Hi all new to the forum. I recently purchased a 1976 t top 4 speed that has been sitting for 25 years. I am sure I will have plenty of questions as I dig into this jewel. So far it needs brakes rotors and lines/hoses. Was able to get it running with a new fuel pump and pulling out of a gas can. I can already see the brakes are going to be fun. And it looks like the hood will need to come off to remove the radiator???

 

I am going to move this to C3 General for some assistance.

And welcome to the forum.

 

You can pull the hood to get the radiator out but you don't have to. I swapped out my radiator in my 77 did not pull the hood off. Only thing I've had to pull the hood off for was pulling the engine out.

 

I recently tackled this on a 78...don't forget the master cylinder, otherwise, it may contribute to problems down the road. Plenty of suggestions on the forum, do a search.

I removed the radiator from my 78 without removal of the hood. You may have to figure out if the radiator is heavy-duty or standard, which could make a difference.

 

You have no idea, my friend. Buy DOT3 in the 55 gal. drum when you start bleeding brakes. Five years in and I’m STILL not happy with the pedal feel on my 77, but I have other fish to fry at the moment. It stops, and that’s good enough.

Seriously, search the C3 forum on brakes - you will be reading for hours. Hopefully you can avoid many of the headaches we encountered by learning from others adventures.

 

Thanks everybody. Found out it is an early vette after buying the radiator and new support. I will post some pictures as I get it road worthy!

 

I am finishing up on a coil over rear suspension install with new trailing arms from Van Steel. This job included rebuilding the rear calipers and replacing some brake lines along with finding a problem with the master cyl. A tool I found to be extremely helpful was referred by many in reading about brake jobs... Motive power bleeder. It has helped identify problem areas of my brake system which saved time and guessing. One of my bleeder screws was still letting brake fluid leak even though it was wrench tight and I also found a front caliper leaking which will be the next area of attention. The pressure bleeder proved to be worth every penny.

 

Here's some background...posted elsewhere on the forum.

 

Brother, when I did my brakes on my 76 I did the whole thing...it started with a distribution block that was "weeping" thru the bottom seal. The rebuild kit was about 10 bucks, broke off a dental pick trying to get the valve out... Long story short, my 10 dollar fix ended up being about a $1200 brake job. New rotors, new front hubs (couldn't get the rotors off, literally welded together with rust, even after breaking every drill bit I owned trying to get the rivets out, lol). The lines would break off, so I ended up with everything from the master all the way to the rears replaced. READ HERE - the one thing I did NOT do was the power booster. After getting it all together I had almost no brakes, and a hiss in the cabin, which meant the booster needed replacing. Had to take the drivers seat out but replaced that booster and now I have really, really good brakes. My suggestion to you is do the booster when you do everything else, otherwise you have to disconnect the master.... I didn't have to rebleed everything because I could push the master just far enough back to replace that big booster on the firewall. But, after painting everything up and getting it in nicely, I had to bend them out of the way to replace the booster.... save yourself some irritation and replace the booster also!
EDIT - Welcome to the forum! There are awesome people here who jump thru hoops to help!