My almost complete 79 build write up
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 27
Likes: 0
From: Kennesaw Georgia
My almost complete 79 build write up
So after a couple of years of research and lurking on here, I decided to go ahead and do a build on my 79. The car is a salvage car and on top of that it’s a 79 so I don’t really care at all for any originality in the drive train.
The starting goal for this car was pretty simple as I think all of us start off with. I wanted to have the car ready to drive in the corvette parade at petit le mans for 2014. I did make the goal but only just, I was working on the car doing last minute things 4 hours before I had to be registered for the parade lap.
What I did with the car is rebuilt the front suspension, replacing ball joints and bushings, put in an engine I built a couple of years earlier with some upgrades heads rebuilt carb and dressed it up a bit. With that engine going in I wanted to do a serpentine belt conversion as well. The engine I was using came out of a 98 k1500; I had already stroked it to a 383 and still had the brackets for the truck (clearly not thinking about hood clearance at that point). I already had an aluminum radiator in the car so no need for that. The big reason for the motor swap, if you can really call it that, is the original engine in the car was having some overheating problems due to clogged water passages. It also had a few lobes wiped out so naturally my first thought was to save money and just swap the engine until I can afford to rebuild the original (this makes naïve thought number two I think).
On top of the engine work that I was doing, I had also acquired a 95 trans am t-56 with an LT-1 bell housing. So figuring that would be the biggest part of the project I thought why not do a manual swap on it and really enjoy the car?
So the list for those who didn’t want to read it all:
Rebuild suspension
Engine swap w/ serpentine belt conversion
Transmission swap
The white one is mine, the other is Dads. This is maybe a couple of days or weeks after I bought the car in 2011.
This is how the car looked before the build began. I had a lot of problems with it that I briefly outlined before and even when I bought the car it needed a paint job pretty severely. It was a single stage pure white that was poorly prepped and not shot very well.
So this is the 383, I had already taken the top end apart because I was taking the heads off my dad's, his has more problems than mine did so I borrowed his heads with out the intention of returning them...
I had to see what it would look like so I mocked up the heads and intake.
I wanted to get measurements for the hydraulic clutch to bell housing relation. but mostly to get the engine out side to look at it. This is also around the time that I am realizing that its going to be a bigger project than planned.
So this is way down the line, the heads are torqued on and I cleaned up the intake and painted various parts that looked bad. If I was going to do this it was going to be done right. I also have 89 camaro brackets on the engine for the serpentine belt. Realizing that the truck brackets would not work in any shape or form. I did have to re-clock the alternator which was interesting as I had never done that before. I had the valve covers powder coated in the two colors to give it a little flair.
before and after for modifying the brake pedal and adding the clutch pedal.
This was the reason for the suspension rebuild. This was the worst of the 8 bushings but the others were not far off from this.
I did the suspension after I pulled the old engine and trans. mostly so it was easier to work under the car.
So once the car was a roller we went a head and put in the new engine so as to not worry about damaging fresh paint. We don't have an extended engine hoist, so cleaver manipulation was needed as you all know.
Sorry its blurry but I had just enough clearance to not have to modify the cross member for the crank pulley. Total clearance was about .25'
once the engine was in, it was time to get the transmission cross member modified for the t-56. I had some 3/8" angle iron at the house for the modification
Once the transmission was in, it was time to do the body work. all of the body work and paint was done over a long weekend. the car has a spoiler on it but it was a cheap copy. And well take a look at what I decided to do.
Then it was time for the rest of the car.
After about 2 15 hour days of sanding and prep we were ready for paint. Luckily the paint was still good enough to not need to prime the car as I was keeping a white color. Instead of pure white I went with corvette white, correct paint code and two stage, as opposed to the single stage that was on the car.
Base coat is finished, waiting to let it cure a bit before the clear.
The spoiler turned out better than expected
This is after the car was cleared and was curing. I wanted a comparision in the same light to see the difference between pure white and corvette white.
For the other things that needed to be painted like the hood and mirrors, we draped plastic over the car after a long enough time to cure a couple of days later. The car was painted in the summer in Atlanta, so plenty of heat to help the curing process.
On to other things that need work. As the t-56 is an electronic transmission, I decided to change both gauges so that they were the same, and I also needed to rebuild the original and didn't want to go through that.
Template of the stock gauge cover for the new one I made
Mocked up, I am a little OCD about symmetry and the gauge cluster did a number on me as I don't think any of the sides are square.
I used lexan for the cluster as I wanted to retain the original center lights.
Finally got to cut the transmission tunnel for the shifter placement.
The center console, the aircraft switch is for the reverse lockout. Others had tied it in the the brake light, but my plans were different for this car so I didn't want to have any accidents.
I didn't have enough time to repaint the emblems properly so I used plastidip spray on the emblems and it turned out looking really good.
Throughout the entire project my Dad helped me at every step, paid for a few things while I was still in school, and in-fact painted the car for me as he has painted quite a few more cars than I have.
I am missing quite a few pictures of the build that are on other cameras and things like that, so I'll update as I find more. I put in an electric fan from a 99 camaro, the shifter is off set to come up through the stock location. And a few other things I am sure I am missing. Over all this was the first time I had been able to finish a car completing everything I had wanted to accomplish, which was the coolest feeling in the world. I did make it to the corvette corral and participated in the parade lap, but I was a little disappointed that there were not any classic vette guys out. And on race day there were only two other C3's everything else was C4 and newer.
Once the car was finished I did find out a few things on the drive to Gainesville. I have to rebuild the transmission, I don't have a 5th gear at all. I need to re gear the rear end, as I bogg in 6th at 90 mph. And the big one, I have to re clear the car. The clear never cured so it showed all of the plastic that we draped on it and the saran wrap we put on the fenders to keep the dirt and grease off.
The starting goal for this car was pretty simple as I think all of us start off with. I wanted to have the car ready to drive in the corvette parade at petit le mans for 2014. I did make the goal but only just, I was working on the car doing last minute things 4 hours before I had to be registered for the parade lap.
What I did with the car is rebuilt the front suspension, replacing ball joints and bushings, put in an engine I built a couple of years earlier with some upgrades heads rebuilt carb and dressed it up a bit. With that engine going in I wanted to do a serpentine belt conversion as well. The engine I was using came out of a 98 k1500; I had already stroked it to a 383 and still had the brackets for the truck (clearly not thinking about hood clearance at that point). I already had an aluminum radiator in the car so no need for that. The big reason for the motor swap, if you can really call it that, is the original engine in the car was having some overheating problems due to clogged water passages. It also had a few lobes wiped out so naturally my first thought was to save money and just swap the engine until I can afford to rebuild the original (this makes naïve thought number two I think).
On top of the engine work that I was doing, I had also acquired a 95 trans am t-56 with an LT-1 bell housing. So figuring that would be the biggest part of the project I thought why not do a manual swap on it and really enjoy the car?
So the list for those who didn’t want to read it all:
Rebuild suspension
Engine swap w/ serpentine belt conversion
Transmission swap
The white one is mine, the other is Dads. This is maybe a couple of days or weeks after I bought the car in 2011.
This is how the car looked before the build began. I had a lot of problems with it that I briefly outlined before and even when I bought the car it needed a paint job pretty severely. It was a single stage pure white that was poorly prepped and not shot very well.
So this is the 383, I had already taken the top end apart because I was taking the heads off my dad's, his has more problems than mine did so I borrowed his heads with out the intention of returning them...
I had to see what it would look like so I mocked up the heads and intake.
I wanted to get measurements for the hydraulic clutch to bell housing relation. but mostly to get the engine out side to look at it. This is also around the time that I am realizing that its going to be a bigger project than planned.
So this is way down the line, the heads are torqued on and I cleaned up the intake and painted various parts that looked bad. If I was going to do this it was going to be done right. I also have 89 camaro brackets on the engine for the serpentine belt. Realizing that the truck brackets would not work in any shape or form. I did have to re-clock the alternator which was interesting as I had never done that before. I had the valve covers powder coated in the two colors to give it a little flair.
before and after for modifying the brake pedal and adding the clutch pedal.
This was the reason for the suspension rebuild. This was the worst of the 8 bushings but the others were not far off from this.
I did the suspension after I pulled the old engine and trans. mostly so it was easier to work under the car.
So once the car was a roller we went a head and put in the new engine so as to not worry about damaging fresh paint. We don't have an extended engine hoist, so cleaver manipulation was needed as you all know.
Sorry its blurry but I had just enough clearance to not have to modify the cross member for the crank pulley. Total clearance was about .25'
once the engine was in, it was time to get the transmission cross member modified for the t-56. I had some 3/8" angle iron at the house for the modification
Once the transmission was in, it was time to do the body work. all of the body work and paint was done over a long weekend. the car has a spoiler on it but it was a cheap copy. And well take a look at what I decided to do.
Then it was time for the rest of the car.
After about 2 15 hour days of sanding and prep we were ready for paint. Luckily the paint was still good enough to not need to prime the car as I was keeping a white color. Instead of pure white I went with corvette white, correct paint code and two stage, as opposed to the single stage that was on the car.
Base coat is finished, waiting to let it cure a bit before the clear.
The spoiler turned out better than expected
This is after the car was cleared and was curing. I wanted a comparision in the same light to see the difference between pure white and corvette white.
For the other things that needed to be painted like the hood and mirrors, we draped plastic over the car after a long enough time to cure a couple of days later. The car was painted in the summer in Atlanta, so plenty of heat to help the curing process.
On to other things that need work. As the t-56 is an electronic transmission, I decided to change both gauges so that they were the same, and I also needed to rebuild the original and didn't want to go through that.
Template of the stock gauge cover for the new one I made
Mocked up, I am a little OCD about symmetry and the gauge cluster did a number on me as I don't think any of the sides are square.
I used lexan for the cluster as I wanted to retain the original center lights.
Finally got to cut the transmission tunnel for the shifter placement.
The center console, the aircraft switch is for the reverse lockout. Others had tied it in the the brake light, but my plans were different for this car so I didn't want to have any accidents.
I didn't have enough time to repaint the emblems properly so I used plastidip spray on the emblems and it turned out looking really good.
Throughout the entire project my Dad helped me at every step, paid for a few things while I was still in school, and in-fact painted the car for me as he has painted quite a few more cars than I have.
I am missing quite a few pictures of the build that are on other cameras and things like that, so I'll update as I find more. I put in an electric fan from a 99 camaro, the shifter is off set to come up through the stock location. And a few other things I am sure I am missing. Over all this was the first time I had been able to finish a car completing everything I had wanted to accomplish, which was the coolest feeling in the world. I did make it to the corvette corral and participated in the parade lap, but I was a little disappointed that there were not any classic vette guys out. And on race day there were only two other C3's everything else was C4 and newer.
Once the car was finished I did find out a few things on the drive to Gainesville. I have to rebuild the transmission, I don't have a 5th gear at all. I need to re gear the rear end, as I bogg in 6th at 90 mph. And the big one, I have to re clear the car. The clear never cured so it showed all of the plastic that we draped on it and the saran wrap we put on the fenders to keep the dirt and grease off.
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,822
Likes: 1,728
From: Summerville SC
Need to see some finished pics of the dash. I was going to ask why one gauge was 1/8" lower than the other, just to get your OCD going, but thought best not to! Really nice work, truly YOUR car, Thanks for sharing your project and ideas.
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 27
Likes: 0
From: Kennesaw Georgia
I'll get pictures as soon as I get back to the car. I did not finish the cluster how I wanted it to be. I want to cut out the clear part of the cover so I can still use the bezel to give it a clean, well finished look.
I've got a 69 mustang that I am working on also that I am having to split my time and money on. So the vette takes a back burner for a little while once I get the clear coat fixed.
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