AllC34Me

Staging for the "build" begins.





The Bair's rebuilt trailing arms in this second picture are for the 69 chassis I will be rebuilding soon. The other items are VBP slalom and track as well as rack attack items for the 72 racer.

Just need to get my front upper and lower control arms completed and I will be ready to start the build. Back end is ready including the fuel tank, fuel lines, brake lines, steering box, front and rear suspension, wheels, tires, rear pumpkin, and more. Engine and transmission will be ready soon as well, so the fun begins again.

David

keithinspace

I REALLY don't want to be a fly in the ointment...I'm sure you've gone through all this stuff...but I'm curious about one thing:

I see some really awesome 10" wide wheels with 4" offset and equally awesome 295 tires.

Then the picture below it I see really awesome STANDARD (not offset) trailing arms.

Given the 4" offset of the awesome wheels, how do those two things go together? I was under the impression that 10" wheels were a bit of a non-starter on standard trailing arms. Does relocation of the e-brake tab get you what you need?

Just curious. Sincere question.

Looks really great, though. Love the boxed parts. That's always fun. I'd love to get my car to that level. Hopefully I will when doing my frame swap.

AllC34Me

I might be using terminology incorrectly. Looking at the back of my wheels it is 4" from the rim edge bead to the back of the mounting area. Standard ralley wheels are also 4" from mounting to edge of the wheel. The offset is inside the wheel putting the mounting back where the standard mounting would be. I have 3.8" spacers here and 1/2" spacers here if I have any interference but won't know for certain until I mount the wheels, body, etc. Calculated it appears it will work fine, we will see and I will report back when I get closer to that step.
So I may have used the term "offset" incorrectly. If so, my apologies.
Hope this helps, stay tuned, and thanks for the question.
Best regards,
David Howard

keithinspace

Again...only intent was a sincere question. I look forward to seeing how it all stacks up so I have another "data point" for what works and doesn't as far as rim/tire combinations.

Build looks great. Very inspirational.

The13Bats

In 89 my 81 wide body was done with the body work and had it's wheels and tires added and I admit I do not recall if the rears were 10" or 12" and I do not recall the tire size but it filled the huge wide body panels and the car ran stock trailing arms with no mods to them at all,

My big interest is will the 15 x 10 with 295 also fit the front and not rub anything, if so then this is what I want on my 69 and keep in mind it has flares....

Kid Vette

Stock C3 wheels have 4" backspace. As long as you maintain the 4" backspace you won't rub on the TAs or the frame; doesn't matter how wide the wheels are.

Of course if you have 12" wheels they will extend way outside your fenders without flares and might rub on the body.

AllC34Me

Tell you what I can do for now. I have my 72 coupe chassis (stock) sitting in my garage for the 72 Orange coupe and it is available for me to test the fit of tires on it. The weather outside is rain for the next couple of days so I will be working inside the garage. How about I swap out the tires on the 72 coupe with the race wheels and tires and take a couple of clearance pictures? That won't help with the body flair clearance but it will be more information for all to consider.
Let me see what I can do.
David

AllC34Me

Just to confirm for you, and for me, that these wheels will work on my 72 road race replica I removed two wheels from the 72 coupe build and put these on it to see A) how they look, and B) to confirm they do not rub. I can confirm now that these do not rub. Free and clear. Spacers could be used if you have the wheel wells to handle the extra width and additional offset, up to you.





















I think they look pretty good now but remove the bluing and add the center caps and they should be very nice for the racer.

I hope you find this helpful. More when I get the body back onto the frame.

Cheers and best regards,

David

AllC34Me

Tomorrow I will be working with Gordon to wrap up that 72 racer engine by installing the fly wheel, clutch plate, dialing in the bell housing, and mounting the TKO600 to the 496 Stroker. Looking forward to it.





Thanks for watching and more soon.

Best regards,

David

Gordonm

I will be there. I just put another tool in the truck to bring. If I keep thinking I'll probably bring half my tool box!

AllC34Me

I have a few more minor adjustments to the match-up of the TKO600 to the 496 Stroker but you can get the idea from this picture that we are getting closer each time we can put in the time with this project.

Thanks for your help today Gordon, much appreciated.

Pictures to follow soon showing my new seats for the racer...

Stay tuned.

David

racervette69

Going to be a nice looking C3!

On the regional level and early 70's, the BP and AP looked more like this. Far from being show pieces. This is my car sometime in the 70's. Were not the cars we see now. On the national level you saw some nice paint on the well funded teams. Anybody ever seen John Paul Sr. first sh&t brown vette. Miss the old AP and BP days before IMSA and GT1.

AllC34Me

Feels like Christmas almost every time the UPS or FedEx drivers pull up to the house. My wife now yells "Corvette Parts Truck is Here" when either of them pull up. I am not saying I see them often but Bill from UPS and Jay from FedEx are now regular guests and one of them is asking when the 72 racer will be done so he can buy it. He has seen all the work going on in my garage and is a trusted provider of services. He even puts packages "Inside" the garage when weather is bad outside.

Anyway, my new combination Dewitt's Big Block radiator with mounted dual SPAL fans arrived yesterday and I have now received most of the "Big" ticket items that I need for the 72 road race replica.

Just one thing missing and that is a name for the car.

Have an idea? Share it here.

Thanks for following along, the build starts soon.

David

68ragtop69

I have such garage envy!!! I have absolutely no room in mine nor do I have tall enough ceilings for a lift!

Have you made a decision on seats yet? I want to upgrade mine and I'm looking for ideas.

Gordonm

I know David is using Kirkey racing seats because I just delivered mine to him. He posted a picture on FB of the seats. My Cobra that I just bought had 18 inch Kirkey seats and they are just to big for me. I'm small at 5'7" and David is a bit bigger than me. I brought them up and caught him napping in one of the in the garage. I went with 16 inch Kirkey seats in mine. They fit much better.

68ragtop69

Thanks, I'll take a look at their website.

AllC34Me

Here is a picture.

AllC34Me

It has been such a challenge to hold off building the 72 road race chassis until I felt it was appropriate to start.

One thing I have always tried to embrace is the concept of "Always start with the finish in mind".

My vision of the finish is firmly rolling around in my head but getting it out to you folks for input is nearly impossible, but I will share the steps as I move forward and seek your advice and opinions along the way.

So the journey begins today with the attachment of the rear trailing arms which have been restored by Bair's Corvette and are ready for service. Once that happens I will move forward carefully and cautiously to build what I hope will represent my vision for power, performance, brute looks with a little style rolled into it as well.

I want to thank all who have helped me already with this project and look forward to bringing it from concept to reality soon.

Stay tuned my friends, we will move forward together.



David Howard
AllC34Me

AllC34Me

I currently have the 72 body located about a mile from my home garage so I went over and did a little work while the weather was somewhat cooperative. Fifty degrees was a bit cool but I didn't stay too long.

First I wanted to get a sense for the rear lights with lenses put in place. I think this will be fine for the racer and I have another set coming now and will get a picture will all of them when they arrive.


This car will have a Hydro-Boost system in it so I wanted to see again how much needs to be removed from the engine bay to clean it up. Not much actually.


The front windshield was broken and I wanted to get it removed well before this car heads to the body shop for work so I removed it while there and will clean it up more soon. Good news, very little surface rust and no pitting at all. Whew, my luck has not been good with this in the past.


After taking this picture I removed the T Top brackets and trim. All of the chrome is off the car now as is the polished stainless cover, etc.


One of my goals was to remove this 1976 steering wheel and tilt/tele from the body but I got cold before I got that done so it will have to wait until I can get the body into my garage. I have a new Tilt/Tele and all new wiring for this car so this will all be removed and cleaned up very nicely before moving forward with body work.


These are the chrome parts I removed from the body. I am interested in having the chrome stripped off of the parts and then having them powder coated matte black to match the other trim parts on the car. Currently my Exhaust headers, side pipes, burn guard, side grilles, front grilles, and rear top grilles are all powder coated or ceramic coated to match. My goal is to have the window trim and ttop trim all match as well.


Final picture for today. I have a broken tab off of one of these two parts so I will be looking for a donor part here on the forum.


Parts will be shipped to Librandi's in Harrisburg unless you know of someone else that might be able to "remove the chrome" from these parts. The stainless parts will be surface blasted and then off to the powder coater. More on that when it happens.

Thanks for watching guys and best regards,

David

AllC34Me

Made good progress today on the 72 Racer chassis. Half shafts tomorrow, then a break for Christmas.















Fuel and brake lines soon.

Merry Christmas to all.

David