69Vett

depends upon avalibility and pricing, that cage is rough.
plan A find a replacement, if you can find 1.
even if replacement is priced high, it would be worth it to replace.
your gonna put a bunch of time trying to save your original.
luckily my birdcage was in much better condition.

pws69

You have put an incredible amount of BST into it already - reward yourself with a replacement birdcage! You're gonna have one sweet car!

Makonut

Complete birdcage is the only way to go in my opinion. Look before you buy. I have seen some nice ones in the 1100-1200 range.

72Shark_VAL

I've searched all over the Internet & that's the best one I've found. $400 to get it shipped to my house...lol
I plan on buying it around the middle of next month if it's still available.
Removing & rebonding the underbody will be a challenge, can't find much info about it around the web. I guess it's time to break out the assembly manual.
Thanks for all the support everyone! I'm actually pretty excited about buying a full solid birdcage & building the car from the ground up, I think
It may be a few weeks until I post another update, stay tuned!

Matt

diehrd

With all due respect . I would find a dumpster big enough and toss that bird cage out. Then But the one for 2,000.00, I would ask them to toss in shipping or if you value time and effort just buy it as offered plus shipping.

BEJ

Honestly makes me think of those pictures you see of the Titanic sitting on the ocean floor, or maybe I'm letting my imagination run away with me. Will definitely be worth it though. I love these types of challenges, just due to how much you will learn in the process.

540 vette

Check out E Bay. I was just on there and there are a couple. They are a lot less than the 2k.

leadfoot4

Enter the search term "replacement Corvette birdcages" in yahoo or Google. There's a site called vintage car parts, and they show several, in the $600-800 range.

Andy Tuttle

WOW! Are you in all the way! Will be watching! Good luck with the build! Keep us posted with LOTS of pictures. Great start, but those first pics were SCARY! I would go a whole different bcage. Check around as prices vary!

7T1vette

What is surprising to me is how good the rocker channels look, compared to the window frame and kickpanel areas. Either the rocker channels have been replaced or the whole problem was water getting into the window area (only).

If that is really the case, why replace the whole birdcage? Just sayin'....

momo608

That Ebay birdcage looks rough. Why would the seller bother priming over old sealant and crud? It has to be blasted and primed again at a minimum! It's bent and or twisted and rusted. I would definitely wait for a better one. Find out what years interchange and pick the best one. Who cares about date codes no one will ever see or just buy some stamps and date it yourself. I would avoid grafting together sections from different birdcages. If it's welded together a 1/4" off, it could cause hair pulling alignment issues with the tops and doors. I'm assuming newer C3 birdcages interchange and would look for a complete wrecked car without damage to the birdcage first before buying a bare cage you know nothing about its history. I would think there are plenty of stripped wrecked cars out there to choose from and would start my search in dry states.

leadfoot4

OP. your post doesn't say where you're located, but if you're somewhere on the east coast, give this place a look. I originally forgot all about them....... (and they're in my town, no less!!)



EDIT..........


I suppose it would have helped, if I had remembered to add this link to the post!!

www.elmersauto.com/

momo608

I was curious about the interchange and this is what I found out. The difference that matters is in the lower part of the windshield frame on the outside corners for wiper door cars. So to use the later birdcage you would have to put in windshield frame parts for the earlier birdcage to make the wiper door work. I thought I saw these mentioned in another thread as reproduction replacement parts.

ArtGle

Wow, never gave this a thought.
Now I have to run out to the shop and look at my birdcage replacement.
I have a 72 'wiper door' car.

ArtGle

YUP. There's a difference. OOPS.