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Rearranged the garage yesterday. Since the frame may be coming home in the near future. Gotta have working space! Moved the body back up in the air for storage over the next ?year? That gives me room to refurbish and stage some of the sub-assemblies for the frame underneath it, until that work is all done. I have 42" to the bottom of the body dolly beam.
That was one of the main design criteria for my body lift, so that I could have double-decker storage on the left side of the garage.
When the frame is completed the body should be just high enough for the 36" high gas tank to slide underneath it if needed. Gives me options.
I'm tight for storage and/or working space when you have a 9'6" ceiling. And the two car garage is also your workshop. Gotta maximize it!
e- arranged all the frame sub-assemblies for storage underneath the body. I think this is a whole car's worth except for the tires & the rad.
Now I have room to work in the second bay.
I'll probably even store the frame on it's side in the second bay, at least until all the sub-assemblies are refurbished.
One by one they will all get done and stored here.
I am sure the trans & the diff will go slow.
Last edited by leigh1322; Aug 30, 2020 at 09:07 PM.
Front frame horns are level now. Frame guy supposed car and been in a ditch once to bend it that way
D. Howards removeable crossmember kit installed.
. 8" by 1" deep fender style dent removed from frame under driver's door behind sill panel. Curb hit maybe?
Bent sombrero hat / diff crossmember mounting straightened & reinforced. That one was my bad.
Once the "bent" repairs were completed he spent a day just reinforcing the skip welding wherever it looked like it needed it.
A Frame machine like this makes this kind of work easy. Just these Frame Clamps alone cost $8ooo. But they hold it exactly level and very solid.. All told they spent 3.0 days on it.
Last edited by leigh1322; Aug 31, 2020 at 05:37 PM.
Just three thuds and then I got a clink. Done! Too easy! Didn't get enough frustration out.
I used a 50mm & 63mm spacer for the races and a 65mm for the seal.
The wheel studs I was more gentle with. Bench vise and a impact socket.
None of it took long when you have really clean parts due to Evaporust!
Oh this was the before and after on the hub with the Evaporust: Same hub after degreasing. But before rust removal.
Same hub after Evaporust (on left).
Hub on the right has already been painted. Almost a shame to paint them but I wanted the rust protection, and this paint is really close to the bare metal color.
Perfect match to really clean cast iron.
Last edited by leigh1322; Sep 8, 2020 at 09:08 PM.
Frame finally came back from powder coating this week. Between that and the frame straightening it has been gone 6-7 weeks. It is so smooth and slick it feels like glass. I heard powder is 40 times tougher than paint. Good against rock chips I hope. Here you can see David Howard's removeable trans crossmember mod. Boy it is hard not to love clean & pretty parts.
Last edited by leigh1322; Sep 25, 2020 at 10:12 PM.
Looks awesome.
Its hard to beat David’s work.
I had the frame for my Factory Five 33 hot rod powder coated.
It came out beautiful and actually cost less than getting it painted.
Thanks. I am very happy with how it came out.
Just as an FYI I spent around $2000 getting this original frame "fixed-up"
And it really had zero serious rust issues, all original body mounts are solid, etc.
It broke down this way in case anyone is curious when budgeting their project:
Sandblasting - 300
Powdercoating - 400
Additional for 2 loose crossmembers and 4 A-Arms - 300
Frame straightening due to accident - 300
Removeable crossmember mod labor - 200
Entire day of welding just reinforcing frame joints & skip-welding - 500
Oh and they did find 4 cracked welds so a close inspection should be mandantory for all of these after rust removal
I built a frame storage rack to store my frame on it's side while I continue to work on all the sub assembly components. Space is at a premium, and this helps a lot! Plus I can move it around with one hand. And no "tripping" over it on the ground!
Thanks for the idea nwav8tor!
I still have 80% of the second "bay" available for working on subassemblies. The right bay is almost entirely filled from top to bottom with car parts storage!
Happy to oblige!
It got built last year and dyno'd in Jan: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ls6-build.html
And the Dyno Run is here:
I wish I could drive it NOW but this may be as close as I get for a while. LOL
Have been working on assembling suspension sub assemblies the last week or so
Making good progress. Entire suspension almost done.
I am trying to do as much of this rebuild/restore at home as I am capable of or can figure out:
A Arm bushings, shafts, and Ball joints installed at home
Spindles, bearings, hubs and steering arms assembled
Got these rebuilt by Corvette Paramedics - too many special tools - can you spot the new spindle? They also re-located the parking brake bracket for me in case I go with big wheels.
Here are my home made bushing installation tools 38 mm socket, 2 lb hammer and a 1/8" thick aluminum angle iron piece custom fit into a arm for support to prevent bending. No need for a press.
To protect the powder coating I used blue tape on the Al spacer and thick PET plastic jar strips on the vise. Bushings only took a few taps really. 2-4 thou interference fit, with anti-seize lube. I just placed the shaft between the loose vise jaws. Best news, no chipped powder coat!
Cast iron paint on cross shaft, clear on washers, fake stud/bolts on ball joint
Searched for an hour before I found these torque values. Were not in the AIM, spec tables or CSM. <edit: 8/18/21: found the spec on these three bolts in the Chassis Service Manual = 70 ft lbs>
After doing a lot of suspension research here's the stealth mod I did to increase the caster. I added 1/4" offset a arm cross shafts from Moog.
And I had my machinist friend slot them 1/4" toward the front. Each mod should give me 1.25-1.5 more caster, so with both I may be able to get 2.5-3 more than stock. So hopefully as much as 5 degrees positive caster! The only give away they are not stock is the square section around the shim bolt mounts.
So as seen in a prior pic I have two perfectly restored rust free original upper a arm shafts with the rounded sections available if anyone needs them.
Last edited by leigh1322; Aug 18, 2021 at 06:11 PM.
1 step forward 2 steps back.....
Finally realized the brake dust shields should have been the silver color ones, so am re-doing those. Grrr...
And the carb ran great on Dyno Day but just looked not quite as fresh as the rest of the engine & frame. So I disassembled a perfectly running carb (?!?!) and had it re-dipped. They added some fresh hardware too. I just picked it up and It looks sooo much better now. I can't wait to put it back together! (Ahh it's only another $100 bucks.....) Before...
After....
It's the infamous "while I was at it" disease. LOL
Was it worth it?
Last edited by leigh1322; Dec 2, 2020 at 09:25 PM.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
JUst ound your thread while I was investigating big block info....You've done a great job so far, but I'm scared of the birdcage issues you'll be getting to soon. I wonder if just replacing the birdcage is a better idea and rebonding the original fiberglass to it. I love your frame but you'll have to grind some of that beautiful paint off to get a good ground now. Well worth it. Your car is going to be A real beauty when your done!!!! Its a Cov-ette...LOL
JUst ound your thread while I was investigating big block info....You've done a great job so far, but I'm scared of the birdcage issues you'll be getting to soon. I wonder if just replacing the birdcage is a better idea and rebonding the original fiberglass to it. I love your frame but you'll have to grind some of that beautiful paint off to get a good ground now. Well worth it. Your car is going to be A real beauty when your done!!!! Its a Cov-ette...LOL
Thanks! ...Slow but steady...something to do..
On the birdcage, yeah that is one of my biggest unknowns. I already have an entire windshield birdcage section here from a rust free Calif 74.
This is patiently waiting for me in the corner. There is bare metal on the inside and not one spec of rust! So much different than the east coast. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I have to find someone capable of welding it in properly. Anyone have any ideas?.
Realize I have never done any of this before. And I am determined to do as much of this myself as possible. I am learning how to do all of this one step at a time. And having as much fun as learning how to do it, as actually fixing it! (Driving should be fun too!) The experts on this forum have been a tremendous help!
Todays project: crack open the diff and check it out. I have never done that either! And beef it up for a strong BB!
Last edited by leigh1322; Dec 5, 2020 at 11:12 AM.
