Hit a small snag this afternoon. I am filling up all the fluids on the car. Oil in motor, oil in trans, oil in rear. So far all good. Filled the PS pump, fluid in the hydraulic MC for the clutch. Bench bleed the the brake MC. Good so far. Start to bleed the brake system. I have a tool I made to put pressure on the MC and it takes 1 man to bleed the brakes. I open the furthest bleeder and wait for fluid. Usually takes about 15 to 20 seconds to see some fluid. Nothing. Look under the car on the drivers side rear and see a small puddle. CRAP!. I guess when installing the new rubber lines I must have twisted the block just enough to crack the rear crossover line. Cut the line at both ends as flush as I can to the nut. Put a 6 point 3/8 socket on and hit it with the 1/2 inch impact gun. 2 blips and they are out. New line is ordered and on the way. Slight set back but it will be done in a few days.

Also found out that VS is weeks behind on their fiberglass rear springs. I have the car ready to set on its suspension but no spring in sight and I disposed of the old spring. Asked David Howard and Bob K since I know they have multiple cars being taken apart and reassembled if they have a spare spring I can use in the meantime. Bob had 4 and David had 2. Road trip!. 3 hour round trip and I have a useable spring to set the car on. Good to have Corvette buddies around.

 

If those are the biggest setbacks you encounter, You are blessed!

 

It’s been a little bit since I posted. Took some time away from this. Work gets in the way and I took a few days in Florida to visit my mom. Got back home and had to replace the front to rear brake line. Not fun but doable. Took care of a few more issues. Today was the time to fire it up. Pushed it off the lift and out of the garage. Always and I repeat always fire it up outside. Fire in your garage is not a good thing. I have seen to many houses burned by leaking fuel or something going wrong. I was in the driveway and al cars far away with an extinguisher near buy. The motor had been primed with oil and I cranked it over a few times with plugs removed to get fuel to the carb. Verified this. I plugged in all the wiring and it fired up within seconds. I run the motor with no coolant for a minute or so jus tin case leaks. SO all is good. If I’ll it with coolant and as soon as some heat gets in the motor leaks on the intake. The damn T stat is leaking. Look closely and it is cracked. Looks like a casting flaw. It did run very well as it should as Blue Print dyno s their motors and this one ran excellent. It did move under its own power for the first time in a while. Even if it was just up the driveway back onto the lift. It sounds awesome and the owner is ver pla=eased with it so far. Still some work to do but its moving forward. I have a video clip of it fired up just won’t load right now. Won’t be long now before we are turning some tires and cruising. BTW took the Z06 out for. A quick ride for some coolant. Felt good to drive that after a few months. In hibernation.

 

Interesting place for a crack. Wonder what caused it.
I'll bet the drive did feel good, in deed.

Steve

 

Congratulations!

 

Coming to an end on this 77. I took a week or so off and went to Florida and got back and started to finish this. Here is the motor pretty much done and running. Blueprint said this would not fit under a Corvette hood. Well a drop base and 2 K&N filters and it fits with room to spare. about an inch clearance. I do have a video of this running and took it around the block with open headers. Car runs good and will have plenty of power. The owner is stopping by today to drop off a new radio and center console pieces. These are the last pieces of the puzzle. I am farming out the exhaust system as I’m not satisfied with any of the aftermarket ones. They just don’t fit correctly for anything that will flow well. This has been a fun winter project but now I have to move it on to the owner so he can enjoy it and I have many other projects for this spring and summer. I’ll see if I can upload the video somehow.

 

Looking good...

 

and now you are screwed. you got rid of your vette so you had to scare up somebody else's car so you had a vette to work on. if you would have bought another vette you wouldn't have to mourn the tail lights receding in the distance...

 

I still have the Z06. Also have 2 other guys asking me for some work. Summer is coming though and I have warmer climate toys to play with. Maybe next winter I’ll pick up a project.

 

Videos seem to work best if they are loaded onto Youtube, and then post a link here. It just automatically pops the video into the post.

And I'll bet with that fast Z06 you don't miss you old C3 tooo much....

 

when you know what you are doing it is hard to keep other people's cars out of your shop. and you have the advantage of buying parts with other people's money...

 

Just a quick update. The owner decided to go with all new console gauges and a new blue tooth radio and the center gauge cluster so it looks all new. New speakers in the rear also. Just finished up installing everything and wiring up the new radio and speakers. Sounds much better and it has a USB port that I am putting in the lighter home. This way he can charge his phone and play through his phone. It all works pretty well. Next Tuesday I have an appt to have a custom made exhaust system for the car. No matter how much I tried the system just did not fit like I wanted it. The guy I'm taking it to did my72 exhaust years ago and that system is till going strong and sounding good on a 69 now. He specializes in high performance exhaust. Some things are just better left to a specialist. I don't weld nor do I have a pipe bender. Then its just reassemble the console and a few other minor things and its off for some summer fun to the owner.

 

Gordon, since I am also here in SNJ, just who is your preferred custom exhaust guy?

 

Denny at Mufflex in Trenton. He did a system for me years ago and I have sent a few others to him throughout the years. He does good work. I’ll post some pictures when I get it back on Tuesday.

 

Hah! We think alike. He did my stick shift Caddy and it purrs like a cat. Several street cars too including a show car 69 Camaro with a ZZ427 and all custom Art Morrison frame. He does beautiful work! I am going for all stainless, 2.5", all mandrel bent and welded on my C3.I'll try the Pypes system I have, but if I'm not happy, he will be my next stop.
Yeah I would like to see what he can do with a C3.

 

The problem I had with the Pypes system was it did not bend in at the camberbracket. It just went straight back under the widest part of the camber bracket. Therefore it hung way to low and it just did not look good. Yours may be different as this one may have been an older system. I gave up on it and decided to let a pro do this one.

 

Yes that is pretty much what mine looks like. I got it used for cheap and it looks barely used, so I'll try it. I am wondering if that would cause any interference with the strut rods or their adjustments?

The center x-pipe section looks beautiful and even if I change the rear pipes I will probably keep that part. Denny could fix the rest. It would be better to have the pipes under the center diff I think. And I wonder if Denny could flatten that section just a little for ground clearance like the factory pipes do.

I will be interested in seeing how that 77 system turns out.

 

So I finally got the car up in the air for some photos and a detailed look at the system that got installed. Denny at Mufflex always has done very good work. He put in a ball and socket joint to make future work easy. The system will come apart in minutes. It is rock solid underneath and sounds great. Plenty of clearance all around and plenty of flow capability for this 450 HP 383 that will probably not see much above 6K rpm. Took it for a short 4 mile run yesterday and it is pretty strong and will turn the tires at will. Didn’t get it to fast as it still needs a good alignment but this will be a fun car to drive. Coming down to the end of this but yesterday I found the printed circuit for the gauges was toast. One is coming today. I’ll schedule an alignment for next week and do a few other small issues and be done.

 

Very nice job!

 

Lovin' your work, and the exhaust work too!