wow....that thing looks killer!

 

It's nice to see a guy restoring a Vette as rough as mine

 

I know, right!?

Thanks! She will be beautiful when she is done!

Boy... My credit card hurts

 

I keep telling myself... one part at a time.

Front Passenger Frame Horn... I already chopped off most of the booger welded fix... but it was still bent.









Straightened right out giving a good squeeze in a vice.





After a good blast





Front Nose support... I know its out of square... anyone have some dimensions for it so I can try to true it up?





After a good blast







That's all for this evenings progress.

 

The frame horns look much better now! I think member Sigforty has a decent support that he could take pics/measurements of if he gets a chance.....he's been pretty busy lately. Send him a P.M.

 

Those parts come out great after media blasting. I have a spare horseshoe bracket for measurements or if you need it.
ZIO

 

Thanks! I would love the measurements!

 

Here are some measurements for the front horse shoe bracket. They should get close.
ZIO







1st picture measures 3 1/2
Bolt holes 5 7/8
Back slots 7 7/8
All measurements are on center of each hole!!

 

Thank you for taking the time to take the measurements and take and post pictures. Its guys like you that make this community awesome. Thanks, really. If I can ever return the favor, let me know.

 

Made a lot of progress today removing brackets that were riveted to the floor.







Think I might need to replace this one Glass is in decent shape under it, just dirty.



Drivers side











I think I'll be able to save that one.

 

Robert, the long "dog legs" are not frame horns. They are front bumper outer braces. 68,69 ones are different than the 70-72 ones. The 68,69 ones are no longer being made. The company that I worked for made them.
The frame horns are actually the front part of the actual frame. The front frame extensions are the flat plates that bolt to the frame horns and the "dog leg" outer braces bolt to them. Hope this helps you out. Lou.

 

Lou, Thanks for taking the time to correct my terminology... I'll be honest, even though I have the manuals, I have been making a good deal of this up as I go along So its good it looks like I will be able to save them! When did you work for the company? Did you make them OE? or aftermarket, IT would be really cool to meet someone who built part of my Vette

 

Robert, I worked in maintenance at the original 1932 MTD (Modern Tool & Die) plant in Parma (suburb of west side Cleveland, Ohio), for 34 years until they closed it in 2007. I had to retire early and after spending a year in Vietnam, I knew that I liked warm weather better than Cleveland's "lake effect" snow. I moved to Myrtle Beach,SC in 2008.
I started working there in September of 1974. I bought my used 68 coupe in July 1972.

MTD is the world's largest maker of outdoor power equipment...lawn mowers,etc.
Our plant and the Liverpool plant, eventually made just car parts. Our plant also made 60% of MTD's lawn mower blades. Liverpool made a bunch of Ford valve covers and oil pans. I saw a Fiero frame there also, on a visit to take them our jack hammer.

We made all of the OEM 1960-1982 Corvette radiator supports, and then the "service parts" for GM until around 1995. A company in Canada underbid us and the radiator support dies went to Canada for a very short time, and then Coffman Corvettes in Ohio got the dies and have been making the 63-67 69-? radiator supports. We never had to make a 68 support for GM in all of the years that I was there.
We made the outer bumper braces for C-3's. We also made the two ribbed panels in back of the seats that are in the bird cage, which is the metal skeleton inside of the body.

We made a ton of C-4 parts and one of these days, I need to go to the C-4 forum to tell them about that.

A sad day, about two years before my plant closed, GM told us to destroy all of the old GM dies and I knew that the 68 radiator support dies were among them.
We made the whole back frame for all of the Ford Windstars. Our last big job was making the two , seven foot long front frames for the Saturn Ion cars.
It was such a wonderful feeling for a Corvette nut to see us making parts for new Corvettes.
Please read my thread "A long time chrome bumper owner speaks" in the CF C-3 general heading. Lou.

 

Robert, I would love to meet you, but man we couldn't be any farther apart! I'm 12 1/2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Lou.

 

Glad to help. All of the brackets were in bad shape. Do you plan to rivet them back or go another route. Not sure how much originality you are going for.
ZIO

 

I would buy new under floor brackets, since you already have them removed. . Don't mess around with those extremely rusty ones.
Also I forgot to mention that your braces need a square shaped weld nut on the inside of that front hole. I can't remember it's size, off hand. Lou.

 

Lou, I am in the Military so I move a lot. I'm actually in Virginia right now, near DC... I guess I should update my location! Thanks for your story about the parts, very interesting to hear some of the back history of Our cars!

The ones that are rusted beyond surface rust will be replaced. The ones that just have surface rust I will blast and go from there. I will see how they clean up. I plan on riveting them in, I am not 100% concerned with originality, but I need the brackets to work for what they were intended. I am mostly removing them so I can do the fiberglass repairs to the floor pan.

Thanks Lou! Like I said above, most will be replaced, a few look like they are structurally sound.

 

Look what arrived today

On my way to go pick it up

 

wow thats one huge crate

 

Went to go get the crate.









Not a fan of how the Forklift operator handled or loaded the crate.





Didn't fit in the truck... fortunately it was a short trip