sonksen_design

Thought I’d start a thread on this build since I now have some substantial progress. On May 2nd, my wife and I made a run from our home at the Lake of the Ozarks MO up to SRIII Motorsports to pick up the stage two chassis. Mike was as good to work with as all of you had sworn by. I’m sure that I’ll be doing more bragging on him and his crew as the build progresses. We then swung down to Lee Bumb to grab the front end, hood and misc pieces that I needed. You may be interested in reading more details about this project and how it’s been began almost 24 years ago, so check out my ‘profile album’ by the same title.

Since I made some major improvements to my shop in 2013 and starting tearing down the ’63 almost a year ago, I’ve made fairly steady progress. Having sat in a field in Minnesota for a decade after being totaled, this old vette was a mess. Quite obvious that she led a life of abuse and neglect even before the wreck. I’ve stripped it down and had it soda-blasted and jumped on repairing and re-finishing the parts that were worth a darn. I have a great start on the interior design as well as some other interesting twists. Nothing too radical on this girl. I am building this car to tour around in and enjoying scenic drives with my wife to hammering through the pylons at some car events. I’ll be keeping most of Shinoda, Mitchell & Dontov’s body design, other than slightly wider GTS rear quarters and tucking mostly-stock bumpers. Like my ’80 custom project from TWO decades ago (man, am I getting old), this one will be done by mostly my hands. Hopefully less than the 1980’s six thousand man hours… no joke. That’s why I’m going through all of this mess, I keep reminding myself since you all know not ever aspect is pure joy. That said, I am absolutely loving life right now and having a blast on this project. No hurry here and no agenda or plans to start up a rod shop. Just a simple tradesman who’s enjoying the fruits of his labor while being grateful for another challenging project. Can wait to get her done and then begin ‘updating’ the ’80 for its Round Two re-birth.

So now that I’ve over-spent 2014’s budget by ten-fold, I’ll get to work on getting the chassis under there so that I can accurately bond the nose on. Once that’s done, the dolly will go back under while the dirty work happens. Not trying to stick to a timeline, but it makes sense to get some interior progress done after the rough body work is done, in order to allow time for the upholsterers to do their stitching magic. On that note, I’m enjoying picking up some metal-shaping tools and equipment in order to: A) Master another craft…and B) fabricate my interior components. I’ll post more as that ‘shop stuff’ comes along. Maybe 2015 will be when I start picking up the LS3/4L60E drivetrain stuff, we will see.

Since I haven’t obsessed on these types of blogs before, maybe some ideas on what you would like to see me show on this thread. I do appreciate the ones that have gone before me and posted a ton of helpful stuff, but I’m not sure I can equal their time commitment for the cause

65silververt

Nice! Thanks for sharing!
I see you are holding onto your wood wheels as well!

sonksen_design

Sparked by a thread called ‘Original vs restomod’:

So what’s my motivation?

The three Vettes that I’ve built (and building..) have all been basket cases, so I have to use my imagination about taking a mostly-original mid-year Vette and transform it into a restomod. Before making the big-dollar commitments that I’ve made in the last six months on my ’63 Convert restomod, I really struggled through the question of ‘why?’. When I pulled this mess out of a field in 1990, it was the only way that I could afford a mid-year. Starting 23 years later… the circumstances changed and now I could have gone out and purchased a nice mid-year convertible driver and keep it that way. In my wife’s eyes, that would have been the choice financially, since I’m already closing in on the price tag that I would have spent and I’m 2-3 years from completion. Sounds odd, but I decided that what motivates me is being creative and truly enjoying a project that has a rich story behind it. I’m not one of the guys that will do this dozens of times more in my life, so I decided to follow what I did on the last two. The price tag will certainly top what I put into my ’80 twenty years ago and that is no small matter to me. Make no mistake, there is almost zero consideration in the ‘return on investment’ here. Like my ’80, this car won’t be sold by me. It will be part of my estate when I’m singing glory with the angels.

Something therapeutic about journaling on these posts, right?

Beach Dude

I want to live this project vicarious thru you.

You have the frame I want REAL BAD.

Keep us posted on the progress.

R.J.

Nowhere Man

I wanna see pictures of the Chevy II

Marks Hotrod Garage

Nice preamble to your project. One of the advantages to journaling about your project is the wealth of knowledge on this forum. About any problem you run into can be solved on your thread if you ask. You obviously have already been doing homework and have a nice start to your project and a nice frame for the foundation. I think the other part is most people who might visit your garage dont have a clue how much time, effort, and creativity it takes to build a car. Therefore it is nice to get some admiration from fellow Corvette owners who know what you are going through. It is about the build and the blood sweat and tears that go into building one of these cars and this is what makes it all worthwhile.

sonksen_design

Could be my photographic talent to achieve starbursts...or maybe it was WD40 residue on the droid lens

jdk971

i had a 66 just like that one. same color with a 350/4spd. love them novas. lost it in a
divorce. jim

sonksen_design

One year's progress! May 23rd 2013 to May 23rd 2014. Sweet!
I forgot to order my body mounts this week, so that will put the cabosh to bolting down tight.

sonksen_design

Bolted to the chassis and moved back to the body shop side. Taking Mike at SRIII's advice and going to use the 90 min cure 3M panel bond epoxy to fasten the front on. Going to take my time doing that!

1coolC2

Your off to a great start and a fun journey building this car. You could not have chosen a better guy to work with that produces a great product...Mike at SRIII. Keep the pics and info coming, I will be watching your progress for sure!!

R/
Jeff

sonksen_design

Excited to share that I just bonded the front clip on. I’m really glad that I didn’t attempt to do this without the chassis, bumpers & brackets, hood w/hinges & latches. This way I’ve got a pretty solid feel that everything is right or at least within tuning in. I used 3M #08115 epoxy and only did the firewall area tonight (approx 2 tubes of epoxy). No sweat with one man. Couldn’t waist time, but without panicking. Tomorrow, I’ll bond the inner fenderwell areas. No holes drilled so far. See if I'm lucky enough to avoid them.

Bumpers are solid US-made ones that I picked up from Vette Prod MI. I’ll be tucking in both the front and rear bumpers for a cleaner look then chrome ‘em. That’ll be fun. I’m planning on cutting the popular vents into the ’63 side skirts. Makes sense for cooling and aerodynamics. Looks good when done right. Once the skirts on bonded on, I'll chisel off the factory rear quarters and prep the GTS ones to go on. Anyone interested in only moderately-bad stock quarters? The body filler and body work won’t begin until the SRIII rolls out and the dolly goes back under. I’m thinking of tackling the interior fabrication next while my bank account recuperates long enough to purchase an LS3 or LS7 w/4L60E. That way I can have stuff going off to the upholstery never-never land for months while I’m doing body work…. Plans subject to change.

sonksen_design

I decided that it has been way too long since we've had a Vette on the road. So we picked up a nice 30k '05 coupe this weekend and I'm titling it in Tam's name. She was in need of a booster shot in the 'car/shop hobby' department and I think this did the trick. She's been great on supporting what I'm doing on the '63, but this will help her enjoy it a little more like I do. My son (21) and daughter (18) are responsible enough for this to be a good time to let them in on Vette Life as well. We're both coming up on 'birthday milestones' so we're hoping to take 'Daisy' down to Key West in March. Never have done that before, so it should be fun in a Vette!

July & Aug 'shop time' has been non-existent. The C6 certainly shouldn't get in the way other than putting a dent in the budget. Time to get back to the '63!

65silververt

Looks awesome! Congrats on the successful front clip install!!!

Jofa1963

lookin good,

great project

sonksen_design

A few teaser pictures here on my mid-year headlight design. I've always hated the way the mid-years look like when the lights are on and have been dreaming of creating a modern alternative. I've spent over five weeks prototyping and fabricating, as well as getting a major education in HID projector lamp technology. Last night, I lined up my '63 (obviously is sitting much higher than when it will be done) with just the passenger side lamps next to our '05 (dual projectors as well). I needed some assurance that all is well before beginning the expensive CNC/waterjet fabrication of the design in aluminum and stainless. Not to brag, but ala one-eyed pirate mode, I think they out perform the '05. This is utilizing the factory bucket mounts and at some point I'll need to test the first runs on other mid-years to make sure that Chevy didn't throw some curves that I haven't anticipated. Let me know what you all think so far.

PS- Don't judge the wheel/tire combo. Just spares off the Chevy II.

Frankie the Fink

I think that's pretty damned ingenious.

sonksen_design

Can't wait to see these on the road, but that will be a while. Time to focus 100% on the interior design and build!

Happy New Year.

65silververt

That is awesome! I am really amazed by the ingenuity of some of the members of this forum.

morly1963

Great thread! Love those old Nova'
s. My first car was 1965 Nova ss all original v8. Guy ran a light and totaled my little car. Nice work your doing!