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I've been following this thread. You are going to have a very unique Corvette when you're finished. Can't wait to see the completed project.
Awesome job.
I suppose its possible when I squeezed the exhaust filler panel in place it twisted the cap but I really can't find evidence of that. I measured the distance from the frame to the exhaust bezel cut-outs and they are the same from side to side. My husband also figured the cap may be twisted and suggested pulling back the lower left quarter of the cap while the rest was clamped in place. This raised the left side of the cap but I felt pulled the left quarter panel on the cap unacceptably far out of alignment with the left quarter panel on the 79.
2.) I tried to zooming on your past photos of the rear and I can not tell if the amount of threads that are exposed AFTER the castle nut on your outer spring bolts are the same????
DUB
There's three threads showing on the passenger side and two showing on the driver's side.
So, I was working on my bumper brackets when I noticed the side marker lights on the 70-73 ACI rear clip weren't parallel to the ground, the front edge of each marker light was higher than the back edge. I don't know why I didn't notice this before but I realized I needed to pull the bottom of the 70-73 ACI rear clip farther away from the bottom of the 79. Initially I had the quarter panels on the 70-73 ACI rear clip and the 79 butting up against each other. Here's how they looked when I finally got the side marker lights parallel to the ground:
The passenger side (above) needed to come back 1 & 1/2 inches at the bottom to get the side marker light parallel to the ground. I pulled the driver's side back 2 inches which raised that side a little more and made up the 1/4 inch difference in the height of the two sides of the 70-73 ACI rear clip. Although this results in the driver's side of the ACI rear clip being 1/2 inch farther back at the bottom than the passenger side I decided this was the best compromise I could make given what I was dealing with. The 70-73 ACI rear clip still looks lower on the driver's side than the passenger but the measurements say they are the same so I figure I have to go with that. I know sometimes in the past I've adjusted body work until it looks right to the eye and then when you get the car all painted and assembled you realize it isn't right.
I had spent some time blocking the front of the car and adjusting the rear until the distances from the front and rear part of the rocker panels to the ground matched the factory specification. Even after both rocker panels were equal the highest part of the driver's side wheel well was close to 1/2 inch lower than the passenger side. So, I don't know if the frame is tweaked a bit or this is just factory tolerances adding up or what.
After pulling the bottom of the 70-73 ACI rear clip out I got the brilliant idea to check the levels of the upper rear deck areas on the 70-73 ACI rear clip and the 79. A straight edge show's they're now at the same angle. If I had checked this at an earlier stage I'd have realized I had a problem. I had wrongly assumed my wood clamps would line up the two rear decks in the right position but in reality they let the 70-73 ACI rear clip sag out of alignment with the 79 upper deck.
So then I decided I'd better put the bumper's in place and see how they look - D'oh!
When I modified the mounting pads on the bumpers to get them to sit flush against the 70-73 ACI rear clip I screwed it up. So, now I'm going to be undoing the mods I made to the bumper mounting pads which is going to be fun as I really laid the welds in there. I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong but I can see now (as various people advised me) I needed to have the rear clip at least mocked into place to see how the bumpers fit.
I'm just thankful I realized how mismatched I had things before I had gone any further with modifying bumper brackets, etc.
So, I was working on my bumper brackets when I noticed the side marker lights on the 70-73 ACI rear clip weren't parallel to the ground, the front edge of each marker light was higher than the back edge. I don't know why I didn't notice this before but I realized I needed to pull the bottom of the 70-73 ACI rear clip farther away from the bottom of the 79. Initially I had the quarter panels on the 70-73 ACI rear clip and the 79 butting up against each other. Here's how they looked when I finally got the side marker lights parallel to the ground:
The passenger side (above) needed to come back 1 & 1/2 inches at the bottom to get the side marker light parallel to the ground. I pulled the driver's side back 2 inches which raised that side a little more and made up the 1/4 inch difference in the height of the two sides of the 70-73 ACI rear clip. Although this results in the driver's side of the ACI rear clip being 1/2 inch farther back at the bottom than the passenger side I decided this was the best compromise I could make given what I was dealing with. The 70-73 ACI rear clip still looks lower on the driver's side than the passenger but the measurements say they are the same so I figure I have to go with that. I know sometimes in the past I've adjusted body work until it looks right to the eye and then when you get the car all painted and assembled you realize it isn't right.
I had spent some time blocking the front of the car and adjusting the rear until the distances from the front and rear part of the rocker panels to the ground matched the factory specification. Even after both rocker panels were equal the highest part of the driver's side wheel well was close to 1/2 inch lower than the passenger side. So, I don't know if the frame is tweaked a bit or this is just factory tolerances adding up or what.
After pulling the bottom of the 70-73 ACI rear clip out I got the brilliant idea to check the levels of the upper rear deck areas on the 70-73 ACI rear clip and the 79. A straight edge show's they're now at the same angle. If I had checked this at an earlier stage I'd have realized I had a problem. I had wrongly assumed my wood clamps would line up the two rear decks in the right position but in reality they let the 70-73 ACI rear clip sag out of alignment with the 79 upper deck.
So then I decided I'd better put the bumper's in place and see how they look - D'oh!
When I modified the mounting pads on the bumpers to get them to sit flush against the 70-73 ACI rear clip I screwed it up. So, now I'm going to be undoing the mods I made to the bumper mounting pads which is going to be fun as I really laid the welds in there. I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong but I can see now (as various people advised me) I needed to have the rear clip at least mocked into place to see how the bumpers fit.
I'm just thankful I realized how mismatched I had things before I had gone any further with modifying bumper brackets, etc.
Yes it's a good thing you caught that issue now. There are just a lot of variables to consider. A big job but when you are finished I am sure you will be proud. I often look back at my project just to see how much was done to get where I am today. You have a lot of pictures that you can review from time to time. Carry on!
RVZIO
Priya.. I agree with some previous posts that what looks good, (ie level or straight) may not measure out the same, or be actually "level". You may want to step back and look at it, and ask yourself... does it look right?
As for fixing the clip on temporarily, Doorgunner used a genius method of fastening it on with sticks & screws. That way it can go on & off as you need... making it easier to adjust your brackets, and should also be easy to realign in the same place as it came off.
Off topic story about level or straight. I put crown molding in my dining room. I put it up 2 inches from the ceiling so I could put lighting in it. I used a level on it and it came out perfect. When I stood back it looked crooked. What had happened is the ceiling was on a slight angle. I rppied down the molding and put it back up. This time measuring 2 inches from the ceiling. Now it looked great. Everything was crooked.
Sometimes you have to stand back and "eyeball it". It doesn't have to be straight or level to be right.
Hi P,
I don't know if these might be of help to you or not.
Note that from the side close-up the bumper doesn't appear to be level, but from a greater distance it does appear level.
I guess it has to do with what 'clues' your brain is getting in order to decide what's level.
Regards,
Alan
Okay, i admit it this will sound selfish but i use your thread to help motivate me, God knows i need it,
Seems just yesterday there were so many cooks in this kitchen they were stepping on each other now all gone and tumbleweeds,
i hope hope hope all is going great in your world....
Okay, i admit it this will sound selfish but i use your thread to help motivate me, God knows i need it,
Seems just yesterday there were so many cooks in this kitchen they were stepping on each other now all gone and tumbleweeds,
i hope hope hope all is going great in your world....
Things are going well Bats. I've just been refitting the bumpers and filling in the previous bolt holes for the bumpers in the 70-73 ACI rear clip.
Something interesting to me, and may be applicable to what you are doing. It appears to me that rubber bumper cars have a prominent peak line running from wheel well back to the obvious peak line on the rubber bumper. Almost every car I see has a problem that the peak lines don't line up well, AND, it seems as though on the bumper itself it takes a down turn from the forward edge back to the aft edge.
Now, on chrome bumper cars, it appears that there is really no peak line from the rear wheel opening back. Its just a smooth rounded area.
So, as I see in your pictures, as well as the other thread on right now about this type conversion, the peak line of the rubber bumper cars will need to fade away onto the rear bumper add on. The other thread pictures make it very obvious.
My input here is more of an observation, but also thinking that maybe what would be best is to sand and work out that peak line aft of the wheel well to avoid that type of awkward looking transition from peak line to nothing.
Hope I wrote this in a way that makes sense for the discussion.
Something interesting to me, and may be applicable to what you are doing. It appears to me that rubber bumper cars have a prominent peak line running from wheel well back to the obvious peak line on the rubber bumper. Almost every car I see has a problem that the peak lines don't line up well, AND, it seems as though on the bumper itself it takes a down turn from the forward edge back to the aft edge.
Now, on chrome bumper cars, it appears that there is really no peak line from the rear wheel opening back. Its just a smooth rounded area.
So, as I see in your pictures, as well as the other thread on right now about this type conversion, the peak line of the rubber bumper cars will need to fade away onto the rear bumper add on. The other thread pictures make it very obvious.
My input here is more of an observation, but also thinking that maybe what would be best is to sand and work out that peak line aft of the wheel well to avoid that type of awkward looking transition from peak line to nothing.
Hope I wrote this in a way that makes sense for the discussion.
Good eye. That was one of the first things that Priya noticed/discovered when the conversion began.
Something interesting to me, and may be applicable to what you are doing. It appears to me that rubber bumper cars have a prominent peak line running from wheel well back to the obvious peak line on the rubber bumper. Almost every car I see has a problem that the peak lines don't line up well, AND, it seems as though on the bumper itself it takes a down turn from the forward edge back to the aft edge.
Now, on chrome bumper cars, it appears that there is really no peak line from the rear wheel opening back. Its just a smooth rounded area.
So, as I see in your pictures, as well as the other thread on right now about this type conversion, the peak line of the rubber bumper cars will need to fade away onto the rear bumper add on. The other thread pictures make it very obvious.
My input here is more of an observation, but also thinking that maybe what would be best is to sand and work out that peak line aft of the wheel well to avoid that type of awkward looking transition from peak line to nothing.
Hope I wrote this in a way that makes sense for the discussion.
That character line on the 79 also rises to the rear of the car whereas the less pronounced character line on a chrome bumper car is parallel to the ground so the character line on the 79 has to be pretty much completely redone to match the chrome bumper rear end. I'll be studying the pictures of chrome bumper cars carefully when I get to this area.
I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong but I can see now (as various people advised me) I needed to have the rear clip at least mocked into place to see how the bumpers fit. 
