Project 1964 Corvette Jimmy Joe, Loud, Proud & Ugly
 

Thought it was time to start a new project.

This one does not have a Girly name, as I will not be changing the Midyear's Male body design, unlike Lydia which was transgendered from Male to Female.:D

This one is purpose built. Want to try to build a Midyear that can run 10's in 1/4 mile, on True Street DOT tires, with less than 400 RWHP. Car will have have a cage legal to run up to 9.99 so I hope I don't exceed my goal and go over 9.999 with less than 100 RWHP....:D Cage will be mounted using hardware that allows cage to be freed from chassis mount so body can be lifted if need be, as well as being removed from car at a later date.

The car is a 64 Coupe project started a couple years ago. It has been sitting for a while, so I stopped by to see what was up. Seems not long after project was started, former owner had a chance to go to work for himself. Just so happened he needs to expand now. Because all the body work and chassis he used were acceptable to me, an I'm such a nice guy we worked out a deal where he didn't take a beating an able to move car quickly, and I got into car/body at price point I was looking for. Also cuts down of time need to get chassis as well as a lot of body work. Hope to have project of the road by first of May. Also will be wiring car with ISIS 2 cell wire kit. Saw this at SEMA couple of yeas ago and got to see car being wired up with one yesterday.

Like I said in the beginning, car want be a beauty, mostly because I'm going to stay with the hood car has on it. Rest of the body except for lower front fender area will look are remain very much stock in appearance. I will borrow a couple of things from Lydia. The rocker panel will be same as style as Lydia's so that I can curve it out a back to follow body to get tire coverage on front side of wheel. The rear of 1/4 panel has already been rolled out about 2.0" on rear to try and get better tire coverage of back side.

Below are some pictures of car taken before it's former owner took it to be stripped.

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Because of the amount of front tire exposed, I plan on trying to cover up that area with spoiler/air dam to try and clean frontal look up. Probably modify one like used on Lydia by extending ends to go out past center of trun signal housing and wrap around it up to about bottom of bumper.

Think I can get rear front side tire coverage as stated above with rocker panel that follows body contour rather than straight like stock ones.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...b.jpg~original

This view shows that rocker panel change sould work, and that C6 tires and wheels fit neatly in very stock looking body. Wonder why that is.

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Not happy about body coverage on rear of front tire. Also because 64 don't have functional air vents, I'm going to have to study on this, but if I can't find easy way to get coverage, probably just go with 67 lower front fender look.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...7.jpg~original

Now the ugly...:D I know I will be making some changes with hood' appearance. My builder and I discussed several options, but I one I like best would be hardest to do. I also ran across below picture member posted couple years ago about C3 L88 style hood on his C2 back in the day, that I kind of like as change he did cleans up transition or hood surround to the C3 look L88 hood.

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Project JimmyJoe has it's under 400 RWHP engine.

Dyno Pull of it overlayed on Lydia's LS3 HO showes it has similar TQ curve only holds TQ higher into RPM range to provide little more HP in higher RPM range. It's a used engine comming out of a donner car. Saves me a little time and money by not having to guess what RWHP of a crate or after market engine would be. Since it has an LS2 MAF may be able to get it's TQ curve to hold up longer on top end with LS3 MAF without causing HP to exceed 400 HP limit I'll be trying to run 10's 1/4 mile on Street tires, no DR's or slicks.

Just hope I can get weight of car down and have 48% weight on front and 52% weight on rear with me in car, same as my girlly named C2 Lydia has and 49%/51% without me in car.

RED lines new engine, black one's Lydia's.

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Well, we have offfically started my JimmyJoe build.

Got engine for JimmyJoe in frame and right now using gutted 4L80E trans so trans tunnel can be modified to fit with Trans Shield and Flexplate shield. Forgot about needing Flexplate shield to be NHRA legal for ET so didn't order it when I ordered the trans shield. It, the 6X trans, and NHRA certified flexplate will be in this coming Tuesday, maybe Monday.

Engine in frame. Notice LS2 MAF used to keep HP below 400HP on Mustang Dyno.

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Build will NHRA legal up to 9.99 ET, unlike current build which is not legal for current ETs. Pic of trans sheild sitting on 4L80E mockup trans so we can modify trans tunnel to fit.

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Made a clay mock-up of what the lower fender vent should look like on exterior, same as I did for Lydia lower fender vent.

It should allow for about a 2.0" or maybe a little more opening at front of each former 64 dummy vent and change look of stock vent a little more by cutting bottom of stock vents at sides and tapering bottom down from about where lower fender attach to firewalll panel to front of opening for about 1/2" more opening at front to let more under hood air out. Will use Black Chrome vent screen to cover inside of opening into engine bay.

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Right now I'm looking a maybe pulling out the front lower portion of Lower Fender to see if I can get a little more aft side tire coverage. Will be making mockup of flat rocker panel so we can see how it can help blend lower fender to see if it also helps with aft tire coverage without pulling lower front of lwr fender panel out.

Looking at maybe wideing front fenders 1.0" are maybe just bringing aft side of front fender opening at body's beltline out about 1/2" and blend it back down to stock at door opening if needed to blend new lower fender vent look into bodyline's beltline.

Don't need to flare front fenders as C6 tires fit with no problem with inner fender fit to frame and suspension. Just not sure I like the look of stock front fenders with flared rear fenders. Most people would never notice the amout the stock front fenders are now out of balance to flared rear quarters vs stock look as this time there is no coke bottle look change to bodyline like Lydia has.

Aft portion of Doors and front of rear quarters are close to matching stock body's beltline as we did not change doors stock beltline just brought it out and blended flared quarter's beltline to door's stock one to achieve stock body beltline look, yet still able to provide coverage for C6 Tires on front side of wheelwell on JimmyJoe. Add Rocker panel and coverage will be just right, at least for my liking.

If I left the 64 stock lower fender stock, and used stock rocker panel, it would be doubtfull if anyone could not tell body was not stock. Rockers and lower front fender vent change just makes car my own.

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Subscribed! Nice post!

Look forward to see it come along.

Quite an undertaking....looks like you are well on your way!

Mike

Awesome project!

I'd love to see a 10 sec mid year street car being built.

It's gonna have to be light to go 10s with 400 rwhp... It's gonna have to leave real hard too..

Sub'd for the progress.

Can't wait to see the end product. But will be fun to see the process along the way.

Your right, about having to lighten car up. Need to get around 500 lbs off what my other 64 weighs with me in it and 4 gallons of fuel, 3564 LBS.

Like to get it down to around 2800-2900 lbs with me in it. Taking weight out can be a two edged sword even with under 400 HP if I cannot do what I did by accident with Lydia, 49% Front & 51% rear without me in car, and with me in car, 48% front % 52% rear. That rear wheel weight percentage is what most people have on front wheels. That rear wheel weight percentage is the biggest reason car would not spin the tires along with convert not flashing to 2800-3000 RPM a launch. Most people think car needed DR's because of 1.9-2.0's 60" foot time.

I'll fix the converter flash problem this time, but I believe getting at least 50/50 weight distribution much less 51/52% weight on rear and stay around 2800 -2900 lbs will be hard to pull off.

From the git go, I've known I could fall flat on my face with challenge I've taken on, but I like trying to do this. Makes life interesting at 71 and if maybe even more so next year around 1st of May...:lol:.

Received Automatic transmission I'll be using along with Flexplate Scattershield Monday. Seems the Scattershield is multi use across all Chevy transmissions, so you can run into fitment issues depending on transmission housing design. My transmission is 4l80E based one that has ears to bolt up Dust shield to that interfered with installation of shield. It's illegal to trim shield, and because transmission has a Lifetime warranty on it, was hesitant to trim ears off case. Contacted Manufacture and emailed them pictures and they gave be permission to trim ears and warranty was un effected. Will have to make a dust shield out of fiberglass to take care of that problem.

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Next problem is modifications needed to both Firewall and Transmission tunnel because of both Transmission and Flexplate shields. With "Lydia" my other 64 coupe that has same transmission we only had to make two minimal tunnel mods one for transmission cooling lines and one so TCM wire harness plug could be removed.

Flexplate shield also will make it a lot harder to drop transmission on this car Vs my other 64 as top transmission bolt can not be removed from engine compartment. Will have to remove it from underneath car if its possible to get a socket on it with a long extension. We are trying to get enough clearance between Trans shield and tunnel to do it.

We sat the body down on frame to cut tunnel and Firewall out to fit transmission with shields. Hope by doing this there will be enough clearance between shields and body to get to all the bolts to remove trans when we shim body up to proper height off frame.

First cut.

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Then a lot more cutting to fit. Firewall opening has moved upwards quite a bit as you can see from the original sections of it bolted back on to scab in new tunnel opening to.

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Before we go any farther, have to have a Driveshaft built. We picked up a slip yoke and u-joint for Viper rearend and will make sure we have tunnel clearance for slip-joint. Then have driveshaft made.

I've got to pick out a set of racing seats that will fit in car and me as well. They have to be comfortable enough to allow me to drive around 600 miles in a day when there is a need to. I don't build trailer Queens...LOL

That's awesome! I HOPE I am still racing when I'm 71'. Good luck with your project man, if you need any tips for getting a vette down the drag strip, lemme know... I have a bit of experience with it. I have about 80 10 sec passes under my belt with my 71, and several low 9 sec passes with my C5...Actually hitting the track Friday night looking for 8.90s in the C5, pump gas/street cruiser at full weight, every amenity it came with.

Drag racing pure street cars is my thing...:thumbs::cheers:


BTW, to go into the high 10s with only a 1.9 60' is gonna take some serious mph.. 2800lbs and 400 rwhp will probably get you 125 mph-ish.. That's not gonna get you 10s with a 1.9 60'... A 1.6-1.70 60' could get you 10.80s-10.90s.... Some drag radials would seal the deal for you... Or even just some Toyo R888s would get close and still be a "regular street" tire.

I'll need all the Tips I can get to do this, but I've even made it hard to get decent 60' time with 200 Treadware limitiation. I've set a goal that other than putting the car on a strick diet to get in down to around 2800 lbs with me in it may be hard to do. Little easier without my 220+ lbs in it.

This is as you can tell a weight to Horsepower/Torque build rather than bolt in a ton of Horsepower and bolt on some good tires and go run fast times even if you have to baby the car down that long Black Dyno. Build is about doing the most you can with the least amount of power. If I don't make it into 10s, I can always do non internal mods to engine first and then if needed, internal mod(s).

I don't want to be afraid of having too much power, so car is not enjoyable to driven because you have to be on your toes all the time and thinking. I also don't want to brag about how much HP engine has, I want to brag about how little HP engine has yet can still give a decent showing at track...:toetap:

Well, not a lot got done last week, with me a PRI Show last week and people being sick at shop things moved slowly.

Trans tunnel has for the most part been glassed back in and work started on redoing the floor behind the seats that had to be modified for 6C suspension. Former owner had done some glass work, that we removed both to improve look an so we could build in a battery box an also try to provide more storage area for cleaning products and what ever can be stored in space when traveling.

What cutout looked like to install a 5sp/6sp manual. NOTE: With 4L80E transmission you would only need to make a narrow cutout in side of passengers side tunnel so you can run trans cooling lines.

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What happens when you have to have a Transmission shield and Flexplate shield to be legal at NHRA events makes installing a 5sp/6sp manual a piece of cake....LOL Now with the trans shield for a 4L80E installed, you have to bulge out the drivers side of transmission tunnel from right at bottom of foot well up to top of tunnel.

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Driver's side just moves upward at normal angle to transition with original console top. We will be trying to preserve the look of stock console and install dash by trimming off bottom of it, removing section and trim of section that console plate installs too and glassing in back on to dash.

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Next started on finishing out floor pan area behind seat to provide some covered storage area and space for a battery box.

We removed area of floor that had already been installed by previous owner and started work on adding more covered storage space.

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Making/curing closeout panels.

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Subscribed :thumbs:

I was surprised and a little flattered to see my old 66 being used as a model for the hood I made years ago. BTW, I removed all X bracing underneath and reinforced the hood fiberglass to gain motor clearance. I also smoothed out the cowl bulge in between the vents to remove all trace of the old stock style. Cheers, looking forward to the build. :cheers:

Been a rough few weeks since last update on project. Shop doing the work has been hit hard by Flu. Seems its been getting passed around, with relapses because people try to go back to work to soon.

Owner got over his bout a couple of weeks ago, and because we have a deadline for car to be finished, he moved car from Body Shop over to his Strip shop so he could start working on it.

First off why I do some of the things I do with body.

To me at least, when you go to wider tires and fenders, rest of body needs to be modified so it looks like it was made to be fitting with them. Another thing is I want car's body to look different from anything else being built out there at this time. I've always heard different Drum beats than some. I don't always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want from studying past. One thing everyone should do is build for yourself, not for others. If they like what did or just some of it, that's just a little icing for you cake.

First thing he started on was to make lower front fender piece. Remember this picture of lower front fender Vent treatment I made using original old lower fender that came off Lydia when we building it. I had taken modeling clay and sculpted what I wanted Lwr Vent to look like.

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He took my mockup model, made a couple of changes to it by lengthen the raise run out of the vent ribs out from where I ended them, matching up with were the dummy vent ends ended originally. He lengthen them to run out to end of lwr fender at door. He had a reason to do it, based on my saying the Front Fender to Rear Fender width had become too out of balance with one another. That front fenders need to be widen at least 1.0" at center of fender well to get Fronts and Rears width a little closer. Would like to have taken them out 2.0" to match change to rears width, to match original mismatch Frt to Rear width. Probably want matter any way as it's unbelievable how many C2 owners don't even see the coke bottle shape Lydia has, until I point it out to them...LOL Any way, change he made allows the body's belt line to be tapered from the 1.0" width change down to where it meets the door for a more flowing look to it.

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My model with builders change encapsulated in fiber glass so mold could be pulled off it after it had been slicked up some using sanding primer to fill in surface blemishes.

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Part pulled of mold with center of vent removed to so piece(s) could be bonded to it so bottom taper for opening could be developed. Yellow plastic spreader was cut down to try and set opening at front to allow a little air to escape.

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This brings project up to date as of a week ago. I stayed away until this past Friday, when I went up to show builder what I was expecting tire coverage wise, and to see change he made in rear 1/4 panel that changed the cars belt line some form the nearly stock look of it. He moved center of rear wheel 1/4 opening out 1/2" to give a more curved look. I'll live with it, since it adds more of a flowing look to body, but would have rather it stayed like it was originally done.

I'll post pictures of plan for front fender, with mockup pieces attatched to body or just stuck on to come up with final look of front fender, and rocker panel little later on today if possible.

Very cool custom mold work.

Well back to updating build to bring things up to date as of last Friday.

Builder call and ask me to come last Friday as he had got part pulled off mold he made and temp attached to body, a Fiberglass Rocker made off mold from my other car so I needed to come up an decide where I want lower fender positioned to provide tire coverage I wanted, along with discussing why I wanted to flare the front wheel well openings out 1.0" more at center of them with 1/2" at front and rear of opening and tires to add an extra inch of front wheel track.

Mock up part attached to body. You may notice the small with dots placed around on part at different locations, along with white powder on it. The Dots and powder or so part could be digitally data scanned to help make a right hand mold so there would be matching left to right parts. Hard to do Freehand when dealing with compound contour.

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The tire coverage you see in this picture does not include the fact that wheel and tire have not been spaced out 1/2" inch more yet.

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Mockup lower rocker panel stuck on to see how it can be used to help with tire coverage and be blended in to Lower Fender.

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Picture showing just how much lower fender and rocker panel will have moved away from stock location in order to improve tire coverage. If you look at rocker at rear 1/4 panel you should be able to see it will be close to taking the rear tire out of air stream all together unless I decide to center it in first groove of tire when it placed underneath body correctly instead of laying up on top of doorsill to hold that end up.

Door skin will also be cut and moved so it and lower fender as well as rocker panel flow as one.

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View from rear with door just stuck in in place not bolted in so we could get an idea of how body flow looked.

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I have been a fan of your " models " for years.

We made a little progress this week, more than what I will show at this time. We are doing some other changes to body panels on car. One of these may not work out as I think. Even if it does, nobody will probably even notice it unless it's pointed out....LOL

Remember the pictures of Left lwr front fender vent with the white dots and power on it we had scanned to get Digital Data to make a mirror image of of it to make a lwr Right fender from. We got the data back in a usable from that a mold can be machined from to produce part.

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Digital data that will be used to machine lwr Right fender mold. Big time saver.

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Left Hand lower fender is now ready to be bonded to front end as we finished up opening details that I hope will vent some of air from underneath hood out. It's better than nothing in that respect, but more than anything is front rear tire coverage it helps provide to help keep road debris from being slung up on body and make body look like it was made to fit wheels and tires size being used vs hanging them just hanging out in air stream.

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Hope to have the left hand side of car's body work finished up by end of month to see how and if it works out. Just have to wait and see.