dembo

Hi everyone,

Nick from Belgium here. I was never a car nut until a certain day I drove by a old garage with a strangly looking coke bottle shaped car inside. I didn't even knew what it was and started doing some research about what it coud be. That was the time my Vette madness started. (1990)
6 years later I bought my 74 Vette and as usual it was a buy by the heart not the mind. In fact it was a driveable basket case. After driving it around a bit for two years and non stop repairs, other things had priority and the car sat parked until 2006. That's when I finally decided to do a body off.
Today, the interior still needs to be finished, engine tuned, tranny hooked up, windshield glued, drive line revised (diff, shortened driveshaft), electrics checked. So I'm still a long way from driving it.
Already found some very usefull topics here, info is oh so important during a DYI resto.
Specs are
74 coupe
350 HO deluxe crate 330 hp
700R4 overdrive & Crossmember from bowtieoverdrives
B&M lockup kit
Stock new interior except for the seats which are Porsche seats (aaargh sacrilige but it where the smallest most narrow buckets i could find)
Kenwood flip up touchscreen with GPS & bluetooth, 2 dash and 2 kickpanel speakers, integrated amp with sub in the back
Electronic tach conversion
Alu radiator with electric fan
rebuild suspension
New diff (after crashing my daily driver this is posphoned)
Dennys driveshaft shortened driveshaft and side axles
all new wiring harness
Nevernight headlights
Led bulb replacements
SS exhaust
Coys C5 wheels 17"
Glass T-top conversion
2004 Pewter metallic
Rack & pinion steerig

Sorry for the boring read here are the pics

How it left mid 2006



Frame work




Various parts



Frame build up





Body work



Body to frame


Elbow grease period










Engine


Home made sport mirror seal mockup


Sound system mockup




Scratches head everytime I see this picture


Glass mirror fitup (it's the best I can get it)





More pictures you can find here :
http://s494.photobucket.com/albums/r...20restoration/

Thanks for reading,
Nick

Faster Rat

Nick
None of this kind of stuff is ever BORING! You are going to receive a picture grade of A+ from your fellow forum members. For never having been a car nut before, you certainly are one now...BIG TIME. Your work looks fantastic. Hope you get it on the road soon. I am sure that car is going to turn a lot of heads over there.

oldsarge

Welcome, and great job, looks nice, !!!

robieWI

Looks Awesome!! Hope you get her out there soon. The pics are great, they give valuable insight to others as to what is under those wonderful body lines.

wev

Nice job, keep them coming

jae1971

Welcome, You are doing a great job. will have a fine '74

Alan 71

Hi Nick,
Those are some GREAT pictures and show a tremendous amount of work and attention to detail. WELL DONE!!!
I'm curious about the picture of your car in the body shop right after being painted.... ALL American cars in the picture...is that in Belgium?
Again nice job!
Regards,
Alan

moose8793

Looks great

jordan89

Looks very good.

Ray Y

Super good looking. Keep up the photo updates.

Grumpy 427

Fantastic job, keep the pictures coming.

rudolph schenker

Great pics! Awesome restoration!

dembo

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words They are really needed as sometimes it feels it's moving more backwards then foreward. For example on the photobucket site you can see a pic with the windshield installed but not the T bar and upper windshield chrome parts... you guessed it, windshield had to come out again (and broke) to get to the small screws. bummer
Alan, the paintshop is just across the border of Belgium & France. That guy made his fortune back in the days and put a large fully equiped shop in his backyard. His passion : US cars and helping out people he knows, so he did all the body work & painting. Last year when the car got it's coating he had a Viper GTS turbocharged, a 69 Camaro, a 71 body off restored Stingray, a 300C, a Hotrod (think it was a Ford), and some ongoing chop top projects
Work is preventing me from restoring the Vette for months now (my partner & me have a small design office http://www.vision-eng.be so being self employed the priorities are sometimes mixed up. Plan on taking 1 or 2 weeks off and sleep in the Vette garage
Nick

Alan 71

Hi Nick,
Interesting site!
More than a few windshields have been cracked because of those screws!!!!
Regards,
Alan

GD70

Nick,
Looks great! When it seems like it will never end, just look back at those first pics! You've made huge progress and are now on the home stretch!
The T-Top fitment is a bit puzzeling. The front edges look good, but the rear I'm not sure about. I think once the windshield and all the chrome trim is back on, you should loosen all the T-Top attachment points for readjustment.
Good luck & keep the pics coming!
Glenn

spedaleden

Very Nice work!!




Your going to love it when it's done.

Mark G

Looks great! You're doing all the right mods. You must be keeping the shippers in business..


Mark G

Mark G

Hey, I'm just curious what your friends and collegues think of this project? I mean they are probably into, what... classic porches, Jags, BMW's and the like? What impact or increased awareness, if any, has your involvement in this project had on those around you in terms of spreading the 'Corvette Word'? I think it would be interesting to hear..

Mark G

dembo

Yeah, i cant even remember how many times i ordered parts from various companies (zip, ecklers, willcox, paragon, justcorvettes, corvette central, summit, jegs, you name it i ordered there lol) i order myself not through a shop to cut out the commission. The budgetkiller is actually the customs and import taxes. You pay 26% on the invoice total which is a total ripoff
about the awareness. Let me put it this way : i should be living in the US! most of my previous cars where US cars (firebird, lebaron, dodge ram 2006 and last week I ordered a 2010 Ram Hemi) for me personally theres nothing more fun to drive then a american car. Due to the vette i truly became a V8 nut. And you drive something a little more special then the usual mercs beemers audis vw's and french sardine cans. You also should know due to those damn ecologists driving big engined cars is severly punished. For example i was looking for a new camaro. First of all the gouvernment makes it nearly impossible to homologate these cars. Maybe near the end of 2010 and if they say maybe it will take alot longer. Then to get your license plate you have to pay a one time fee of 5000€. Annual tax is 2000€... just because it has a big engine. For the vette its a lil different because of its age. Most of the people i know are just not into old cars anymore. Their popularity has dropped drastically the last couple of years. On the other hand everyone who droppes by and sees the car immediatly loves it. When can i drive along, can i use it for my marriage, can i do a photoshoot with it are questions im frequently asked. Most of them like me in the beginning dont even know what it is. For me its THE car. The one and only. The most beautiful. And ill drive it as much as i can. Thats the reason for thr full overhaull to make it a dependable daily driver. In europe or at leastin Belgium a car is not looked upon as a hobby a passion but merely as a transportation method to get them from a to b in the most economical way which is a sad evolution imo.
Nick

Faster Rat

Nick
We look to Europe to see our future. Can't wait to see how our tree-hugging liberals and their Cap & Trade ideals are going to affect the old car hobby. I am sure the Chosen One and his ilk are going to come up with some similar horrendous tax to impose on our V8 carbon-emitters. I'd like to tell them all where I want to leave my footprint. Once Europe is running around in hybrids or electrics, we are doomed over here.