Well its been 2-1/2 months since I loaded up the Vette and went to work on it. I think its time for a little update. The good news is that the body is now residing on the new chassis.
That move was made Sat. Here are some pics of the work up to this point.
The body had a red blaze under the paint that djdn't come off with paint stripper, soooooooooo it had to be wet sanded off.
Of course the interior had to come out as well as all of the glass and dash so here is what is left. the heater has since left the party also and a new core and seals will be installed shortly. That wiring is going to go also, just haven't made the final decision on what to replace it with.
Now this was a job!!! A day and a half of scraping and scrubbing with solvent,scotchbrite and,soapy water and then thinner to get to this point
Then the steering box had to come out to do the fiberglass repair on the hole that was carved in the wheelwell for clutch linkage clearance because someone used the wrong throwout bearing. Looks a bit better here though. White in the tunnel is from grinding in the area of the shifter where there was also a bunch of glass cut out to get to the shifter bolts at some point in the past. Also had to patch near the driver's foot where yet ANOTHER hole was cut to access the bell housing bolts! I'm convinced that a butcher owned this car.
In NY we get snow in the winter and then we get salt laid down on the roads and then we get rust in our cars from the salt. Seeing as this is January we have had snow and salt so to keep the new chassis salt free on its journey to meet its body I had to wrap it up.
My driveway could stand to be a bit longer so once again I had to do the jack knife routine though not as sever this time
After more than 3 years the engine finally met its tranny. But before the tranny went in we opened it up and found some worn out parts, so after new syncros and a main bearing some seals and gaskets it got a coat of chrome aluminum then a coat of clear and a set of new mounting bolts and there it is.
The body came off fairly easy. We only missed 2 seat belt bolts.
Of course that is after spending ALL day Friday grinding off, breaking off and removing body bolts. We built bracing in the interior to limit the amount of body flex during the lift. Gotta love those old bed spring frames.
while in the air we did some more 'glass work to the wheel well, floor and tunnel
OK, I'll admit that about this time I was
REALLY getting excited. I've been doing good at keeping it in check up to this point.
Welcome to the wedding! They are now one. well, sort of....... the body mount kit was missing some parts so its going to take a few days for the rest to get her so we can cinch it all together.
At this point it became VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY clear that there is going to be a hood clearance issue with at least the alternator and possibly the throttle body so I'm back in procurement mode looking for C5 Corvette accessory mounts and intake.
but thats the way these projects go.
So there we are, I have a to do list of 18 items that will take at least a few weeks to accomplish. I started today by pulling the radiator core support and forming a new bottom rail for it. A bit of rust remediation you might say.
Later,
Bob
