I bought my 76 as a rolling project, I paid $2000 for it-very solid frame and birdcage and it came with a fresh 355 4-bolt short block. When I picked it up I got 2 pickup truck's worth of parts and the rolling hull on the trailer. The car had no interior in it whatsoever but big piles of parts. I did a body-off, blasted and painted everything, rebuilt every system, did many upgrades to steering, brakes, etc. I even incorporated several improvements from the Chevy Power Manual. I put the body back on about 2 years ago, then tackled some of the interior, putting the dash back in and adding a Vintage Air Sure Fit system while I was there. Recently I decided to get some of the interior (Firethorne) put in just so I could visibly see some progress and feel better about the car. Now comes the frustration: I swear whoever removed the interior only had a fire axe in his toolbox. Every piece of plastic, the corners and screw holes are broken off or ripped clean through. Who does that? Also, none of the hardware was bagged and tagged, I got coffee cans full of screws. I had to buy a full interior hardware kit just so I would know what goes where. Why would somebody work like that? Surely the guy I bought it from had planned to put it back together some day, how did he expect that to go? Understand, I knew the interior was going to be the toughest part of this project but I never expected that a cave man with an axe had taken the car apart. MAN!!
OK, rant over, thanks for listening. I'm heading to the shop to try and glue some more of this plastic stuff back together so that it might actually hold a screw and stay attached to the car. Carry on-
Peter

 

Ow-ow-ow!! Whoa dude. My ears still hurt. Simmer down now.

Someday you will be sitting in a lawn chair behind your car at a car show. Someone will walk up, peak at the engine, peak at the interior and reply:
"Nice Car Man ! You do the work?"

The blood sweat & tears will all be worth it.

 

Sounds like you bought Bubba's car. Hang in there. You'll eventually be glad you did. When you start to get that aggravating feeling, step back and take a break. It'll all be worth it. Good luck and Happy New Year!
Duane

 

His name was BUBBA (the previous owner.) it never ceases to amaze how people treat things. We have all experienced this at some level or another when working on these 40-50 year old cars. Totally understand where you are coming from. Also impressed by the amount of work you have put into your car so far - do you have another thread showing what you've done? We'd all be interested to see it.

 

If it was going to be easy he would have reassembled it himself and you wouldn't have got it for $2000.

 

Cheapta…….hang in there. Take a damaged piece that won't be noticeable. Try different methods to repair the holes and cracks.
Maybe one of those "plastic welders" could work.

 

This^^^ , as well , just focus on the good things , a RUST FREE 76 with a new short block ,brother , you are way ahead of most $2000 projects.

 

Thanks for talking me off the ledge, guys! My son suggested a plastic welder, too, I think I'll go the HF tomorrow and see what I can get. I'm calming down now, think I'll have a little Jim Beam and ginger ale and plan my next shop session! Happy New Year!
Peter

 

I'm anxious to see this car now . You'll get there bud!

 

I was a mechanic for five years, and some of the work coming into the shop was to fix what the owner had botched up.
You wouldn't believe some of the things people did to their cars.
I bought my '76 for a good price, knowing it would need some work. Yup, there's more to do than I thought, but I'll still be about $4,000 ahead of the game, and I know what the quality of the parts and workmanship is.
You sound determined, you'll get there, and then you'll enjoy driving it.

 

I ALWAYS find beer helps................................... ..

 

Perhaps the POs plan was not to reuse the interior, so they did not car how they got it out. Or the PO graduated from The Bubba school of interior design!!!!!

What aggravates me even more is when people pay "Corvette" specialty shops to do the repairs and not a single screw matches or is correct??? Its use what ever I reach and find. I am not sure who I am more made at the owner who accepts and PAYS for such shabby work or the shop that preforms it.
Ike

 

sounds more like Thorazine may be called for. I fix copiers for a living. I frequently find myself using my soldering iron to repair broken plastic parts. You need a hunk of the correct plastic to use as filler. Then you need to cut into the part fairly deeply to get it melted so that the filler plastic would you have previously melted and stuck on the end of the soldering iron can correctly attach not just blob on top of the piece you're trying to repair. Practice on some junk 1st. Epoxy may get you better results.

 

Worst case, you could be buying used parts to replace the hacked up pieces. That's what I did, because I only had a shell of a car, that had no interior whatsoever. Fortunately, it was a black interior, so even mixing and matching made it look OK, though, nothing near 'Factory' fresh. It takes patience and perseverance to work on (and own) a C3 Corvette. I was frustrated beyond belief, but after awhile, I just gave up on feeling that way and approached the jobs (that never end, even now) with that P&P attitude (Patience and Perseverance) and things seem to go easier. I'll walk away before I get frustrated, which is rare, these days. Now, it's 'whatever it takes', because my ' 74 is my long term love and she loves me, like I love her.

 

Man that sounds like a situation! And one that was similar to mine when I bought my 80. I've practically had to replace every nut and bolt on the car. Frankly its where I've found the biggest savings...going to a good hardware store and buying new hardware (smartly) from them rather than getting the crazy overprice screws and such from Ecklers or wherever. The broken plastic pieces are a bit tougher to source cheaply.

 

Dont waste your money on the harbor freight plastic welder. Total junk. There is a product that Ive had some success with. Its called plastex. Check out Amazon. Works great on motorcycle abs plastic, and Ive used it with varying success on the Corvette interior. But, you fix one piece and it cracks in another location. Crap. Sometimes you have to just buy the new part.

 

My buddy and I would work on his Vettes, or my Mustangs. Whenever I take something off I tag it and bag it, always have. Dad taught me that a long time ago. However, my bud would fill up coffee cans with screws, etc. I always made fun of him, his car, his way. He'd make fun of me plodding along tagging stuff. I never could figure out how he did it, but he always seemed to end up with the right screws on whatever we were working on. Of course, he is as close to a rocket scientist as you can be, working on shuttle aero designs, and such at work. Completely brilliant, and almost photographic memory. I always thought anyone less of a genius would never remember what screws went with what. OP, I think you got the genius wannabe,

 

I have fixed plastic parts using the following technique.

First, I use superglue to stick the parts together. I learned long ago when I was messing around with remote controlled airplanes about super glue and a product called Zip Kicker. We would make a repair with super glue and spray Zip Kicker on it. The Kicker would remove the oxygen from the super glue area and cure the glue instantly. I ran out of Kicker years ago, but the lack of oxygen inside a super glue joint usually cures it reasonably well and quickly. Super glue is pretty brittle and will break pretty easily, so after I glue the joint, I wipe the uncured glue off of the surface (don’t get it on your hands or you’ll have an entirely new set of problems) and clean it up as best I can. Remember, any super glue that is in the presence of oxygen will remain “wet” for a looooong time.

After I have cleaned up the super glue, I use a specialized glue that was inspired by a dental glue and is cured with ultra-violet light. It comes in a tube that has a UV light included. I run a bead of that along the repair on the surface (both sides) and cure it with the UV light. It takes about 10 or 15 seconds.

Once I have a solid repair with the UV product, I sand it flush with the surface that I’m working on. It cures clear and after sanding is usually barely noticeable, if at all. It can be painted if need be and the combination of the two types of adhesives usually makes for a reasonably strong repair.

One name of the UV product is Bondic and you can find it on Amazon.