Thanks Phil. Yes, tears come to my eyes every time I place an order on the net

Lucky you Gary! I wouldn't mind having a second vette to enjoy, especially this time of year.


Met with SBG tonight - he's going to weld the chassis seams for me, and weld on gussets too.

 

Time for my monthly status report.

As mentioned last time, SuperBuickGuy generously proposed to weld the chassis seams and some gussets. So I grinded off the primer at the weld locations and off was the chassis to a temporary new home:



The gussets were cut from a 3/16" steel plate:


A few gusset shots:








My buddy has grown a bit since post #25:


Some welded seams:


Time to clean up, re-prime and spray the satin black top coat.

What else has been brewing in my garage?

I added a glossy 2k clear coat to the gas tank:


The sending unit is painted too:


Cleaned the windshield washing pump:

Questions: I want to test it while attached to the container filled with water. Can I just connect it to a 12v car battery? Does it matter which of the two connectors I connect the positive to?

Sand-blasted those shields close the body mounts #1:



Question: Where could I get replacement rubbers?



Started to clean and paint the hood latches. After cleaning:




As usual, more pictures are under August 2014 - Vette Restoration.

Thanks for taking a peek.

 

C3ers, a little update on this glorious sunny Sunday.

I re-primed the entire chassis after all the welding work:


Then this morning I top-coated with Eastwood 2K Ceramic Chassis Satin Black:







A pretty cool milestone, I think.


The hood latches are ready too:


Now I have some Sea Gals to watch...

Thanks for taking a peek.

 

looking good!

 

Thanks SBG. Next steps are to paint the areas that were covered by the suspending ropes and then spray the green internal frame coating.

 

Hats off to you my friend , alot of work and good work too , keep it up you are an inperation.

 

I'm tempted to use that on my FJ40 frame...

 

Nice to catch up and see the progress that you've made, RBrid. Lots of detailed work completed. The results should bring a large smile of satisfaction over you.

SBG and yourself did a heck of a job getting the frame rewelded, gusseted, cleaned and painted. Looks strong and ready.

Thanks for the continued picture updates too. Really brings the project into focus and helps those who are performing or thinking of performing, these tasks.

Looking forward to more. Good luck.

 

Thanks much for the kind words Ron and Eddie

I just crossed the one year mark for this fun project. I can't wait to have that first drive. I'm doing cheek muscle exercises regularly to get ready for the day. I'm hoping it'll happen within 4 years.

@SBG: I have three spray cans of the green goo. You can have my leftovers if any.

Last night I took care of the next step #1, i.e. "paint the areas that were covered by the suspending ropes", and also top-coated some small parts:



Baby steps, baby steps...

 

Who wants pictures? Raise your hand.

I brought some parts to the sand-blasting shop that did my chassis. Once back in my garage, I started the usual treatment: After Blast spray + gray epoxy primer:

After sand-blasting:




Prep'ing for first coat of epoxy primer:


Done:



They still need a second coat of primer and then satin black top-coats.


But then the temps dropped to around 60 degrees here. So I enclosed my wood structure with plastic sheets and put an electric oil heater inside. I can raise the interior temperature from 60 to 70 degrees for the paint jobs.




Sprayed the green internal frame coating...


...but that paint is super fluid and runs out wherever it can:

I cleaned it up as much as I could right away. But I couldn't get it clean all the way so this morning I shot one last thin coat of black satin to cover the mess:



That's it for now folks. You can put your hand down now.

Thanks for taking a peek.

 

not running yet? man!

still, nice work - are you going to put lights on the green paint so that everyone can see your green paint?

 

You have been reported!

 

Thanks Brandon for cleaning up the web.

SBG, one nice summer day in 2018, I'll visit you with my completed vette to check how your Buick Sedanette project is progressing...
Thanks for welding the Shark Bite brackets onto my new Van Steel offset trailing arms tonight. Nice work!

 

Very nice !!

 

Thanks Dan. Time has come for a little update, because I say so.

Painted the new hardware kit for the rear:

But now that I read a comment from 7T1vette that the aftermarket French locks are junk, I might refurbish the old ones and use them instead.

Painted the new steel brake lines:




For a while, I struggled with shaping the front brake line. Then got the idea of tying it against the original line little by little, and copying the shape as I went along - it worked well:


After a week spent micro-tweaking the new steel brake lines and stainless steel gas lines, on the chassis they went:














Next came the upper-control arms' rubber bumpers. I wetted them with Windex and pulled them into place with a string. It only took a couple of minutes that way:






The Spicer u-joints are giving me hell though.

I'm using the thinnest copper clips and I could barely fit both clips into one flange. As for the second flange, so far I simply have not been able to squeeze in the second clip, even while compressing the u-joint hard . I may have to purchase a new flange and new u-joint.

Some of the new parts I want to install over the winter & spring:










Isn't this fun?

Thanks for taking a peek.

 

so here's where I point out that, just like the tapping we did to align the caps, you can spread the yoke apart... a few taps and it'll go where it needs to be... remember, the looser it is, the more vibrations you'll have.

 

Thanks for the tip SBG. I gave that a try yesterday evening.
I put a couple of washers between the flange and support and tightened the 4 bolts (not like a nut) to attempt to separate the yokes a bit. I also gave both yokes a series of taps. This gave me goose bumps as it negates the purpose of the backing plate.



Still couldn't fit in the second clip. I'm missing around 1/32".

Oh well. No big deal. Next time you visit my digs, maybe we can try more drastic measures .

 

Such attention to detail. What a great job you're doing! Thanks for sharing.

 

I'll get my bigger hammer

You hear this a lot, but I'll say it again, you're going the wrong way... spread the yoke, not press the u-joint

 

Hey RBird, just reviewed some of your post and it looks like things are moving along. I agree with the amount of time you have to spend on the fuel and brake lines. When I started I thought everything just fell into place, right. Not a chance. My project is almost a year old also and it just takes time to do nice work and does not included surprises along the way. Nice
Carry on
Roger