Plumbed my hydroboost and rack and pinion steering yesterday. What a pain in the fingers. The regular stainless braided AN line for fuel and oil is a pain to work with, but the high pressure lines for hydraulic use are really a pain. They are very stiff and don't allow for any error in orientation of the fittings. The Aeroquip fittings kept cutting the plastic liner when assembling. I ended up filing the lead in edge of the part that goes in the liner and took a ball out of a large ball bearing and laid it in the brass piece that goes over the liner and inside the steel braid and gave it a rap with a hammer. That opened the end just enough to allow it all to go together without cutting the liner.

I used the high pressure lines on the high pressure sides of the system and regular AN on the low pressure return side. I bought a new pump for a 90's GMC 3500 pickup to get the dual return to the tank. That took a bit of modification to get mounted, but wasn't too bad.

Next braided line fun is to plumb the transmission oil cooler. That is about the last thing I have to do under the car besides an alignment, so it will be coming home soon and vacating my buddies shop.

 

Getting stuff mounted and hooked up. Still need radiator hoses, heater hoses, wire the dual relays for the radiator fans, wire in the MSD Digital 6 box, and a myriad of other things.

The car is coming home next week. A friend of mine is going to bring his enclosed trailer.

Mike

 

Which cylinderr heads did you use?

 

I have Brodix -10 heads. The ports are 225cc with 2.100" intake and 1.600 exhaust valves. I did extensive porting in them and cut the seats with proprietary seat cutters I developed over decades of flow testing. They flow a lot of air at high lift with excellent low and mid lift flow.

Mike

 

I bled the brakes today. The whole brake system is new with o-ring conversions in the SS sleeved calipers. The master cylinder is a new Dorman, the steel lines are aftermarket repop. DOT legal steel braided lines replaced the rubber.

I am using DOT5 so I used the gravity method. You don't end up with bubbles in the fluid, which is a mistake some people make pumping the heck out of the brake pedal during the bleeding process when running DOT5. Because it has a little thicker viscosity than DOT3 or 4, the bubbles can be tough to get rid of once circulated through the system. Using gravity bleeding can be slow, but it works really well if done correctly. My brake pedal is rock hard.

Before anyone tells me DOT5 is bad to use, I have to tell you I have been using it since the 70's on the street as well as drag racing, land speed racing, road racing and autocross. Not once ever have I had any issue whatsoever. On street bikes I have run it for years on years without flushing it. When you take the top off the master cylinder, the fluid looks like it just came out of the bottle. The reason is it is not hygroscopic. It doesn't end up with moisture in it and make that nasty goo and rust and corrode things like glycol-ether based fluid. If you start with a clean, dry system, it will stay clean and dry with DOT5.

Mike

Mike

 

Made arrangements with a buddy to move both his corvette and mine in his enclosed trailer this Friday. It's coming home.

I've been stripping and painting hinges and latches for the hood. Also preparing the steering column and it's parts for paint. Then the hood and rear deck lid go back on for transport and the steering column goes in for good.

Mike

 

The steering column is painted and ready to assemble and install in the car. On track to bring it home tomorrow.

Mike

 

I like your engine and doghouse paint schema. The gray works with the chrome and AL.

On my project I can't decide how much chrome I want. Thanks for sharing your pics

Vibguy

 

I would have painted the master cylinder a flat aluminum color, like my headers, but if you drip even the DOT5 brake fluid on it during first fill and bleeding, it's hard to get it off without screwing up the paint and if you leave it, dirt will collect and it gets stained. So gloss grey it was.

Mike

 

I love the aluminum foil masking trick on the steering column...it is simple and effective.

DUB

 

Yes, it saves huge time in both preparing for paint and taking it off afterwards. Tape can be a pain sometimes.

Mike

 

BOY..DO I AGREE WITH THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 'trick' I have learned over the years taping off countless cars for paint jobs and whatever. It is all about how you apply the tape it so when you go to remove the reap ...it goes quickly. Unmasking a car can either take as long at it took to mask it off...or go rather quickly due to good fore thought in how the tape was applied initially.

BUT...regardless...the aluminum foil method ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!! And the aluminum foil can be re-used also.

DUB

 

My Vette is at home for the first time in years!

As I've stated before, my garage door opens into my basement, so my car is actually in my house. Because of this I can't do body work inside, so it has to wait until spring when I can roll it outside. Plenty to do that is OK in the house though.

A couple of photos of the dusty beast before we loaded it into the trailer. It's actually rolling on its own wheels again. The shop is for my buddie's semi truck. He dumps floor dry on any oil spots, and there is always floor dry down. His truck raises a lot of dust too. It's the dustiest shop I've ever worked in. Didn't do any motor work there, thank goodness. I still appreciate him letting me do my frame off there though.

I was looking at the car and I was thinking that my tires weren't filling the fenders as well as I thought they did before. It was also rolling hard. Got the tire pressure gauge out and low and behold, all the tires were almost flat. Filled them up and it rolled much better and the tires grew enough to fill the fenders better. They didn't look flat. These stiff sidewall 18's can fool you. Photos are before I filled the tires.

Mike

 

I have some rust on my frame on the rear. Where the frame connects with the cross member. I know it needs patched, figured I get the whole thing cleaned and painted. Anyone know how much that would run? I just rebuilt the motor, but I don't have a lift to get the body off

 

I was fortunate to have a very good friend who was gracious enough to let me use one side of his shop for 3 months, but you don't need a lift to take the body off.

If you have a high enough ceiling you can use a comealong to lift the body. You would want to run a pipe or hardwood 4x4 through the rafters to spread the load out, but a lot of people on the forum have done it that way. You can get the lift harness from several of the vendors, or there may be a member here that no longer needs their body lift harness. It takes some time and hard work, but it's well worth it when you have the finished product sitting there.

It would cost a lot at a shop. A lot of time involved.

PS: You can also use an engine hoist, they can be bought fairly inexpensively.


Mike

 

V2, What method of welding have you been using in your frame restoration ? Thanks.

 

 

Looking good!

 

I also used a MIG welder with gas.

 

For what this is worth to those who read this:

If a person has concerns if a MIG welder is good enough to do frame welding. As long as it has the amperage to penetrate the steel. A MIG welder is just fine. The only bad thing about a MIG welder is the spatter that is produced when welding.

A TIG welder is also good and foes NOT spatter due to the way you weld withe a TIG welder..

An ARC WELDER or stick welder is also good as long as the correct rod is used and it also have enough amps to make the weld penetrate and not just lay on top of the steel.

A like what v2racing mentioned. This is not an impossible job to do but it is not an easy job either.

Costs will be REALLY HIGH if oyu give it to a shop to due for oyu due to the amount of time can vary from being somewhat excessive...to off the charts insanely extensive.

Having a place to do it and figuring out how you can SAFELY lift it is important. I know on my very first body-off. I had 10 guys I know to help in lifting it off the frame...due to being a 1965 convertible. I had that many there so if any needed help for back-up...there was someone to come in and help lift in that area of the body.

DUB