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Hello everyone. My name is Sam. I am starting this thread to document and share the work that I will be doing on my 1965 coupe.
But first a little about me.
My love of corvettes started when I was a young man and I had bought a 1975 Stingray. I loved that car very much and of course had a lot of good times in it. Unfortunately I had to sell it for financial reasons and have missed it ever since. Stuff happens. (I looked for a picture but can't find one)
Now I am the owner of a 1965 coupe and a 1969 coupe. Both are project cars. (my wife loves me)
I have started work on the 1965. I will have to catch that work up in this thread.
Some work has been done to the 1969. Unfortunately it is a basket case and will need many many hours of love. Lots of body and chassis work. It will probably be a body off the bird cage job. This will be a future project.
I am more of a Hot Rodder so these cars will not be NCRS cars. I like the classic look with the modern touch.
I consider myself very mechanically inclined and am a retired engineer. I have always had the motto that I would take it apart and try to fix it myself (learning in the process). If I couldn't fix it, then and only then would I pay someone to do it. Of course that would not make me happy.
That said, I am not an expert and will appreciate any input from the members here.
As everybody knows, sometimes life gets in the way. My wife is dealing with some health issues that we are currently focused on so I will more than likely not be posting much over the next few months. If I get time I will, but most likely I will not have much time to work on the car for a while. I just wanted to let the forum know. I didn't want everyone to think that I had fallen off the edge of the world.
I want to thank everyone in advance for well wishes. Everything will be fine. Prognosis is great. It will just take some time to recover.
I am going to keep reading all the other great posts so you may see my "Likes" every once in a while. I will probably get very jealous also. Everyone keep up the great work.
Welcome sam! I look forward to pictures and details about your cars- you'll find the answer to anything you need among the members here, and expect a few laughs along the way.
I purchased this 1965 coupe last summer (2013). The previous owner had started restoration work on it but then decided to sell it. During his work somehow he let the original 327 freeze and break. He approached me several times about buying it and then finally got just desperate enough. I already owned the 1969 and was not looking for another, but the fact was that I had always wanted a C2 and this was a good deal.
Below are the pictures as purchase and the VIN tags.
When I bought this car it supposedly ran but would not turn over when I looked at it. It was not important to me that it ran because I knew that the block had froze and that they had tried to fix it. Later I can show you how they tried (tried) to weld it up while (while !!) it was still in the car. Talk about a billy bob attempt at a fix. They tried to weld it and put a new radiator in it at an attempt to fix it and dump it off is what I think. The block is really boogered up.
The engine is supposed to be a brand new rebuilt and after a little work did start and seemed to run good. It just would not hold water.
I will of coarse keep it and later tear it down and see if the block can be fixed.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
Hi Sam and welcome aboard. Your 65 coupe looks like a worthy project. Glen Green is a great color. I have owned my 65 GG convertible for 43 years and love it. Good luck with your restoration.
As you can see in the previous movie clip, my shop was a little cluttered. I was in the process of adding on. I had just added a 24 x 48 section to my existing 24 x 24 garage. Do the math and now I have 24 x 72. The front section is where I park the truck, motorcycles, and tractor. The new section is now set up with work benches, drill press, small mill, welder, plasma cutter, air compressor, etc. The whole thing is heated and I have a 125 amp service.
Hi Sam and welcome aboard. Your 65 coupe looks like a worthy project. Glen Green is a great color. I have owned my 65 GG convertible for 43 years and love it. Good luck with your restoration.
Thank you very much. I have only just started posting my progress and have already received many welcomes. Thank you everyone.
As you can see in the previous movie clip, my shop was a little cluttered. I was in the process of adding on. I had just added a 24 x 48 section to my existing 24 x 24 garage. Do the math and now I have 24 x 72. The front section is where I park the truck, motorcycles, and tractor. The new section is now set up with work benches, drill press, small mill, welder, plasma cutter, air compressor, etc. The whole thing is heated and I have a 125 amp service.
A couple of pictures of the shop a little more organized.
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-‘18-'19-'20-'21-'22-'23-'24
Welcome aboard Sam. I am always looking for someone here doing a restoration so I could watch and learn. I really envy you guys that can do it. BTW, Go Bucks
As I mentioned earlier, the original 327 is a little messed up and since I am a hot rodder, lets do something a little more fun.
A while back I picked up a 1965 396. It is not an IF block which would be an original corvette 396, but it is an IE block which is the same motor used in other model cars that year. I bought this from a gentlemen in North Carolina that had it rebuilt close to the 425hp specs for one of his projects and then decided to go another way. I will have to remove the heads and oil pan to make sure everything looks clean and go from there. I may have someone go through it again for my peace of mind and I am thinking of having it dyno'd and tuned before I put it in the chassis.
Other plans are:
Keeping it Glen Green
The exterior will look pretty stock except for after market wheels and big block hood
Tremec 5 or 6 speed trans with hydraulic clutch
The interior will be Saddle in color
Classic looking but electronic gauges
Will probably find a way to fit modern touch screen radio and speaker sysem inside.
Performance suspension system
The previous owner was originally trying to sell the car as a running vehicle that needed paint and interior to complete it. The running part went out the window when the engine block froze.
The odometer states 74431 miles.
It came with all of the original interior parts. Most everything is dried and cracked. The seats can be recovered after the frames have been cleaned up and restored. Some of it will have to be replaced. All of the interior had been removed except the dash, pedals, and steering column.
The engine compartment had been cleaned and painted. It had some new wiring.
The chassis has had a lot of work done to it. New brake and fuel lines. New brake pads. New ball joints and tie rod ends. It had also been cleaned and painted (spray can I think) at some point. There was fresh oil on and around the engine cross member.
The claim was that it was ready for paint but the gaps and alignments were not great around the doors and the hood was never installed for alignment.
Overall it is in really good shape. I do not see any signs of rust anywhere around the bird cage and the frame looked so solid that I was not sure that it was the original. It should make a really good first project.
My wife constantly points out to me my spelling mistakes. Like up above, "coarse" should have been "course" as in "of course" and not "coarse sand paper". I tell her to leave me alone and "I am not an English major, I'm an ENGINEER". But, she keeps point those things out. Got to love them
Anyway, please be patient with my spelling and grammar mistakes.
I noticed some things that made me not want to treat the car as something that could be finished as is and driven.
1. The reason it would not turn over was because the brand new battery was dead. The reason it was dead was because the horn was disconnected because otherwise it never stopped blaring. The reason the horn never stopped was because there was a short in the steering column. I thought the steering column was the original and may be bad, but it was a new replacement that was assembled wrong.
2. I was removing the doors because the door latches were not installed yet and they kept coming open. As I was doing this I found some of the hinge bolts loose and two missing.
3. I have never seen a red battery cable used as the negative and a black cable used as a positive, but this was the case here.
4. Cracked block!
There were enough things not right here that made me decide to go frame off myself and not trust past work.
At this point in time, I was not taking a whole lot of pictures, but I did take some.
After I removed the steering column, fan shroud, radiator, 8 body bolts, and disconnected all the hoses and wires I was ready to lift the body off. I have a steel beam with a 2 ton chain hoist in the shop. I used straps around the body connected to the hoist. I didn't have the center of gravity quite right and really could have used 6 more inches of lift. I had a hard time rolling the chassis out from under the body and ended up having to remove the carburetor and a few other things from the top of the engine in order to roll the it out.
I may have to look at re-engineering that beam and see if I can get it higher into the ceiling. A lot of wasted floor clearance between the ceiling and the hoist.
One of my projects before I had removed the body was making a body cart. I was looking online at them and wow, they want a lot of money for one. I looked at the designs out there and decided I would build my own. I spent about as much as it would have cost to buy one of the cheap ones but my end product is a lot better. It is fully adjustable, supports the front and rear, supports everything from all 8 body mount locations, and I will be able to use it on my 1969 when that project starts up again.
01-07-2015, 12:48 PM
My 1965 Rebuild
(I looked for a picture but can't find one)
