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Hello guys! My name is Ross and this is a project thread for my dads 1968 Matching numbers 427 4 speed corvette. So the plans for this build are gonna be a tad bit different than the normal matching numbers builds. This car is a good car but the previous owner kinda fubar'd the body pretty bad which is why this car is gonna be a resto-mod versus a actual full blown stock restoration. The issues with the body are this and you will see them in the pictures posted below. The car had some dumb wing molded into the body which looks terrible and the car was in a front end accident we believe, because the nose has a bunch of haggard glass repair and some weird bracing welded to the rad support to support the nose. So here is the plan get the heads freshened up a nice cam, carb is undecided as of now (because the car didn't have the original one on it when he bought it) and some other things just a nice little clean car he can cruise around in and enjoy. I will add more the thread as work gets done and plans get developed.
Some of the repaired nose damaged from the PO.
As you can see here the door gap is a little weird which wont allow the door to open without jacking the car up. Has anyone had this problem before if so what is the common issue here if there is one.
Weird nose bracing they welded in.
Engine driven fan forsale still in good working condition
Car before we started
The interior was a whole when he got the car but alot of it was trashed and unusable, so we will be getting a new interior from a corvette restoration book we picked up.
Some more of the fixed fiberglass repair.
Kinda bummed when we found one of the rows had been plugged in the stock radiator.
And then some pictures of my dads other Project/Racecar and my project.
My truck. Its a 2003 s10 with a 5.3 and a LS6 intake with a 4l80e and 4:10's
I know a lot of guys prob wont like that fact it's not getting 100% restoration but it's getting saved from sitting for 30 years so you should at least like that haha. Enjoy the build!!
good luck with your project,I would find out which 427 it is before restomoding it though.
Ditto on this, it would be nice to figure out what it was born with! Good luck with the project, it'll be fun. Oh, and I love those braces, very effective
GM added a nose rod and some small brackets to the front on 69-up cars. Someone did not know about the new, over the counter brackets and made those two angle brackets to keep the front nose from cracking. Lou.
Thanks guys! It's a fun car to work on. My dad starting tearing down the motor today and discovered is has a steel crank over a cast one. Here is a picture of the numbers on the block, its really hard to read them.
Cool car, looks like a 390 hp 427. Should be a mid Feb 68 build car(12th/13th). Steel crank is nice, can you tell me if its a 2 or 4 bolt block and whether or not its drilled and tapped for the external oil cooler above the oil filter pad?
Cool car, looks like a 390 hp 427. Should be a mid Feb 68 build car(12th/13th). Steel crank is nice, can you tell me if its a 2 or 4 bolt block and whether or not its drilled and tapped for the external oil cooler above the oil filter pad?
Congratulations on the project that you and your dad are about to get into! Obviously from my CF moniker, I like 68's, especially big blocks!
Looking through the pics you posted it appears that your car is going to take a fair amount of work. However getting it back on the road won't be an impossible task. If you plan on doing a lot of the work yourself you'll save some money too.
To me, the car appears to be in pretty original condition. Yes, there's stuff missing, broken etc. but nothing made of unobtanium.
1) You note that you suspect that the car had been hit based on the cracks in the nose of the car. Many 68's (especially early build cars) cracked in this area. Later 68's and on had a support rod installed that Lou has alluded to. The shoddy repair work you see may have been an effort to fix the fender cracks and not actually front end damage from and accident. Inspect up inside the front fenders for more signs of repairs. If there is a bonding strip (fiberglass strip running the length of the fenders up near the outer crease) present, the fenders are likely original. I'd redo the shoddy repair work and try to save the fenders if it were mine. I added the additional bracing that the later cars got to mine to reduce the chance of further stress cracking.
2) The engine appears to be an original. The IL engine code indicates that it is a 427/390 engine. They all had steel cranks and 2 bolt mains. The original intake for this engine was aluminum. Yours appears to be cast iron. An original can be found but it will cost some $$. Lots of people took off the original intake to replace it with aftermarket. Somewhere, someone probably has their original '68 Corvette intake on a shelf in their garage. They pop up for sale occasionally.
3) A numbers matching car like you appear to have will be worth much more restored to a close to original condition than a restomodded car. If it were mine, investing all the time, money and effort into this thing, I'd want to know I could get most of it back.
Restomodded cars are often in the taste of the owner and very few others. Original cars are generally liked and accepted by most in the crowd and bring more money at resale time.
If the car wasn't matching #'s I'd say go crazy with the mods, but with the original motor, I'd go more for an original restoration. My $0.02. Regardless of how you go with the project you've come to the right place for advice and sharing of your story.
Congratulations on the project that you and your dad are about to get into! Obviously from my CF moniker, I like 68's, especially big blocks!
Looking through the pics you posted it appears that your car is going to take a fair amount of work. However getting it back on the road won't be an impossible task. If you plan on doing a lot of the work yourself you'll save some money too.
To me, the car appears to be in pretty original condition. Yes, there's stuff missing, broken etc. but nothing made of unobtanium.
1) You note that you suspect that the car had been hit based on the cracks in the nose of the car. Many 68's (especially early build cars) cracked in this area. Later 68's and on had a support rod installed that Lou has alluded to. The shoddy repair work you see may have been an effort to fix the fender cracks and not actually front end damage from and accident. Inspect up inside the front fenders for more signs of repairs. If there is a bonding strip (fiberglass strip running the length of the fenders up near the outer crease) present, the fenders are likely original. I'd redo the shoddy repair work and try to save the fenders if it were mine. I added the additional bracing that the later cars got to mine to reduce the chance of further stress cracking.
2) The engine appears to be an original. The IL engine code indicates that it is a 427/390 engine. They all had steel cranks and 2 bolt mains. The original intake for this engine was aluminum. Yours appears to be cast iron. An original can be found but it will cost some $$. Lots of people took off the original intake to replace it with aftermarket. Somewhere, someone probably has their original '68 Corvette intake on a shelf in their garage. They pop up for sale occasionally.
3) A numbers matching car like you appear to have will be worth much more restored to a close to original condition than a restomodded car. If it were mine, investing all the time, money and effort into this thing, I'd want to know I could get most of it back.
Restomodded cars are often in the taste of the owner and very few others. Original cars are generally liked and accepted by most in the crowd and bring more money at resale time.
If the car wasn't matching #'s I'd say go crazy with the mods, but with the original motor, I'd go more for an original restoration. My $0.02. Regardless of how you go with the project you've come to the right place for advice and sharing of your story.
You sir seem extremely knowledgeable on this stuff, thanks for the input it helps a lot! Most of the work is gonna be tackled by my dad and myself aside from body work I presume. I think the focus behind this car has a lot to do with the back story of this car. My dad bought this car from a long time friends father, he has drooled over this same exact car for 15 plus years and he finally got it. I think once it's done it's prob going no where.
I'm gonna start doing some more digging on all the numbers and make sure everything is correct year to date and everything matches. Do you have any hints on to why the door is sagging all weird on the passenger side? Could it have something to do with the frame having damage or the actual body itself?
Thanks for the comments and info guys much appreciated!
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C3 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
I modded the crap out of my 76 and love it so I am in now way a ncrs kind of guy, but even I gotta say that if I had that car I would think seriously about restoring it and not modding it too much. you could always put some nice modern wheels on it and it would change the looks a lot, but you can always put the originals back on.
Either way it is nice to see a father and son project like this. Keep us posted.
I modded the crap out of my 76 and love it so I am in now way a ncrs kind of guy, but even I gotta say that if I had that car I would think seriously about restoring it and not modding it too much. you could always put some nice modern wheels on it and it would change the looks a lot, but you can always put the originals back on.
Either way it is nice to see a father and son project like this. Keep us posted.
Yeah most of the "modding" will be stuff we can take off and put oem stuff back on to make the car stock.
Do you have any hints on to why the door is sagging all weird on the passenger side? Could it have something to do with the frame having damage or the actual body itself?
1) It could be something as easy as replacing the door hinge bushings and hinge pins. If you can open the door, pull up on it. If you get a lot of movement, it's your bushings. Easy repair! A couple bucks at the auto parts store is all it will cost. You just knock the hinge pin out, knock the worn hinge bushings out, and replace the bushings and pins with new. Generally the driver's side wears more than the passenger side because it gets used more.
2) Check the gap at the back of the door. If there's room to adjust it and get the gap right, that's not a big deal. You'll have to pull the door panel to access the hinge bolts that are behind it.
3) If the hinges appear tight and there's no room for door adjustment, check the body to frame mount spacers. These look like aluminum disks that hold the body off the frame. Over time, the aluminum rots away and these tend to crumble. These are a pain to replace but are necessary for the body to fit well on the frame. This is a job that takes patience but you can do it yourself provided you get the mount bolts out without breaking anything.
4) Hopefully, your frame is good and solid or you're in for pulling the body and doing some involved repairs. Likewise for the "bird cage" which is the metal structure that forms the door jambs, windshield frame and basically the structure of the body. There are two steel channels under each door (think upside down U) that straddle the frame. These must be in solid condition or the body will tend to sag.
While you're checking things over, check around the windshield frame for signs of rusting out. C3's are notorious for getting rusty here. You may have to pull the windshield trim to get a better look. Fear not if you find a minor case of rot. Reproduction sections to weld repair the windshield frame are available through many of the vendors.
If all of the above checks out, then I would check to see if something really did get wacked in a previous accident. Then you'll have to figure next steps from there.
Some more progress. My dad started to tear the block down and kinda glad he started too, because some of the main bearings are really tore up. We are gonna drop the block off at the machine shop soon. Anyone interested in the stock cam shaft and cam gear? Hear are some pics for attention.
So it is a 2 bolt block, are the oil cooler holes tapped and plugged? Bear with me here, I have a 68 390 hp 427 and all info says it should be a 2 bolt block but it has drilled and tapped oil cooler holes and according to the GM high performance book that SHOULD mean its a 4 bolt block.
So it is a 2 bolt block, are the oil cooler holes tapped and plugged? Bear with me here, I have a 68 390 hp 427 and all info says it should be a 2 bolt block but it has drilled and tapped oil cooler holes and according to the GM high performance book that SHOULD mean its a 4 bolt block.
When I talked to my dad on the phone last I believe he said it wasn't, I will double check tonight. The intake is wrong like stated above, apparently this is a 454 marine intake...bummer.
Cool, thanks. Dont worry about the intake, if you want to go with the correct one, they are all over ebay and depending on the build date of the car I may have the one you need.
So this project is gonna be starting back up soon, My dad and I put the car into storage a few months ago due to the new garage being built out behind his house. So we have decided to wait to go any further till he has his garage set up to work on the car. I have busy also working on my own house and ripping the heads off of my s10 to fix a failed lifter. So look forward to some progress in a few weeks!
11-16-2014, 10:59 AM
Father and Son 1968 427 4 speed Build
