Hi guys and gals! So I've been an avid reader and sometimes poster on this forum for about a year now, and among my favorite threads to follow are all the Awesome build threads, but for whatever reason I haven't got around to sharing me and my brother's project, but today's the day, even though the project is just about wrapping up, better late than never! Here's what we've been up to for the past 19 months.

We had been browsing craigslist for awhile in search of a new project, after a couple of cars not panning out we come across this listing:

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Hmm a chrome bumper Corvette, now that could be a cool project. Looked pretty rough from the pictures, but the entirely rebuilt matching #s drive train was enough to peek our interest. So we arranged to see the car that afternoon. The owner turned out to be a professional custom bike builder named Harold who hand builds $100K choppers, after meeting him in a Lowes parking lot we followed his loud, bright green, C5 track car to his daughter-in-law's house where the '70 was sitting, apparently it was there because there wasn't any more room in his warehouse with his other 19 Corvettes.
The car looked just as expected, the body had a lot of cracks and all of the lower front passenger side panels were gone, most of the interior was trash, but at least, as Harold pointed out, the retractable shoulder belts still looked brand new! I asked if we could start it up, Harold was confident that even though it has been sitting for 7 years it would start right up and run like a top, so he swapped the battery out of his C5, dumped some fuel down the carb, turned the key and before the 3rd crank she fired up, and ran very well, totally smooth, no leaks, ticks or other abnormal noises, Awesome! After that we decided to make an offer, after a few minutes we struck a deal at $5k.

We went to picked her up that weekend:

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Just rolled her off the trailer:

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What was left of the carpeting smelled pretty much like death, so before rolling the car into the garage we put on chemical masks and tore it out.

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And here's where the make over would be performed.

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The first order of business was the engine bay.

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Block looks much better after a few coats of POR-15 Gloss Chevy Orange.

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Stripped the valve covers with Jasco paint & epoxy remover then repainted them in textured flat black.

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Freshening up the crossmember and a-arms.

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Darn! We don't have any pictures of the engine bay going together , but here at least is the end result:

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Moving on to the Body! test fitting the new fender:

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On for good now, thanks to Evercoat's Panel Bonding Adhisive.

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The old hood surround panel had some defects causing an exaggerated ledge in some places on the top of the fender panel, so we had to build up the curve with fiberglass and re shape it.

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I count 4 different shades of blue!

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After repairing all the broken/missing fiberglass the car got its first few coats of Epoxy primer/sealer.

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A few more weeks of smoothing the body, working out the gaps, and shes ready for her first layer of High Build primer.

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At this point shes ready for the one last layer of sealer then color, and neither of us want to see a sanding block for at least 27 years.

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And color goes on! We used Kirker's Flame Red (UA-51429), Ultra H/S Clear Coat (EC300), and Hot Rod Black Satin (UA-70388).

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Well we've got to pick up the sanding blocks again, to get rid of the orange peel we started with 1000 grit wet, then 1200, 1500, then tried a couple different cutting compound and pad combos, the combo that worked the best for us was Meguiar's M100 Pro Speed Compound on a Meguiar's (WRWHC7) 7" Rotary Wool Heavy Cutting Pad. To clear the hazing from the wool pad we used Meguiar's (G19216) Ultimate Polish on a Dual-Action polisher with a black finishing pad. Lastly Meguiar's (G7016) Gold Class Carnauba liquid wax

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Now the bumper and trim can go on:

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Decided to go with a Carbon Flash C7 front emblem.

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Next the interior, we laid down heat and sound insulation before installing the carpet, the steel brackets are for our aftermarket seats.

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Decided to make our own center console, starting by making a cardboard template. Note: Corvette Central is not a sponsor of this cardboard... or are they?

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Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the process, be here's the final outcome, the siding is 1\4 MDF with steel supports, outside is wrapped in faux vinyl with brushed aluminum accent bars. The table its sitting on is another project.

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Here's the interior now 95% complete. We dyed what trim panels were in good enough shape, but most pieces needed to be repaired and re-wrapped.

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Recaro style seats, it was a tight fit but I think they look great.

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Replaced the center gauges with a Bosch set, made the frame with ABS plastic and wrapped it in faux vinyl. It all goes directly over the original face

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Our center console has a spring loaded door that hides the cig lighter and stereo auxiliary.

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Put some Pioneer speakers in the back and replaced the dash speakers with Boss Audio.

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Here are some bonus photos we shot a few weeks ago.

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And that's it for now! Just need to do a few things here and there and then she'll be good to go. Thanks all you Awesome people for giving us inspiration and advice along the way, you guys rock!

 

Thanks for sharing, great condensed project thread 😀👍

Red and black looks great, especially like the blacked bumpers.

Console turned out especially nice, works very well with. Your seat choice etc..

 

Very nice work! Especially the console!

 

You have an excellent eye for detail and creative ideas that all work together. Very nice job.

 

Hi Tf,
Well, no magic showing in those photos!!!….. just lots and lots of work!!!
Your car looks terrific with such good attention to details and some very original 'takes' on things.
You must be very pleased and I'd think you get a rush when you see it now!
It's one of those cars that the longer you look at it the more you see!
Well Done!
Regards,
Alan

 

No, the magic is getting the pictures to show! I keep 'refreshing' and some new picts show, and some others disappear. What's with that? What I've seen is mighty impressive.

 

Outstanding! What is the original hp rating on the engine?

 

+1 outstanding!

What seats are those? The console is fantastic, the black looks great and I'd put black pinstripes on the horizontal lines on the eggcrates. Helluva build!

On second thought, I wouldn't change the eggcrates ,
Love the disconnect on the storage lid.

 

Thanks a lot guys!

here's the seats:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-UNIVERSAL-TR-BLK-STITCH-PVC-LEATHER-RECLINABLE-RACING-BUCKET-SEATS-SLIDER-C24-/131718295983?hash=item1eab05b1afI only wish they were an inch or two thinner because the side bolsters rub the door panels a little.
Engine was originally a 300hp, but someone added the '70 lt1 intake and valve covers, i'm assuming when it was rebuilt.

Hmm.. must be pic overload I'll add direct links below each image.

 

Looks great.......you did a nice job on the modifications and the whole project came together nicely.
Good Luck !!

Hammadown

 

Quality build, with attention to detail..impressive.

 

Thank you! I don't know if we are both naturally detail oriented, or if it was starting with such a bare bones car that forced us to focus on how everything should go together, including the little details. Starting with a fairly specific plan of how we wanted it to look was definitely the key to continuity though.

 

Thanks for saving a '70..........and doing an outstanding job!

(More inspiration for my project)

 

Vacaville? Are you in the Bay area? Pictures look a lot like the Granite Bay area I've been house hunting in.

Love it BTW. Only thing I'd change is the stereo. It looks out dated next to the new console and gauges.

If you not going to use the headlight covers look at the guy who made headlight halo's. Looks cool though the grill.

 

Very nice! Some outstanding work and imagination there. The center console and gauge cluster in particular. Well done

 

Close, we're up east of Auburn.
If you mean the bezels they are actually on there, just painted black so that you can't see them through the grills, but I have seen 7t2vette's halo setup. They look mighty fine, front and back!

 

Awesome interior mods!! Good job!!

 

Great, Auburn is a little too far out there unless I get a call for the County.

If I ever find a place will have to have a cruise. Love those country roads.

 

Oh yea, it's hard to find a boring road up here in the mountains.

 

While searching the forum, I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread from a couple years ago. Outstanding job!