Priya, next time you get a chance, could you post a photo of that beautiful cars side profile.

 

I'm not sure which car you're talking about, there's a side profile of my 79 on the first page of this thread.

 

Thanks Priya.

 

No problem Zorro. I thought you were talking about dtamustang's car.

 

vetfever , go to post 100 or so of this thread and you will get what you are after. due to forum rules and not wanting to hijack priyas thread i'll leave it at that.

 

The comments regarding dtamustang's corvette are all right with me

 

I'm mostly finished the tail light and exhaust filler panels with the exception of filling and redrilling the holes for the C O R V E T T E letters which were marked incorrectly by ACI fiberglass. As far as I can tell its all ready to go other than the last sanding I did was with 50-80 grit and it'll need smoothing with something finer before its ready for primer. I'm not one of those people who can tell if its right by feel, I rely on looking at it. To help get a better view I sprayed an even layer of water on the worked area and it looks smooth to me. I think the coat of water might have been thicker than paint would be so I'll check again with some pre-clean and see if that puts on a thinner shiny layer to tell me more.

I got a pretty good fit on the license plate bezel.

Before


After


Before


After

 

Priya........thanks......more inspiration for me this time of year!

 

I'm hoping for the best for you Doorgunner

 

I haven't been able to redo the C O R V E T T E letters yet as I'm waiting for my husband to fix my drill. In the meantime I did some dismantling:





The crash bar is massive. I'm feeling apprehensive about losing that to have the chrome rear bumpers. I was surprised to see the reinforcement panel on the upper deck around the gas filler opening shown in the above picture. I'm not sure how to handle that as its in the way of where I planned to splice the 70-73 rear to the 79 rear. I'm thinking I could cut the reinforcement panel where the yellow line is and remove that part. Any suggestions?

 

If.you do the body work from the top could you leave it in place and maybe panel bond the new section to it for support?
you may be able to fab up an auxillary bumper that is hidden from view if that's a concern.
It's starting to take shape.

 

I'm not sure I'm following you. Do you mean leave the flange the bumper cover bolted to in place and try to bond to that?

I'm thinking I'm going to strip off the vertical aluminum extenstions and the shock absorbers and see if there's room for the rest of it when the new rear goes on. It'll require reworking all the bumper brackets though.

 

I meant bonding it to the piece you had marked to cut in the picture. Or does that piece not fit tight to the body?

 

I see now. It is bonded tightly to the body I'll give that some thought.

 

If that setup is a "10mph Impact Bumper" you won't be giving up if you modify or remove the crash-setup. I would not be afraid to remove/modify whatever metal in order to get a good fit on the new section of fiberglass.

I think 7t9 is referring to doing the outward/visible fiberglas work to bond the new taillight clip to the existing fiberglass......then go under the car and bond the underside solidly.

Just a wild guess...can you move the bonding line an inch or two rearward so you don't have to remove the support strip/flange at the gas filler opening?

My '68 had only a THIN crossmember/bar that held the left and right framerails and the bumper brackets in place.....I removed the rusted thin crossmember and installed a heavy duty for more crash resistance.



The wall thickness of the new piece is 3 times thicker than the original....I could have added 45 degree gussets from the frame rails to the new rear crossmember for much more crash support (instead I intergrated a fuel tank crash cage into the crossmember)......

 

No, the flange where the original bumper cover bolted to is right up against the underside reinforcment panel around the gas filler hole.

I like your idea of removing the rear crossmember from the frame and welding in a heavier duty version I'm going to think about that as well.

 

I have not been on this thread for along time so I do not know exactly what has been decided on what direction this conversion is heading towards.



If you plan on removing the impact bar......I would fabricate another that would be as stout as what you currently have. Keeping in mind the absorbers will more than likely not be able to be used...or maybe they can...so they absorb any possible bad impact from the rear instead of having all the impact energy go directly into the frame.

If I could not use the facotry impact bar and asborbers...even if the owner did not want me to cut the end of the frame rails back so I could move them far enough forward so they could possibly work.....and then adjust for the rear crossmember to secure the fuel tank and spare tire carrier bolt....then I would be at the point in some custom builds where I have to worry about liability.

AS for cutting off the facotry rear crossmember an welding a new one in place. That might be controlled by which type of gas tank you use and how it needs to be secured.

AS for the fuel opening. Using heat to separate the understructure panel is very do-able. BUT....I would have to see how the new rear clip is planned on being attached and how much of the facotry understructure at the fuel opening can stay...and how much would have to be cut off.

I do not know if this was any help...but I need to get back up to speed on what you are doing so I can get a good understanding.

Obviously any way you choose to do this is entirely up to you.

DUB

 

I had a closer look at the factory rear crossmember and I don't want to remove it and put a thicker piece in place as the gas tank fits tightly against it, the spare tire is also mounted to it and it is not a simple box shape that would be easy to replace. I'm thinking of keeping the main piece from the factory crash bar and re-working it to bolt to the rear of the frame and modifying the rear bumper brackets to bolt (maybe weld?) them into place.

I discussed the reinforcement panel shown below with my husband and he suggested I cut the reinforcement panel just down from where I drew the yellow line, separate it from the top panel with a heat gun, graft the 70-73 rear on, bond on the previously removed part of the reinforcement panel back into place and then fiberglass up the cut line on the reinforcement panel - what do you think on that Dub?

 

True about the tank fit being tight. That's why I made my custom tank more rectangular in order to have room for frame/cargo area/spare tire mods.

I know you can't go my route....I just wanted you to see/support you that you can modify whatever is needed to reach your goal.

 

I removed my first Corvette panel today and I didn't crack or break anything.

It was quite a wrestle and my arms are shaking a little now, lol. Took about an hour and 1/2 felt like twice that. More work than I was hoping for but perhaps a little less than I was expecting - I tried to remove a piece from the 69 rear clip I started with and it wouldn't budge at all.