1966 Corvette project, will I finish before I die?

[oldvettedad]

In 1971 I purchased a 1966 Corvette coupe. It is a L79, 327/350. 4 speed car, Milano Maroon. A member of this forum, Maverick, suggested I document whats been going on for the last 30 or so years. Actually, as i remember it, Maverick was with me when I bought the car and we brought it home together. If I remember correctly, it was about one week before the 1971 NHRA Summernationals in Englishtown NJ. That would make it around July 1971. The Summernationals is only noteworthy because that was our (maverick and me) first road trip with the vette. Son of a gun was a quick car! Any way, thats not the story I plan on telling. I wish I had pictures of the car when I bought it, but I do not. From 1971 through 1977 i used the vette as my every day car. By that time it had changed some. In 974 (i think), it developed some valve train problems, so I decided to have the motor rebuilt. The work was done at a local speedshop, machine shop, and led to a friendship (and partnership in race cars) that is still strong today. I'll revisit that later in this saga (and this is a saga). The car was fun, but it did need maintenance. The aluminum radiator leaked. In those days i could get a replacement aluminum radiator from the J.C. Whitney catalog (and a heck of a lot cheaper than the one I got a few years ago from DeWitts). I put Ansen Sprint aluminum slotted wheels on it with Firestone polyglas wide ovals. I had to put 2 inch spacers under the ear spring for clearance (these came from Whitney too). Finally I put Hooker sidepipes on it. They were quite loud. When i bought the car it had some paint issues, paint was peeling on one fender, and the chrome on the rear bumpers was starting to rust. So i decided to get it repainted.
For the grand total of $700 and 4 months in the bodyshop, it came back as a 1966 Cadillac color, Tropic Green Firemist. A dark Green metallic color.
If I figure out how to upload pictures, I have a paint chip chart from 1966 with the color.

Anyway The car was now newly painted, motor rebuilt and strong (totally stock) tastefully (to my taste) customized with "mag" type wheels and chrome (loud) sidepipes. This is how it was until the fateful day in 1978 when a rear brake caliper failed. No, it didn't crash. Luckily for me i was backing out of the garage when the brake pedal went to the floor. I put it back in first real quick and got back in the garage, stopping with the hand brake. This was the second caliper to fail. Anybody who has owned older vettes knows how the caliper bores and pistons would corrode (damn brake fluid is hydroscopic!), so any "smart" guy would have had all four calipers sleeved with stainless stee and stainless pistons. Oh well, I guess I wasn't one of them. That began a long period of "downtime. I'll get into that tomorrow. I'm tired of typing and if anyone is reading this, I will spare you more until then. And if I fiure out how to upload pictures, I'll start that, and lighten up on the text. (But this does seem cathartic for me)

[Fred32v]

Having a Corvette as a daily driver for a half-dozen years is sweet.
I'm interested. keep typing. Also looking forward to your pictures.

[Maverick]

Good to see you on TS!!! I remember the trip to Englishtown in '71. You scared the crap out of me on the way home. Another favorite memory was the young woman, who shall remain nameless, that rode with us on the back shelf after a party. She REALLY wanted a ride and that was the only spot left.

Love the paint color in your email. Write as much as you want -- TS guys will be interested. I'm looking forward to the saga.

[wxo]

Keep those updates coming, oldvettedad. Pictures, too! We love stories and pictures, but don't wear yourself out. I do have some advice for you, though. Stay away from the big words. I had to look up "cathartic". Welcome to TireSmoke.

[oldvettedad]

It was sometime around 1978 that I put the Vette in the garage so I could replace the calipers with stainless steel sleeves and stainless steel pistons. But it seemed I never could find the time, or ambition to do it. Admittedly there were other interests.


This is a picture (taken in 2007) of my buddy Pat Hennebery's (remember I mentioned a long friendship that started with the rebuilding of my vette motor) 1968 Camaro. Pat and teamed up to race this car in NHRA C/SM from 1975 until 1979. This picture is in 2007, after a furious 2 months in which Pat, me and another friend "restored" the car to the way it was in the 1970's. This is the old paint, touched up where needed. We made sure we salvaged as many of the old decals as possible. The car is now being run in Nostalgia drag racing with NETO (Northeast Timing Organization), a nostalgia racing club (http://neto-nostalgia.com/. I wish i could find pictures from the 1970's but I can't. This kept me occupied, then in 1979 I bought this car


This 1967 Chevy II replaced the Camaro in C/SM. We raced this car until NHRA discontinued Modified Eliminator. Both cars were competitive, but the Chevy II combination was quicker. So there were diversions. Sometime around 1982or 1983 I did takemthe calipers off the Vette and send them out for the stainless treatment. But that was not a sign of newly found ambition. It was a challenge. One night at the race shop another friend was feverishly cleaning parts off a 1964 Vette he had just bought, a real basketcase car. He told me he would have is car running before I even got the calipers off my car. So, I took the next day off work, removed the calipers and sent them out. They came back about a month later, and as God is my witness, they sat in that unopened box ntil 1991. A thing I am not proud of. Basically, the Corvette became a shelf in the garage. I would start it and run it now and then, until the battery went dead. And there it sat. I have no pictures of it then. But here are some I took in 1998. So this is what it was like all those years.






I'll include more pix when I get to the actual deconstruction, or was it demolition, that started in 2001.

In 1991, I bought a new Dodge Stealth (Mitsubishi 3000GT)


I quickly realized I needed to keep this baby garaged in the winter. Unfortunately the Vette took up all the space in my tiny one car garage. So i had to add a second garage. This gave me reason to get the vette moving, and out of the garage. So i took a day off work, opened the box of calipers and put the new calipers on the vette. But then I got a new surprise, the rear was locked. I couldn't roll it out of the garage. Well with a floor jack, and a neighbor, I got it outside. There it stayed while the new garage was built. Then with a floor jack and a come-along, it went back into the new garage. Where it now sat until 2001.

So, what stopped me from working on the vette between 1991 and 2001? More diversions, some related to the vette and what I eventually started to do with the car. But I'll get into those next time.

[Maverick]

Its clear!! Work was getting in your way.

[MostMint]

The Vette story sounds similar to the Tiresmoker Sr. Vette. It sat for an eternity but eventually they got a new frame for it and put it back on the road. I thought that Vette was destined to sit in the garage with the frame on blocks for all time.

[Racin'Jacin]

Cool story! I think we all have those moments - we ask our selves WHY? So long as the endings are good - it doesn't matter

[TireSmoker]

Welcome to Tiresmoke!

I can definitely relate to knowing how a Corvette becomes a shelf. For a long time. My parents bought their '63 in '65 or '66, used it as a daily driver for the next 11 years, and when they got it to their current house in Chesterland in '77 (I was 4 yrs old) , parked it for having a rotted out frame. It sat in the driveway for years. My uncle has a '65 that is still stuck in shelf-stage.

When I was 16, Dave Speece and I got the body seperated from the frame, when it (the frame) immediately collapsed under its own weight. This would be around 1989. The body was put on a wooden frame for storage, in the garage. This is when it became a shelf. A lot of stuff was torn apart, the engine was rebuilt, and then I got my '70 Chevelle in 1990. Talk about diversions.

Finally in the late 90s, my dad started to get serious with the Vette. Year ago, he had bought another frame, with complete suspension, brakes, and wheels, from a '65 (with disc brakes). Turned out most of the second frame was weak too, but you can get various frame pieces in the aftermarket, so that's what they did. Dave Speece was again enlisted to get the car back together, fabricating the frame and doing the mechanical work. We kept the later disc brakes as a nod toward safety, since we planned on driving this thing when it was done. It was back on the road by 1998-1999 ish, I think. After another few years, it got painted, with a new top, new interior, hurst shifter, and trans rebuild.

By 2007, it was a pretty nice looking car and it made the trip to Carlisle for Corvettes @ Carlisle show. The original engine had been making funny, inconsistent knocking noises, but it has held together, including a 2010 trip to the Woodward Dream Cruise. A newer 350 is currently being assembled for it.

Project thread is here: http://www.tiresmoke.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49

-Dave

[oldvettedad]

In 1991 i made my single car garage into a 2 car garage. During that process i discovered that the rear wheels would not turn. So the vette went back into its new home and sat again. In 1993 I retired from IBM. In 1994 and 1995 I spent some time going to drag races and helping my firend and old race car partner, Pat Hennebery, with his race car.


He was only racing a limited schedule then, due to limited funds. We went to some NHRA races at Englishtown, Maple Grove and INDYn in 1994 and 1995. I attended a Goodguys car show while visiting my daughter in Seattle. I loved all of the rods, but really loved the custom cars from the fifties and Sixties. I started attending car shows in my area over the next few years and really got the urge to have a mid sixties muscle car. I subscribed to Auto Restorer, and Cars and parts magazine and Hemmings News and started perusing Old Car Trader. I thought about the vette but didn't do anything until after I went to Corvettes at Carlisle in 1999.
I bought a 1966 Corvette assembly manual and spent a lot of time talking to guys from Corvette Central. I also met the guys from Bair's Corvettes in western PA. I was amazed at how much was available to restore and modify Vettes. I also joined NCRS and got several of their technical manuals. I decided i should, and could get my Corvette back on the road.

So i made a plan. First figure out why the rear was locked. Fix that, and if the engine will turn freely, get it running and start using it.
Then I got under and over the car and really started to look at it.




This a look at the differential



This is the left drive axle




And the right drive axle

I was focusing on the rear end and geting the wheels to turn once again. But here is what else I had to look forward to.


Looking up at front suspension (not much of a picture)



Engine compartment


Otheer view of engine compartment


A look inside



One door panel


And the other


The dash


nder the dash


The outside was looking better than anything else

There was a lot of rust everywhere. But when i probed it was mostly surface rust. The frame was solid. I carefully checked the frame at the reat kickup in front of the rear wheelwell. This is the weak link in the frame and the surest place to rot out. Mine was solid. Dirty but solid. That was the first good news I had.
So, I was closing in on the new millenium and i still had not removed one part! But that will change next time I post!

[Fred32v]

One picture is worth a thousand words. Neat photos, they say alot.
Now for a first start or first drive video!

[oldvettedad]

One picture is worth a thousand words. Neat photos, they say alot.
Now for a first start or first drive video!

Hate to cut to the future, and ruin this "riveting" narrative but the first engine start doesn't come until 2009. We have a whole teardown and rebuild to go through first. Hope I'm not giving too much away

[Fred32v]

OK, I'll wait. Grins.

[oldvettedad]

Finally in 2001 I got serious. My plan was to attack the rear, determine why the rear wheels would not turn, then maybe getting it running and use it. So i figured i'll remove the driveshaft and see what we see. When i got under the car, I could get to one u-bolt easily, it was right on the bottom. But the other one i couldn't even see. There just wasn't enough room to get any tool up where the u-bolt was. So i tried the front of the driveshaft (oh yeah, Corvete purists call it a propeller shaft, the things I call "drive axles" are actually called "drive shafts"), couldnt get both u-bolts there either. So, now i figured I'll see if I can get tthe 2 drive axles out. Finally success!. Once the drive axles were disconnected I saw the rear end turned freely, but neither wheel would turn. Most likely it was the parking brakes frozen. About that time I decided to take the whole rear suspension out. The rear carrier was leaking a bit. Everything was heavily rusted, the rear shims looked they were held together by rust. By now I had been looking at a lot of products from Eastwood and decided I would try their rust encapsulator after getting rid of all loose and surface rust. Getting the suspension out seemed straight forward, drive axles out (not bad), strut rods out (pretty straight forward), undo front mount of the rear end carrier (piece of cake), remove the rear spring (should be easy, four center bolts, 2 end bolts which I had removed once before when I put two 2 inch spacers at the outer spring mounts). It was easy, except for the 2 aluminum spacers between the nut and the spring. These spacers were frozen on the bolts. So, a hacksaw cut the bolts abve the spacers and the spring was out. The rear can then come down still attache to the crossmember. the crossmember is in with 2 bolts, remove them, lower the whole assembly on a floor jack and its done. Actually worked out that way. Remove, or cut, all brake lines and remove the trailing arms with the rotor assembly attached. One bolt through the front of the trailing arm and the frame. Except, you can't get a decent tool on the bolt. There just isn't enough room between the body and head of the bolt to get any decent tool in there. And with all the rust, i figured I needed at least an impact wrench. But the tool that did the job was a craftsman reciprocating saw. Yep. a sawzall! But it took me about 3 or 4 days and several blades to get it done. Very hard to reach, almost no way to get between the bolt head or nut and the frame. And I needed a LONG blade. But after fighting i finally got through each bolt and after tapping them through (this can be tricky as the bolts are more or less precision fit, any burrs and they won't slide out. I know this because i had (or caused) burrs. A little filing, alot of emery paper and they were out. The shims are held in by the bolt, the bolt actually goes through a whole in the shim. So to align the rear you have to remove the trailing arm bolts to change shims. Needless to say, very few, if any mid year vettes get the rearend realigned. This sure "wrote" a lot easier than it was to do! Anyway, now my plan was to get the rear and the trailing arms rebuit at Bair's corvettes. So in summer of 2001 I made my first road trip to Bair's Corvettes in a tiny little town in northwestern Pa.
I spent time, before I went to Bair's, and after on my back wire brushing, scraping and cleaning rust from the frame. I also found lots and lots of hidden dirt pockets and did my best with any tool I could find or fabricate to loosen and get rid of the dirt. At this time my workarea was about 12 sq ft of space back by the garage door. I needed the extra space the open door provided, and I needed the light provided by the sun. My 2 car garage had only 2 100 watt bulbs for illumination. Here is what the rear of the car looked like after removing the suspension and rear and doing the frame with rust encapsulator topped with chassis black.




I mentioned the 'demolition work' necessary to get the spring and trailing arms out. Here is a picture of the spring bolts, severed above the spacer, and one spacer cut open


And this what was left of the trailing arm bolts and shims (held together by duct tape)


By october 2001 I had retrieved all my parts that Bair's rebuilt and my objective was to get the rear end and the rear suspension installed before the real cold weather hit. As I remember it, Bair's rebuilt the differential, i got new trailing arms with new rotors and rear bearings, strut rods bushed and checked for straightness and new u joints in the drive axles. The new trailing arms would use the later shims which were slotted to go around the bolt, but required a hole through the frame for a cotter pin which holds the shims in. Drilling those holes was not easy either. Tough to get to the frame on the body side. and tough to eyeball a straight line. But they are not perfectly horizontal but they work. Here are some pictures of the progress


This is the crossmember that the differential bots up to, here it has been wire wheeled sanded, rust encapsulated and top coated with chassis black,.


This is the differential mounted and the crossmember ready to be reinstalled.
This almost went well. Everything was simple until I couldn't torque one of the 2 bolts holding the crossmember in. It bolts up into a blind nut and the nut was stripped. I talked to several people to figure out the best way to fix this. Nobody really new what the blind nut looked like and how many threads it had. In the end my buddy Pat Hennebery and I decided to try a helicoil. We hoped there were enough threads for a helicoil. But if there werent, we at least would already have drilled it and tapped it for a bigger bolt. Luckiy the helicoil worked and I could successfully torque the crossmember. Here are some more pictures as things went together.




Trailing arms in


Painting the strut rods and drive axles


Diff and spring in


Drive axles


Strut rods installed


Notice the transmission crossmember still in full rust. Only the back half has been done at this point


close up of the rotor caliper and now functional parking brake




So the rear suspension, diff, and drive axles, brakes etc were now functional
It was getting on to November 2001 and cold. I turned the vette around so that the front was now pointing at the garage door. This was my next job to tackle. I did turn the motor over manually and it turned rather easily. I thought about lkeaving it and see if I can start it. Then i said, no. I'm going to do the front suspension now that i did the rear, so I might as well pull the motor and disassemble it too. And so ended 2001. 2002 was going to be front suspension, motor and anything else. Oh yeah, there was something I knew I had to tackle. earlier I had a picture of the interior. here it is again


When I showed this picture to Yogi Bair he immediately said "you need a new steering tube, the ears are broken. thats why your directional signal lever is hanging down". he then found some to show me what he meant. That jogged my memory, yeah the directional signal was hanging down and difficult to use, oh anf the whole wheel assembly moved up and down. So i definitely was going to get inside too! Good bye 2001. Next time we'll start in 2002.

[Fred32v]

2001 looked like a satisfying year, the pictures say a bunch. I hate rust.