I just wanted to thank everyone who has answered my many many questions. Restore is going very slow, but I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere on my '69. I never turned a wrench in my life until I got it in May, so ignorance takes up a lot of time now and then. Almost ready to paint the engine compartment and put the suspension/steering back in.

Came in a bit rough...



Oh god I hate wire brushing frames. Wire brush, sand, strip, brush, brush, brush, sand, strip, burn arms/face with paint stripper, wire brush, sand, strip........ But I finally got the frame painted. finally, I'm almost ready to paint the firewall:
(Yes, a bird somehow managed to fly in and crap on the frame... )


Today I picked up my 454 parts from the machine shop. The 350 in there was pretty tired and lasted 2 miles after I brought it home. I'm aiming for about 500 hp/ft-lb with my BB build. Too bad it will be a few months before I can start building it...

Got the valves enlarged on my 049 heads. They look a hell of a lot nicer than when they came in.



Block was tanked, 0.030" over. Nice honed cylinders:


Hypereutectic pistons, new rods. 9.5:1 compression


At least the bracket on these rollers has "UP" written on it. I think if you managed to put these in upside-down, you have much, much bigger problems than putting them in upside-down...


I pray that I can get this sucker on the road before summertime! All I need to do is rebuild the rear suspensions, brakes, differential, "fix" the electrical (which from what I can tell is a ridiculous tangle of wires that could possibly take several years to figure out), and about six hundred other things. I've got a muncie 4-speed that needs to be rebuilt, but I think I'm going to go with a TKO for a nice overdrive gear. I can't wait, we'll see if my wallet can. In the meantime, between throwing wrenches it has been fun.

 

Wow, way to go man. I hope you give that engine bay a couple coats of primer, paint and clear. You'll be glad you did.

Please, keep the motro assembly pics coming, as well as your overall progress.

You'll have fun with the a-arm bushings, and trailing arms...

 

Funny you mention the A-arm bushings. I drilled, and drilled, and drilled, and drilled. Then I burned and burned. They were so rotted and dried, it took forever. And a lot of cursing. Any suggestions on primer and clearcoat? I'm going to use John Deere Blitz Black.

I'm terrified of the rear end. Luckily I can't get to as much of the frame back there.

 

Any primer will work, so long as it's not a metalic surface specific primer. They are designed to etch, and that won't work on plastic and fiber glass. Visit a paint shop or Oreilly that has a paint desk. They will help you pick up a good primer and clear.

 

Looks really nice. Takes alot of time and patience, but in the end all that wirebrushing and prep work really pays off.
Check out my painted firewall from my '82 restoration in the link below.
Keep up the good work and looking forward to many more photos of the progress.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1465589

 

On my next project, when money and time aren't as much of an issue for me, I plan on doing what you did and do a quality spray job on the engine compartment. However, on my current project I cleaned the crap out of everything under the hood and used Krylon semi-gloss black on everything. I kind of expected it to turn out looking half-assed, but I've been very impressed with the results. The one benefeit of krylon is it will be an easy color to touch up in the future. I also painted my wheel wells, the underbody, and I top coated my frame with krylon as well (after I used Por-15). Check out my thread to see what the end result looks like.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1534377

Before I started my project last year I never did any work on any sort of car myself. Having learned everything as I was doing it myself, I know how much of an accomplishment this really is. Great work. Be sure to keep posting pictures of your progress!

 

That's a nice looking firewall . Where in MD are you from?

 

The hardest part of cleaning and painting a firewall is removing all the 'stuff' and you've already doen that.

For you it's...

...wirewheel, primer, paint, clear, and re-assembly.

(Take LOTS of pics.)

 

I think I'm almost there in the removal. The lower part of the firewall is loaded with grease still that I have to clean off. I've sanded most stuff on the firewall, but paint on the wheel wells and front of the nose is a #@$%$ to get off, and I'm not sure if I'm going to remove ALL of the paint. Do you recommend wire wheel to rough it up for primer? How necessary do you find a clear coat? I'm afraid of having a super duper gloss finish. Should I just spray bomb some rustoleum clear onto it?

 

The main job of the clear is to protect the paint. I suppose an easier way to avoid the step and the gloss is you use a single stage of some kind. Paint and protect all in one.

 

There is no reason to clear the underhood paint. It will add to the gloss and if you are looking for a satin finish you would need to add flattening compound to the clear. Many forum members have used Krylon semigloss black for their underhood paint. I used flattened black lacquer on mine.

 

I'm planning on using John Deere Blitz Black. Does it need to be primed, or is a rough surface enough (some surfaces still having well-bonded paint, others being bare fiberglass)?

 

PRETTY BOLD OF YOU !!!
great job conciddering you never turned a wrench before..........!!
just hope you can put it all back, it comes apart easy, & thats what scares the crap outa me, remembering what goes where.
It always amazes me when i go in my dealerships service dept & i see a brand new caddy escalade i'm 3 million pieces, total inside taken out for a short, the wires, the computers navigation, it's insane, millions of nuts bolts screws etc...........funniest part is most of these guys that do this cant read or write......or spell...simply amazing, amazing &..AMAZING !!!! what talent !!!
I'm in awe of your drive & desire............GREAT JOB SO FAR !!
ZIXXX PACKER

 

Thanks, I've always wanted to do this, and I finally have the opportunity to. Doing everything the first time takes a long long time... Lots of stupid questions, lots of reading, lots of throwing wrenches (a Mag-Lite once). Drilling out rivets, grinding bolt heads off, shearing off bolts, removing fused rusted pieces has been loads of fun.

I think I should buy stock in zip-lock. I have stacks of containers and bags labeled with various things. Some are simply marked "??", I'm not sure what to do with those .

At the end of the day though, it's almost always fun (maybe not after weeks of wirebrushing). This forum is a huge help. The only thing I'm worried about putting it back together is having extra things left over.... or forgetting to lube something important....

 

I always check if my watch is still on my whist when finished with a project.

 

You didn't lose it in an engine build did you? Watch in the oil galley or crank case?

 

You will get a more uniform and quality finish if you use a primer sealer under the topcoat. This will also help adhesion to the bare fiberglass. If you don't prime or seal, the top coat may sink into the bare glass and you may see the difference. I used an epoxy sealer on my engine compartment.

 

Yep... ...surface prep is the key to ANY good paint job. When prepping a surface that has any texture or absorbsion properties it's VERY important to seal it all well. It's worth the time, trust us.

 

Nihil,
Located in Elkridge right next to Columbia.

 

Man nice job so far. I heard you about losing it just finish one part at a time. I would be working out in the garage by myself and when I finished a part of the project and could move on to the next I would say very loud "DONE" like the monster house TV show. Oh I was also drinking mass quanties of beer. Keep up the good work and take a lot of pic's . We all been there & done that soon it will be complete.