brass hardware...

But that not enough, the hall bath was a mess with the old tub only 32 w and 5' long, crappy OEM tile/etc..... stupid little framed in 18" door to a linen closet, and a deep coat closet.....hell with THAT, bought a large jacuzzi/whirlpool tub moved the wall, removing the linen closet and making the door at an angle, and built a custom cabinet in the new corner of the bath top/bottom doors and custom tiled surround for the tub,/shower redid all the lighting and sink/vanity and toilet of course, and the floor also in both bathrooms......

COSTS, 3500 bux total on kitchen remodel, same on the hall bath, another 3500 bux, but Linda wanted to do more upgrade than I cared to do, so that added about a grand to the total, but what the hell......the room addition was 8700 bux total with the metal roof, outside door, and 3 huge windows....

I used to be an ET, spent 20 years in that trade, but it got ran outta business by that large Orient based company called Pitch-it-Tronics......went into home remodeling in '85 or so, let them import HOUSES!!!!

so having every took known to man except a phillips screw driver.....it was a natural thing for me to rebuild all this shit.....

and add on to the front porch with a deck and plastic roof over, just screened it in for shade for wife's plants that got too much sun...small deck in back that is also plastic roof over, next to the room addition......

age 71 now, and I"m tired.....all I can do to work on the vette....:surrender::lol::smash::eek:
 
So I managed to sneak here and there a bunch of hours while doing the home renovation stuff.
First the car got a shower, still a lot of polish compound residue all around.
Then I had to deal with a stuck hood. Guys at the paintshop removed the clip that hold the release cable duct in a V shape.
Hopefully I managed unbolt the front hinges from the wheel well. That was a tense moment with the all fresh paint.

Then I started reinstalling the obvious stuff :

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Headlights.


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emblems

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Mirror. Driver side so far, still have to drill the hole on passenger side.
As well windshield trims.


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Gas cap.


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Door trim, door handle, lock and all the internal mechanism.

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And a little piece I made. You guys told me the aftermarket lock actuators need more leverage, but I was reluctant to butcher the existing mechanism, so here's an add-on.
 
:surrender: Long ago down here in Florida, I pulled that stupid hood latch handle, and it came out completely with broken cable about a foot long on it, I had to jack up the car, and shine a light up the fender and reached the latch lever with a hook like a bent over awl.....and release the hood, trying to fix the stock crap had me do this twice, so I gave up and used some coat hanger wire bent over the lever, through the weather boot, down the kick panel, bent over with a good length of rubber hose, making a convenient handle, and tossed all the stock crap......some years later I reverse hinged the hood, using pins in front and hinges from a Lumina mini van near the firewall/mounted to the stock hood latch mounts......with obvious fabrication using steel.....:smash:
 
So what's left? Just reassembly? Does it run? I don't remember if you posted a video of it running? Make sure you capture the day of "first fire" !!!
How's the weather up there? Will you be able to get it on the road or better wait until after winter?
 
So what's left? Just reassembly? Does it run? I don't remember if you posted a video of it running? Make sure you capture the day of "first fire" !!!
How's the weather up there? Will you be able to get it on the road or better wait until after winter?

What's left is mostly reassembly, except :
-dedicated brake light line in the rear harness.
-custom interior trim for the rear window mod.
-honey comb grill on the hood and front bumper.
-Seats, probably MrMike's covers for the fiero's.

The engine as been in working order since day 1, that's pretty much all that was in running order in the car I originally bought.

But I still need to fix the fuel line. We tried running it this year, but we got a leak in the upper system (after the fuel pump). This part is kind of a mess anyway, I plan to ditch the braided hose and -AN for a simpler hard metal line and flange connection setup. As this part of the line is rigid I don't need flexible lines.

I'm keeping the LS out for now, ideal plan is to bench run/tune it this year, find a buyer for the Gen I while it's in the car (I tend to believe I can get a better price if it can be seen in action), and put the LS in next winter. Maybe at that time I will get a T56 to mate it to... who knows.

I also noticed a leak in the transmission, I'm afraid it's the front main bearing retainer. That means taking it down and rebuilding it again. That's kind of ok because my clutch pedal travel is positively wrong and I wanted to check one more time the whole assembly, to make sure I'm using the right combo of throw-out bearing, ball stud, fork and whatnot.

And the weather is just crazy over there. We had 10°C (50°F) just today, and still no snow.

So, if I did this quick and probably dirty, I could have been putting some rubber this year.
But now with the car painted all I do becomes kinda definitive, and so I want to make is as good as I can.
I spend most of this week time sanding and polishing the T-bar trim just to give you an idea.
Same thing for the glass, I want the windshield a the right level, and see if I can polish my side windows.
Today I received the SS door striker bolts, and they will get a polish job too.
My goal to get the car out this spring for and alignment job, and to be D.O.N.E. with it. :trumpet::smash:
I know this won't be that simple, but it's free to dream.:twitch:
 
Denpo-

Really? What you've got left to do is SIMPLE compared to what you have done!!!

I just bolted my GM T5 up and had no problems w/ the stock clutch/flywheel and short throwout bearing in my 73' L82.

What fluid are you running in the T5 since Dextron II is no longer available. I've read ATF and straight 50w...debated back and forth...

But sort of came to a conclusion NWC 50w and WC ATF.

Richard
 
Denpo-

Really? What you've got left to do is SIMPLE compared to what you have done!!!

I just bolted my GM T5 up and had no problems w/ the stock clutch/flywheel and short throwout bearing in my 73' L82.

What fluid are you running in the T5 since Dextron II is no longer available. I've read ATF and straight 50w...debated back and forth...

But sort of came to a conclusion NWC 50w and WC ATF.

Richard
The only step I perceive as challenging is windshield installation. I was lucky enough to find an used windshield, the one with the correct thickness, I would be really sad if I break it or install is wrong.
Otherwise it's just that all this requires clean job, and from the pics of my garage you can tell I'm not a tidiness queen, but it's ok, never too late to learn or at least try to :banghead:

Concerning the clutch I got to have dig up the racing summit bill from the pile and see what I exactly bought. I my case I suspect I'm using standard fork instead of specific Corvette's. Symptoms are that with the mechanical linkage tuned to the max I still have to really floor the pedal to get what I feel to be complete disengagement. See, all 'perceived' measurement, maybe time for something more rigourous.

My trans is a WC and I use ATF in it.
 
I call my basement /garage -Organized Chaos !!!

Here's a good read on the clutch-

http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lutch-and-pressure-plate-facts-and-specs.html
Hey Richard, sorry to reply that late, but yeah, that's the very thread I was thinking about when talking about making thing right.




As I'm making sure I'm doing everything just right, I decided to go back to my door lock actuator setup.
Some time ago I decided I wouldn't use the 5 wire of the actuator, well, I changed my mind and took time to sort out a proper wiring for them.
First I wanted to used the 5 wires for the locking mechanism: if the driver door is locked by any mean (remote or physical action) then booth doors must close.
Second I wanted to take advantage of the alarm's passenger unlock signal, so if press unlock once it unlocks driver door, second press unlocks passenger door.
Here is the schematic I devised, let me know if you find a mistake in it.
I symbolise the 12V fused source as VSS, and I duplicated it over the schematic to make thing clearer, but they're all the same source.
Same thing for the ground.

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Making progress on the reassembly:

I've drilled the remote hole and installed the passenger mirror.
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I also installed the passenger window, but more as a rehearsal than anything.
I located a local source for cerium oxide powder and I'm going do give the windows a polish.
It's 40 years old glass, full of scratch, I gonna see how much I can remove.

I also glued the door weatherstrip
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And the rear side window weatherstrip (thank John!)
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I installed the striker bolt and what you see is the door when properly closed.
Weatherstrip is giving more resistance, but I still can close the door by slamming it a little bit. I'm confident the rubber is gonna take shape and settle down.
 
Looks nice. The weatherstrip probably needs to sit for a month or two to fit right. Especially in the winter.

Are you thinking you will be on the road by spring?
 
Looks nice. The weatherstrip probably needs to sit for a month or two to fit right. Especially in the winter.

Are you thinking you will be on the road by spring?
Thanks Larry, yeah I'm hoping to be on the road this spring.
Of course devil lies in the details, but fixing a transmission leak, installing the windshield and redoing the fuel line between pump and carb shouldn't take years.
Beyond that it's just cosmetic.
 
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