AllC34Me

Looking great Chuck. You are catching up with me quickly now.
August 23-26 we have a date in Carlisle, PA.

The racers will finally meet.

I'm excited about it.

Come on Spring...

doorgunner

Out Standing Engine Bay, Dude!

chazde3

Thanks Roger, now if I can only get the body looking half as good as yours I will have a darn nice car.

I was just looking into reserving a room closer to Carlisle this year. I need to snap one up before too long. I think I might be a nervous wreck leaving the '68 parked at the fairgrounds or anywhere else lol.

Thank you sir. Currently still only 1 Chuckpower though.

PainfullySlow

Solid progress! The radiator and support look excellent.

chazde3

Thanks PS. I had a bit of an issue getting the radiator into place, but didn't have any issues with the fans hitting the control arms lie some people do so I am happy with that. I'm glad Dewitt's threw in their custom rubber radiator mounts, they support the radiator much better than the stock rubber cushions.


I am trying to find the motivation to get the rest of the paint and prior body work removed and the warmer 50 degree days here are helping with that motivation. It's nice being able to roll the car out into the driveway and have the dust go away rather than coat my whole garage. Most of the back half is down to fiberglass/body filler and the front is over halfway done as well.





I'm trying to decide if all of the previous filler need to be removed or not. I know my dad was a competent vette body man and did this work if that makes a difference.

And my engine/transmission builder is still dragging his feet on my build. Going on 5 months now that he has had them. I showed up yesterday to check in and still no real progress.

chazde3

SB64

Hi Chuck,things on your project are moving along and looking good. Hopefully the engine guy will get some pep in his step. I read I think in paint and body section that you were going to skin the doors to save Charlies Toy for wall art. That's a really cool idea that I didn't realize you were doing.
NICE!

RVZIO

AllC34Me

Rear compartment two tone theme looks really nice Chuck. I did the same thing in my 72 race replica only mine is black on black.
I do like what you are doing, keep up the good work.
David

doorgunner

B A M !

chazde3

Thanks Roger. He does seem to be understanding that I'm expecting the engine soon and that it isn't a low priority project. It might get interesting fitting the engine into the car. We decided on running roller rockers and stud girdles for long term reliability. That means I'll need to run tall valve covers or a spacer. I need to remove the brake booster to fit the vacuum reservoir back into it's proper spot, so I will likely leave the booster out until the engine is in place.

Thanks David, I'm really liking the 2 tone look on the doors. It should look much better installed. But next time I do a rear compartment I am going to just order complete new doors or a new complete unit. I had probably 8 hours into removing the carpet from the last door. The other 2 came off nicely, but the last one was a pain in my butt.

chazde3

Started getting some fiberglass repair items prepped last night. I have the repair ready to glass on the front valence. I also removed the previous exhaust delete attempt on the '68 exhaust panel. They just added a fiberglass piece over the exhaust cutout and coated it in at least a quarter inch of bondo. I cut out the fiberglass that wraps around the tail pipe. I will then glass in the cutout area and build up an edge to mate up to the edge my dad installed in the exhaust delete on the car. I also need to fix the dremel cut I put in the edge of the panel when I removed it from the rear end it was glassed in on. Still a little itchy this morning.









I also started measuring and marking out the additional fender fiberglass I need to remove to glass in the Motion reverse gill vents. I would like to get most of that work done before my engine gets installed so I can keep it clean.

UPS also says that the FIA/L88 front spoiler I bought from David is out for delivery. Apparently it needs a little fiberglass love like the rest of the parts I have so I will add it to the pile to prep.

doorgunner

(scratch-scratch-itch)

I know what you mean. I'm about to duct-tape a lightweight rain jacket to myself before looking at fiberglass work today/55* F, so heat isn't an issue.

chazde3

So I spent part of the weekend rebuilding my holley 600cfm carb. It is a manual choke model that has been wired to stay open, made sense for being a race car. Since it will be garaged and a fair weather car I left it wired open, shouldn't be much of an issue when starting the car. I do need to hit the hardware store to replace the brass screws for the throttle plates, but everything is put back together where it needs to be. New fuel filters and a fuel line are on their way.

gavino

Sorry about your dad. The vette looks interesting but you have to clean up a few things. First if it is a 68 and it says Stingray on the side take that off. 68 had no Stingray label it was a Shark car. Stingray reappeared in 69. There was no 454 in 68. There were 350ci and 427. The 427 had 4 different horsepower ratings from 390-435. But snuck in there was a 427 430 hp heavy duty engine. One of your fathers signs in the garage says it was originally a 430 hp, an L 88. Those are magic words. Before you do anything to the car get in touch with someone who really knows corvettes who can check out the car. Maybe it looks like a 454 but it might be an L 88. The 454 engines had lower compression because of emission standards.The L 88 was hard to drive on the street because of its cam and 12:1compression and the need for high octane gas. If that is what you have, then you have a very special Vette.

gavino

What is the list number on the carburetor . It is a mechanical secondary without a second pump. 600 cfm is somewhat small for a race car engine of 454 or 427 cu in.Many had 750-850 cfm carbs.Does it have a power valve in the back metering block?

chazde3

Thanks for checking out the thread. Crazy to think dad's been gone for 5 years now.

So most of the things you posted about have been addressed throughout the entire thread over time. It is definitely a '68 with a lot of, uhmm..., history. It started out life as a rally red with red interior 427 car. By the time my dad got it in '72 it was green with a saddle interior after extensive repairs from an engine fire. At some point my dad grafted 73+ fender vents onto the car including the stingray emblems. I am grafting on Motion style reverse vents onto the car and I am retaining the stingray emblems because I like them.

As for the engine I have more or less confirmed that the engine in it was an early '67 L88 crate engine, unfortunately the block stamp is long gone so there is no proving it. My family friend and mechanic remembers my dad putting that engine in the car when he was younger. It's currently being rebuilt with an NOS set of L88 heads we had stashed, a hydraulic roller cam and rocker rollers. It will look mostly stock from the outside.


It is a list 4776. Only 1 of the metering blocks had a power valve.

Someone quite a ways back in this thread or on another thread speculated the 600 cfm was used due to him racing primarily rally course racing, but I don't know for sure.

chazde3

Fixed the lower front valance over the last couple evenings. Nothing like the smell of resin in the evenings.

SB64

Yea man, now your rolling. I would love to get to Carlisle PA. this year. Who knows................................... ............

RVZIO

tokim

Nice progress on a special car..and good for you to retain the Stingray emblems.

doorgunner

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd.....nothing like the smell of resin in the morning.....