Bob's 1969 Resto-Mod Build Thread
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vette
Okay, nice tour of the body work. Plenty of cloth,resin, VPA and patience should do the trick. We will be watching. To bad you didn't have a donor or someone had a car where you could make a quick mold of certain areas.
RVZIO
RVZIO
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
Your post reminded me, I am going to need a set of wheels to roll the frame around on throughout the build progress, and I need the body on the frame before I can make measurements to order custom wheels.
The C3 wheels wouldn't work with the C5 brakes, and the C5 wheels from the black C5 were toast.
They aren'y my style, but they will certainly get the job done for body work and the initial test drive or two.
I did some searching online and found a set that came off a C6 that someone picked up used. I got one hell of a deal! I bought it from the ex-wife of a guy who apparently forgot the wheels in the garage when they got a divorce... So no-one share this over in the C6 section.
The C3 wheels wouldn't work with the C5 brakes, and the C5 wheels from the black C5 were toast.
They aren'y my style, but they will certainly get the job done for body work and the initial test drive or two.
I did some searching online and found a set that came off a C6 that someone picked up used. I got one hell of a deal! I bought it from the ex-wife of a guy who apparently forgot the wheels in the garage when they got a divorce... So no-one share this over in the C6 section.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
Thanks RZ! I will be going slow and starting small. I read a few dozen threads on the subject, studied you-tube, and ordered my supplies. I'm going to start with the smallest most hidden spots, and go from there.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
So, with the help of Ed (Lobzilla) from the forum we made probably the most progress in a single day since the body was separated from the frame. My front clip was damaged beyond repair, so I sourced a replacement.
Ed brought over his beautiful blue '68 and we got to work on Sunday.
Here is a good view of the car when we got started:
We went to work separating the front fenders from the firewall area. The goal was to do the least amount of damage to either panel, but err on the side of damaging the fender (Which is being replaced) over the bonding strips (Which are planned to be re-used).
My replacement front clip did not come with the pannel that runs along the top of the firewall by the wiper cowl, so we made cuts to ensure that stayed in place. Cuts were made with an oscillating saw.
Thees areas were already damaged anyway. You can see how ragged out the fiberglass was all around the engine bay was.
Ed brought over his beautiful blue '68 and we got to work on Sunday.
Here is a good view of the car when we got started:
We went to work separating the front fenders from the firewall area. The goal was to do the least amount of damage to either panel, but err on the side of damaging the fender (Which is being replaced) over the bonding strips (Which are planned to be re-used).
My replacement front clip did not come with the pannel that runs along the top of the firewall by the wiper cowl, so we made cuts to ensure that stayed in place. Cuts were made with an oscillating saw.
Thees areas were already damaged anyway. You can see how ragged out the fiberglass was all around the engine bay was.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
Despite our best efforts in heating up the adhesive and attempting to separate from multiple angles of attack... we ended up having to break out the cutting wheel. I wanted to keep the panels intact as much as possible. I am going to trade them in to SoCal Corvettes so hopefully someone can use them to repair a Vette down the road.
We made cuts in kinda a pizza shape initially to try to separate the seal from the other side.
Then after some more cutting and some heating and putting we got the Driver's side off! Here is Ed standing with it shortly after it hit the ground.
Ed has a lot of fun going through all the sediment, dirt, blast media and other junk that ended up caught inside the fender. He found no fewer than 4 6 inch bolts, allong with some sockets and other fun treasures
And here I stand triumphant. I've been waiting for these bad boys to come off since I got my replacement front clip!
We made cuts in kinda a pizza shape initially to try to separate the seal from the other side.
Then after some more cutting and some heating and putting we got the Driver's side off! Here is Ed standing with it shortly after it hit the ground.
Ed has a lot of fun going through all the sediment, dirt, blast media and other junk that ended up caught inside the fender. He found no fewer than 4 6 inch bolts, allong with some sockets and other fun treasures
And here I stand triumphant. I've been waiting for these bad boys to come off since I got my replacement front clip!
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From: Central Wisconsin
I'm following closely as I will be removing my front clip fairly soon. Already have my new one. Got it from 530Planeman here on the forum.
Nice work you two.
Nice work you two.
Last edited by jr73; Jan 31, 2017 at 09:58 PM.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
Where would we be without the forum? I know I would be lost.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
I will be replacing the missing rivets and repairing the sealer and broken parts of the glass, but the firewall is staying. (Fortunately) Its rock solid where it is bonded to the metal of the bird cage at the bottom edge of the windshield.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
The passenger side fender didn't come off as easily. Here was the cut we made:
And with both sides off - Showing off that beautiful firewall that I will turn my attention to next: So much easier to get to now I was really getting tired of crawling through the wheelwell.
More auto archaeology:
Some of the edges will need some grinding and sanding to get down the the bonding strip, and some more heating and prying. Nothing another Saturday in the garage won't fix.
And with both sides off - Showing off that beautiful firewall that I will turn my attention to next: So much easier to get to now
I was really getting tired of crawling through the wheelwell. 
More auto archaeology:
Some of the edges will need some grinding and sanding to get down the the bonding strip, and some more heating and prying. Nothing another Saturday in the garage won't fix.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07
The SRIII frame as I had it spec'd out (Using C5 Suspension Components) has the frame much narrower in the rear than a stock frame as can be seen here:
This requires the floor of the rear area (Including the three storage containers) to be re-worked.
I have known this for a while, so I did a lot of looking and measuring and research ahead of time.
This requires the floor of the rear area (Including the three storage containers) to be re-worked.
I have known this for a while, so I did a lot of looking and measuring and research ahead of time.
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From: SoCal Twin Turbo, Any Questions?
St. Jude Donor '06-'07