I am restoring a SWC - The body was taken off the frame and it has been painted

I have had the frame stripped down and painted - the correct finish - matte - was applied

I have sourced and found the date correct block - my car was a late run car - 1 of the last 300 cars made

I have taken the guidance of a national NCRS judge when having the work done -

I have had the gauges restored - the original '63 Clock was rebuilt/restored

I had the correct seat belts made with the correct tags sewn in

so here is where I need the help - I build custom cars - I used to restore GTO's to numbers matching - I would love to find the right guy to help make the correct rolling chassis out of the pieces I have

Meaning - come and see everything I have - tell me what pieces are correct and what pieces I need to find to finish the chassis to TOP FLIGHT status

I have 4 original 63 Wheels - I know I only need 1 for judging - I have the whole set

I have a shop in Van Nuys - with tools and an excellent mechanic - he and I build custom cars as I have mentioned - but I feel like, even though we can get this chassis back to being a roller

This is the moment where I could use a real pro - a true 63 Vette veteran mechanic - it's not a lot of work - it's really just the knowledge

I am a serious collector and very passionate about all of my cars - I want to get this car right

Through any NCRS friend I have tried 2 of the top guys in Socal - and both have been too busy to help - so I imagine that you may suggest these guys - which is fine - but I will need to dig deeper

I know this is a weird request

As I am not asking for a shop to restore the entire car - we have already done most of it

And I am very confident that my interior guy that has worked for me for 20 years can make this interior perfect

I really just want someone - a mechanic or a very knowledgeable weekender - but a true expert - to help me get the rolling chassis completed to top standard

that's all I need - too much to ask? - maybe - lol

please feel free to post ideas in the thread so that others can share opinions and experience

or DM me with contact numbers

again the car is in VAN NUYS CA

cheers

 

NeelF - If no one else said it yet....Welcome to the Corvette Forum. You'll run across a lot of people who are very knowledgable on 63 SWC's,, including Moderators, but it might help if you got specific about what exactly you needed help with.
Good luck,
Mike T - Prescott AZ

 

Thank you, Mike

I love this forum - I've actually been a member here for over 10 years - I just post so rarely but I love the info on here and the threads - fantastic

And great question you pose and I will try to answer ...

So now that we have taken the car completely apart - the body is off and painted and on a body dolly ...

We took the motor off of the chassis - it was not the original block - so we took all of the correct components - valve covers and air cleaner and other original parts

we found the correct block and sourced all of the correct pieces - carb, headers, manifold, oil pan - trans

it was an expensive treasure hunt - and we had a guy who my mechanic knew of in Valencia - rebuild the motor - the motor is now on a stand - painted looking pretty

we took all of the suspension components off of the frame - and had the bare frame cleaned, and painted

so here is where we are slightly out of our depth ...

we have all of these oil and gunk covered pieces - the rear end and control arms and brake assemblies and anything else that goes back on the frame before we put the wheels back on

we need a really knowledgeable and skilled person to look at the gunky rotors and axels and arms and rear end and say "this is good, it came with this car, sandblast this and powder coat it and bring it back"

and "this is not from this car, it's from an impala, get rid of it and find this piece with a code that matches XXX"

we have the NCRS judging guide - but as you can tell - I am NOT a mechanic - my mechanic is awesome but he is not a corvette expert

and we know that there are really knowledgeable guys in Southern California who could help us

I am willing to pay strong money to the right guy to help

I have had my NCRS guy reach out to the 2 guys he trusts the most to help us with this phase and both reported being swamped currently with big frame off projects

SO I am taking a chance by putting it out there on here

IF someone is interested in making some money just to supervise - they could come to our shop and see the state of the chassis and the components and advise

OR we could bring the frame and pieces to their shop and go from there

am I making this more confusing than I did before ?

apologies - it obviously keeps me up at night - my mechanic could clean up the pieces we have and put the chassis back to a roller and try to use the NCRS judging book as a guide

but we've come this far - it would be awesome if we had someone with deep deep knowledge who could either take over the reconstruction of the chassis and to finish the engine bay to proper top judging standard

at this point - it's not a lot of work - we have a proper shop with lifts and tools and space - and we have sandblast guys and painters etc

we need a captain to run the show for this phase

I have struck out trying to find a guy who does full NCRS restorations so far - and I know it's hard because I didn't just drive it to his shop and hand him the keys and say here's a blank check let me know when it's done

I got lucky finding this car about 4 years ago and one of my favorite painters - magically had an opening to take a car -

something that never happens - so we seized that opportunity and took the car apart and he stripped and painted the car

so we just kept going - took the motor off the frame - we knew it was not the original block etc

and I just started getting further educated on what I needed for the correct restoration

we have done - I think - very very well to this point

but - we need help

and I am happy to pay the right person for this strange job

 

You can watch and get InTouch with this guy https://www.youtube.com/c/MidYearMitch
Good luck with the 63

 

I am sure you will find someone local that can assist. I am not an expert on 63's but I do have a lot of experience with them. I would be happy to assist any way I could, but given I am in Chicago it would have to be on FaceTime or similar.

 

I would suggest you find a copy of Noland Adams Corvette Restoration & Technical Guide Vol. 2. The book is out of print so you will have to go to the secondary market to find it.
It is a little out of date , but with the NCRS guide it will give you a in hand source to identify the suspension components you have .
I am sure you know that there are a great number of "63 only" parts and there were many running changes during the the production process .
Good luck with your project.

 

silver - great advice - we have a current NCRS judging guide and a current shop manual for this car also an NCRS book I believe

and yes, we are finding a LOT of parts are '63 only ...

thank you

 

Neel,
This is nothing you haven't done before! Sure it can be a puzzle, but is straight forward. I made some special tools so I wouldn't scratch the powder coating on the front spring installation. I used the LIC parts book and didn't need my manual. I understand where you are on this. One at a time and bingo it's done.

Dom

 

If you get the Nolan Adams book it explains the changes and year only parts for each year from 63 to 67. It starts with an overview and then each year.
It will explain a lot of your questions.

 

SupremeDeluxe has a Nolan Adams Vol.2 for sale in the Parts section.

Noland Adams V2 Corvette Restoration & Technical Guide (2 copies, one with autograph)

 

I would drive 90 minutes north and talk to Corvette Ed in Carpinteria. Their shop is a mile from my house and all they do is restore C2's. Pretty sure he personally has three 63 SWC with A/C and I know one is a big tank car.

He is a wealth of knowledge for these cars.

https://www.corvetteservicecompany.com/corvetteservice/

Don't think they ever answer the phone but he's always in the shop on weekdays, it's right off the 101 freeway.

 

Update

Boyan came and spent the most illuminating 53 minutes with me and my builder

he knew EVERYTHING we needed to know

the good news is that we have many of the chassis/suspension pieces that we need to make a rolling chassis

so much thanks to everyone who chipping in - this forum saved the day

i will keep you posted on my progress - cheers