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Well today was a grounding kind of day. i first made sure all 8 body bolts were snugged down tight. Then I got out the air grinder to clean off the spots where grounds need to get through the powder coating.
As corroded as this body ground was, I’m going to guess it wasn’t doing much. Cleaned both ends for better electrical flow.
And who knew that the exhaust was supposed to be grounded? That’s a rhetorical question, because I never knew that. There are actual ground holes in the frame for this. I bought the ground strap kit and those 2 were included. News to me!
I’m trying to get the stuff under the car towards the inside done first before getting outer parts on and realizing I’ve cut access off to the inner parts. Not that these cars are difficult to work on, but still…
Well today was a grounding kind of day. i first made sure all 8 body bolts were snugged down tight. Then I got out the air grinder to clean off the spots where grounds need to get through the powder coating.
As corroded as this body ground was, I’m going to guess it wasn’t doing much. Cleaned both ends for better electrical flow.
And who knew that the exhaust was supposed to be grounded? That’s a rhetorical question, because I never knew that. There are actual ground holes in the frame for this. I bought the ground strap kit and those 2 were included. News to me!
I’m trying to get the stuff under the car towards the inside done first before getting outer parts on and realizing I’ve cut access off to the inner parts. Not that these cars are difficult to work on, but still…
Nice work. There are also 2 ground straps that are located at the #1 body mount/Side vent location, frame to birdcage. Along with 1 ground drivers side rear gas tank area for the rear tail/back up lighting I believe.
Not sure but on my 70' there are 2 foam inserts between the birdcage & frame by the #1&2 mounts for moisture protection.
Hope some of this helps...... Ground Everything... lol Arrow points to foam piece Foam insert between #1 & 2 mount Ground strap between birdcage & frame located in this area/ strap looks similar to the exhaust bbut has a clip on one end.
Nice work. There are also 2 ground straps that are located at the #1 body mount/Side vent location, frame to birdcage. Along with 1 ground drivers side rear gas tank area for the rear tail/back up lighting I believe.
Not sure but on my 70' there are 2 foam inserts between the birdcage & frame by the #1&2 mounts for moisture protection.
Hope some of this helps...... Ground Everything... lol Arrow points to foam piece Foam insert between #1 & 2 mount Ground strap between birdcage & frame located in this area/ strap looks similar to the exhaust bbut has a clip on one end.
I’ll have to check out that radiator ground. I put in the 69 core support in, so I’ll see if they are different from the 68 for grounding. But I think I have most of the others. Previous owner put a piece of wire in for the antenna ground, so I put the copper strap back in. I think the 68 only has the one birdcage to #1 body mount ground strap (in my first picture).
Besides these, on my 73 there was also a small ground wire I found that connects to the radiator support on the drivers side just under the radiator and another at the rear window defroster blower.
I would replace the brake lines with stainless steel. Same with the fuel lines.. you'll never have to touch them again. If you ever might go to efi i would maybe change the 1/4 inch return line to whatever the efi companies usually use...3/8 maybe..
I don’t think the SS is worth the extra money because the OP will never outlive the factory steel lines. Every penny saved is worth it.
What a pain that was. I had to lift the nose of the body to get the core support bolts to line up. Definitely a 2 man job. I attempted to do this alone, but that wasn’t going to happen. A couple of them needed a tap run though them to shave a little fiberglass off to get the bolts to line up. But it’s in. One big piece back in. I also got the master cylinder and all of the lines in to the proportioning valve.
oh it’s not over because wait until you install the bumper support bracket to have a proper orientation.
Oh I’m already dreading that. My car was hit in the left rear corner (before I owned it). I took bent bumper brackets out and straightened out a bent bumper. So who knows how the new ones (un-bent) will go back in.
Steady forward progress. Both front bumper braces are in place now. The drivers front fought me more than the passenger, but we are almost 1968 front crash ready now. Shiny new parts and bolts that nobody will ever see again, except me. Now time to start on the front center bumper brace.
Starting to look like a Corvette. Got the rear exhaust panel on and the left bumper. I’m loving all of the new fasteners and support brackets. The originals were bent on the drivers side from a hit that was fixed before I got the car. Of course, I found it myself. But things are moving along nicely.
Starting to look like a Corvette. Got the rest exhaust panel on and the left bumper. I’m loving all of the new fasteners and support brackets. The originals were bent on the drivers side from a hit that was fixed before I got the car. Of course, I found it myself. But things are moving along nicely.
And we finally have both rear bumpers on. I had to relocate my ”factory” electronic fuel pump to get it out of the way of one of the bumper brackets. But not a big deal. Again, fun with lining up 50+ year old car parts, getting the bumpers on the car. I still have to finish plumbing up the fuel return line. And I just might have to get the exhaust pipes in and the Corvette rear lettering on so it looks more like a real Corvette.
Oh and a quick tip for you 68 guys. You need to put the reverse lights in before you put the bumper bracket in place. It’s not possible to get the reverse light in place while that bracket is there. Maybe I’ll save someone down the road about 15-30 minutes of screwing around with removing bumper brackets after installing them. Otherwise, I’m just making fun of myself.
You have done a masterful job on that 68 frame, but I have one question. Since you worked so hard, why didn’t you go the extra mile to the rivet the rad and body mount supports? It s very easy to do.
You hav done a masterful job on that 68 frame, but I have one question. Since you worked so hard why didn’t you go the extra mile the rivet the rad and body mount supports on? It s very easy to do.
Oh, you just had to point that out, didn’t you? Well, first of all, none of the holes lined up (surprise, surprise). Bolt holes or rivet holes. But the biggest issue is that I couldn’t fix that support plate in one position. I kept having to shift it and even bent it a little to get it to line up with the core support bolts. That core support was definitely the most difficult piece to get back in the car, by far (besides maybe putting the body on the frame itself). So with the struggle of getting the core support in, the rivets got overlooked.
So yeah, mostly I just forgot. I was so happy to have that core support in place that I didn’t think to go back and attempt the rivets. And now that you pointed it out, I just might have to go back and get them. That will be a huge pain in the ***, though, because they mount from the inside out. Might be easier when I have more of the front end back together and the front bumper is back on the car.
So a little custom work today. Since the ‘69 core support doesn’t have a wire hole in it, I had to bust our the hole saw and make my own. And because this core support is double walled, I had to buy another grommet to protect it. First, I had to drill the core support
Then I had to file those burrs off. The new “original” grommet is rubber, and it had to be trimmed to fit around the double steel support. A couple trims and it fit in fairly easily. And I put the original (from my old car) grommet on the back side. Since the hole is now contoured around those folds, the old grommet didn’t friction fit, so I had to run a bead of silicone around it to get it to stick.
Once that silicone dries, I can work on getting the front wiring done.
I also got both reverse lights in. Not a huge deal, but since I needed to remove the bumper brackets to get those in, it wasn’t simple either. But progress is progress. The rear bumpers are now fully in and tightened down.
You have done a masterful job on that 68 frame, but I have one question. Since you worked so hard, why didn’t you go the extra mile to the rivet the rad and body mount supports? It s very easy to do.
So does this work? Yeah, I know it’s pop rivets, but they work the same, right? I couldn’t knowingly leave the rivets out once you pointed it out to me. It was a real pain in the *** to get the radiator core support out of the way, but now it’s done more right.
Progress has been very slow recently. But I finally got motivated to get some small things done. And I finally have a fully functioning parking brake, after never having one before. Probably needed new drum shoes, and I would just park it in gear. That was my parking brake. But now I have all stainless parking brake hardware and cables. Got the handle installed. Yeah, hard to get a picture of the new cable in the brake handle.
And here’s the new hardware underneath, with the new seat belt safety cable in place too. Unfortunately, the new brake cable doesn’t leave a whole lot of extra threads to account for future cable stretching. Will probably need to use some washers. But that’s a future problem.
I also did get the front bumper back on, with new bumperettes. Not surprisingly, the original bumperettes were rotted nearly all the way through. So I spent the money on new ones.
Still working on the interior and need to get the radiator in, and once it’s in, I can try to fire the engine up. So it’s taking quite a long time, but forward progress is being made.
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
