Trust me, there are many times that I wish that we had your climate =)




52 Degrees today but absolutely pouring rain. 100% humidity and my car is literally dripping condensation in my garage; the entire thing looks like I turned a hose on it.

Anyway, not a lot to report as I spent most of the time disassembling stuff in preparation for the body removal. I spent some time here trying to disconnect the steering column. With the car on jack stands and me being pretty short (5'8") I had to get creative.





I get really pissed off at how slowly that I have to work and how quickly the pain becomes too intense to continue. Posting this as a reminder to myself of where I was 8 months ago.

 

At least you're moving. That by itself is a plus.
A suggestion- while you have the column out. pull the brake booster and that vacuum tank that's in the fenderwell. No better time to check it for leaks.

 

Yep.....I remind myself every morning since my surgery was recent. And that's a good idea about the booster and the vacuum tank.

Reminder: You are moving along rapidly considering your hands

 

If I could move that fast I'd be done in a month!

Plus side to that is I'd have enough time to help Doorgunner get his project moving !

Keep up the good work PS ! Trust me your blowing the doors off the rest us !

 

Thanks all, I do appreciate the encouragement.

I also appreciate the tip: I will absolutely be taking the booster, vacuum canister, and pretty much everything else out of the car. I am stripping it to the bare body and bare frame.

I know it seems like I am making good progress but please keep in mind that I have 16 hours a day to devote to this. I am only able to make use of 2 or 3 of them at best and even then I have to work slowly. Very frustrating.

 

Keep at it! Get better soon!

 

I didn't feel like freezing my *** off in the garage today so I turned my attention to some projects that I could finish in my shop.

The headlights that I was waiting for finally arrived so I thought I would start to reassemble the left side headlight assembly.

I chose Halogen bulbs with halo's. The back of the new headlight is larger than the old sealed beam so I had to modify the buckets a bit. I found something laying around my shop that was the proper diameter and scribed a line...





To do the trimming I brought out a fantastic little tool that sadly does not get much use: the Dremel Trio. This thing is a beast of a machine and has some nifty attachments that makes cutting/grinding holes into just about anything a snap!





After the trimming was done I also had to drill a hole to allow the leads for the LED's to pass through.





I finished rounding out the hole by hand and then coated the edge with some black paint to prevent rust, sealed the hole for the LED leads with silicone, and then started to reassemble the headlight assembly.





More to come later on...

 

Michael-

First of all -Nice work!!!

And trust me, I feel for you. I was a lot younger (16) and spent over a year in and out of the hospital after a bad car accident. Mouth wired shut for three months- broke the hardest bone in your body (cheekbone) in seven places - couple vertebra-

Restoring a 72 Cutlass convertible was the best therapy!!!



Should have told me that you were doing a headlight upgrade as well-

I could have put a delphi connector on the harness for you!!!


Running the halos on the parking lights will work out pretty cool- you'll be able to turn on the headlights-doors go up- turn off the headlights and the lights will stay up with the halos running.


Feel free to shoot me an email on adding relays to your headlights-

Carry on-

Richard

 

Thanks Richard,

I cannot imagine how miserable it must be to have your jaw wired shut. I am certain that you must be glad to have that well behind you at this point.

I didn't think to mention it when I got the harness from you. For those who may not be aware, Richard has a harness for the electric motor conversions that will allow the headlights to remain up when the parking lights are on. I honestly did not feel like fidgeting with that myself so I picked up the harness from Richard.

That will work out well with the halo LED's and allow for some extra bling.

I may hit you up when it comes time to do the actual wiring on these. I have done a lot of homework already on this but it never hurts to have a conversation with someone who has already done it.



Today in the shop I am making the brackets for the Miata headlight motors for the electric conversion. Pics and more details to come...

 

I have been very busy with non-car related things so my time in the shop has been limited. It did warm up a little bit today so I managed to get a couple of hours in.

Lots of time spent at the blasting cabinet cleaning up some brackets as well as the 2 pieces that I made to mount the electric motors for the headlights.

The usual blast, phosphate, powder coat going on.







I also had to make a few pieces for the headlights as well, namely the actuator rod. I used 3/8" heim joints for the ends which uses a fine pitch thread (24). None of my local places had 3/8-24 rod so I decided to make my own.

I had some 3/8" aluminum rod stock kicking around so it was a simple matter to thread it.





Once done I put the rods together and continued with the headlight assembly





Thanks again to Richard454 for the excellent 'how-to' for this headlight conversion. It really makes it a snap.



I also received the LED halo's I ordered and the timing was perfect as they arrived the same day as the extra brake light lenses which I purchased from a forum member.

I am not reinventing the wheel here either as I am following the guide from 7t2vette here on this forum: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...led-halos.html

I really liked the results he achieved so why mess with it?

I did get the first halo into a lens and tested. It looks great!





I will finish up the other 3 and put them in my 'done' pile of parts. At least that pile is growing!

 

You Wasskely Wabbit.....it's moving along well

 

I have a lot going on in getting things done before my next surgery so time in the shop has been at a premium. I have dabbled a little bit here and there when I had a little time.

I finally got back to finishing my DIY air dryer system so that I can continue with media blasting. I used a standard stainless steel drain screen (available at any hardware store) and used silicone to secure it into the 2" reducers. This will keep the desiccant where it belongs and not shooting through my air lines.





After that it was a simple matter of securing it in my garage and connecting the 60 gal. air compressor. The upper cap is off on the desiccant filter so that I can fill it. Works like a charm! Perfectly dry air!





That was enough in the garage as it is once again in the low 20's here so I turned my attention back into my indoor shop. I was in the process of finishing the reassembly of my left headlight unit after converting it to electric. If you recall when I was disassembling it, the collar that holds the upper and lower halves together had a set screw that was completely stripped out. I was going to simply drill and tap another hole into it however when I was at my local ACE hardware I happened to walk by their hardware aisle and what should appear but the exact darn part! Apparently it is a standard hardware part so I picked up a new one for a whopping $2.50 and put it in place.





I am happy to say that once everything was cleaned, powder coated, and restored that it worked flawlessly with the new electric motor. Now to do the same to the other side. It should go a lot quicker now that I know what I am doing.

 

That all looks great. When do you think you can start production on the "New" C3 cars?

 

Just wanted to pass on what a great job you are doing. Couldn't help but thinking that your name is a bit inappropriate. It appears to me that you are making great progress on the build and I would be better suited to use your name PainfullySlow. At 2 years I am still dealing with the brakes, suspension and engine. Body and interior hardly started.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for posting your air dryer system. I have seen many that were not quite appropriate for my shop as space is limited but I think I will use your design, it looks just about right!

Nice Job.
Pete

 

Very nice work and I am sure you are feeling good about things. You may think your moving slow but your doing just fine.
RVZIO

 

Great find AND work Michael!!!

I used the same hardware for my throttle linkage-oh next to it is a door hinge!!!



I love trolling the hardware store for ideas!!! The one I go to - really neat place-totally disorganized -stuff everywhere- can hardly walk down some isles.

Anyway there's a grumpy old man that works there but he can find any bolt-nut you want. He just walks over to a drawer, pulls it out- holds it up to his glasses and says -here it is.

He's always asking- "What do you need this for?" in a rather gruff abrupt voice. I finally responded with "I'm making a flux capacitor!" First time I ever saw him smile!!!




HA- only 2 years!!! I call first dibbs on "painstakingly slow!!!"

Richard

 

Once this project is done i am strongly considering making a custom body for a c5 frame.

Thanks for the compliments, I appreciate them. The air dryer system is working well so far. I expect it to shine but to be fair I haven't had the chance to blast with it. That will be the real test but I see no reason why it would not continue to work perfectly.

The name "PainfullySlow" is actually a forum name that I have used for many years when I first started motorcycle racing and many people were faster than me I saw no reason to change it.

Appreciate it, RVZIO. Thanks.

I love places like the one you describe! It is like a treasure hunt every time you go in.




Well, just a heads up to anyone interested: I had another surgery today (4th for this injury) and my right hand is useless and will be for a while so updates will be few and far between.

 

You 'hang in there'....we will both heal together!

 

Here's to a speedy recovery on the hand. The projects will be there when you are able to get to them. I've been really impressed with the speed of your work so far. I will say, I had debated buying your car when I had seen it posted, but it would have sat for a long time until I could get around to it. Glad to see it went to someone that can devote the time to it.

 

Ugh. Got bored and couldn't stay away. I just read back and realize that I mistakenly said that it was my right hand in a cast. It isn't, it's my left.





Anyway, a little one arm wrench therapy was in order. I got the parts that I needed to finish the rebuild of my CS144 alternator so I started in on that. Very challenging to do with one hand but I got it about 75% of the way done, even if it took me a few hours and I spent more time dropping tools than actually using them.

New bearings pressed in





Almost done with the interior.