Thanks Rhd. Initially my husband was thinking the motor had gone in the compressor so we sure were glad it turned out to be a minor issue.

 

BUT with each 'success' you have...the degree of anxiety slightly lessens....becasue....you now have real world experiences to draw from that were SUCCESSFUL and that is what it is all about.

What is funny is when you get it all gone or get into another project...your experience will have grown even more..and when you look back on some of what you had previously done on the previous other car...you look at it and say "what the heck was I thinking"...and that is because you have found another way that is better, stronger etc. And that is that learning curve showing itself.

DUB

 

Thanks for the encouragement Dub!

 

I do what I can... because.... honesty...I have been where you are at and had no one to bounce ideas off of. And I know my comments can often times be received in a manner that makes me be out to be something that I actually am not....regardless of what 'others' may feel. I know you want your Corvette as right as possible. And I will use all of my experiences in this industry to pass along to you as like I also do others. So...I will be in 'your corner' until this is completed advising and commenting as I feel is necessary....until you do not want my advice.

I DO NOT want to kill your 'mojo'.

DUB

 

Coming out of the R&D area in my younger days, I always looked at each event as a learning experience.

Things that should have gone easy took forever and things that were thought to be a major task were super easy and quick.

After each step you knowledge and skill level increases. As was said earlier enjoy the ride.

While there are bumps and potholes in the road the end of the ride will give you great joy.

I really think you are doing a great job, keep up the good work.

 

Hello

New here and I see you all over the forum with body work advice. This is why I signed up. Where can I see some of your work? can't find any albums in your profile unless I don't know where to look.

Thanks!

PS, good luck to member Priya, great thread, had no idea the quarters were so different on chrome bumpers cars compared to later ones.

 

Sorry Priya...do mean to hi-jack your thread so I will keep this short.
I do not put photos of what I do out there to just put it out there. There are photos of some of the Corvettes I have done that others have posted.

Please try to keep in mind that what I work on are Corvettes that other people own...so it is not my right to post photos of their car unless they give me authorization to do so.

I have not really given it much thought to put photos of a lot of the work I have done in 30+ years in an album. Mainly because ...as I know for a fact...any car can look good in a photo...but what makes it really nice is when you can see it in person and see the detail that the photo just does not show.

Look at this thread and the GREEN 1970 Corvette beside Jacks 1906 Corvette car is one that I restored.

http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/...hevy-show.html

DUB

 

So hubby bought a 3D wheel alignment machine and spent the past few days making mounts to put the camera boom up (pink arrow in the picture below)


Four of the below targets attach to each wheel. The circles are round to an extremely high tolerance and the camera can tell the angle the targets are at based on how oval or circular the circles look when they're moved with the wheels

 

Wow. That must have set ya back a few bucks. Those aren't cheap!

 

I understand these machines are typically around $7000 used. Its sort of a complicated deal but my husband will be into it for around $3000 when the smoke clears.

 

A lot less than I thought...and you can always sell it and get your money back at the end of the project

 

Yes, I think he said they were about $20,000 new.

 

I finished a couple more brackets today although I expect when I get the 70-73 ACI rear clip glassed on I'll likely have to make some adjustments. The brackets had to have the angle decreased at point "A" and increased at point "B"


I used an oxy acetylene torch to heat the brackets and bend them but found once you get them close its too easy to bend them too far when you only need a little tweak. So I found I needed to get them close with the torch and then use a small sledgehammer and an anvil to complete the slight bit of bending necessary to get them just right. It took a lot less hammering than one would expect.

Once the brackets were lined up I vice gripped them in place and used a can of spray paint to mark where the holes in the 79 frame would need to go:


You need to remove the donor rear clip removed to make these holes. As it turns out these are the only brackets that you need to have the donor chrome bumper rear clip both on and off to modify. All the other brackets can be modified with the donor chrome bumper rear clip glassed into place.

These brackets bolt to the frame rails. On a chrome bumper car there is a hole in the inside of the frame to allow access to the bolts for these brackets as seen in the picture below:


The 79 frame does not have these oval holes in it and the gas tank would cover them if they were there. To get around this I made these bolt holders so I don't need to make a hole in the inside edge of the frame rails (thanks to my husband for suggesting this to me):


Note the end of these bolt holders stick out an inch and one quarter from the frame rails so one can manipulate the bracket bolts with the donor chrome bumper rear clip glassed into place:


I removed a portion of the flange at the end of the frame rail shown in the picture below in order to provide clearance for these brackets. The remaining hole will be used for the bracket used on 72 and 73 cars that goes to the bumper through the quarter panel:


It would have been better to modify all the bumper brackets except these two after the 70-73 ACI rear clip is glassed into place so the brackets won't have to be changed if the clip moves slightly once its glassed in place compared to when it was clamped in place. So instead of modifying the remaining four bumper brackets now I'm going to glass in the 70-73 ACI rear clip now and modify those four brackets afterwards.

I spent some more time trying to get a better fit on the 70-73 ACI rear clip and come up with a way to allow me to glass in the edges where the rear deck and quarter panels meet.

I removed the wooden clamps from the outer edges of the mocked in place clip and found that I could push up the outer edges of the rear deck on the 70-73 ACI rear clip from underneath which will allow me to glass in this high tension area first:


This lines up this part of the two rear decks and upper quarter panels better than I expected:


And I finally got smart and made a couple of marks on the upper decks of the 79 and the 70-73 ACI rear clip so in all the removing and replacing I can better duplicate the positioning each time:


Too bad I didn't think of that at the beginning of this

So tomorrow I do some more surface preparation at the join points so I can glass the 70-73 ACI rear clip in place.

 

Priya I drop in from time to time to check on your progress. You are doing an outstanding job. Keep the faith you are going to have a great and unique car when finished.

 

Thanks blue67ragtop. I'm feeling good abut where I am at this point.

 

Really coming along nicely...

One suggestion- maybe get a new blade for your wood saw!!!

Or maybe you're just cutting the wood with an angle grinder!!!

 

THIS is the Corvette forum not the wood wright's shop.

 

Thanks Richard. I actually used an air powered cut off wheel to cut that wood. We need to get a hand saw for occasional use.

 

Your project is coming along nicely Priya!

 

Thanks AirborneSilva