89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Update your progress on your various car projects.

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TireSmoker
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by TireSmoker »

This was posted to the Champcar Garage and I thought it deserved a look.. Start at 0:49, crash around 1:00. According to the post, the Vette lost brake fluid after Saturday's race and wasn't checked prior to Sunday, which led to this event.

Who knows the build quality of the car, but that doesn't look like a huge hit to me. The worst part is, it's hard to know if the Corvette driver is even aware there's a fire back there. This was allegedly on the first lap, so a full tank a fuel. Not gonna lie, this concerns me a quite a bit. Contact, even heavy contact, is one thing and I have a lot of faith in our cage/safety equipment to protect us in those events.. fire at the gas tank is quite another.



-Dave
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Basement Paul
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by Basement Paul »

No way a light hit like that causes a fire in a stock system. I'm going with shoddy craftsmanship.

-BP
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Updates:

roll cage:
* harness bar and center top bar fabricated and welded in
* roof tabs welded onto targa top frame and roll cage - test driven this holds good
* fabricated removable covers for roll cage mounting points in the back. This took an inordinate amount of time due to needing these to be removable for safety inspections.
* cage about 80% done - now needs dash bar and door bars on both sides

other:
* reinstalled the fiberglass panel for the factory main hoop and the rear window
* replaced seat slider since fabrication damaged the original and could not get replacement parts. The old one will hold but did not want to risk malfunction during a race (Dave, Kurt, me). Getting all these parts to line up was a pain
* removed the dash in preparation for dash bar fabrication
* started the process of replacing 31 year old suspension bushings - removed LF control arms (Dave, me)
* started fabrication on the brake duct adapters (Kurt)

Note:
* the electric oil pressure gauge is on the blink again :( as it randomly decides when it wants to work or not work
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Well it seems I'm behind on the updates here.

The main upgrades that have happened since January are suspension, brakes and fuel lines.

Every suspension component came out and 30 year old bushings were replaced with new poly bushings. This was quite a task I forget the count but there are well north of 40 bushings. All four stabilizer links have two each, sway bars have two each, all four front control arms have two each, the batwings on the rear have two, there are four arms holding the suspension to the front of the frame, there are two arms controlling the camber/toe in, and I think more but cant recall. Some tiresmoker pressed out and in at his place, some I could remove and some I had to drill out. Every suspension part had to come out - the entire rear end included. Fortunately the rust free car had no rust in the way.

The brakes got new rotors and pads - that was pretty straightforward.

The stainless steel fuel lines were another adventure. I ordered them from Summit. They were pre-bent lines but they didn't quite fit so I had to do some tweaking to get it to fit. The supplier offered the supply line as a two piece, but the return line didn't include the part that goes in the engine compartment! I would not recommend this supplier as that last piece was an extra c-note and I was already one c-note above what I thought these lines were worth. But before fitting the lines we had to clear the path to install them. The biggest challenge there was the gas tank had to come out to get the lines installed in one piece. In order to get the gas tank out the rear subframe has to come off, and the rear bumper cover.

This car still has a long way to go but it is a lot closer than it was at the start of 2020.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

I took the car over to the roll cage guy and had a dash bar fabricated back in November.

Last weekend I started fitting the new radiator into the factory shroud. I’m using the shroud I got from a lot of parts I bought from an 86. It physically fits in the shroud with all the openings in the right place but lots of fab work will be needed to make it fit. I started trimming the shroud and the rubber grommets to fit this new wider radiator. Still a ways to go but it’s a start.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by wxo »

Since I'm a bit out of commission with Covid19 this week, I'm isolating in my downstairs man cave to prevent Randi from getting it. Looking for things to do to pass the time, I decided to read though this entire thread again. I found it interesting and fun to relive the parallels with my experience with Silvia. This forum has really proven it's worth tying our common interests and friendships together over time and distance. Cool!
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Sorry you are under the weather! I don't know if I posted this here before but I have a thread on Corvetteforum - there is some extra content here:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c4 ... build.html
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Interesting video about the C4 ZR-1

https://youtu.be/6Vs2tdR-9C8
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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wxo
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by wxo »

That was a great history lesson, especially toward the end when we learned that internal competition resulted in the LS engines. Very entertaining video. Thanks.
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by TireSmoker »

Agreed, it was a pretty good watch and made me love my C4 just a little more, knowing that the engineers wanted to reduce frontal area and lay the radiator back to reduce police radar range.

Also interesting that we have 3 different semi-active threads on C4 vettes. Walt's sweet top of the line stocker, my hot-rodded streetcar and Andy's full race car. The official car of Tiresmoke?? haha

-Dave
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Has to be.

That video definitely increases my resolve to get the Mostmint C4 race car on track.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

This project has been stalled for months. Apparently retirement does not automatically make enough time for two race cars. Since the Saturn now need an engine teardown and Kurt is slowly putting his Vette together, I decided the next step is to get some kind of dash setup for this car.

With the dash bar in place it was obvious the stock dash would not work as the bar goes right through the digital dash space. I'm not planning on having the digital dash long term, but converting all that info to different gauges going to take more time than I want to spend right now. With this in mind I looked at the dash, and realized I could move the digital dash back and up a bit and still use it. I cut and had Kurt weld the support bracket to get that part of the dash in a good position.

The center of the dash also got repurposed, as it will be much easier to adapt to it rather than start from scratch. I've mocked up this center section and tried it in the car for size. There is a little shelf on the left side where the wiper controls will now live. 1/16" aluminum sheet is on order and should be here this weekend.

Also the left side of the dash - which holds the headlight and fog light switches, got adapted and will be used.

I also painted the dash bar, repaired the connection points for the center section of the dash, and fabricate something for the two fuse panels.

Up next:
* fabricate some fairly simple brackets and get the fuse panels mounted below the dash bar on the passenger side.
* fabricate a second mount to hold the wiper controls in place.
* weld the dash bar in place
* cut the aluminum panels for center section
* extend any wires as needed
* test fit all the gauges to the panels
* finish installation
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

The dash bar is now welded in and I have rough fabricated a bracket to hold the fuse panels
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

It doesn't look like all the work it took, but the dash fabrication is done and all major components are assembled.

Moving the gauges to the center of the car, and moving the ground bus and light bus required some rewiring. My plan was to make these buses and the fuse panels easily accessible for troubleshooting.

The center portion of the dash is connected to the car in three of it's original moorings, and one additional connecting it to the dash bar.

I decided to cut the lower center panel for 5 switches, the diagnostic port and one gauge. Later we can add fire suppression, kill switch, and the radio. The metal is 1/16" aluminum sheet - and this panel is held on with 4 bolts. It can be easily replaced if another configuration is needed.

The fuse panel bracket was cut from some diamond plate aluminum - it was an old floor mat that came with Kurt's Saturn. It's a little thicker which reduced the need for side support. Again I was able to use factory moorings to connect it to the car. Since the aluminum was scuffed up, I decided to paint it red to match the car - as I had painted the roll bar as well.
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There are still a ton of wires and some various plug in modules that used to be connected to the dash (low coolant sensor module, flasher module and others) that need to be gone through. I'll have to decide if that is next. As far as this car - the next big item will be to get the new radiator, oil and transmission cooling installed. At this time the radiator is fitted to a shroud, but the other coolers need fitted. After these are operational I may consider a track day with this car. As it stands now, it's close to ready for some passes at the drag strip.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

I chased down a few wires heading to the back and removed them from the harness. One of them was one of four wires that went to the fuel sending unit, but when it got there, the sending unit had 3 wires and the fourth was a blank. At the other end of the wire headed to the trunk, the green wire ended at the connector to the main harness, so it never had a purpose since the car was built. Anyway I lost a bit of time finishing this up. There is a round rubber grommet where the wires go through the fiberglass and exit the interior in the back - and I inadvertently pulled this plug into the interior trying to get these wires out of it. Took a while to figure out that putting it back required removing the metal ring on the outside, pushing the plug through the hole, then reattaching the ring. I also took some time to put some of the wiring under the dash into corrugated wire loom. Still need to finish this next time I work on the car.

The other thing I did was fix the seat slider. We had inadvertently set it up so the sliders were too close to the front studs holding the seat down. This fix required moving them closer together and then rebending the u-shape handle that releases the sliders. Also, the frame under the seat need to sit flush with the floor and the bolts going through it were hitting the floor. This I cleaned up by grinding notches in the fiberglass.

I moved the car up from crosswise in the back of the garage to the front.

I'm kind of looking at 8/24 or later to get it on a drag strip. I suppose I better watch the headlight repair video and get some parts ordered. Mine work but they are kind of sketchy.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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