So I've been stripping every part (bumper supports, leaf hanger brackets, etc.) now that the frame is done. Everything gets the wire wheel or Evaposrust and then the Afterblast. or Self-Etching Primer, then some Semi-Gloss Black (Usually Duplicolor). The bottom of the car is looking pretty clean, now. I have a little fiber glass work to do tomorrow, then a little touch up spray over the newly improved glass and that part of the project should be a wrap.



Luckily for me the car came with a new gas tank and a new radiator, though the radiator support and front crossmember were shot and needed replacements.






As you can see, those pieces were way beyond repair.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day, everyone.

 

This pandemic has obviously thrown a few wrinkles at us all, and it certainly played a part in stalling my project. It's been quite a while since I updated progress on my 1970 highly optioned coupe resto, so without further ado, I'll jump back into it.

The birdcage replacement proved to be more labor intensive that I had anticipated, but all in all it turned out pretty well, I think.
As I said earlier in the thread, the passenger side of the top crossmember was swiss cheese -- actually worse. So, I braced it, took measurements, cut out the rot, ground down the surfaces, and prepped it for welding, etc.


Then new corners and a new crossmember were welded into place, excess weld was ground off, and the the pieces were painted. I've shown some pretty rough welding here, as I'm strictly a novice, but after grinding and grinding some more, I'm pretty happy with the results. I had to keep telling myself this is not an exposed area that had to be perfect anyway.











It ain't pretty. It ain't perfect. But it also isn't rusty!

 

Absolutely! I'd be very happy with the way that turned out! Regards, LowSporty

 

Thanks for the compliment, LowSporty.

 

After the body was lowered back on to the painted frame, and after the birdcage replacement/repair, after running new stainless fuel and brake lines, I tackled the suspension and breaking system. The booster and reservoir were in good shape, so I just cleaned those up, made all the necessary connections and installed my Wilwood replacements.

As you can see I put on new shocks and springs as well as replaced all the bushings with poly. She should be a whole lot smoother now.

Stripped and repainted part like the dust shields and sway bar were put back on, wheel bearings redone, and I came to the realization that I really like putting pieces back on more than I like breaking it all down. This was fun.





There are a few things worth noting here that were difficult for me (again, I'm no expert). The "direct replacement" Wilwood kit wasn't exactly complete. There is a portion of the rear brake line that needed to be ordered separately which hung me up for a bit.

And there are several posts about how to properly bleed this kit that show others frustrations, as well. But when I got it all together, it certainly looked good. I have no idea right now how much of an improvement the stopping power it actually provides, since winter roads keep me from testing it. From what I understand, and the reason I bought 'em, is that they are a whole lot better.


This is where the missing line was needed. So, for anyone using these Wilwood kits, order the line when you order the calipers and rotors and you'll be good.





At this point, I remember thinking. Now, it's starting to come together.

 

Nice progress and good to see you back.
Keep us posted.

 

Congratulations, your build is coming along nicely and looks fantastic.

I am using, or have used in the past, most of the products you mentioned. I recently tried Evapo-Rust GEL and that works pretty well for vertical surfaces that are hard to get off the car and difficult to reach with wire bushes, wheels, or Dremel tools. Put it on, wait for 1-2 hours, wipe off. Happy with this product so far. No odor and water cleanup which is a plus.

Love the pictures of your son helping. Brought back some great memories working on cars with our two boys when they were little.

https://www.google.com/search?q=evap...hrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Nice work.

 

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It's good to be back, OldCarBum. I'll try to be a regular here again... try to restore some normalcy in life while restoring this old ride.

 

I gotta try that evaporust gel. Great recommendation. Thank you, KS69Coupe.

 

Great capture of your progress my friend! Your machine is lookin mighty fine brudda!!!!!

Terry

 

Thanks, Hooah! Your help, praise, presence, and expertise is always welcome. Happy New Year, everyone.

 

I recently finished the sound and heat dampening parts of the project and thought I'd share a few observations and pictures.

First the sound deadening:

While Dynamat Extreme seems to be the industry standard, I found Noico (which is considerably cheaper) to be more than adequate. As you can see in the pictures, I used both in an effort to see if there were significant differences / if the Dynamat expense was really worth the extra. Admittedly the foil backing of Noico is a bit thinner and more prone to split when stretched than the Dynamat is, but to me it was a non issue as I was covering it all with heat dampening anyway. It's my understanding that the butyl/ tarry sticky stuff is essentially what stops the noise anyway. Both had a basically equal stickiness. (Reminder: Be sure to wipe the areas with Acetone before application and you'll get better adhesion; the cut edges of this foil stuff is extremely sharp, so be careful not to run a finger along them, and a good roller is well worth the money.)

If you look in the footwells, you can see where the Noico split easily. I think that was more a product of the installer (me) working the material too tightly than the product being inferior in any way.





I did wrap basically everything in the cab with this first layer of dampening, though I don't think that's necessary. According to Jared Zimmerman of "Car Fix," a big patch in larger panels is all that's necessary to dull the sound / limit vibration. He used the drum analogy to effectively illustrate how that resonance is affected without totally covering the area. It was with this in mind that I only put a large patch on the doors. There, I was a little more concerned with limiting weight. Additionally, I didn't run the sound dampening under the pedal area in the driver side wheel well, as past experience showed me that this space gets tight once you add the heat dampening payer and the carpet. (It was more important to me to limit the heat on the feet than the sound from that area.

 

How much additional weight would be added to each door if you applied sound deadening material to the complete surface of each door instead of adding just the large patch?

 

For the heat dampening, I ordered a pre-cut kit from VetteNuts, a company I discovered as a C5 owner. The owner Mark is a very nice, helpful guy. So I gave it a shot. I was not disappointed. Since the kit had pre-cut, labeled pieces, it made installation much easier.

I used a roll of Reflectix from Lowe's when I did this heat reduction to my 75 and found it to be effective in limiting the heat, but it was thicker than this material and crunchy as the cells between the foli collapsed. This similar construction foil covered cellular insulation from VetteNuts kit has no crunch, leading me to believe it would continue to protect against the heat even after the pressure of occupant weight settles over it.

I used 3M Super 77 adhesive spray (really good stuff) and foil insulation tape to cover the seems. While I'm sure it's not perfect I was much more careful to go high into the footwells and completely cover the trans tunnel to eliminate as much cockpit heat as possible. I also found it useful to lay some light weights across the bigger areas to help the adhesive set.






While the Reflectix would have been much cheaper (about $30 a roll as opposed to $150+ for the kit), I found the VetteNuts kit to be worth the extra cost. Just my opinion, but in retrospect, I would do it exactly this way again. The kit had all the pieces and good fitment and being pre-cut saved a ton of time.

 

Hard to say exactly OldCarBum. If I had to guess, maybe another 6 or 7 pounds with the Dynamat Extreme. They do make a door kit, but it's just less pieces, not pre-cut. The additional weight on the door hinges and the additional time of cutting around all the holes in the door convinced me to just put a big patch there.

(I'm not trying to save weight for any speed purpose as this is more of a pro-touring project. I just figured the juice wasn't worth the squeeze in this respect.)

 

After I finished up the sound and heat deadening, I needed to replace the rear deck drain hoses. Mine were completely shot. 50 year old rubber doesn't really keep the water out, at least not in this case.

I ordered the hoses and stainless steel covers for inside the wheel well and riveted them in. Pretty simple job really. But pretty important.




The corvette tax got me again, as a pair of tubes and a pair of covers was $75+. At least the original clamps were there. They'd have probably been a hundy each.

But at least now whatever is in the back of the car won't get soaked.

 

I realized when I went back through this thread that I hadn't shown much of the work done to the undercarriage, so I'll add a few shots here.

I did replace with new or refresh every bolt, not just body mounts. I repeated the process I outlined early in the thread of Evaporust then AfterBlast on all the hardware I could safely reuse and put in new Grade 8 hardware when necessary.

The bottom side doesn't look brand new -- still some work to do on the control arms -- but man, does it ever look a lot better. Especially in the front where the new radiator support is. When I got this old girl, that front end was pretty rotted out.




I also had to do a little fiberglass repair to the front end. It looks a lot better, but one more coat will be needed soon to repair the cracks, gouges, etc before primer.

 

Thanks!
I was also thinking weight on the door and hinges.

 

Now that the cockpit is protected against noise and heat, next on the checklist is under the hood. But first a note on the hood: I have liked the 67 big block hood from the first time I ever saw one -- so much so in fact that I drove 10 hours round trip to buy this one. When I paint the car this summer (after a few delays already), I'll shoot the original hood, as well. (Just in case a FAR in the future buyer would prefer the original look).

Here's the link to the thread on the hood quest and purchase. That was a fun day, despite the long drive.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...i-m-crazy.html





As for the engine... It's a 69 Camaro or Chevelle small block which needs some serious love. My first thought is to pull it and drop an LS3 in there, but finding one that doesn't require a lottery win and finding someone in my area to put it in or help me put it in has been a challenge. I've done a lot of stuff on this car "out of order," so I guess it wont be anything new to wait to do an engine swap until well after paint. Now, I'm thinking that I should just change out the gaskets, change the plugs, throw a new air cleaner on it, and REALLY clean it up. I already put the new radiator and fan back in, purchased the chrome distributor cover, etc. So it looks like that's the direction I'm headed.

It ran strong when I bought it and I'm pretty sure it's been cammed up. She's pretty quick and has a nice lope to her. What would you guys do?