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My '66 is Home Again.... It Took a Year but Worth It
Been a year since the deer strike. As a bit of history refresher, I had ordered a new Sermershiem front end in March of '17 planning to replace the crappy front end over the '17-'18 winter. During the last restaurant evening cruise of the year we punted a good size doe into the woods at ~40 mph off the front right headlight bucket. Soooo...,. found a reputable shop in Louisville with the plan of front end repair and blended new paint aft of the new front end.
Well... The shop decided to remove the engine to make cleaning up the engine bay easier. Cool. Good time to refresh the engine and see what's inside. Project Creep Task #1 - the GREAT engine shop I found sent me a picture of the inside of my L72 four bolt block.... About 3 of the cam journals were GONE! No wonder the receipts on this car had a bunch of cam replacements. My L72 apparently had been scattered multiple times. Fortunately found a good, date correct L72 block. Per the advise of the good folks here it now has all Callies bottom end, ICON pistons, Brodix aluminum heads, Comp roller cam/lifters, L72 intake with the restored 3247 Holley.
Now...
And...
Well... Project Creep Task #2 - Pulled the body off the frame and low and behold.... the frame is crap! Bought new frame from Vince at Corvette Products and took to a very cool material processing plant in Punxsutawney PA and immersed the new frame to coat all surfaces inside and out. VERY happy about this decision and discovery. Frame was unsafe at any horsepower. Frame and F41 suspension total rebuild.... all new. Found U.S. manufacturer of F41 springs (not Chinese). Suspension all stock F41 with Bilstein HD shocks. Ride/handling's GREAT!
Project Creep Task #3 - Ok... we're this deep take her down to glass and get the body right. Turns out apparently she was only wrecked in the front! WoooHooo! Firewall back original glass in good shape.So might as well rebuild headlight motors, wiper motors, Dewitts BB radiator, etc, etc, etc.....
Project Creep Task #4 - Different wheels/tires so she looks different. This was like a major NASA research project... Thot I knew what I wanted.... nah... Let's stick with 15s... nah... no tires. Ok.... after a year of debate gonna go 17s. Tires... Ahhhh... look at these Firestone Indy 500s.... sticky and high speed rated. Now I LOVE the 17 and aggressive tire look. Man... my wheel and tire research covered a bunch of hours. In the end my thanks to many folks, but mainly I took LouieM's work and selected 17s with 4.5" BS with 235s on back and now 225s on front. Probably could eventually run 235s front.
Ok... sorry. Weather's been crappy and too impatient to wait for nice outdoor pictures. You guys are probably starting to think I've just been trolling. No I really do own a REAL '66 BB, L72, F41, no power nuthin' red/black roadster with maybe 20 miles on her. Sorry the pics are in my barn, but can't stand waiting for the reveal any longer.
Too many folks here to thank. Been a LONG time waiting for a car like this. My wife LOVES it too. Thanks to you all here. No way I could have done this without this forum. See... honestly I own a really cool C2 that I LOVE.
Last edited by Lotsacubes; 12-04-2018 at 05:48 PM.
Man that looks great! It's a whole new car now. Interesting about the F41 springs----any advice on who to buy them from?
Again, congrats on a job well done.
Yep... I spoke with a small spring manufacturer in I think North Carolina (definitely a Carolina) who uses American steel. I'll check my notes, but I think Corvette Central sells their springs. To the best of my ability my car's parts say:
Made in the U.S.A
Last edited by Lotsacubes; 12-03-2018 at 11:30 PM.
car looks great. was the block that had the damage the born with block?
Could have been. My car was assembled 4/6/66. It was a 3-11-66 casting date on the block. I threw the rods, pistons, cam... in the trash. Kept the L72 crank, heads and the old block. Maybe someday there will be magic to fix the block. I have the storage space to keep the old, maybe original hardware.
Oh... BTW.... My L72 is now almost 100 lbs lighter! Not sure what the weight of a 327 vs L72 is, but mine's got to be close to stock SB weight. Love the Brodix solution. I had to design a 1/8" SS spacer and get laser cut to make the Brodix work with my stock cast iron exhaust. Really fun stuff.
The torque curve is amazing. All the result of the combination of the Brodix heads and the roller cam. I was told it was a custom grind on the cam since my car does not have PS or PB. If someone's interested I can provide the specs.
12-03-2018, 06:08 PM
My '66 is Home Again.... It Took a Year but Worth It
Dennis
