Well, took a little longer than I thought because I got stuck trying to figure out my fuel delivery. I knew I want an internal electric pump but didn't want so spend a fortune; so, I pulled the electric fuel pump out of the '86 from which my engine came....it's on the left in the photo below & my '88 unit is on the right:



So, I cut the electric pump off its unit, cut the end off my fuel pickup & attached the electric pump...a little wiring & I have a modified '77 unit with an internal electric fuel pump:





I've got all the plenum & injection system off my engine as well as the valve covers. I've sand blasted them & am going to glass bead them this week & clear coat them.....plus, the engine is cleaning up real well.

I'm pulling the harmonic ballancer tomorrow & will turn the engine over on the stand to finish cleaning.

 

Wow! You started with a great project at a great price! I realy like you method of clean and paint for dissambly; it's like working on a new car.

Keep us up to date...

 

Today's 19 November....Started in May with an old '77 I found on the side of the road.

Now, I know there's still lots to do to the engine, but I just couldn't wait. I had to drop it into the frame. I'll do everything else from there.

 

WOW very cool. I am loving watching the progress.

 

Some photo updates & link to a thread I have with emissions questions:







& the link to my question thread: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...-question.html

 

So, tonight new photos..........stay tuned.........

 

Great progress.. keep the pics coming

 

you do nice work autoist, motor looks great. sure its going to be real fine when your done. how much HP you going to be looking at?

 

Everything's pretty much on the engine - computer wiring is complete & connected & the headers are on....AC compressor's on & I'm waiting for my fake air pump pully/bracket and new power steering pump to arrive so I can set up the serpentine belt.

a few pics:


(Top of the throttle body is off while the paint dries.)


(Don't worry, the oil drips on the floor are just from where I didn't completely tighten the oil pan bolt & it's running through the engine.)

The 200-4R rear transmission mount bolted right up to the crossmember without modifications and at the bottom of the photo you can see the blue protection for the new driveshaft yoke.



And at the rear, the gas tank is coming along....am waiting for my new fuel return line to arrive & then I can have the presurized fuel lines to the tank made:



And my bodyman told me he wants to start on the body this week so I have to go over there & strip the firewall so he can repair a couple of fiberglass places & paint it.....I'll keep the chassis here at my house until the body is finished & in primer.

 

I bought my '77 at the end of April & it needed everything....now, the only thing left to do to the rolling chassis is hook up hydraulic hoses & fuel lines along with installing the serpentine belt, distributor (out for rebuild), plugs & plug wires.....manager of the local hydraulic hose company is coming out to my garage to see what all he has to do to hook everything up.

Tomorrow I'm also turning a corner...I'll try to spend most of the day at the body shop to start stripping the firewall so my bodyman can repair it where it was damaged in the accident.

Here's a couple of photos:

In the first photo, you can easily see the dummy pulley that replaced the air pump:



In the second photo, you can see we've got to modify the AC hoses to point towards the firewall:



Yes, the starter is now in place.

 

So, today I worked on the body - specifically, the firewall area....it's almost disassembled:





Here's an area at the top rear of the passenger fender that got damaged in an accident. You can see where the rivets have pulled away & where there's a crack in the firewall below the windshield:



After we correct that, we'll pull the windshield and start reworking the entire firewall area.

However, the same location on the driver side is totally different. It has an aluminum plate riveted over the same area providing extra support.....is it supposed to be there? And, if so, is there supposed to be a similar plate on the passenger side?



I mean, that plate was made professionally & appears to have been glued on at the factory.

 

Tony,
Like others have mentioned, I can't believe I missed this thread before...

And like others, I have plenty of memories of British sports cars as well. Mostly how much they leaked in the rain! However I think the first car that ever scared the crap out of me was a '59 AH 100 someone had put a 327 in, in the mid '60's. That was the squirliest car I ever rode in but I couldn't convince my parents to let me buy it, so I ended up with a '63 Corvette... go figure.

As you've probably discovered the '86's did come with the cast iron heads. The aluminum heads were not available until the convertible went into production later in the year so they got the aluminum heads and supposedly some of the late production coupes as well. They did add 5 hp over the cast irons heads, but besides that only gave a weight advantage.

You may have also discovered that the 255/60's will not fit in your '77 spare tire carrier. In '78 when they offered 255/60's as an optional tire, they also switched to the "donut" spare and a different carrier that has a second position to hold the 255 if you need to mount the spare on the car. I've never tried to fit one to a '77, but the later carrier should fit on the '77 frame and allow you to carry a 255 if you need to. I've got 255/60's all the way around on my '73 and the only thing I could get into the carrier was a 225/60.

Good luck and keep up the pace... GUSTO

 

Thanks for the updates, autoist.

 

Well, I had a 225/70 mounted on my spare wheel - it won't fit in the carrier so my tire shop is gonna take it back & install a 215/70....the original tire was a GR70-series....I'll keep my fingers crossed on the 215/70.

 

Last night, I thought this:



...was an aluminum plate someone had made to repair an accident.

Today, with the help of Kevin at Keen Parts, I learned it actually is a repair panel that's still available.

Because someone told me that area was prone to rust, I removed the panel to see what was under it.....solid metal, no rust. So, I ordered 2 new ones because the most recent accident that affected the top rear of the passenger side front fender had been badly repaired & I'm taking it apart to redo...I'll use one of the repair panels on the passenger side & the other on the driver side where the old repair panel had been used.

Firewall is completely stripped except for the brake booster.

Anybody know where I can get my steering column completely redone?

 

Photo of the stripped firewall...we've marked all the holes previous owners have drilled through it for filling plus we are replacing the upper corners that have been damaged in prior accidents. And, I'm working on modifying fuel lines for the TPI and building 200-4R cooler lines....plus, the '86 power steering unit has a remote tank so I'm locating it on the crossmember in front of the pump itself in the area between the pulley and radiator.

 

So, now we're seriously focusing on the body:

All glass removed & cleaning up firewall by filling some PO holes.


I mean, everything removed from body:


Doors coming off:


Driver bottom corner of windshield - no rust:


Passenger bottom corner of windshield - no rust; but, you can see where the cowl was cracked in the accident:

Luckily, we can pull it together & repair the crack.

Everything looks good inside:


Major body repair:


We'll get the body in final primer before we tackle the front clip which will have some panel repairs to it.

 

So, since my last post, I've cleaned up the interior, run a wire brush over it, sanded & primed....getting ready to apply bedliner to the inside & underside of the body....after I get the bedliner in it, I'll go over it with reflective soundproofing.







At the same time we're sanding the outside, cleaning the firewall & underside of the body, & prepping for rear quarter installation when the quarter panel arrives.

 

Great thread here and its nice seeing a '77 getting restored.Doing things to it that I would like to do in the future with our vette.

 

The right quarter is on!! Man, working with that glue is tricky...took about 4 hours last night & almost 1 quart of glue...but, we cleaned up the inside, unlike what the factory did!

Right now, we're using 80-grit to get rid of all the old primer and get down to the factory paint (yep, it was that '77 one year only color)...we'll do the entire body that way & then switch to a much finer grit to prep for the 2-part epoxy primer we'll spray over the body & firewall.







And on the left side, we only needed to fix some cracks....used resin & glass on them...they've smoother out nicely.....I think the entire car willl be sanded down to the original color by late tonight.



See ya tomorrow.