65LS6C4

Body Being Transported to the body shop:

Design credit belongs to Tavis Highlander at HCR
Build credit belongs to After Dark Customs and Ed Quay Hot Rods
Chassis is from SRIII Motorsports
Electrical System is from InfinityBox and ReachTech
Engine Harness is from ChaseBays






Body Being Stripped of Paint:

It was an original Milano Maroon on Milano Maroon Small Block Coupe that spent its whole existence in Iowa until I purchased it from a vintage car dealer in Des Moines around 1999. It was a nice driver without the original engine. It had four prior repaints going from Maroon to Blue, then another Blue, then to Black.









Repairing Rear Deck Damage:
The body was fairly pristine with the only hit in the right rear quarter






GTS Rear Quarter Panels add 1 inch to each side:












Filler Panel Extensions for the GTS Rear Quarter Panels:




Adding the Front Air Dam and removing the front signals:

This little addition resulted in about 1500 additional hours of body modifications. From this point the whole build concept changed from a simple chassis swap using a newman chassis and a repaint to a full pro-touring custom. The result was changing to an SRIII Chassis, adding wheel tubs, raising the floor for the viper rear, modifying the drive shaft tunnel and transmission tunnel, flush mounting the glass, flush mounting the rain vents, and air vents, adding C5 door handles, modifying the body for ground effects, adding custom clayton machine pedals, modifying the waterfall dash console, creating new hood mounts with power actuator….
























C6 Based Chassis Being Constructed at SRIII Motorsports:

Mike and his crew are artists. They are build a quality product, and also added several modifications I requested.






Chassis after Delivery to County Corvette:









Rear Cylinder to Actuate the Parking Brakes - Copying Ken Sungela's idea:





Adding the Rear Wheel Tubs to handle 345 Rear Tires:






Rear Wheel Tubs From SRIII Motorsports:







Raising the Rear Deck for the Viper Rear Carrier and C6 Rear Suspension:










Viper Rear Carrier:





Raising the Tunnel 3/4" for the T56 Transmission:









Modifying the Tunnel for a 3" Diameter Drive Shaft:








Filling the Heater Core Area:






Wiper Motor Cover:





Adding C5 Door Handles:







Wiper Grills Sectioned and Flushed to the Body:











Flush Mounting the Rear Vents:





Adding 2013 Grand Sport Side Vents:












Adding Ground Effects:


























Flush Mounting the Front Window:














Flush Mounting the Rear Window:

















A Huge number of hours went into blocking the body:






Body after Polyester Guide Coat:






After The First Body Test Fit:








Body after Epoxy Coat:




Body Drop After Epoxy Coat:




Modifying the Chassis for Stainless Works Headers and adding a mount for the ABS Pump Unit from ABS Brakes:





Another Body Test Fit after the Engine Install:





Custom Pedals from Clayton Machine Works:

Making these work required a rebuild of the steering column carrier and glass work to the front cowl.





Custom Hood Mounts:















ABS Brakes:









Instrument Cluster with brackets to hold Autometer Gauges:








Engine and Side Pipes:

Crunch527

wow...

3JsVette

Incredible!
Please keep the pictures coming.

Mr. Wizzard

What a great build. Thank you for all of the pictures of the process.

bigearl56

I like your choices blending old with new. Gauges look just fantastic.



Earl

65LS6C4

Added Some Additional Pictures

Tucking the Bumpers

schmibm

I like the front spoiler, ground effects, rear flares, 345s, flush windows and the door handles. Heck, I like the whole car. Can't wait to see more!! This would be a dream for me.....

Joe Inama

I'm thinking about updating my car and installing the flush glass. Thanks for the pictures.

Zoomin

sonksen_design

Love the work you guys have done here!

morly1963

What A Great Build!!!! Very cool!

richscorvettes

Dirk,

Needless to say you've a great design and build underway having left no stone unturned. Sure reminds us of our 63 SWC project.

Great job on the front spoiler, the ground effects, the side fender vents, the w/s motor cover and the flush mounted windows amongst many other custom touches.

We'll look forward to seeing the finished product.

Rich

HiVoltge

Wow, great build some serious talent!
I already have my eyes on a neighbours 65 coupe for a restomod build in the near future....

65silververt

Impressive! I would hate to see your bills from the shop!

65LS6C4

Thanks Brian,

I see you are from Iowa. I bought my car in Iowa, it was originally sold by a dealer in Des Moines and spent its whole existence in that area until I bought it from Darren at Nostalgic Auto around 2000.

65LS6C4

Daniel, thank you… let me know if I can assist you in any way when you start your build. Numerous people he have helped my many times with advice from their builds.

Dirk

65LS6C4

Hi Chris, hope you are well. I have been enjoying your progress pictures. The fabrication shop has not been too bad as they work very quickly, but the cost of body mods were indeed extreme.. there is a huge difference in shop labor rate from my area compared with Tennessee down through Alabama. Twice the rate here and slower daily progress.

65LS6C4

Thanks Rich,

And thank you again and again for all of your help and coaching. Looking forward to seeing you and Barb at Carlisle.

65LS6C4

Video of the power hood


Click on the image and it will launch from photobucket, depending upon the bandwidth you may need to click the video again if it slows or stops.

The hood hinges are custom and mount under the nose. The power is provided by two 12inch actuators.

1coolC2

Dirk,
The car looks awesome!!! Some really nice work going on there Keep the updates coming, it's nice to see someone actually making progress on their project

R/
Jeff