89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Update your progress on your various car projects.

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MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Finished up the interior wiring for now. Made a nice little bracket to hold the low coolant sensor and did some wire looming and organizing in the back. It looks pretty good. Also took a few minutes and reinstalled the fuel tank door.
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For the interior, some upcoming to do items
- fabricate brackets/install the Longacre rear view mirror
- fabricate/install GoPro mounting bracket
- fabricate/install covers for ABS compartment and soon to be battery compartment
- paint a lot of the roll bars (still have a few more places to weld that won't want paint yet)
- passenger seat bracket fab and install

Other to do items - near term
- calibrate the TPS and test drive the car
- fix the low coolant light
- fabricate brackets to hold external engine and trans oil coolers
- install the modified shroud with new radiator and coolers and plumb the lines
- fabricate supports and plates for side door bars in back
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Found the brackets I started for the passenger seat. Started mocking it up and noticed some problems with seat positioning - cannot get it as far back as I want using the stock studs without cutting the seat for access to install the nut. Must contemplate next steps here - might be to get another seat. I can't use the stock seat belts as the roll bar blocks the bolt hole for the should belt attaching point.

Calibrate the TPS following the instructions I shared on BP's Vette thread. Note: raising the connector end raises the resistance and vice versa.

I also connected a wire to the rear latch so I don't have to reach all the way back there to open the hatch.

Test drove the car. I think it might challenge a stock L98 for like the first 60 feet but the truck heads and cam just don't wind up at all. Also this might be the first time I drove this car in warm weather. The heat off the transmission tunnel is noticeable - just a regular street drive and the highest temp I got off that tunnel was 125 degrees. Some kind of heat insulation is going to be very necessary for any type of extended summer driving with this car.

Edit: ordered the 7/16” Delrin rod as suggested in the video to fix the pop up headlights open/close system.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Earlier this year I fit the heavy duty radiator into a spare shroud I had acquired. It has been patiently waiting for me to finish the work and install the other coolers. With the car running I decided to tackle this project next. I fabricated a frame from 1/8" x 3/4 aluminum bars to attach in front of the radiator inside the shroud - and with a little help from Cut N Paste and his TIG welder it is assembled. After that I drilled all the holes to attach the frame to the shroud.

Also the coolers needed attached to the frame. For the trans cooler I riveted small 90 degree tabs to it with small holes in each to bolt it to the frame. For engine oil cooler I expanded existing holes in the end supports to fit a 1/4-20 (oops meant to do 10-24). For each I then placed them on the frame and drilled the holes to align.

I also determined the top tranny line into the radiator is the supply from the transmission. Since I plan to chain the stock cooler and the aftermarket cooler together I will put the aftermarket one second in the chain. With this info I started fabricating the line from the trans cooler out to the aftermarket cooler in. I had also made a drawing and figured out all the fittings I need and picked up the few that I did not already have in inventory.

I'm contemplating using some type of metal piping for the oil supply and return lines as well to limit the risk of damage to the lines under the hood. It's kind of busy on the driver side and I will have to navigate around the power steering, alternator, the main shaft of the steering column, and the exhaust. I still have some figuring to do on this part.

The overall plan would be to get these coolers in so I can try them out at a track day yet here in 2022.

Also, Fred32v was over and got to work on painting the roll cage. A lot of the bars had surface rust so that needed cleaned up, we had to remove a bunch of stuff from the interior, and lots of taping. We got the bars primed but only one side painted. I chose color matching red for the paint, which I was getting in 8 ounce aerosol cans. Well its now like $16 per can and they go fast, so we didn't have enough to finish. We have to make some decisions about painting the interior - as the primer overspray got on a bunch of the floor, and there are a couple rust spots on the floor. I am not able to find any reasonably affordable color matching paint - I'm seeing acrylic lacquer for close to $400 per gallon. I have some lacquer that is the correct color so that may be the option, or I can explore other colors that are much cheaper such as this acrylic urethane from Summit https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-up303g I'm hoping I can at least see a sample of this in real life to tell if its close enough.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

After some thinking I decided the inexpensive viper red was not a good match. The price was right but I found a video of a guy who used it and compared the color to the Vette and it was not very close. Would have needed a 100% repaint, so my choice is to crack open the old red acrylic lacquer I had from my 87 Camaro. I wanted to apply more selectively than my Devilbiss gun could offer so I spent $15 on an inexpensive spray gun from Harbor Freight.

Other paint preparations included draining the air compressor tank, and fixing the air hose on the reel in the garage. The day before the hose started leaking. It's like 5 years old but only been used for 3 months.

Fred32v was over on Friday to get the interior paint done, bringing some necessary supplies.

On the car we
- cleaned up surface pitting on the floor
- masked off everything that could catch overspray
- disconnected all the interior wiring to the ABS, fuel tank, tail lights and packed them up under the dash
- seat and seat belts out
- vacuum up the interior surfaces and clean up the floor
- prepped and primed the last bits of roll bars and the floor

We also had to play with getting decent air pressure to the gun and have an evaporator setup. Once that was done it was just a matter of mixing up the paint and putting down the paint. It's been a long time since I put down lacquer, and this little gun put out a lot less paint which was helpful but took some adjusting. I really liked the small gun and it had a lot less overspray than the large gun or spray cans.

The paint laid down decent. I still have to put it all back together.

There is going to be one more paint session after the door bars are installed, where I will cover the remainder of the floor behind the seat, and anything else that was missed.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

The top was some beige metallic. I dipped into my remaining stock of red and painted the roof to match the car. I chose to clean with wax and grease remover and sanded it with 320.

I lowered air pressure and put my Devilbiss to work. It laid down the paint so nice at something like 20 psi.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

On Friday Fred32v was over and - after watching the video Walt recommended - went to work on fixing the headlight lifting mechanism.

It was pretty straightforward- this car had all the extra bolts, brackets and pieces that were mentioned. We left all the stuff on for reassembly.

I put some more time in on the cooling systems. Both engine and transmission oil coolers are attached to their new bracket in the radiator shroud, and I roughed in a path for the engine oil lines through the shroud and more transmission line fabricating.

I followed that up by removing the radiator and shroud from the car. Hopefully assembly will be straightforward.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Short version:
• Dimmer switch is fine I have a lot of headlight bulbs with the low beam out
• All fabrication is done for transmission lines
• Inlet ducting straightened, cleaned, and trimmed to allow more air in
• Opened up the center of the front bumper to allow more air in
• Inlet ducts, shroud, radiator all installed
• Test started the car
• Still need to install sandwich adapter and connect engine oil lines

Headlights: Only the high beams work on the Vette, so we tried connecting one of the spare headlights and it only had the high beam working as well. This sent me down a path of assuming the headlight switch was bad. Looked in the factory manual and figured out the wiring. Tried disconnecting the dimmer switch and bypassing it, but it didn’t change anything. Before I got into significant wire troubleshooting I decided to use a test light out at the plug at the headlight end of the harness. Well it showed there was power. With that I picked up the other spare headlight assembly and plugged it in and of course it worked.

Cooling:
During rough assembly, we put the top grommets in the shroud and quickly learned the Frost Bite radiator that is a “direct bolt in” is actually about ¾” shorter than the stock radiator. When Fred32v was over he fabricated extensions for the top rubber grommets. We also did quite a bit of trimming to simplify the install of the top part of the shroud with the radiator and transmission lines in place. While I was attempting to connect the fan to the lower half of the shroud, I learned this was almost impossible inside the car as the power steering cooler is right there in the way. Removing the shroud for this helped facilitate the fitting of the new grommets.

The transmission lines needed additional fabrication – trimmed the factory return line and flared it. Completed bending the line from the cooler to the factory return line.

While the shroud was out I got the idea I should fix the front part of the inlet ducting. The bottom edge was quite bent and it took some straightening to get it right. There is a plastic air dam underneath and it was bent back so not helping push air up toward the radiator, so I took some time to bend that back to correct positioning. I also washed all these parts so I wouldn’t have to handle these dirty parts the whole time.
There is a red deflector in the middle of the inlet which I left, though I trimmed off the bottom part with the intention of letting more air through.
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The NCRS judges will approve of the factory date markings
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With the inlet ducting and main shroud out I got the idea that now is the time to open up the front bumper and let some air in that way as well. With these parts out I literally pulled my garage stool into the opening and could sit there in front of the engine.
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I started by cutting a hole in the license plate area, then cutting a hole in the fiberglass – yes the bumper is mostly fiberglass.
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After that I trimmed back a couple of the aluminum brackets to create a bigger opening. As it turns out this will mostly allow more air to the radiator though about ¼ look like its headed to the air filter.

After those diversions I set to putting it back together. First the inlet ducting, then the main part of the shroud, radiator, then the transmission lines, cutting the short bit of hose I need and making the final connections to the transmission cooler. Next step was to install the top of the main fan shroud, the air cleaner, low coolant sensor and double check everything for tight. Last step was to put coolant in it. It took over ½ gallon more than what came out of the car due to extra radiator capacity.
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Up next:
Finish up connection for oil cooler, get the Longacre rear view mirror installed, and mount a fire extinguisher in the car. After that it’ll be a test drive and then off to the drag strip.
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

Today the Corvette made its first dragstrip pass. I accidentally deep staged so maybe I gave up some hundreths, but the car ran through clean and managed a 14.65 @ 91 mph. It hooked well and had a 2.08 60'

I was there for well over three hours and only got in one pass. I was in line when a car went on its roof. I had to get back home as the Charger project was being delivered at 4:30.

Lucky the first pass was good. I was hoping for a 14.50 with this truck motor.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
User avatar
MostMint
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: planning a race

Re: 89 Corvette Mostmint #39

Post by MostMint »

There was considerable grinding from the car on the way back from the dragstrip. Since the wheel bearings were in stock here and Fred32V was coming over, the Vette got some attention last Friday and all four bearings were replaced. The rears look like they were leaking grease - maybe a really long time ago. First test drive will confirm if the bearings were in fact the problem.

It also had a problem where it would not start after I was sitting in line to enter and a lot of on/off. Best guess is heat soak into the fuel lies up front - will insulate them before going to the drags again.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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