it was actually Corvette Conspiracy. Once I get my body off, I’ll be taking my differential and half shafts to them to rebuild and refinish too.

 

Looks great, keep up the excellent work!

 

Agree, I have installed a 69+ radiator in a couple or three 68's. Just finished the last one. You need a 69+ radiator support and a 69+ front vee frame support (or drill a big & small hole in your 68 front vee support ) and fab a small tunnel w/cover in the left side inner fender (like the 69+) to get wiring to the head lights. Plus trim the front of the 68 frame just a little bit to get all to fit. I splurge and get DeWitts radiators. I think you can not have too much cooling capacity in a C3, but maybe that is just in the South, ha!

You are doing some impressive work! I also find lots of foul language and an insane level persistence gets all C3 jobs to the finish line. Good luck and all the best!

One more item:
I can also see I'm going to have to fabricate some kind of custom bracket for the top of the fan shroud if I want my 68 shroud to fit this new 69 radiator core support.

I wanted to do the same thing on this 68 with a 69+ radiator I just finished and could not figure out how to cleanly support the 68 barrel shroud at the bottom since the 68 design is supported by a couple of angle clips to the bottom sheet metal shield (which now would not fit back in). Or at least not by fabing some odd clips/supports and whatnot. So I ended up getting a 69+plastic radiator shroud that is designed to fit and it looks good and like it is supposed to look (to me anyway). If you find a good solution to support the 68 barrel shroud, let us know.

 

I already bought the 69 core support and the 69 front crossmember, that has the core support bolt holes already in it. But yea, I was wondering how to handle the front wiring harness. I was thinking about drilling a hole in the 69 core support, like the 68 has, but haven't done anything yet. I am intent on keeping my original steel fan shroud, and may have to fab up some center supports to get it to align properly, but I'm OK with that. I haven't dealt with that front lower shield yet, and assumed it would go back in, perhaps not. If I figure out how to cut apart that lower shield to get the steel shroud to fit, I will definitely post. But if it gets to be too complicated, I may just buy the plastic 69 shroud and be done with it. Most of the swearing happened trying to get the body bolts out. When the cage nut broke on the right side #3 body bolt, and my hand slammed into the body, there were definitely some choice word to go along with the bloody hand....

 

My neighbor MOM was telling my wife she wonders where her kids learn all this foul language? Me, I do not know. Maybe early training to be in the Navy?

I learned about the tunnel idea from my Vintage Air install for my 68 non a/c Corvette. For a non a/c, you need to cut holes in the RH inner fender and install a shield for the condenser lines.
021068.pdf (vintageair.com)
So I did the same on my 68 with the 69 radiator support on the LH side for the headlight wiring ect. 69+ already has a tunnel formed in the inner fender. I thought it looked better than taking a hole saw to the 69 rad support, plus there was not much space anyway.

I wanted to use my 68 barrel shroud but the lower metal shield would not fit with my DeWitts sbc auto radiator/69+radiator support without bigtime significant modifications. If you figure out a slick way to install the barrel, please let me know.

Good luck and great work! Wish I had bought my 68 20 years ago! Nice Corvette!

 

Project has kind of stalled over the last couple months. Mostly due to the frigid Ohio weather. I was going to wait to pull the rear out of the car until I got the body off the frame, but impatience got the better of me. So this weekend I got the whole rear suspension apart, spring, strut rods, and all the lower rear suspension. I still need to roll the body / chassis out of my garage to pull the body, so I’ll put some 2x4’s as bump stops to keep the trailing arms from bottoming out. But progress, so I’m happy. Now I can take the differential and half shafts out to be rebuilt and refinished, to match the newly rebuilt trailing arms. New cross member has already been purchased so that’s ready to go too. I have quite the collection of new parts laying around ready to go.

 

I just thought I would throw this out there. Now that I got the rear diff and half shafts out of the car, and off to the repair shop, I can now much easier see the damage that led to this frame off restoration. I think I know what was causing that clunk in the rear of my car now. This is repairable, right?

 

Well body finally came off today. Went easier than I expected. Probably took 45 minutes tops. Only one casualty. I forgot to take off the clutch return spring. It’s a little stretched now. But I’ll take it. That was literally the only snag.

Lifting it up



Getting it into the air:


and onto the body dolly.




now my garage is officially stuffed


Now the real fun can begin!

 

Very cool......its an exciting time at this point. As you said, the fun begins.

 

Good job! Now...put some bracing under those #4 rear body mounting areas to prevent stress cracks in the paint

 

Yeah, I’ll have to cut some 2x4’s to support those. It’ll give me something to do tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

 

Cool way to pull the body.
First time I've seen it done that way.

 

Your doing a great job on this 68 . This looks like a later year frame than 74 with the recessed mounts ?

 

I can’t remember all the bastardizarion that was done to this frame. I believe it started as a 76, and the guy I bought it from had the rear frame section from a 72 welded to it. Showed me the receipt. So it is definitely its own frame at this point. I keep calling it a 72, but who knows what the hell it actually is! And now that I have the body off, I can measure to make sure everything lines back up.

 

Yeah , I was going to suggest it had been butchered , but I didn't want to upset you !

You might want to look at that mount I circled , looks like the guy welded a washer onto the top of it . They are cheap to replace , or at least run a tap through it to clean up the threads and put plenty of anti -seize on the bolt when the time comes .

 

I’d always rather hear the truth, if anyone sees anything out of place. No offense would ever be taken!

The cage may have been welded around that nut, but a real, valid, square body nut is in there. I have been able to run a new body mount bolt through it. I’ll have to be careful getting it powder coated. I may just leave an old bolt in it so the threads don’t get clogged and I don’t have to tap out the powder coating.

 

If your going to add old bolts to protect from powder coating , you could do what I saw someone here do , is cut off the hex head and cut a slot in the top , so you have a shaft to hold the shims and to guide the birdcage down so the shims don't disappear , then just use a shorty screwdriver to wind it out .

 

It was a Ford tractor pulling a Corvette body. But it worked very well. Went easier than I expected. I hope it goes back on as easily as it came off!

 

Forum member, David Howard has several threads regarding how to modify later C3 frames to earlier models with great photos and his process of modifying his frames.
Do a search or PM David, AllVettes4Me, and ask him for his advise.
He is a great guy and big contributor to the forum and its members.

 

Funny the weird **** you find when you take the body off the frame. I never even noticed that the previous owner welded a giant piece plate onto the left rear wheel riser on the frame. And I can see why they did it too. I was blissfully unaware that this was even here. At least they did a good job welding the piece of plate all the way along the bottom and top edge.