EnfieldJoe

Will be following your project. Good Luck!

Railroadman

Thank you! Did not work on kit today. Tomorrow I plan to give the interior a good cleaning, then get it up on jack stands so I can get a good, clear look at the frame problems. I will be going through a lot of PB Blaster, I'll be zapping everything I can reach just to start the process. I'll also clean off the engine pad and get a pic of that as well.

Here's the tags. What does the "A" in the paint code indicate? 912 is silver blue.......

Railroadman

Got to spend the whole afternoon on the car today, and spent most of it cleaning and just getting to know the car. Since pics are popular, I'll give you some idea of what I'm into this far.

Wiped off the engine stamp pad. Looks like original motor, 327/250 if I read the codes right, which confirms what I had thought.





Here's the carb, it has a manual choke added. I THINK the numbers on the tag are 8462 36976 D4, but not sure, some of the numbers from one line are almost overstamped on the next line below. Anybody explain what that translates to?




Found one of the bows on the soft top is broken. Appears it may have been welded before?




Looked down inside the fuel tank. To my un-expert eye it looks good. Yes, the varnish goop has to come out, but no debris and no rust that I can tell.




This was for morale-boosting purposes. Altho the paint overall is very faded and rough, under the soft top it was quite good. So I cleaned and waxed that segment, just to remind myself of what the final goal is. The contrast is quite stark!




Took off the expansion tank and removed the old dead battery. Not surprised to see the battery tray is totally shot.




And now for the downside. I knew before I went out there it had frame issues, and assumed the worst. It did not look good from what little I could see out there, and I factored that into the purchase price. Despite that, I had a faint hope maybe it would not be THAT bad when I got a good examination. Nope - looks like Bubba had already patched it up once :

Right side:




Another shot of right side:




Left side:




While the right side seems only bad at the kickup, the left side is rotted with small holes all the way to just ahead of the crossmember. At one time it was the Squirrel Motel, it appears, as I took a ton of stuff out from inside the frame.

I have never been into the "numbers matching" thing but it seems most of the numbers on this do match. Too bad this frame is so far gone. I know they CAN be repaired but I'm thinking I'd be better off getting something solid and driveable. I'm not going to be showing it except cruise-ins, it's not a fuelie or super-desirable car, and at this point I plan on driving it for as long as I'm still able to drive, so resale is really not my top priority.

That's it for today, guys. Opinions and suggestions welcome. I'm really not bummed about the frame because I knew going in that's what I was getting. I'm happy because overall it still seems like what I was looking for, and I'm having fun, it's already a better car than the day I bought it.

elwood13

Glad you finally got to give her the once over. To me your tank looks real good. Mine was flaky on the inside. Bummer on the frame. My soft top also has one section that has been bubba welded back together and will need to be replaced. Maybe they knew the same bubba.

Westlotorn

You might want to pull the glove box out and examine the bird cage..

Railroadman

I stuck the snake camera down there before I bought it, and it's actually quite decent. I suppose now that it's in my garage I can do that for a second look. The front half of the car seems good from what I can see so far, it's the rear which has issues.

EnfieldJoe

You should remove the inside SS trim from the "A" pillar and garnish moulding at the base of the windshield (inside). Inspect those areas to determine the condition of the windshield frame How does the windshield weatherstripping look?

Railroadman

IIRC it was not great, looked dried and cracked. We're going out there tonight and staying for a day or two, I'll take a better look and report back.

I DO know all the various weatherstripping around the doors, deck lid etc will have to be replaced, they are looking a bit tired.

dmaxx3500

all the frame parts can be bought

Railroadman

You are right and I'm on the fence about this. There is an article on restoring a '64 fame pretty much identical to mine in the degree and location of damage. http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/cha...orvette-frame/ Nice results but I'm sure it's not cheap.

Since I'm looking to drive the car I'm thinking a '65 - 67 chassis out of somebody's restomod might be a better option as it would give me disc brakes at the same time.

Not going to rush this part of it, will take my time deciding.

ChattanoogaJSB

Railroadman

Benton, I have to admit I'm getting more and more tempted to see what it sounds like. This evening and tomorrow we'll be out there, and I am planning to pull the plugs and squirt some oil in there. We'll see what happens next - lots of prep to do before actually making noise.

dahogan

Great thread, only wished you were here in Columbus so I could see all this in person. Good luck

Railroadman

When it comes time to lift the body off, you are welcome to come up to western NY and help. I might even furnish an adult beverage! (Actually you'd be welcome even if it's not body-lift time)

dahogan

Sounds great! I retire next month. Find me a good hotel nearby and I just might stop by for an afternoon some time this summer

Pilot Dan

Welcome to the secret society of 64's. I just got done reading your other thread and it brought back memories of when I bought my 64 nearly a dozen years ago already. Mine was a driver, but that was not good enough, so it ended up doing a total restoration even though I swore up and down to my better half I was just gonna drive it as is. Being where you are at the moment, where you are going (restoraton), and now where you want to get to (driving) I can say the journey was a a huge part of the fun. If you have the abilty to do the work and enjoy that, it makes for a great project. My problem is I enjoy working on them as much or maybe more than driving them, it's a disease. So, as I have done before, I may have to sell mine to get another to work on if I get a decent offer. I know I would miss it. It's hard to be done done with a car for some of us, but that is part of the hobby. Enjoy every minute of the journey, and keep the pictures coming. If you get stuck on something, plenty of us here to help with 64 experience. And YES, you are a very lucky guy to have a supporting wife and partner. These long term projects can go south real easy without that. Mine got pretty good with the riveting gun and other stuff and she also knows when to leave me be when something does not go well. Pilot Dan

3JsVette

I believe that's a smart approach. Since you already said you're not really concerned with resale make it the "driver" you want it to be. When you see what nice not correct C2s are going for it seems modifications that make the car more user friendly don't really kill the resale value anyway.

Railroadman

One option I am considering - since I am a bit of a pack rat - would be to get a newer chassis, but to save the old frame in case the day comes it's desired.

My day and a half out there got set back, headed out there in a few minutes.

3JsVette

I totally understand for the obvious reasons but it does lead to clutter or to what some would consider .

EnfieldJoe

If/when you might be interested, I have a contact here that has a used (bare) frame, which is located in Tavares, FL.