Bought a broken clock out of a 79 for parts. Robbed the adjuster plate. Got a new **** and made one good clock out of the parts I had on hand.

 

My box from Wilcox finally came! Time to change the front calipers seals to O rings. The drivers caliper is getting replaced cause the one on there had cast bores. I replaced the passenger side with a reman SS sleeved caliper with lip seals but im tired of issues with spongy brakes so here we are. Took the opportunity to properly paint both calipers.

 

New dust caps, new motor mount bolts (ARP) the old bolts were.... gone I guess. I replaced the mounts last year, and during a recent check up I noticed they were all gone. Fixed.

 

Bit more work. Found a lot of junk climate control parts and used them to make one good one along with what I had. My original face was broken and the paint I used never bonded. Also scored a brand new one year only 76 climate display. Painted the center console plate to match.

 

V5.0 on the adjuster and I finally have a winner. Way over designed for heavy duty use and had to create a better tool path for a stronger print but were

there.

 

Lot of little fixes and a few cool upgrades coming up. Less than a month until its time to rebuild my 200-4R and Im very excited. Im gonna keep the 3.08 gear for now and instead of doing the engine this summer Im gonna fix the AC.

 

Update; aiming to fix a ton of little issues before fully aiming for my transmission swap. This week I put a new parking brake console in, with all new hardware, I put correct hardware on my headlight bezels instead of a pile of incorrect screws, and I put new slider covers on the shifter and parking brake. Also I needed to adjust my low blower switch which I did. I put in rear speaker wiring and dyed the speaker grills of my 6x9 kenwoods, and this weekend Im going to work on some MDF boxes for them.

 

I made basic boxes for my 6x9s, and I bought carpet to cover them. I also replaced my lug nuts cause after 45 years, a few were getting round.

 

Carpet’ed my 6x9 boxes today

 

Well done. I am trying to put as much detail into my rebuild as you are (though I do believe you're a few layers deeper haha )

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ld-thread.html

 

Im diggin’ the 74! Nice work on everything. Cool to see that car getting the love it deserves. I love the details on anything I do. Its in my mind a way to make it truly mine. Makes me smile to see each little thing Ive done, even if there is still big hills to tackle lol

 

Update time

My 76 has a vega steering wheel. Many people absolutely hate it, but I never minded having it. Dont get me wrong, I would never go out of my way to buy one, but I didnt think I would go out of my way to get rid of it either….. until I was at work browsing ebay and found an auction for a silver 78’ steering wheel from a pace car. It was in good shape, no rips or damage, but it was faded and dirty. I half heartedly bid on it, and wouldnt you know it, 8 days later I won. I got the wheel, cleaned every inch, prepped it and actually dyed it firethorn red as a bit of an experiment. So far, so good. Could not have been happier with the results. Being my car is a late 76, I decided to base the rest of the parts off the early 77. Course that means all the same parts as the 69-75 and 77-82 T&T columns, but it also means that I needed the spun stainless horn button. I found all the parts, put it all together, and honest I could not be happier. This wheel feels so much better in my hands, and its not sticky like my vega wheel was, its easier to grip, a little thinner and most importantly, it fits the car better.

How it was

Cleaned and ready for dye

All done

Mockup

Installed

 

Much in the same spirit, at work ebay struck again and I was presented with an opportunity to buy a ZZ4 intake with just a few thousand miles for a very good deal. Won the auction, and spent my afternoon today switching intakes. I painted the ZZ4 to hide it, not that it matters though. New bolts are on order as well. The difference between cast iron and aluminum is unreal. ive always heard of CI intakes weighing anywhere from 50-80 lbs and I just didnt realize how real that actually was until I lifted the l48 intake off. The ZZ4 intake weighs about 1/2 of the l48. Unreal. Anyways, got everything swapped out, new gaskets, RTV on the china wall, everything went great. Beforw I pulled it apart, I scribed the distributor so I would know where the rotor had to go. I fired the car up, backed it out and immediately went for a drive on a two lane country road where it kinda ran like it did before. Dont get me wrong, I was in no way expecting the intake to make up for my terrible cam and heads, its merely the tip of the iceberg, but it was very much the same. Kinda lackluster. I put my timing light on it and found out why. Someone had set the initial timing to 4 degrees BTDC which is ridiculous. After several test runs I ended up at 14 DBTDC which the car really seems to like. Bunches more low end torque, chirp shifts at WOT, smooth idle, just great. The intake was a great upgrade, and its only just scratching the surface. Also, it fits under my hood with my stock air cleaner base. Cant ask for much more

All painted up

Mostly disassembled

1/2 way done

Zz4 is so much nicer

Almost reassembled

 

I completely agree! And thank you.

 

Updates

drove home from work one day and the brake booster went out.. easy fix right? Nope. I bought a brake booster off rock auto which in the picture and description was the correct one for 68-76 but they sent me the 77-82 style which for once doesnt fit my car. Ended up buying from CSSB and I am very very happy with the quality of the booster I bought

 

I swapped the huge direct motor starter for a gear reduction ac delco starter that came off a 1996 k2500 big block suburban… rock auto might’ve been having a sale on starters I couldn’t help myself. I did not need that but man am I happy. Jeez I thought it started fast before. I took a picture of the two side by side but I somehow lost the photo.

 

Also;

 

Lots of upgrades and 90,000

 

It was finally time to do one of the major modifications/repairs/upgrades to my car. Remember, there were three. Air conditioning, engine upgrades, transmission swap. I have wanted to do my 200-4R install for over a year now, but CK performance isn't making some of the parts I need right now. I haven't been doing my air conditioning because initially, I wanted to do the engine first, because to my knowledge the condenser has to be removed to get the cam out of the block. I haven't been doing any motor upgrades because…. Jeez, I really like this car right now. It’s super reliable, starts on the first crank and is very well sorted out mechanically. I know I could get that back after the cam and heads, but honestly right now, I just don’t want to mess with it.
So, the first friday of sophomore year, I drove my vette to school. It was 95 ambient 65% humidity out. I was hurting badly by the time I got to school and finally I have had enough of the discomfort in this car.
I went home and started ordering parts. The system is now an R134A conversion, I did this with an old air products 76L-77E evap conversion kit. I figured if I'm replacing most of it, I should replace all of it. I don't need another brake adventure where I try to take the short way out, it never works. So to recap, new condenser, new hard lines, new hoses, new switches, new o rings, new evaporator, new compressor and all new heater box seals.

 

I started to gut my old R12 VIR system and I realized that my overflow tank with its stock short overflow hose has been dumping coolant on my fuel pump, which has caused my main line S hose to become full of cracks. I replaced it and ran a longer discharge hose straight to the ground.





Next I cleared the evaporator housing to keep the factory fiberglass look. I put a new decal on it.


Then I got my compressor and mounted it up. The R4 is a Genuine GM reman from rock auto. (They’re on sale right now 9/1/21). New correct decal on that too. I also had to get new mounting hardware as I lost mine long ago. I tightened up the ac brackets too.


New gatorback belt.


Then I put the evaporator in, with a new butyl rope seal. One of the things I like about old air product’s kit is that the evaporator is a stock 80-82 part and so is the accumulator. I had to modify the vir bracket per the instructions.
Now let's get into one of the two issues with this kit. I had the hardest time getting the accumulator in and had to change their bracket around a few times to make everything work. The instructions have three pictures on them and they are all in black and white which does not help much.

Next up was the suction and discharge hoses, no big issues. I also took this opportunity to change the power steering pump, hoses and control hoses, as well as replace the starter bolts for ones that were a better length and replace the solenoid because I broke it.
Then I put the hard lines in, and the condenser, and I ran into the biggest problem with the kit. The liquid line to the condenser was so out of shape that I basically had to remake it. Obviously some bending is required but in this case the flare was almost 4in from the connection and there was no good way to bend it.