ZackTorigian171

Paint removal

ZackTorigian171

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commander_47

I am totally impressed with your passion and devotion to this project.

Looks like you are doing a tremendous job!!!!

Looks like your Dad did go through some effort to preserve the motor and body. It's always nice to discover some parts that don't need major work.

I'm definitely a subscriber and watching this closely. I enjoy these types of threads.

Sigforty

What transmission are you using? That looks more like a halfshaft than a driveshaft.

ZackTorigian171

Haha actually it's neither. It's the driveshaft out of my jeep I confused the pictures I did them both in the same day! Good catch thankyou

ZackTorigian171

Much appreciated! It's been a long journey and a good one. Can't wait to share the rest! I'll be posting some more tonight. Thankyou for the support and the sub

Bad Bird

As for uploading more than one picture at once, follow this handy guide:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/...al-inside.html

bmans vette

FYI

If going for some serious HP, the preferred method around here for drive shafts and half shafts is to use solid body u-joints.
The hole for the zerk fitting weakens it.

Just a thought.

I admire you tackling this job, especially a convertible.

Good luck

ZackTorigian171

I figured the easiest way to get the firewall painted was to do it while the body was off the frame so I scrubbed it down and gave it a few coats of black. I stripped the rest of the engine bay shortly after this pic

ZackTorigian171

At this time I also rebuilt the lower half of the radiator because it was basiclly rotted away. I used angle iron and a mig welder to re shape and rebuild the support.

I have better pics somewhere in sure I'll find them

ZackTorigian171

Ok so back to the frame. After getting the body stripped as much as possible to the bare shell. It was finally time to drop the engine on the frame

ZackTorigian171

Engine on the frame!

ZackTorigian171

The engine fired in half a crank! It ran beautiful but needed a little carb udjustment but I was just happy listening to that thing lump! It sounded like dragster with that cam this kicked off another wave of motivation. I bought a new gas tank and installed the driveshaft and shift linkage and by the end of the day I put the rear on jack stands and was able to run it through the gears! I used a long pipe on the clutch linkage to get the leverage to depress the clutch

ZackTorigian171

And then the time came!! Time to drop the body on the frame! This was a huge day. The first time the body and frame would meet in over 25 years!!

ZackTorigian171

Time came

ZackTorigian171

Frame

ZackTorigian171

I didn't have access to any fancy lifts or anything but my dads backhoe worked pretty well. This was a scary couple of minutes. I tried to brace the body in everyway possible hoping it wouldn't snap in half and end the whole build right there.

Fortunately it went pretty smooth and we lineded her up perfectly without even a stress crack

ZackTorigian171

Starting to look like a car

ZackTorigian171

Another pic/ tightening body mounts

ZackTorigian171

In the garage for the first time