I've done semi-restorations on a couple cars, but never tried to document everything in a thread. We'll see how it goes...

The car:
Extremely early 68 that seems to have almost no 68-specific parts left on it. Front clip, crossmember, etc. from 73 or 74. Seats and door panels from mid-70's. Dash from 75+. Hacked and spliced wire harness from 68 and mid-70's. You get the picture. I bought the car before spending much time on this board, so I didn't realize just how deep the differences went (I just figured it was the front clip...). Also, nothing worked on the car (lights, wipers, signals, radio, horn, not a single gauge...). But the price was right.
The good part is that the foundation seems to be very solid. Nothing beyond light surface rust in the frame or cage. Fiberglass (from the doors back, obviously...) with no ugly previous repairs or major needs (one small hole behind rear bumper, one missing chunk). It's a period-correct, but not numbers-matching 327 with an auto.

The plan:
Considering the cost of 68-specific parts (and the fact that I would need all of them...), there's no point in attempting to return the car to 1968 correctness. I'd spend $50k on a $25k car... So, where I need to buy parts, anything that's 68-72 is fine. Where the existing parts are good enough, I'll leave them as-is (for now). The only absolute MUST is 68-69 nose. There's no beating that look. I'm on a tight budget and want to save the max amount I can for paint, so I've made the resolution to get by as inexpensively as I can everywhere else, without compromising the car's long-term longevity or value. I say "resolution" because I have a tendency to perfectionism (which is really expensive). If I run out of money a quarter of the way through, that would be bad. Every nickel I spend (and cost estimates on every part I need) are in a spreadsheet that I have to stick by (if I want to stay married...).
So, in short, I'm looking for a good-looking driver. Something to run to local shows and have fun with. I want to be able to pop the hood without embarrassment and have it stand up to inspection (by a non-C3 person at least) without more and more flaws becoming apparent. I'm calling it a "refresh" because I'm going to be cleaning up and improving where I can, but it's not going to be anywhere near some of the complete restorations that I drool over. I got some free, very nice side pipes and headers last week, so that's one more "want" checked off the list. Just looking for the free 427 and 4-speed now

Progress so far:
Before starting body stuff, I spent a couple weeks chasing wiring. I have everything but the wipers, tach and interior lights working. Right now, the lower dash and gauges are all out of the car. Last weekend, I started pulling the front clip. Surprise surprise, I managed to get it off yesterday without breaking anything! Thanks go to rvizio and all the excellent pictures in his build thread. That's what inspired me to start this thread.
I have a used repro front clip that's in very good shape and a front bumper... but nothing else for the clip replacement. I sat down for an hour with the AIM last night and realized just how many parts I still need. Then spent the next hour curled into a ball and rocking...
Anyway, here's the current state of things.

 

I will write this.

Due to you having a convertible...I would NOT keep it up on the support safety jack stands. Set the rear back on the ground as fast as you can. I can explain if you need for me to. But TRUST ME...I AM looking out for your BEST INTERESTS! ESPECIALLY if your safety stand is located where the frame is on it....in front of the rear wheel.

Not knowing what you are planning on starting with first....I will remain silent and wait. But I will add...do not attempt to set-up and try to get the 'new' front end on and ready for bonding while it is on safety stands ANYWHERE under it. Have it on the ground with all four tires aired up...suspension settled....or you might regret it. Hopefully you took measurements before removing the doors and or marked them where they were positioned.

DUB

 

DUB,
Thanks. That's the kind of experience that's really great to hear. I had read enough to know that it needed to be settled in "road condition" to put the nose on, but didn't realize it shouldn't sit on the stands while I worked on other things. I'll drop the whole car tonight (gently...). Thanks.

 

Last night, I was scraping the old filler and adhesive off the car and clip and came across a couple questions.
First, on the driver's side, should there be a flange for bonding on the lower front and bottom edge of this box?
Second, on the passenger's side, the clip didn't contact the front flange, so there was just some fiberglass cloth connecting the box to the clip. How should it be?

 

I can say that on the left side....the aluminum tubing that has been rigged up to put air in the cabin is WRONG and DANGEROUS. That aluminum duct tubing should NOT be drawing air from the engine compartment.....it should be like the RIGHT SIDE..and drawing air in from the COWL.....which is sealed off from the engine compartment VIA the hood weatherstrip. Because...allowing engine air to go into the cabin can also allow exhaust gases to go into the cabin also....which is NOT GOOD. Just 'saying'.

DUB

 

DUB,
Thanks for the tip. They had the inlet pulling air from under the car, but I pulled the whole thing and glassed in the big hole they'd cut.


As I expected, I'm slow to update this. Working on the car is more interesting than documenting working on the car... First, I decided to clean up and paint the firewall. I didn't think to get a good "before" picture, but the first one below should give you an idea of where it started. There was one busted area where (I think) the hood "rest" should go, so I had to make my first foray into fiberglassing. It went much smoother than I expected.
The second pic is after lots of cleaning and sanding. The last one is after primer (then sand, then primer).
Since the firewall, I've been doing lots of disassembling, stripping and re-finishing. I'll post some pics in the next couple days of the progress.

 

Wow, big project. I have had my 68 for 43 years and as you are finding out, 68 had many changes throughout the production year. Much like the 63, the 68 has many one year only parts. It appears as if you are going deep into this, as such, think about changing out things now while they are accessible. Unless you know for sure that the heater core is new, I would replace it. To do it now is a quick job. After everything is back together, it is a job fought with cursing and bleeding hands . Good luck on your project and keep us posted. PM me if I can be of help. My 68 is original except for the starter and carb and a few other bolt on items. Jerry

 

I hadn't thought about the heater core. You're probably right. That's why I'm doing so much under the hood while I can get at it. Add it to the list...

So I ended up getting some Hooker headers and side pipes from another member for free. I was going to pay for them, but he ended up having to cut them to get them off, so he wouldn't let me give him money. The cuts are clean and where I can get at them (and they won't show), so I'm going to use them.
The downside is that there is surface rust on the headers and between the tubes at the collectors. So, here's the plan. For the header pipes, I'm sandblasting, painting with POR-15 high heat paint, then wrapping them. For the rust you might still be able to see (where they bolt to the head and between the pipes at the collectors), I decided to try Caswell's brush plating system. The results of the first part are below. The first picture is the before. There is significant rust and the chrome is just flat gone around the pipes.
The second picture is after sanding, treating the rust, sanding a bunch more, then several layers of copper. The copper builds a little to fill in the lows and pits.
The last two pictures are of the finished result (after a few layers of their "copy chrome" which is a nickel/cobalt that is durable like chrome). Overall, I'm really pleased with the results. I still need to do some polishing to get the shine back, but I think it will be pretty enough to not embarrass the rest of the parts under the hood. Total time spent on what you see was about three hours. I did the other side and am going to tackle the collector area next.

 

Here's a picture of the air supply that would replace the metal tubing. They are screwed and sealed to the firewall cowl. Not sure what you are going for stock or resto.
ZIO




I have 2 from my donor if you want them. Another picture of the lower plenum bonding pieces that you need to bond the bottom of the clip.

 

You are a brave Member! Lots of work is getting done.

Now I'm not the only one converting BACK to a "chrome bumper car" for less than $50,000!

 

I hope I`m not too late to this party.... and I hope this helps. At the bottom, there is a sort of ledge, then it turns down to form the bonding area. There is also a notch in it to drain water from the cowl area...(see the hole just below the air vent flap). You can see that I still have to finish grinding off the remnants of the old fender in the bottom left. Both sides are the same in this area.

 

Never to late oldgto, the more the merrier! Hey do you still have the positive battery cable in the car and is the car like in the picture. I need a picture of how that cable runs and how sharp the bend is by the shifter.
ZIO

 

Sort of.... I have the cables, but they were like most of the other parts.... tossed into a cardboard box when I got the car. So I`m also going to have to figure out the routing for mine. Happy to say the car looks MUCH better now than it did in this picture!

 

Well that's a good thing. The main concern is the bend by the shifter so it does not impede on the tranny, drive shaft etc. Thanks for letting me know.
ZIO

 

I have the little inlet you showed. That's extremely cool to offer, though!
Did you build up that lip? It looks like the front edge is different. That's one (of about a hundred...) things I need to figure out how to do.

 

That's exactly the picture I've been looking for. Thanks!

 

Just for fun, here's a few C1, C2 I ran across today. There were 3 absolutely gorgeous C3's there, too, but I missed the photo ops.

 

Hi E.Murray, yes the car had an Eckler front clip. I wanted to try and make the car as original as possible so I purchased a 69 donor car where I removed the front clip and installed it on my car. There were a few spots where I had to rebuild the bonding strip along the top and sides. Tedious but doable. Good luck with your project!
ZIO

 

Quick update. I finally gave up on the wiring. Fully 40% of the wires are cut. The ones that aren't are mostly falling out of the bulkhead connector. And the few that remain have plugs that are disintegrating. None of the wire colors match any of the 3 diagrams I have, so I've spent a dozen hours trying to traced stuff (with limited success). 40+ years of wear and tear...
So I took advantage of the 20% off sale Willcox had last week and just ordered new harnesses both under the hood and for the dash, along with all new ground straps. I'm just pulling it all out and putting good stuff in. Not cheap, but I'll feel 10 times better about the finished result.
Also, I was about to give up on finding a short hood for a reasonable price (in fact, I just bought a long hood locally a couple weeks ago). But Saturday I came across an original with no cracks or problems for $100 on craigslist. Woohoo! It was 5 hours away, but I picked it up yesterday and am really happy with it. I really prefer the short hood and am glad to finally being able to do it (partly because of the hood deal and partly because now I'll have the wiring).

 

This is totally out of context with your rebuild thread (great work, BTW), but I'm very curious. What's the engine code? The engine appears to be an LT-1 from a later year. At least, the carb and intake look like LT-1 components. That would be a really nice mill to get with your purchase.

P.S. You asked about battery cable routing. That would clearly be shown in the Assembly Instruction Manual (AIM) for 1968 cars. If you don't have one, you definitely need one for the work you have ahead. It has drawings showing details of all the assembly work that was performed at the final assembly plant. It also shows all the body bonding details.