This will be a thread to document what will be my retirement project......bringing back to life a nearly dead 1969 Corvette Convertible. I hope to be still working for a few more years, but this will span into my retirement and give me something to occupy my time and feed my love of these cars! Bought this awhile ago, locally, and the car is now completely and totally disassembled, including all fiberglass off the bird cage. It could NOT be more apart, but I think it is worth saving. The car sat in a barn for over 30 years and suffered the consequences, but has less than 70,000 miles on it. It is in need of a complete rebuild and is exactly what I was looking for at the right price.
It was a low option car and was originally Fathom Green, Black interior with L46 350 small block and 4 speed Muncie M20. The original engine was long gone. Has both hard top and soft top. Manual steering, manual brakes. Non-tilt wheel. Non-AC.
My plan is to restore / rebuild it, staying true to a more original car, with only a few mods. Here is my plan for mods and will see if I stick to it over the years to come. I am building it into my dream car.....IMO the 69 Corvette was the most beautiful Corvette ever built. I will build this to car to my standards,.....and they are pretty high.
- Paint will be black, with either black or red interior. Externally the car will be very stock appearing with undercar exhaust. One exception is going to be a fully functioning L88 hood...because it looks awesome. I will have the silver inserts in the front fender gills, will have 427 emblems on the hood, and of course chrome bumpers. This car is stunning in black. Probably a black soft top. I plan to use the 69 seats, with factory head rests....most likely leather. The interior will be 100% stock appearance....no mods required....GM got it right the first time.
- Engine is going to be a VortecPro 467 big block. I already have the deposit to Mark. He is planning on using a 454 Gen I engine and using his incredible attention to detail and magic to build a big block in the spirit he did the 427 he documented here a few years ago....i.e., build great power and torque with factory parts. LS5 PLUS! It will have stock block, stock oval port heads, crank, rods, etc. It will have a GM high rise intake manifold like the one he used on the 427 build, and the other reason I need the L88 hood. Flat tappet cam, as selected by Mark, and probably stamped rocker arms.for a quiet valve train. What I want is a GM engine, without applying all the aftermarket mods available. Mark Jones has done this type of build before, and the power and torque he extracts is impressive. I asked Mark to document the build here on the forum to show what he can do. It will be dynoed. Will be using stock factory cast iron exhaust manifolds and undercar 2-1/2 exhaust. I already have had Eric from Vintage Musclecars find and rebuild me a 69 correct style Quadrajet that will use the 69 factory choke system. Whatever HP / torque Mark gets out of the engine will be enough for me, and I suspect will be quite exciting to drive.
- Radiator will be an aluminum Dewitts. And I am thinking about going with the Dual Spal electric fans rather than factory clutch fan. I don't have a factory big block shroud, fan or clutch....so I am starting from scratch on parts I would need to buy. My MAIN reason from going electric fans is so I can use a spreader bar, which has proven to be a very noticeable improvement on my other Corvette, and want on this one.
- Transmission is going to be a Jody's Transmission built Autogear M23 4 speed. I have had several conversations with Jody about the best options for this car, and this choice was the conclusion. I considered a TKX five speed, but I really want to avoid straying too far from the original character of the car.....which is very important to me. Considering my driving style, which rarely involves high speed driving or cruising, I think I can live without that fifth gear. And Jody's Autogear 4 speed will be able to handle the torque of the VortecPro engine better than the original M20 Muncie. The Muncie I have is the numbers matching transmission, but this is not a numbers matching build....so the Muncie is up for sale in the classified section. I will take Jody's advise on the best 1st gear ratio given my driving style, the engine, and the rear end.
- Differential is the original out of the car, and has already been rebuilt by Gary Ramadei. I found a set of new 3:36 US Gear gears while they were still available, and Gary applied his exceptional skills and experience to rebuild it with a tuned posi and the new gears. This will make for a solid rear end for the engine and transmission builds.
- Wheels are most likely going to be 17" American Racing Torq Thrust II polished or chrome, with Nitto GT555 tires. I will only go 18" if good performance tires are no longer available.
- Steering will be factory manual steering because I love the Instant response / no play feel and awesome road feedback......one of the best parts of driving my C3 Corvette for me is how the car handles with manual steering. No need for power steering pumps, leaking valves, etc. and more free space around that big block. The original steering box has already been rebuilt by Gary Ramadei. This original box had all good parts, and he had to replace nothing but the consumables. I have an NOS rag joint. Planning to rebuild the factory NON-tilt steering column. If I could find a factory adjustable at a reasonable price, I would consider it. Steering tie rods will be the aftermarket adjustable style versus clamps, with Moog rod ends and HD idler arm.
- Suspension is going to be updated, using some of the better components available, but not straying too far from basic original design. Factory control arms with Ridetech Delrin control arm bushings and Moog ball joints. Moog big block 500 lb coil springs on the front. Front sway bar will be 1-1/8 inch with poly bushings, rear sway bar will be 9/16 inch factory style bar,....also with poly bushings. Rear trailing arms, being built by Gary Ramadei with new Bair's arms. Bilstein HD shocks all around. Rear struts will be adjustable Heim type struts. Rear spring will be 360 lb Vansteel composite, probably with 8 inch bolts to get it low enough. I want a Spreader Bar on the front, but have to find something that will work with the big block engine. These mods above, with the 17 inch modern Nitto performance tires have been proven to be a great combination on my other Corvette, and many others here on this forum have proven to be a MAJOR improvement in handling and really makes the car fun to drive, and works as good as it needs to for street driving.
- Brakes will be factory manual / standard brakes. Calipers will be rebuilt 0-ring calipers with stock style rotors. Gary Ramadei will drill and countersink rotors for screws, rather than rivets. Probably paint the calipers Red or Silver? The car has factory manual brakes, and that is what I will keep it. Just as with manual steering, the road feedback is special, and something that makes the car fun to drive. I have had power brakes on a C3, and they are simply too touchy for me, and masked any feel. The car brakes exactly the same, just requires a very small higher pressure on the pedal. Also avoids having that big ugly booster under the hood, and again....more space around that big block.
- Frame / birdcage are totally down to bare metal at this time. I will be welding between all the stitch welding the factory did on the frame to stiffen up the frame a bit. I will make a doubler repair on the front crossmember to cover up the dents caused by floor jacks. There are some previous repairs made on the lower control arm attach points that I will need to make sure is properly done. Then I will check all the dimensions and squareness. I may add some gusseting on the front per the Power Book, but need to remind myself this will be a street car, not a racer. Once all welding is done, it will be powdercoated. The birdcage will also be checked out and repaired as necessary. I hope to get all this done this summer.
- Body is in pretty good shape, but will be something new for me to tackle. Painting it black will require flawless bodywork......I hope I can do it. I have alot to learn about it.
Well.....that is the plan / summary. I will build the car to high standards, as I have done on motorcycles and cars prior. It cost a pile of money, takes a lot of time, but I enjoy all of it. You have to, or you should never do it. And for me, there is nothing like driving a car that you have rebuilt to your own standards. Buying someone else's work is just not good enough for me.
Here is a picture of the car the day I brought it home.
CONGRATS! Great idea! I did the same thing several years back. Wife & I restored many cars over our 38 years together, but this "retirement toy" was our first Vette. Our 71 coupe was a lot worse than what you`re starting with. but it had good frame & birdcage, and was still numbers matching. I made the goal of driving it on the day of my retirement party! A word of advice though.... all my retired friends were right.... since I retired last year, I`ve been SO busy, I wonder how I ever had time to go to work every day! Here`s a couple shots to inspire you....
I want to add that because of this forum, I have come to know about the great folks out there in this industry, who do excellent work, love what they are doing, and really care about providing quality work.
Gary Ramadei is #1 in the world of Corvette differentials and steering boxes. His attention to detail, combined with his vast experience in this work is as good as it gets. He provides a complete picture history of everything he does, provides any information and explanations for anything you could ask, and he does it all at very reasonable prices. You get way more for your money than he charges.
Jody Haag / Jody's Transmissions is someone who I recently contacted, and had good conversations with. He seems to be like Gary, in his interest in providing a quality product. I have read everything good about him on all the car forums. He spent alot of time going over what he provides, and it is clear he has years of experience and knowledge on the subject of muscle car transmissions.
Eric Jackson / Vintage MuscleCars found and rebuilt a Quadrajet for me, and on the calls I made with him he also shows he is a guy who knows what he is doing and cares.
In today's world, finding good quality people who do good quality work is harder than ever. I am happy that today, people like Gary, Jody and Eric still are doing this work. There is a very common thing to all these guys that I share with, and I am proud of them for who they are, and that I am lucky enough to have found them. They are co-builders in my car.......and the results will show.
Going to follow this one as i am doing something similar with my 70 LS5 convertible. Mark will be rebuilding my LS5 but going a little different than yours, adding Holley EFI and Hyperspark on Torker 2 intake ( should fit stock hood ). Hooker long tubes, Van Steel coil over suspension all the way around, Dewitts radiator with electric fans, TKX 5 speed and Wilwood Brakes. Getting ready to pull the motor to send to Mark next month.
current 4 speed will go on the shelf along with most parts Im pulling of any significance.
CONGRATS! Great idea! I did the same thing several years back. Wife & I restored many cars over our 38 years together, but this "retirement toy" was our first Vette. Our 71 coupe was a lot worse than what you`re starting with. but it had good frame & birdcage, and was still numbers matching. I made the goal of driving it on the day of my retirement party! A word of advice though.... all my retired friends were right.... since I retired last year, I`ve been SO busy, I wonder how I ever had time to go to work every day! Here`s a couple shots to inspire you....
I applaud you. That is a very well thought out build, and you are using terrific people on your engine, tranny, differential and steering components. That is going to be one fun, fast, good handling ride. I will enjoy following this one. Congrats and enjoy the ride!
Great retirement project! I picked up a 1969 as well that will probably my last body off project, so I’m right there with you!
Gary Ramadei has done several steering boxes for me and he’ll get the one in my 1969 as well. As mentioned by others, his work is absolutely first rate… Gary documents everything he does and his attention to detail is second to none. I’ve never had him rebuild a differential, but that might change for my ‘69 as well. Excellent choice to do the work!
Eric Jackson is also outstanding. His restoration work is darn near perfect and all of his carburetors are live tested on a running engine. He’s done a bunch of Holleys for me (4296, 4555, 4801, and 6239) and all (with the exception of the 4296 which hasn’t been installed yet) have run flawlessly.
All I heard was 69 Convertible! Instant sell for me! Please create a thread as you build post lots of pics! Good and bad!
congrats on your choice and find!
Scott
Blasted a bunch of suspension / steering parts yesterday. I have some extras, as you can see in the picture, which will be up for sale in our classified section. I also disassembled two manual brake master cylinders I have. I would like to use one of them because they are originals,.....but, I need to see if the bores look any good.....has anyone ever paid anyone to sleeve them? I have FOUR front spindles,......and only one is wear free on the shafts......looking for a good one, so if anyone has one, let me know. And despite having extra control arm shafts, some of them are compromised in the bushing area......I would like to find one good lower control arm shaft....so again....anyone? I know I can buy new ones, but prefer GM parts.
I disassembled the instrument panels and cluster gages. Contacted company in South Carolina called D&M Restoration, and sent the the gages for cleanup, testing and calibration. I liked what they told me, and hoping they do the work as well as they stated. I didn't do any of this on my 77 when I rebuilt it, but this 69 sat for over 30 years, so I think its possible some of the gages will be non-functional, and don't want to find out after they are installed. The faces are all pretty good except the clock. I will update you on the results. THAT IS ACTUAL MILEAGE ----65,514
I'll follow this thread as I'm about on the same trajectory as you, but still about 10 years away from retiring.
I really want my '71 to be my retirement toy, that I can hand down to my son.
Terrific start Jeff!
I just found this build and know from prior conversations how much you and I think alike. It really helps that you have the goal "target" in mind as you do a build so that you do not get distracted or swayed off-course.
I love and agree with your choices, but my choice would be Black on Red. That is just such a cool period correct combo. And awesome. I do have an immaculate like Brand New 81 14" Steering Wheel in RED. If you are interested. It's flawless, but all I am going to do with it is rip off the flawless red cover and put a brown one on.
Since you asked my advice, I have a couple minor comments. My ridetech bushings about half-way installed and they have been a little problematic, but should be an excellent addition. Just be sure the bearing shells go in very straight, so things rotate properly. I purchased the Ridetech bushing installation tool, and that is making my life easier now. I would recommend that, even though they say it does not work on C3s, it does easily with a couple of tweaks. As a matter of fact I will be done with it soon, PM me.
When you get to shocks, I would recommend either Bilsteins, or better. Ride quality is determined 75% by the shocks, and about 25% by the spring rate. You may even want to consider some single adjustables to really let you fine tune the ride/handling balance.
The rest of the handling setup looks to be spot-on. I am still not sold on Delrin or poly bushings for the swaybars because my street car came from the factory with them, and now the squeeks are driving me mad. It's not very caddy-like. At least on the vette those are extremely easy to get to and grease if necessary. On my other car, it is a major PIT*.
The only other handling advice, I could think of, I would strongly recommend 5 degrees caster, and you can get it with the Moog offset upper adjustable arms, and a 1/4" slot in them, and still look 99% stock. It will steer much truer on the road. Here is some feedback from Doc on this forum (4-vettes), who put a set of these on his C3, in AU, with a little help from me. His feedback was spot-on:
:
>>Soooo, I have only done short runs with the car until last weekend. My car club had a weekend away run and I took a very rare Saturday off. Put about 400 miles on her. A fair bit of that at high speed. Now mind you I always thought my car handled extremely well. Was great on the track. Just felt "Light" on the highway at speed. No longer. Still handles great. But no longer light feeling at high speed. One finger operation at 80MPH. the A arm shafts worked out great. I would highly recommend this modification. And if I lived in the states it would even be affordable.<<
I love the Vortec pro choice as well. Your 454 may even likely wind up stronger than my LS6. LOL. Mine is "handicapped" by the R-Port heads, the oval ports actually make more power under 6500rpm. And with Marc's touches you know they will be good. You may or may not want aluminum heads for less weight, but you will not need them for the power. You are going to need those Nittos. Better get some big ones! I may need the Nittos as well. I have heard these BBs can be pretty loose under 80 with skinny tires.
Enjoy the build and I only wish I we were nearer each other so I could help! With your care it will be a "beaut"
Leigh
Thanks for the input. I will PM you on the wheel and the tool.
I agree on the red interior.....every time I see a picture of a black 69 with red interior, it just hits me how stunning it is. No other color combination has that immediate impact of "yeah" THAT is very cool. The early C3 red is very bright......I would like to see it slightly deeper red,.....so something I am considering. Most of the interior parts I have are in amazing good condition, and are black.....but there is dye. The seat covers are trashed and long since put in the trash. Black on black is also very nice, but it does not hit me with the same feeling.
As for the shocks, my 77 has Bilstein HD's all around, and really feels good. Their Sport shocks are harsher.....so, not really sure if I want to risk it. Adjustable shocks obviously would provide the options,???
The recommendation of offset A arms shafts is good idea,.....but remember I have manual steering, and want to keep manual steering, because it is the best road feel I ever have had on a car, and is probably the major reason this car is a blast to drive. More caster means more effort required. I am running my 77 at 2.5 degrees caster, and its fine for me. I really don't know what 5 degrees would feel like.......does anyone have any sense off, or real life experience, on going from 2.5 to 5.0. Because otherwise, the problem I had documented on one of my threads with the 17 inch wheels and Nittos was tramlining in the very common ruts of PA roads. Recommendations were made on more caster to fix this, but again.....what is the consequences on manual steering? I would like to see the tramilining reduced.
I have poly bushings on the front sway bar on the 77, and no squeaking at all. I do get squeaking out of my heim joints on the rear drag struts, so periodically have to grease or lube them.
One open question I have yet to answer is the side mirrors. Frankly,.......I am not a fan of the early C3 mirrors, simply because they seem out of place to me on the beautiful curved body of the C3. IMO, when in 1977 Chevy put the sport mirrors on the Corvette, FINALLY, the mirrors came up to speed with the body. I have found the sport mirrors to be adequate and functional in seeing behind you, and at same time are smaller, and better looking than the large truck style original mirrors.
SO.......I am strongly considering putting late C3 sport mirrors on this 69. I know purists will reject the idea, but its my car. They clearly look good on C3 Vettes, as they used them from 77 to 82. I have been looking for a good set. It appears I may have to do some adapting regarding the mounting of the mirrors if I would do this.
I will not consider any other mirrors on the car. I see people putting later model mirrors on C3's, and I will not do it. It will be ONE left side original chrome mirror....or dual C3 sport mirrors.
