After looking thru some of the threads on your rebuilds I am completely overwhelmed! I'm thoroughly impressed. There is no way I would be able to completely take apart my vette and restore it like some of you have done. Even if I had the money I don't have the tools or the knowledge.
You guys are amazing.
Mark

 

Get an AIM, buy the tools as you go, and ask lots of questions here on the forums.... Come on, you can do it!

Though you might need a second job

 

Can't help in that area.

You can acquire both of those. Most of us here are self-taught.

 

I don't have a mechanical back-ground, but with the AIM, help here and
common sense you can work on most things. Just don't let a whole project
over whelm you. I am retired also and have been working on
mine for over a 1-1/2 years. You can't do everything at once, it takes
time. At least you can drive yours. I still have a lot to go before I can
enjoy mine again.

Donnie


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...ant-to-do.html

 

I had a buddy who couldn't change a headlight by himself. Some times we need to acknowledge our skills. That said, baby steps my friend, baby steps.

 

You would probably be amazed at what you can do if you put your mind to it and do the research thoroughly enough. These days there are so many tools to help you through any rebuild:

* This forum
* Paper manuals (AIM, Service Manual, etc)
* YouTube (a great source to actually see how something is done)
* Internet searches
* Corvette vendors

Pick a task, such as changing brake pads. Do a search on our forum for "brake pads". Read the threads that come up. Search YouTube, "C3 Brake Pad change". Don't forget to look at the AIM and service manuals. Do Internet searches remembering that the act of replacing your brake pads in a Corvette may be the same as the method used on other GM cars. After you have done all that, jack the car up and look at the brake disk and caliper...it should start to look familiar now after all your research. Take a look at the fasteners that you will be taking off, do you have those tools? If not go buy just those tools...you don't need to buy a Craftsman 300 piece tool set to get started.

The next step is to just start taking it apart...slowly...taking plenty of notes and pictures. As long as this is not your daily driver and it can stay in the garage, there is nothing to say that it can't take a month to do the front brakes.

The rebuilding threads are amazing, you are right about that! To me they are an inspiration though, and give me the motivation to jump into some repairs that I have never done. It is cheaper to rebuild defective parts than to buy new replicas of the original parts...keep that in mind as you begin your journey.

The people on this forum are happy to help if you ask the question...

John

 

As others have said. Take your time, and enjoy it. We have all been frustrated with something that should have been an easy job of maybe an hour and spent a whole day on one task, and even then, may not have gotten the end result we wanted. It is part of the classic car hobby.

The only other comment I will make is that it helps to have a buddy, or someone that knows about turning a wrench on these cars. If it wasn't for a little inspiration from outside the family, I would be in trouble and have to pay someone else to do all the work, and I can't afford that.

 

I like that. Reminds me of the old guy in Kung Fu who was always saying "Patience, Grasshopper."

"Stay thirsty, my friends."

 

I don't know how people did this stuff before the Internet. After you strip away the pornography and pictures of people's cats, there is actually a seemingly endless amount of information left out there. The forums are a great place to find people that want to share that information.
The best thing to do is find a mentor locally if you can. Car clubs and meets are a good place. Most guys that know this stuff like to talk about it and share the love. I got lucky and found a mentor who builds vettes for a living, and happened to live around the corner from me. Of course, I would have never have figured that out without the Internet. :-)

I have gotten a lot of help, but also knew what my limitations are as far as talent and tools. I farmed out the trailing arms and differential rebuild to mike. That was money well spent.

As others have said, no matter how big or small the project, if you focus one one thing at a time and enjoy the journey, you can do anything.

 

I didn't have a clue on how to go about removing, rebuilding and installing the trailing arms untill . . . . . yup you guessed it, YOU TUBE!

 

Lol you are correct!
I am an MRI Tech but I also do pretty much all aspects of home construction from framing and drywall to plumbing and electric, tile, hardwood flooring, vinyl siding, doors etc etc. I also do some welding and fabricating, I installed my crate motor and trans with my car on jackstands in my tiny 1 car garage as well as alot of metal fabricating and wiring etc. I even installed my 4 link 9" rear and when I went to get the car aligned it needed zero adjustment out back, Lol.
Biggest asset-YOUTUBE!!!

 

That`s what we`re doing! Wife & I have built a few cars together, but this is our first `Vette. With the AIM, and the helpful people on this forum, our 71 is coming along really well!

Starting point.....
http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/s...vette1nose.jpg

Progress so far....
http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/s...psc4f3e8e7.jpg

 

One word of advice if you take something apart.......pictures, Pictures, Pictures......take 20 pictures of everything BEFORE you disassemble it. I have folder after folder on my computer of pictures.

Have fun with it....it's a car, not brain surgery.

 

I give credit to all of you guys that can take a car down for years.

I do most of my own work, but anything over 1 week would drive me nuts. I would want to work on it 24/7 to get it back on the road.

 

An acquaintance of mine has a specialty in building high end interiors for hot rods; i.e custom cars. His interiors look like sophisticated factory show car interiors. He started out as a teenager helping his mother restore furniture...they were pretty poor at the time. I've always remembered his comments...he said that if anyone could create anything with their hands, he could create that also. He said that what you had to accept was failure...you can't do a perfect job the first time. He showed me a picture of a piece of furniture he made and he said that he had 50 failures before making the final piece. (It was a complicated circular leather covered pleated chair). I think that as a child, say learning to play a musical instrument, you are not demoralized by failure, where as an adult you are easily.
Many of the things on my 68 and 70 Corvettes have involved me following my acquaintances advice..if I don't get it right, I do it again, and again, and again, etc. Eventually I get it right. This often means building something, ...if it doesn't fit..I throw it away and do it again.

If I showed you the custom fuel lines for my dual redundant fuel pumps on my 68 and the precise custom bent fuel line segments, I'm sure you'd say you couldn't do that . The reason I'm sure you'd say you couldn't do that is today I wonder how I could do that again. But the fuel line segments probably measure about 8 feet in total length. I probably used about 30 feet of fuel line tubing in fabricating these lines. Every time I made a mistake, I threw the mistake away and tried again, and again, and again. This was following the philosophy of my acquaintance who build custom interiors.

Persistance supersedes experience.

 

rebuilding an entire car can seem very daunting, but with the proper manuals, and TONS of help from these guys, it's possible.

rebuilding a car is like eating an elephant you do it one bite at a time.

 

Since 1972, I've pretty much disassembled my 68 Corvette and re-assembled it. I have yet to disassemble the door window mechanism, but I've ordered new window glass for installation so this is next. I haven't disassembled the tranny..ordered a new one. Paid to have the diff rebuilt by Tom's, and have factory crate engine..ZZ4. Basically everything else has been taken apart and put back together again. It's been like a giant mechanical puzzle sometimes.

 

You can acquire both of those. Most of us here are self-taught.

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Yup! The hardest thing I ever did on a car was replace the clutch in my 1981 280ZX. I never ripped apart a car and attempted to rebuild it. But I got an A.I.M. and a Chevrolet Shop Service manual for the '80 Vette and it all became a piece of cake. A very rewarding experience.