daniel77350

I have a 77 that needs a ton of work. Just look below to see what i mean. The question I have is, what should I do first?
1) repaint the car and clean up the rest(with paint and elbow greese, among other things)
2) restore the interior to perfection, with stereo/speakers I want, and the rest of the 9 yards.
3) restore the suspencion to make it ride like a c4, with new monospring front suspencion and glass rear spring, plus some 17's to make it corner a little better
4) add a bunch of go-fast goodies like cam and heads, etc.

The car has a colorful history that I do not know all of, all I know is the 350 in there now is not numbers matching, but is almost identical to stock(interior engine componants might be different, as it was droped in after the 402 blew up...wasn't me...HONEST!). it has a Turbo 350 trans, and stock suspension. The tires have MAYBE a 500 miles on them. The AC compressor has been removed, which I don't like very much, so no matter what option I choose to do first, the AC will go in at the same time. Keep in mind I will hopefully have it all done within 3-5 years, but right now funds only allow me to do one of the 4, as I will be starting college in a couple days, so I won't be able to work the hours to make enough $$ to do all of the options. I need your opinions, which will I be happiest with right now?


As you can see, the paint job is TERRIBLE. I paid $2500 2 years ago for this crappy job. :mad It looked like this after 1 month of having it sit in my driveway. I went back for a refund or SOMETHING, and the guy had gone bankrupt...no suprise there! Because of him, I have let the car sit and its just gotten worse and worse. I think a new paint job would be a good step in the right direction for me to get back into working on the car more. (I don't like to work on an eye sore).

The door pannels are sitting in the house and are in bad shape but they ARE restorable. The seat covers are the ones from walmart I paid $35 for and I LOVE them, the leather is not very comfortable on a 95 degree day without AC. They are black, even though the picture shows them as grey-ish. That is because I picked a bad day to take the photos, the sun seems to be coming at the car from every angel(it was noon and almost 100 degrees).

The suspension is just rusty, I think a wire brush, some sand blasting, and some spray paint will make the car look better on the underside, and it would probably ride a little better.

Well not much I can say about this. Unless I decide to do go-fast goodies, all I need to do is take a wet rag to most of it, and it'd look a million times better. Those are moroso valve covers and moroso air filter cover thingy(I just had a brain fart...I forgot what its really called).

I would appreciate any ideas you guys have.

Thanks;
Daniel

Hawk77

I'd say it depends on whether or not you want to drive it much now. In my case, I wanted to do enough to be able to safely get it on the road first- new tires, rear spring, plugs and plug wires, starter, etc. The original paint is starting to really show its age and the interior needs some work but I can live with saving this work for my off season (ie snowy and icy Ohio winter!)

In any case, good luck and always remind yourself its all worth it in the end... of course, I'm not sure it ever truely ends :D

fauxrs

Wow there is a lot of work there to do isnt there.

I think your question really can only be answered by you.

For me, if the car is drivable and safe, I.e. brakes lights etc.. all function. then I would have to do the paint.

Personally I can put up with an awful lot if the car looks good as its goin down the road. The interior can come later, even powerups on the engine can wait, provided the car is running. so far as whats under the car - if it aint broke dont fix it.

Sure you may not like the idea of surface rust all over the underside of your car but the only things you will impress with a shiney undercarriage are snakes and beetles, and frankly they probably dont care.

The undercarriage cleanup is one of those jobs you do when money is short bu telbow grease isnt.

SoI would say paint - interior - engine - suspension for me in that order.

Good luck and keep up apprised of your progress.

78Vette-SA

That's a real bummer on the paint. I'd file a suit against the schmuck.

Anyways, if the car was mine, assuming the frame is good and everything works and just needs a clean-up, I'd do the following.

-Jack it up real good (Jack Stands!!!) cause it's gonna be there a while
-Spray Simple Green and/or Degreaser all over everything (engine and under)
-Power wash the @#$% out of it
-Rip out the drivetrain
-Rip out front and rear suspension
-Rip out or clean-up the interior (or just the parts you want to)
-Wire brush down the frame and power wash some more
-POR-15 the Frame
-Maybe freshen up the engine with a rebuild
-New Wheel bearings, front and rear bushings, SS Brake Calipers and lines
-New SS Rear Parking Brake (Maybe Cable too)
-Ball Joints, Tie-Rods and IDler Arm, Motor and Trannry Mounts
-Have the radiator checked or replaced along with hoses and tranny cooling lines
-New Exhaust
-Put it all back together
-Take it to a body shop and have it stripped and painted (A reliable one or do it yourself)
-Slap a kick butt stereo in there and go have a BLAST :seeya :seeya :seeya

All of the above of course depends on how much you can do yourself, what tools you have, and of course the budget, and beer for friends to come over and help.

My .02

(Note: I do agree with Fauxrs though, if you just want to drive it as soon as possible, I'd paint it and then work on the rest little by little. Being the **** retentive slob that I am, I'd have to go the whole shabang though :D


[Modified by 78Vette-SA, 5:01 PM 8/11/2001]

Strike3

Do you need to drive it or do you have other transpertation? Hopefully the latter.
I am about a year and a half into mine now and it looked worse than yours before I started. You have indicated an understanding that you will be spending seversl years on the car so you must see a commitment there. I made the decision to do mine knowing I have several other cars/trucks so It's no big deal to let it set.
My first decision has proven to be right. I decided to lift the body off. It's not that much work when you really get into it. This has proved to be the best thing I could have done. I can't tell you how much easier work became on the engine, transmission, differential, exhaust and all the various suspension components. A really great second benifit of having my body on a roll-around body dolly was the ability to overlap work to make up for delays. For example, If you can't do anything on your running gear because you are waiting for parts, or turn around service on components, you just turn your attention to the body without desturbing stuff on your chassis. Likewise, if I'm waiting for something to dry on the body or for body parts to come in, I can work on the trailing arms without disturbing the body. It has really worked out well for me. Get Nolan Adams's tape which comes with blueprints to build the body dolly out of 2 by 4's.
I bought an engine stand to use for the engine overhaul, a transmission dolly, and built shelving to hold all my new/rebuilt parts that I would accumulate. and then dove in. Admittedly, I have more space than most people are blessed with but I find the roll around stuff really helps keep your work space efficient. I'm working on my engine this weekend because my new heads came in a few days ago.
After seperating the body and frame, I put the engine on it's stand and the trans on it's dolly and proceeded to strip everything off to a completely bare frame. My frame was in good (no-rust) condition so it just needed cleaning and paint. I then starterd rebuilding all the components, differential, trans engine and suspension. I bought a complete suspension kit from Vett Brakes complete with fiberglass rear spring and also began a rebuild of the trailing arms. On the body, I needed to replace a door skin and a bunch of fiberglass on the front end, as well as strip the whole thing. I gutted the interion and am going back together with all new stuff. I sent my instrument cluster out to a shop that does that kind of work. They discovered a defective temperature gauge which I now have to find a replacement for.
Obviously, this is my hobby. No one in their right mind would go to this much work if they didn't enjoy it. I have been taking my time, watching and communicating on the forum, and meeting the coolest people and discussing all aspects of my car for a long time. It gives me purpose and keeps me out of trouble (well, most of the time). I love it.

A C

I agree with some of the above opinions. I am assuming that you want to drive it some while you work on it. Get the thing safely driveable first. Second I think do the paint. I would normally save this for last, but you already indicated you want it looking good, and I sort of agree. It's easy to forgive a lot of other problems if the car at least looks nice. And yes, it does suck to work on something that looks like a piece of junk. Other than that, for now just clean, clean, clean. You'd be surprised how much nicer it will look just by cleaning off all the gunk from everywhere. Plus, cleaning is pretty much free.

AC

Ganey

Daniel

Normally I Suggest increase power. :cool:

Take care of mechanicals first. Looks like you need at least a new rear spring & alaignment. Think cost effective & you can decide for yourself what to do.
Handling- 77 FE-7 is very good, see my website 77 Facts. Suggest FE-7 &/or 17s & would hold off on 17s for now. Forget unneeded ft. mono transverse for awhile.
Touch up & polishing can make a day & night difference.
Do you have a smooth or loping idle?

daniel77350

idle is baby smooth at 800 RPM, it took a year to get it smooth. The only thing I think might be hendering idle a little(sometimes its not as smooth as it is other times) I believe this might be that quadrajet carb...I don't like them very much. I saw that coversion to a holly that I might consider. The breaks are good, I just had 90% of the system replaced. I could probably paint the car myself, but the last guy took it down to the glass...right through the gel coat. Is there a way to still get a good paint job or do I need to re gel coat it. If that is the case I'll have my NEW body shop put some gel coat down, then I'll paint the rest from there. on the interior, all I think I have to REPLACE is the door panels. I should also add a dash pad cover both can be repaired, but Im not sure i want that hastle.

Right now Im writing out a plan, using all of your guys advice. I have a digital camera and a lap top that will be beside my car the whole time. Im going to take pictures as I take things apart, and document them on the lap top, so when I go to put it all back together I will know how it goes. I will also post pictures on my website and post the URL, so you can see my progress.

Daniel

Chris Fowler

If the engine is running well and the suspension is good (just not up to C4 specs) I'd go for paint.

If you've got time, can you consider learning to paint it yourself to save money and maybe do the interior at the same time?

It seems like paint and interior should be first. A great handling fast car isn't good enough for me if it's ugly ;)

Strike3

Eckler's sales a gel-coat that you spray on like paint. They also have a video on painting a Corvette that goes into proper sealing after going down to the glass. You might find it a good investment, or you might get the info from them over the phone. They're pretty free talkers.

daniel77350

I think my steps are going to go in this order:

- Strip the paint and primer off
- repair fiberglass stress cracks and seams/other damage
- re-gelcoat the car using edelbrocks spray gel-coat
then I will leave the paint/body alone for at least a month to let the gelcoat REALLY set up. I know a week would be long enough, but I am being overcautious. Plus that month will give me time to degreese/power wash everything.
- lots of elbow greese and degreeser, plus some high powered water and lots of cans of spray paint.
- sand gelcoat and prime, fix what imperfections are left, sand, and prime again.
- back home to let the primer sit too. My old paint damage was said to be due to the chemicals in the fiberglass, gelcoat and primer venting and causing the paint to bubble because the guy didn't let it set up long enough. That won't be the problem this time. As it will sit with primer for at least a week or two while I do more detailing and ruber replacing(bushings and hoses etc).
- Into the paint booth for final painting, sanding, clear coating, buffing.
- Back to the house for final detailing and body reassembly(the hobby shop will loan me the booth for $35 a day and supplies all my equiptment(ie. gun, clothing). I supply paint and the sand paper, and of course the elbow greese). When I start the project Im going to take the bumpers off, doors off, hood off, and t-tops off. Part of the final detailing will be installation of new weatherstripping.
- interior will be reasembled and new front carpet will go in, along with side trans cover things, dash pad cover, and new door pannels(maybe I can save my old ones, I shall see). Then depending on funds I will attempt a radio upgrade assuming all other aspects of the car are in working order.

Most of the reason for gelcoating the body before i put it on stands to do the frame thing is because the last time it was on stands the fenders where pulling away from the doors and it was scaring me :eek: . Turns out where the fenders are attached to the rest of the car(near the firewall) that adhesive was comming loose, so The fenders mind end up coming off so I can clean all that up, but I think I'd rather take the dash out then take the fenders off so there may be a way to avoid it. :rolleyes:
Right now Im working out a timeline of things I need to do. But my timeline is openended which means I don't have set due-dates for the completion of things, Im doing it on a "what to do first" type thing, IE. I cannot do the door pannels until after the door jambs are painted and the doors are rehung. hopefully my timing will fall into place.

I also have to find suppliers with parts that I KNOW I need and how much they will cost, so I can get all my information ready when I get my funds together(so I don't underfund my project).

I will put all my lists and information on my web site when I get it together, in case anyone else is going through the same thing I am, this might help them.

Daniel

BubbaJJ

Be careful with the stripper when painting. Someone stripped the urethane bumper covers on mine with something evil. Whatever it was, it desolved my bumper covers and they actually fell off in big chunks. Talk about embarassing. :bb

daniel77350

Im going to take a razorblade to the front bumper. It is in bad shape so if I mess it up I will just replace it, nothing lost. But if the razerblade works then I can still salvage the bumper with lots of work(I may replace it anyway). The back bumper is fine, if the razor works on the front, then I will do it on the back too, if not I will sand it down. I plan on taking the razor blade to most of the car.

UPDATE: Looked the car over front to back tonight and found some GOOOOD news, I have found red primer on parts of the rear of the car and doors. The guy that painted the car last used black primer. Red primer indicates to me factory primer, which means GEL COAT! Things are looking up. I know for a fact the hood doesn't have gel coat on it though, but the rest of the car might. I have my fingers crossed. I am looking at the L-88 hood...I may get out of this paint job without having to gel coat the car at all...*knocking on wood*

Daniel