1966 Corvette project, will I finish before I die?

[Maverick]

Lookin' good!! Will you catch up to today before its finished? Its a fun read -- keep it coming. Good that you took all those pictures.

[oldvettedad]

Lookin' good!! Will you catch up to today before its finished? Its a fun read -- keep it coming. Good that you took all those pictures.

I think i need to rename this project "Will I finish this thead before I die" I'm not the fastes at writing this stuff down. I actually have many many more pictures. All so far were before I had a digital camera, so it was 35mm and you never knew what you had until they were developed. So far these have all been scanned photos. Eventually I'll get to digitals.

[oldvettedad]

So 2001 was in the books! I actually had complete completely rebuilt the rear suspension, brakes and differential and "restored" the rear of the frame. For 2002 I wanted to do the same to the front suspension and frame, pull the motor and transmission, and rebuild as necessary. Just a moment to keep my work habits clear. I am not the fastes or most industrious. There is no heat in my attached 2 car garage (at this point in time) and I kind of work from maybe noon until 5 or 6 PM. You, know in the morning I have to read the paper, have a leisurely 4 cups of coffee and visit the head. Normal stuff Anyway here are pix of what i was up against.






But before I dissambled the suspension I decided to take the motor out. That was pretty straightforward. A couple of broken studs in an exhaust manifold getting the exhaust pipe out, otherwise no big problems. I took the motor and tranny out as an assembly and a few of the neighborhood kids helped me out.








That left plenty of room to work


















Had to find somewhere to put parts

So now I started on the front suspension, brakes etc.







Of course with the motor and tranny out it gave room to work. But it was a challenge when I needed weight to allow the springs to compress when taking out the spindle assembly and the springs. I had a picture of what i did, but i can't find it. I rigged a 2 x4 crossmember and put the tranny back in with the input shaft on the 2x4 crossmember. I then put the 2 heaviest floor jacks on the front crossmember and put about 300 pounds of free weights on the jacks and pieces of wood i had wedged in. This gave me enough weight to get everything out "under control"
*****Update about 30 minutes after i wrote this, I remmebered why I couldn't find the picture. I didn't have to weight it to get the spring, steering knuckles etc OUT. It was to put the new springs in. I was sitting here thinking 'why would I compress the spring to gt it out?' Of course , what an old man I have become! I even forgot what i did, much less how to get coil springs in and out, which I have done numerous times**********












Now the job of restoring, replacing and reassembling begins.

[Maverick]

I'm about to install the Maverick front disks and rebuild the front suspension and steering but I'm gonna rent a SPRING COMPRESSOR!! I broke out in a sweat reading about your spring compression technique.

[TireSmoker]

I remember dealing with a similar issue when I replaced the front springs in my Chevelle. The new replacement springs were shorter than the stock ones, which helped, but I think in the end, I had a buddy or two either sitting on the fenders and standing on the crossmember until I could get the lower ball-joints connected.

It's also nice seeing a real-world Vette much like my dad's, as opposed to a typical Barrett Jackson Vette which has (seemingly) all new parts.

-Dave

[oldvettedad]

I'm about to install the Maverick front disks and rebuild the front suspension and steering but I'm gonna rent a SPRING COMPRESSOR!! I broke out in a sweat reading about your spring compression technique.

I actually have a spring compressor. I was going to do it that way, but for some reason, which I can't remember now, I couldn't make it work in this application.

[oldvettedad]

I remember dealing with a similar issue when I replaced the front springs in my Chevelle. The new replacement springs were shorter than the stock ones, which helped, but I think in the end, I had a buddy or two either sitting on the fenders and standing on the crossmember until I could get the lower ball-joints connected.

It's also nice seeing a real-world Vette much like my dad's, as opposed to a typical Barrett Jackson Vette which has (seemingly) all new parts.

-Dave

Actually, I did put in new front springs (as well as a new rear spring) and the replacement springs are shorter. I really gave the guys at Bair's a hard time about those. But they assured me these are still correct and the ride height will be the same. Being shorter certainly helps on installation. Not to jump to far ahead, the ride height of the new shorter springs is fine.

[oldvettedad]

As I remember it, and there is no guarantee I remember anything correctly, I finished out 2002 working on detail parts and didn't get to finish the front suspension until 2003. Here are various pictures i could find of some of that work. I have no idea if I took more pictures, so far these are all scanned photos and I know I did not scan all of the 35mm photos.


I think I showed this one before. But you can see the air cleaner base, the alternator brackets and the lower bellhousing cover, sort of.


This is the air cleaner base finished. I wirewheeled all loose rust, then Eastwood rust encapsulator, then Eastwood's three part combo, Golden cad base, misting with Red Zinc and then Green zinc. Comes out cool, I love to use that stuff. Funny thing is my NCRS books say the air cleaner base is black, but mine was not. It was definitely gold cad. I like this better anyway.


Here are the brackets with rust encapsulator


And now finished in Siver cad (I think the alternator bracets look better this way than in black,


This to show what the tranny and bellhousing looked like




This ir the bellhousing cleaned, then finished with alumablast. NCRS says it is painted engine color (chevy orange) but I like natural better. Don't mind it is chipped a little, its still good.




Fan needs work


step one


step two




Now for the long wait to be on a water pump and on a motor.

This is the intricate way of mounting the tranny, the shifter and the exhaust deflector.


Ready to go. Except about a year later i didn't like the way the bolt holes in the tranny mount were elongated and bought a new one. Wasn't the fiirst part I scrapped after I finished it. Same thing happened with the clutch fork.


Tranny cleaned


And some alumablast
I came upon a product (I think Isaw it in Old Cars Weekly) for rust removal. It was non toxic, biodegradeable. It was called evaporust.

The amount of time to let a part soak varies and it can be reused, but of course it weakens. My first test was some exhaust pipes I neede to use again


It seeme d to work ok (I did not know of Maverick's electrolysis technique) so I used it on a lot of parts.


This is apoor picture, but it is the fan pulley and the radiatorto shroud bracket




It did a nice job and the paint is unharmed


This what the exhaust pipes looked like after evapo rust. I found evapo rust useful also as a rust preventive. A couple of years later after Glass beading cylinder heads, I dipped them in evapo rust (just a dip, like making a candy apple) let them dry, wrapped them in plastic bags and they were not rusted 3 years later. I haven't used it in quite a while now.

When 2003 came I still had to finish the front suspension and restore the rest of the frame (more hurs working on my back).
But first I decided to fix my funky steering column.








So you can see these little tabs were broken off the top of the steering tube
and this was the problem. I changed the turn signal switch when I reassembled it. Its good and tight now.
Next we'll do the suspension. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Maverick]

Hope your V surfaces on your pulleys are smooth. I tried to save my rusty pulleys but had to replace them when they ate the belts. The electrolysis treatment removed the rust but couldn't do anything about the rough, pitted surfaces in the groove. The alternator belt went bad before the Florida trip. On the way home from florida the PS belt got abraded to the point that the belt got loose. I've now replaced all the pulleys except the one on the water pump/fan. Everything seems stable now. Watch for rubber dust on the underside of the hood and on the air cleaner.

[GMJohnny]

Watching this Vette come back together and be painted part by part reminds me
of putting models together when I was a kid, except this is in full scale!!!

GM

[oldvettedad]

Hope your V surfaces on your pulleys are smooth. I tried to save my rusty pulleys but had to replace them when they ate the belts. The electrolysis treatment removed the rust but couldn't do anything about the rough, pitted surfaces in the groove. The alternator belt went bad before the Florida trip. On the way home from florida the PS belt got abraded to the point that the belt got loose. I've now replaced all the pulleys except the one on the water pump/fan. Everything seems stable now. Watch for rubber dust on the underside of the hood and on the air cleaner.

Good point. I'll have to watch for that. The lower pulley was rough. I glass beaded it several times before painting, it will bear watching. My fan pulley was surprisingly good. But thanks for the pointer.

[TireSmoker]

You've mentioned Bair's a few times -- I realize you're not exactly close to them, but do you ever it make it over to their annual show in mid-May? My dad and I have been heading up there the past few years, but it's only a little over an hour away.

-Dave

[oldvettedad]

You've mentioned Bair's a few times -- I realize you're not exactly close to them, but do you ever it make it over to their annual show in mid-May? My dad and I have been heading up there the past few years, but it's only a little over an hour away.

-Dave

No, I haven' t been there since 2003. It's really a two day trip for me because I just don't have the desire to drive any more than I have to at night. I could leave my place around noon, get tthere around 5 pm. Get a good nights sleep, get over there by 9 or 10, hang around for a few hours and get back home by 6 or 7. I've thought about going to one of their shows, might make it next year.

[MostMint]

How about Corvettes at Carlisle?

[oldvettedad]

Hmm...I am arookie at posting in forums. I just spent 30 minutes posting images and text and before I submitted it I acccidently closed my browser. I guess what I was preparing to submit does not get saved if you don't click "save draft". I'll try again later, a little P O'd at myself right now