Hey forum lurkers :-)
always thought I would post a build thread and I have gathered some good pictures I think.
So here is the first one. This is when I went to see it when it was for sale.










Basically what you see is what I got. I did get the original Muncie M21 with it. No drive shaft or slip yoke. I did get a set of headers with it.



loading it on the trailer to take it home..



This is my buddy Doug and his dog Dottie. He owns the trailer and she owns him...



and home in front of my garage.. I know its a very small garage right? yea but from there I took it to my associate who owns a very nice detail shop here in town to have a look at it and do some work to it while I worked on the engine and drive train.



I bought a 350 from a friend of mine its an 010 block whos origins are some what foggy. Not corvette but possibly 80's Camaro. Its been bored .060 over and has a mild cam. So I went through it and started putting it together.









While I worked on that the car was having its carpet dyed back to original color.



that's the difference new and old.





I am having other work done to it but it is going to go back and forth from his shop to mine.
I have done quite a bit more to it but I see that I haven't uploaded some pics to the bucket. I will continue this thread after I get that done. I welcome constructive thoughts and comments. and welcome to my thread.

 

Nice find. Looks like you're off to a good start on a nice car.

 

Exciting times..with more to come.
Great project, keep us updated.

 

why is the oil pan off all the time??

 

Now at this point I have to move because of divorce...
So with the vette at the detailers and the engine ready to go in I borrowed my buddy and his trailer again took it to his place, put the engine in, then moved it to the new place.







We get it to the new place where I stayed for 4 months. We got 3 blizzards in a row and the roof of this house I was renting leaked and formed a 50 lb ice cube in the roof above the kitchen sink. So I moved yet again. In December. :-) another story

so now I am at my new place with a much better garage and have been tinkering with it here almost every day.



still no rad. should be here next week. got rad fans today. and got a wiper door actuator as well thanks to a very nice forum member. :-)



piecing together the vacuum lines, fuel line, carb, intake,



playing with the wiper motor. cant seem to get it to work. Ive got power at all the wires that should have power and I can hear the relay click when its turned on. Don't sound good to me...
Are these units rebuildable? any one know? just curious for the most part.



This was a short lived thought. I want to go hydraulic but I will set up a hydraulic throwout bearing. just seems way easier than some of the other options I see in other posts.

So today I'll end this post with some of the damage that is/was on the car when I bought it.












Really I don't think it was too bad. I think these things are all typical of C3s. the rest of the car is very surprising and solid. and... every thing except the wipers works. so far. (knock on wood).
Have a great day everyone

 

I had bought a pan that matched the valve covers but the damn thing would not fit. so I redid the stock pan and painted it with black header paint.

 

Back in the early 80's perhaps late 70's at the local cruise was a LT1 71 it was same colors as yours, it was a car of day dreams and fantasy for me, I just love that lt1/bb hood should have been on all 70-72's but then the lt1's are special.....

 

suffice it to say the original LT1 is long gone so I will put this together for the time being and hopefully be cruising this summer to the lake with my lady.
When that happens I want to begin a 427 6 speed build that can be a prolonged project.
I had a 76 but I always wanted a bumper car. just got lucky with the LT1. And the body, chassis, and interior is all there and not butchered or rusted away.

 

Went through similar situation on the divorce right in the middle of the Ls3 swap. Really slowed down the build. I have moved into a great house but the garage was a disaster. I had to clean out the previous owners stuff redo it to what I wanted and purchase a new lift. It's all in now but then the winter snows came and home projects. Hopefully this summer I will be back driving it.

As for the car mine is also an LT1 but nothing left of it so it is a full on custom now. Build it like you want it and drive and enjoy it with your new girl.

 

It's in good shape compared to some (mine..... .......LOL)

Keep us updated.

(Annnnnnd....I'm not a "forum lurker".....I just reply way too much!)

 

Update.
Radiator and fans are in. I have now received all the parts I bought from international sources. I ordered upper rad brackets from a Canadian corvette source at the same time and they haven't even shipped yet.
I should have known. next time.







its coming along now. I had to trim about an inch and a half from both ends of the bottom rad hose so it wouldn't kink going over the front cross member. I also have to fabricate new rubber mounts to fit this rad. shouldn't be to hard.

 

It's looking great!

I usually take the trimmed sections---place them on the hose where it might chafe against something---use zip-ties to hold the trimmed sections in place.

 

small update.
after much measuring research and web surfing I've decided to carry on with my hydraulic clutch build.

Got the idea here in these forums where a custom bracket was built to hold a slave cylinder. one of the comments was " wouldn't a hydraulic throw out bearing be so much easier?"

So that's what Im going to attempt. Ive ordered a bearing with conical shims and lines to hook up to a mid 80s truck master cylinder.
I did notice there doesn't seem to be any build threads of this nature. during my install I will take pics and hopefully they will be good enough to post.

any one done this??? any words of wisdom??
pics to come. have a great day everyone

 

No advice on the hydraulic clutch stuff, but this is one sweeet build.

Out of curiosity, what will you use to control the fans?

Mike

 

Thanks very much! I like it so far.

For the fans I am so far just thinking about using the Thermo switch and relay setup. But I am looking also at the adjustable controllers. At the moment I am fabricating mount pads for my radiator using the stock brackets.

Trans and bell housing are coming out today in prep for the release bearing.

 

My preset thermo-switch and fan relays works well....although I could see how an adjustable controller would be a good investment.

 

So welcome back. been a couple of weeks so I have some updates.

First finally got my hydraulic throwout bearing and lines.



I have to get a line fitting for the master cylinder. the two that came with it don't fit the mid 80s chevy truck master. No big...
Now after 3 days of nice weather it is of course snowing...
F*&^%$ H3II

since I have my jack stands in use atm I cant get under the vette to pull the trans out and begin the install. That will wait for a bit.

So I thought I would share some pics of what Ive been doing to partly finance my vette addiction and partly what I do for a living.

I own a small business that operates with a detail shop here in Ab. I do mechanical work as well as body work, custom builds, and anything that strikes my fancy.. lol

my latest custom flip is a 2002 Acura RSX.
It came to me with a broken nose. picked it up for a grand and bought all the parts I needed to replace for about $600 +/-
the rest will be labor on my part. Things are coming along smoothly between playing with my grandson and running after family and business.





the broken nose....







I got such a good deal on a new bumper with no damage that I started to repair the damaged one that was on the car. Ive got no pics of it yet, but it will be finished soon. mildly custom. tasteful I guess.

Have a great day every one.

 

So its been a little while since my last post.
I have a fair bit of work done.
first the hydraulic release bearing and master cylinder are in.





master cylinder needs some adjustment.

I also got a new set of headers as the ones I had were too short.





No comments on my welding skills. lol

I also fabricated new rad mounts to fit the aluminum rad.



I also got my adjustable fan controller unit. looks like it was supposed to go right on that inner fender on the passenger side.
So that's where I mounted it. looks good.



So pretty much the engine bay is done. The only thing left to buy is the friggen slip yoke. I made the mistake of buying a new yoke with external clips not thinking about the lack of room in the trans tunnel. doh!!!
I don't want to drop the diff to put it in because I just completed the exhaust system. and it runs right under the diff. So I guess I will go buy an original style yoke for corvette.

any one want a new 32 spline slip yoke that will take a 1310 ujoint?
going cheap...



So here it is all buttoned up and ready to start.
Soon, Soon, Soon.
I cant wait. and the weather is warming up. YAY!!!
Have a great day everyone...

 

Finally got her out today.

it works really well. took it on a short test drive with my son. round the block a couple of times. GF took the pictures laughing the whole time.. took her out with no licence plate. lol

 

After my test ride yesterday (Yay!) I was so pleased with the hydraulic clutch setup. l tell you I had my doubts as to how well it would work if at all.
Only one test ride so far. but it is operating very well.
It started as a plan B but the further I got into the car it just made more sense to try this route.

In the end if you are like me and have a car you can modify slightly this is a pretty cool and cheap mod to do.
here's what it cost me.

Hydraulic release bearing w/hoses - 169.99 fleabay
mid 80s chev half ton master cylinder - $35 napa
AN 4 to M12 adapter $6 - fleabay
funky clutch fluid reservoir - $18 fleabay

for about $250 + - for shipping its fully functional and feels good.
I have to admit I was really thinking this wouldnt work as I didnt really do proper math to see if the master and bearing could operate together.
lucky.











Bleeding was pretty painless if you take your time and have a couple of friends.
that reservoir is so small that you only get one pedal pump to bleed then it has to be filled. lol

Im crusin this summer !!!
have a great day all