At the encouragement of my friends I am posting a quick update of my latest fun filled project.
I purchased a 1969 rear clip with bird cage and frame combination from a gentleman and it came with a lot of extra parts.
My main goal for the 69 purchase was to salvage the rear clip; salvage and restore the bird cage; salvage and restore the manual frame; and salvage and restore as many of the parts as possible. That effort began about three weeks ago. Here was the starting point for this effort.




With the help of Bob K. we carefully removed the rear clip from the birdcage and have it separated now.


A bit more effort but fun to complete I removed all the fiberglass from the convertible bird cage and have now assessed the cage for repair and restoration. It has some areas (rear pockets and front rail) showing the typical signs of rot and rust. Those will all be repaired. I left the front firewall on the bird cage for now but it will be removed in the next couple of weeks. "Fiberglass over metal hides rust".


The frame (not shown here) has four areas in need of repair but they are not what I would call at all serious and the frame I would rate a 7 out of 10. I will show pictures of it, just didn't take a full picture of it to post yet. It has been marked and is ready for tram gauge measurements and repair now. All repair parts have been ordered from Paragon Corvettes and Zip Corvette and I am awaiting those parts to begin the restoration of the bird cage and the frame.

I am thrilled to be able to save this 69 from the boneyard and hope one day to know it has helped other cars get back on the road. The end goal for this one is not yet known but I assure you it will be handled with care and respect because, well, its a 69 convertible and they are not building them any longer.

Thanks for letting me share. Please do let me know if there are pictures or particular information I can post that would be of help to any of you taking on this same work, or just informational content, be glad to assist if I can.

David S. Howard
AllVettes4Me

 

Looking forward to watching this project. I will be able to learn much viCARiously with you at the helm, have enjoyed your other jobs immensely. Thank you, Regards, Mark

 

Yea this will be a fun one for us David. You are going where very few have gone before!😎

 

Those are great pics of the body on and off the birdcage. A lot easier to show folks than to explain it

 

Cool project!!

Any learning or advice to share for getting the rear clip off?

 

nice thread
did you cut the back of the floor off the rear clip or is there a seam there that you split?

 

Look forward to seeing more David.
Enjoy !

 

Looking forward to see this one come back to life.

 

Three things I learned with this one, yes. First, rivets hold everything together. Find them all and slowly drill them out. Then a little heat and careful prying pulled the panels away from the adhesives. Once the rivets were out and the panel adhesive gave way the rear just came off the birdcage smoothly. Both Bob K. and myself were surprised how easy it was to remove.
I hope this helps.
David

 

We followed the seam up the sides of the floor and then wound up cutting straight across just in front of the metal supports. I can get a picture of the cut out floor piece we removed, it is in my garage now; as well as the birdcage floor opening if that would help. Once the floor was out the panels over the rocker panels were pretty easy to remove. It was the removal of the fiberglass over the rocker panels that revealed the rot near the front, and the back, of the rocker panel. That is where the repair on the birdcage will be taking place. I can photograph that as well today when I move the birdcage into my center bay for photos. I'll try to capture the damage so you all can see the "BEFORE" damage and then again after the repair. That work?
Let me know.
David

 

Me too. I'll do my best to record the process. If you want to see something specific please let me know.
David

 

 

The repair I’m eager to see is on the rocker and the attaching points to the front and rear pillars. Thanks David

 

Thanks for the info, I removed my donor vert rear clip for my 69 L68 project off the rear tub so only the rear deck/fenders and rear tail light panel were removed in one piece. I thought it was a lot of work to separate those pieces in one assembly from the rear tub.

Looks like you did it smarter than I did, and yes would love to see photos if convenient. Thanks!

 

You're a much more courageous man than I lol.
FYI, CSC Manufacturing in Rocky River Ohio has all the parts that compose the birdcage, and has been reproducing them for, at least, 20 years if you should need any.
I have no affiliation with them, but saw their things at Carlisle years ago. They look to be accurately made with quality.
Good luck with your project.

 

Thats a truckload of extra parts! Like you said....This should be fun!

 

Might make a lot more sense to load up those rusty parts and take them to be 'dipped' for stripping. The frame and birdcage too. Save ya a lot of time and work versus blasting. Maybe that's your plan..

 

Long post reply, sorry.

You know Mark, that would make a lot of sense, and I would seriously consider that if I could find a company near me that does dipping. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate one, but I will continue to look. So let me tell you briefly what the plan is that I am following at the moment. First, the parts have all been sorted and those that I believe could be brought back have been routed to one of three processes. Process one is a Simple Green soaking station which is used to clean parts that are either very dirty or very greasy. I actually have two dipping tubs (25 gallon totes containing 15 gallons @ 50% dilution) that are used for the above category. The second process is similar, but it contains 15 gallons of rust inhibitor used to soak rusty parts. Some of the parts are now soaking in that solution. The third process is media blasting or sand blasting parts that look to have damage but needs to be confirmed. Each process is running independent of the others but the goal is the same, to locate and determine if a given part is worthy of further attention, or disposal. That is how I approached what I call the small parts from this purchase. By small I mean anything lighter than the front hubs with rotors still attached. Heavier or bigger than that and they are treated as big parts, just to clarify.

Now for the four big items I got with the purchase are 1) the rear clip; 2) the bird cage; 3) the full frame; and 4) the front firewall. To really assess the metal of the bird cage I had to first detach the rear clip; then remove all of the fiberglass panels covering the bird cage; then remove the firewall from the bird cage.

Still with me? Sorry it is so long an answer, just trying to walk through my thinking process.

The rear clip came off first and it is sold and heading to a better place.
The panels then were removed from the birdcage and those are stacked now for photo graphing for folks that may need patch panels.
The firewall is still attached to the front of the bird cage and I will get assistance from my body and frame shop in removing that correctly.
The birdcage has some issues that I want to fix and get the cage back to like new or better than new condition.
The frame was completely inspected and areas of repair and improvements noted. That will be handled by my metal working frame shop.
They are wizards are metal repair and they will be getting their fingerprints all over this frame and this birdcage and they have handled all the frames I have touched in the past.

So that is the multiple path plan moving forward. Some items have already been cleaned, blasted, and powder coated. Some items are in the earlier phases of either cleaning or rust removal. Many items have been deemed too far to recover and those have all been respectfully recycled.

I have a very nice Excel spreadsheet detailing each part and the current status to keep it all from getting overwhelming or confusing. I try to stay organized, doesn't always work, but I try.

So yes, I agree, if dipping were an option I would be all over that process. Until I can locate a dipper I have to work through the parts as best I can.

I hope this makes sense and I appreciate the thoughts.

Thank you to you all.

David Howard
AllVettes4Me

 

It was a lot of parts but I did manage to sort through all of them and deal with what came with my purchase. It has been fun and I hope to have this all completed by the end of January. Not something I normally do but the clip, cage, and frame were just too good of an opportunity to pass up the effort.
More soon.
David Howard
AllVettes4Me

 

Thank you very much, I do appreciate that lead. Most of the suppliers have them but I suspect they buy from the people you have mentioned because you almost always have to wait for them and they are on backorder. I will reach out to them and see what they have, so thank you again for that lead.
Best regards,
David Howard
AllVettes4Me