rajin cajin

Have had about a year now and just playing around with. 1972 SB, auto, PS, PB, AC, T/T steering. Original white with black interior. Had a 307/turbo 350 in it. Paint chipped all up. Bad tires, gas tank, hacked wiring harness, dry rotted weather strip, no radiator, no trans lines, rusted brake calipers and on and on. Don't have room for a frame off at the present time. This is how it came home. Let's see what I end up with. And doing this on a budget.



Tired old 307.


Out with the old.


Cleaning up the engine bay.


May as well pull the windshield and check for hidden rust. Luckily very solid. Sandblasted and cleaned up.








Found a local L82. Rebuilt and dropped in complete with side pipes.




New radiator with electric fans in.


Well, the pinholes in the tank would explain the smell of gas. New tank put in.


Now that it goes, Have to make it stop.




All 4 done with new calipers.




Interior looked like crap, so all removed to find a mess. Nothing a wire wheel could not handle.








Since HEI dizzy, had to add a tach.


Got it going and stopping under its own power. New rubber and runs like a charm. Hood paint peeling so had to strip it and pain it flat black.





More to come as it got very interesting...... Stay tuned.

MrJlr

Looks great
That's a lot of work!

Whats up with the alternator on the passenger side? !

Gordonm

Looks very nice. You do very good work. But get rid of the tach on the column and just convert your original tack to electronic tach. It works much better and looks better than the blob on the steering column.

20mercury

Nice work and inspirational for sure!!

Congratulations!!!

Is that the original front rotors, still riveted and still good?

Also Crescent City Corvette Club is having a show at Boomtown Casino in Harvey I think June 6, a good chance to show it off some more.

rajin cajin

Mr. Jlr , the only alternator bracket I had was for passenger side at the time. It has since moved to the proper place. I couldn't stand it on the pass. side either. Gordon, How hard is it to convert? I haven't looked the process up yet. At the time, the car had no speedo cable or tach, and I was looking for something other than my ear to estimate RPM/MPH LOL. I agree it does have to go though. Merc, car had 26K on the odometer. I figured 126K but appears to be original rotors as all 4 are riveted on. Almost no wear on the rotors or the pads that were in the rusted calipers. So perhaps 26K after all.

overBlown

I agree about the tach. Just doesn't look right. Great work though and quite the change!

chazde3

Looking real good.

KYC4

Looking very good! Nice save for sure. Will you keep it the color it is now or change it? Nice choice to keep the K-H wheels BTW.

Later,

Lee

rajin cajin

So the little L82 with an auto and 308 rear is somewhat of a dog. Besides, you should be able to rip through the gears in a corvette.







Pedals in






The Z bar bracket is a real PITA. Partially welded through the egg crate opening.



Read about the failures of the Z bar bracket so may as well make sure its done right the first time.


I think I counted 7 paint layers. Ran into a lot of bondo on the drivers front. I think it had body damage.


May as well replace the fender.


I got to stop before nothing original is left or I end up in therapy .

ajrothm

Nice work man! I like the way you think!

kdf1986

WOW. what a lot of work your doing, with great photos and process. By the time you finish you might as well have done a frame off resto. You are really going at it. KEEP GOING.

kdf

rajin cajin

The little lady will only give me half the garage so frame off is a no go for now. Would like to eventually just get a rolling chassis and build it while I still drive this one and then move the body over to a fresh chassis. Nice thing with this little work is that the car is usually at least able to get up to the store on the weekends to get a cold beer, and it's always a conversation starter.

LT1M21Vette

Therapy is to figure out how you drove the car into the ramps...

13611

This is the fastest restoration I've ever seen! And... wasn't there a "budget" like 2 days ago? Nice work!

rajin cajin

Once I got over the fear of screwing up something - like cutting into the glass of a perfectly good corvette - things went pretty smoothly. I actually only spend an hour every days or so tinkering with things. I took this panel off this afternoon in about an hour. Hopefully have the full quarter roughed in tomorrow and have the front done next weekend.


I'm feeling so confident that I found my next project Sad part is I tried to get this car 15 years ago when the wheels were first sinking into the ground. It went under during hurricane Katrina and a large tree branch fell onto the roof finishing it off. Complete matching SS big block that the owner just parked and left...

rajin cajin

Glassed in the drivers side and got some primer on to protect the bare glass.




Had to build up the gaps with fiberglass.




Hopefully start to glass in the seams on the passenger side tomorrow.

13611

Moving right along and looking good!

rajin cajin

A few updates. Had a few days over the holidays. Just have the back deck and tops to strip and prime. Hopefully be ordering 17x11s with 315/35/17 for the back and 17x9.5 with 275/40/17 front here shortly. All the door interior is getting blasted and painted for the re-install.













A little attention to detail.

ajrothm

Looking great man!!

You HAVE to put an L88 hood on that thing though to finish the look of the wide body...

Your bodywork looks spectacular!

Gonna be a really cool car!

rajin cajin

Thanks, I was just looking at yours and thinking that's the way to go. Or maybe fabricate a Baldwin motion hood. Is yours aftermarket, if so how is the fit?