A little progress

Well I'm getting a little closer to dropping the body back on her, see the updateed roller pics. Just won my 409 stainless mandrel bent x pipe exhaust system off ebay (sounds a lot cooler than it really is), complete with mufflers and hangers. Someone was trying to be a slicky boy and sneak bid me out of it, well guess what? It's mine bitch! I really need to find the other reducer I misplaced(lost)and get a couple of down tubes and I should be good to go. Dropping the engine was a little anti-climactic. I opted not to get the Hayes clutch, a couple factors made this an easy decision. The clutch that was in it looked brand new and I didn't have the heart to throw it out. And after getting some advice from a transmission mechanic about the weak points being the tires for traction and possible problems with the clutch assembly due to pedal pressure I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money right now, it will be a decision made later based on how it works as is. Got a lot of little tweaking to do before the body goes, I'm going to try and get as much done as possible before putting the body back on but I'm almost there.

Shark Bait

UPDATE! Things are running about as smoothly as I could hope. Today is a clean up day. Focus for the next 2-4 weeks will be brakes, steering, trans cleanup, new hayes clutch and engine install. I still need to work out the water pump issue. I was recommended a CSI water pump by a local shop and turns out it don't work. Which reminds me I need to call them and get a status. I will update photo's as I progress.

No more surprises!

Man oh man what a month! Everyting seemed like a battle, the shark's not letting me get over on anything. Putting the front back together was tedious (not finished) a lot of torqueing to factory specs, 4 new calipers, SS brake hoses and Hawk pads should just about take care of the brake system (master cylinder? fingers crossed)! The samll glimer of hope for rebuilding calipers dissapeared as soon as I got them apart. Junk! Pacific Corvette in Puyallup took them as cores thankfully! New SS sleeved O-ring calipers from Lonestar are going back on as soon as the rest of the parts arrive. Parts are trickling in keeping me pretty busy. I can really feel like I'm making headway now.

Rear End

Well if I hadn't FUBAR'D the half-shaft flange last night I would have had those on it too. All in all it's coming back together nicely, at least I think so anyways. Things should start going a little faster once I'm done with the suspension and steering.

Gone Hunting!

Fianlly! Going to be doing a lot of hunting the next few weeks. Wow, Vette Brakes really put the brakes on my project figuratively, I ordered shocks on Sept 9th that unkwoingly were backordered, a month later still no shocks. Called and upgraded to the Bilsteins just cause they were in stock so I could get the order sent out. They promised a 20% discount on the phone (fingers crossed), but man what a set back. Guess I take the web for granted sometimes, some sites don't give notice that parts are out of stock or backordered.
Another rookie mistake was not thoroughly researching vendors. I found Paragon corvette gives a recurring 15% discount for restoring your vette if you buy through them and a nice online shipping discount. Very solid vendor parts shipped quick and are good quality. At least I found them before I was finished. Well live and learn. Got to go sacrifice to the great black tail spirit and get moving out tonight.

Waiting on my shocks and some misc bushings

Well it's been a pretty uneventfull past couple of weeks. Ordered the KYB 2 gas a just shocks from VB&P (vettebrakes) and the darn things are on backorder. That and the home front have kept me from turning a wrench the last couple of weeks. Shout out to my brothers out there! Hope you all are doing allright.

Clean up day

The POR-15 is dry and I couldn't be happier with the results. I did a little test paint on the fron't cross member, a place I didn't strip it down to bare metal and although it looks ok it's not even close to looking as good as the rest of it. I still have a lot of POR-15 left(I got free shipping for a $200. order) so touch ups here we come.
As for today and every so often I have to spend some time cleaning up and refitting. I will also start to prep for tearing down the suspension and coming up with an idea for a rig to hold the frame so I can work on the underside of it and get it ready for spraying the top coat. In between this I still need to decide if I'm going to powder coat the front suspension and steering parts. I would have to say yes just because they are the most visible and get a lot of wear from the road. I will also be working on the engine access brackets and Trans cleaning and prep.

Paint Day!

Check out the new pic's!

Paint Day

Let me start off by saying I am really glad I went with POR-15 it is a freakin awesome product to put on. And a little goes a long, long way. I hope I did enough prep work (fingers crossed) as I've never used it before and I'm not sure how forgiving it is. I started off with a qt of black for the top of the frame inside and out. I used a little over half a quart and wasted a lot of it doing the two coats. Especially on the second coat. The bottom, sides and places that are visible with the body on will be painted with black semi gloss POR-15 and chasis black top coat.
I'm going to give it some time to dry, retouch the areas I messed up on and then it's time for the suspension and rear diff to be broken down and replaced.

Ninja, says "watching paint dry is boring!"

Cleaning up the frame and prepping for paint.

I spent a lot of time pondering how to attack the frame and finally decided to paint it with POR-15. I was seriously considering powder coating the frame, but I decided against it because I don't have a truck and trailer and tearing down the suspension and transporting it all would have been an extra cost and hassle for me and I also didn't want any issues with bolts not fitting properly and cleaning out threads. The cost of powder coating is pretty reasonable I thought, around $300.00 + blasting labor. It was a money and convenience issue so I went with the POR-15 treatment, Metal Prep, Marine Clean, POR-15 and some chassis black paint.

The good thing is I’m a nut, so I ended up wire wheeling just about every speck of the rust off of the frame. I probably went way overboard and instead of painting over the rust I am painting bare metal, the metal prep did leave a nice coating to paint on so I hope it sticks. The plan is to paint the majority of the frame the top, sides and bottom, out in the driveway since the weather is still somewhat nice here. I want to be able to roll the frame in and out of the garage and work in the driveway to keep the dust and fumes out of the house. After that is done I will pull it in the garage and tear down the front and rear suspension and either paint or possibly do a little powder coating on the A-arms, sway bar etc… haven’t decided on what to do with those yet. I will be brushing the bulk of the POR-15 on, I do have the option of spraying it but since the stuff is fairly toxic I will try to keep that to a minimum and just spray when absolutely neccessary.

Thanks to all the members at the C3 Vette Registry

I just want to say thank you. I visit that site at least twice a day and have spent hours searching the forums. Best group fo people to run my crazy ideas by and get a reality check. The information I have gotten from C3VR has without a doubt saved me a lot of time and money and made the restore process a whole lot of fun for me!

Picasa photo album link

1979 L-82 Corvette Rebuild

Some specs on the engine

Scat 383 crank, 190 cc Procomp Aluminum Heads, 202 160 stainless valves, GM Powder metal rods, Speedpro H860CP Hypereutectic pistons, 280 cam hydraulic, HEI Pro comp, Pro Products 1.6 roller rockers, Mighty Demon 750 carb, Sanderson Silver Ceramic CC1AP Hedders.

1979 L-82 Corvette rebuild

I decided to blog my progress on this project. The Corvette is a 1979 L-82 4 speed that was neglected and slowly rotting away. My ultimate goal is to sell the Corvette after the rebuild process is completed. I decided to keep the stock engine stock and put it aside for now, and instead I have went with a very nice and very driveable 383 built by Britco Racing.

Aside from the engine and exhaust, everything else will be restored to original equipment specifications. Using new parts from Corvette America and Mid America. The goal is to have a nice driveable hot-rod to enjoy and when that time comes fot the later C3's, the next owner can drop in the O.E. L-82 3 50 in her and enjoy the value of a matched numbered fully restored C3 Corvette.