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ok - Im a newbie and this is my first project. I have started to restore what looks like a decent 1973 corvette and will be needing help and asking many questions. (not sure if this post belongs in here or General).
I have started to gut the interior and have found a few things:
1) the screw heads to the seat belt cover is rusted away. can I drill this or should I try to cut? Same with the base plate under the chasis.
2) does the cover for the A pillar cover this gap? is this common or do I have issues with the bird cage?
seat belt cover - drill holes to removed?
Seat Belt plate - rusted. cut or drill?
A pillar - is that molding supposed to look like this?
On the seat belt cover, is there any of the screw showing that you could use vice-grips to remove. I would soak the screws with PB Blaster and see if
that will release the screws.
I can't really make out the bottom of the plate. It should look like this:
Use the blaster on the seat belt bolt. You may have to spray the PB blaster on the bolt under the tunnel.
The A-pillar is the same on mine. It just seems that your 73 may have been white (910) on the trim tag originally.
Also looks like you have a mix of black and saddle interior as the cover on the belt should be the same color as the carpet.
You can check on the General forum for my and other restorations
and ask for any help you need.
Welcome to the forum.
ok - Im a newbie and this is my first project. I have started to restore what looks like a decent 1973 corvette and will be needing help and asking many questions. (not sure if this post belongs in here or General).
I have started to gut the interior and have found a few things:
1) the screw heads to the seat belt cover is rusted away. can I drill this or should I try to cut? Same with the base plate under the chasis.
2) does the cover for the A pillar cover this gap? is this common or do I have issues with the bird cage?
seat belt cover - drill holes to removed?
Seat Belt plate - rusted. cut or drill?
A pillar - is that molding supposed to look like this?
Right before I purchased
I also have a red 73 (originally silver). Mine is a BB. I am in the process of taking my down for paint and interior. Already rebuild suspension, brakes, trailing arms and differential. Going to re-wire with new harnesses and replace body mounts. Get a AIM to help with assembly. Good luck.
Thanks for the response - The car was white with Saddle interior, before being painted Cola Red and black interior. I do have the Main bolt showing under the body and im going to soak that and try to get that loose. The rest of the bolts are rusted and cant get a grip on them. Right now I cant even get the plastic seat belt retractor cover off.
BTW - DonnieP73 - I like the way the bottom looks. Im hoping to apply POR 15 to under carriage.
One more question - Has anyone coated the interior with bed liner or other coating to help with heat, noise, and to seal? I was thinking about doing this before replacing the interior.
One more question - Has anyone coated the interior with bed liner or other coating to help with heat, noise, and to seal? I was thinking about doing this before replacing the interior.
Thanks, I coated my whole frame with POR15.
Yes, I applied reflectix to my interior before installing new carpet.
(Reflectix that you can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot by the roll)
In this album you can see it applied before the carpet.
quick update - I have started to gut the interior. I got the new seat belts installed, new brackets for the tunnel and under the body, and new seat nut plates installed. I also got brackets made and got the Grille installed. next is to paint the interior, then lay new carpet (I got for the holidays). See Pics:
wowed777, I used a bed-liner material called Raptor on the interior as well as the entire underside of the body.
The shop I'm using has had great success utilizing this material to provide a barrier to normal road debris as well as adding substantial corrosion resistance to many of the vehicles they restore. We decided that the use of black "Raptor" on the underbody and red "Raptor" on the interior (because of the red interior), would not only provide protection to the fiberglass underbody, but add an additional measure of heat resistance and sound deadening for the interior. I think it came out looking pretty good and it certainly looks better than the red paint the factory sprayed on the interior.
The material goes on very nicely and it can be tinted almost any color you desire. Since the factory painted the body interior (quite haphazardly I might add) the same color as the interior would be, the "Raptor" seemed very appropriate to do in red. I believe that this was done to blend with the interior color in areas where the carpet or other interior parts would not provide complete coverage. Such as the rear storage compartment and the "tool" tray on the early '63's.
You might want to put the car on a lift and give a really good once over. My 1973 spend a year in the shop as everything under it was shot.
I sent it in for new springs, shocks and a few other things only to find I need to replace everything.
After 7-8 steam cleaning to remove the grease and grim I found leaks everywhere, bushings where shot....I replaced everything that could be removed.
I am just getting ready to start the interior so that will be the next challenge. I hear one issue is Brittle Dash Wiring do to the engine heat that can cause a fire......no more Corvette so I also have all new dash wiring harness.
Help with 73 restore
