Back on the road! Well, sorta. A quick test-drive at least.

I need to refine the rear alignment, and re-bleed the brakes. The car pulls in both directions. And the master cylinder was dripping fluid when I got home, so that will likely need to be replaced.

But at least she's on her own four tires for the first time in months!

 

Progress of any kind is good,
I wonder what the headers would sound like

 

I did a quick check, and found a plug wire was off. The brake fluid leak appears to be from the master cylinder reservoir cover. I'll bend the retaining clips in a vice and try again. And do a rear alignment, at least with strings to get it good enough for now. Hopefully the rain stops for another test drive.

I'm trying not to think to hard about what the headers will sound like. That's a winter project, and while there is no end to driving season in Florida, there certainly is in Virginia!

 

So the DIY alignment worked! I've driven her a few times since, and she now tracks straight and feels sure-footed in turns.

The front end is the same (worn out control arm bushings and a tired, sloppy steering box being the big problems). She now has almost new Cooper Cobra 255/60R15 tires (from my wife's 79). And the entire rear end is new except for the differential (VB&P composite spring, shortened, 385 lbs, Bilstein Sports, rebuilt trailing arms and halfshafts, heim-jointed strut rods, rebuilt rear calipers). I left the rear sway bar off for now until I redo the front, but she's now half-fast.

Parking with manual steering is no problem if you back into the space.



As they say, if it's chrome, it's gonna leak. Well, that was true of the brake master cylinder cover. The old one leaked, and looked terrible. The new one was chrome (and looked a different kind of terrible), but it did come with a new gasket. I took the old one, wire brushed it until it was shiny (and convered in tiny, shiny pits), then I coated it with gun bluing, along with the two straps. Here's the end result. A third kind of terrible, but it doesn't leak, and didn't cost me $40 like a new zinc cover would have.

 

Here are the rear calipers, finished but before installing them. I used the new "High-Heat" O-ring rebuilt kit from CSSB Inc, and used ATE Dot 4 brake fluild. I used G2 Brake Caliper paint, which is a two-part epoxy. In the photo on the bench, they are still wet. When dry, they smooth out a bit. I had more than enough for two coats on all four calipers, but I ended up throwing a lot away and only did the rear calipers for now. I may go with Wilwood D8-6 calipers in the front, or just rebuild them with another set of CSSB O-ring kits.





I purchased a set of Crowfoot wrenches to help tighten up the power steering lines during the Borgeson install in my wife's 79 Corvette. The stainless brake lines I bought for this application did not fit into the brake line retainer on the rebuilt trailing arm the way the old rubber ones did, so the crows foot wrench set was extremely helpful in keeping the hose secure while I wrenched the steel line into place.

 

It's been a long, cold winter, but I managed to knock off a few projects during our early spring.

I bought a DeWitts dual Spal fan from a fellow Forum member, delivered via AllVettes4Me at Carlisle (Thanks David!). I hope to get it installed soon, but I tested it today. Here's the test setup. It is connected to a DROK 40A motor controller. My benchtop power supply maxes out at 11.5 A, but I'm within 90% of full power at that point (the power supply is current limited, the voltage dipped to 12.5V from 13.7). Below full power, the voltage held steady at 13.7V, so it appears that the PWM works just fine. One of these power supplies should be able to handle both fans, but I'll use two for a bit of redundancy.

The potentiometer works as both a speed control and an on-off switch. Now that I know how it works, I'll figure out a circuit. As you can imagine, the description on Amazon didn't exactly match reality, and there was no circuit diagram. I added the "Input" and "Output" labels, as the label on the device is in Chinese. I don't need more ways to turn the fans off, but rather a way to turn them on a bit at operational temperature, with the option to go at full blast when needed (both automatic/temp controlled, and an override option).

The DeWitts kit (SP460) came with a single 195 degree switch. I s'pose I'll try to wire it so that the fans are always partly on with the ignition, and then switched to full-on with the temp switch. Or I'll need another temp switch, but I'm out of places to put them.

 

This past week I pulled the seats back out of the car, and started grinding the rust on the floorboards. I have a complete passenger side steel floor, and some day I'll put it in. In the meantime, I ground out what I could without going crazy. I'll reinforce the passenger floor before putting down carpet.

As it was getting dark, but before it snowed, I was able to paint the bare metal (or bare rust) areas. I used Rustoleum Self-Etching Primer (dark gray). Go ahead and second guess me, but my reasoning is this:
I'll be back in here someday, likely grinding and cutting, so I didn't want to use zinc chromate or POR-15, as I had with removable parts and the (entirely replaceable) frame
I didn't want to mess around with neutralizing or cleaning acid from hard to reach places, so I didn't bother with Ospho, as I had with the frame
Final appearance doesn't really matter, since it will all be covered with carpet

On previous pages are the true before photos. Here are the after grinding, right before painting pictures. FWIW, in the spots where the galvanized coating was still intact, there was no rust. The worst was where the heater core had leaked, many years ago.

 

I removed the AC box and blower fan assembly from the engine compartment. I had to break it onto two pieces (and had a hell of a time finding the last screw), but it did come out without removing the engine.

 

This thread gives me hope for mine haha

 

There is so much more room in the engine compartment now. If anyone needs any 1980 AC parts, or a nearly complete system, let me know.

Here are the primered floors, ready enough for carpet.

 

Removing the AC box is tied to the fan project. I will use the newly recovered space to mount the relays. Also, after thinking about it for a bit, I made some progress on the wiring. By shorting two of the pins on the potentiometer, it is possible to make the fan run at full blast. So, as long as I don't mind having the fans run at low power all the time the ignition is switched on, I can have the 195 degree temp switch control a circuit that shorts the potentiometer pins together for full fan blasting when needed. I'll have two On-Off-On switch such that I can have positive control of each fan (normal run, off, and bypass on), and still use the supplied relays to control power to the circuit. I'm thinking about mounting the motor controllers where the radio would go, making it easier to access them. I'll try to post a circuit diagram, if I can find my copy of Visio.

 

I have deleted all my A/C parts except the evaporator housing, it's on the list, I plan on using the AGM firewall delete cover.


Do tell, where is the hard to find screw?
Eddy

 

The inside components have already been removed from the car. So the leaking heater coil, the mixing box, all that stuff under the dash was gone. There were only, I think, two nuts left holding the evaporator box to the firewall. I removed the coolant overflow tank, those two nuts, and the box peeled away from the firewall easily.

Then I was stuck. With great difficulty, I removed a bracket from the box, including one large screw. Still not enough room to pull it out. Then I removed the remaining 5 obvious large screws that hold the two halves together (my car is on the ground, with the front tire still mounted, but there was barely room to crawl under the car to reach the bottom screws). I tried prying the pieces apart, but no luck.

The hard to reach screw at the bottom. It's an 8mm screw. Like with everything, I needed a mix of SAE and metric tools to do this, and I had to get this from under the car.

I took pictures, then promptly lost my camera. I'll post them when I find it again.

 

Under dashboard components previously removed

I am planning on retaining the use of the fan for defrost purposes and thus the reason for the AGM firewall cover though I have long since deleted the heater hose fittings on the waterpump and intake, then capped the heater core inlet and outlets. I may possibly add a Vintage Air system someday, perhaps another years winter project. Are you going to install sheet metal on the firewall or glass it in? (Never mind, question answered by the WTB post. )

Thanks for the information on the difficult screw, I have side mount headers so reaching from underneath in that area is limited.

Looking forward to seeing more of your project, enjoy it!
Eddy

 

Thanks Eddy! I hope to keep making progress while the weather cooperates.

I've seen the ACDelete.com part, of course. I'm hoping I can find an original heater box, since I'd like the defrost, too. I've been following this thread for almost two years, and someone just posted the .STL files to let me 3D print my own C4 blower adaptor. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...upgrade-3.html Vintage Air would be the only way I'd do AC in this car now. I should convince my wife of the same for her car.

So the next step (after carpet) is to get the car up on the Kwik-Lift. I now have all of the parts for the following:

Replace engine mounts and transmission mount (I might have a garage do this, they quoted me $300-).
Replace upper and lower control arms and ball joints.
Clean, paint, and replace front springs (I got these from you, BTW, thanks!)
Replace front shocks, Bilsteins
Replace front sway bar bushings
Remove and rebuild front calipers (I need to order more kits from CSSB Inc., and red G2 epoxy)
Replace front brake hoses
Add Speed Direct strut tower brace

Now it gets complicated, since there are some "while I'm in there" items
Remove hood
Remove AC Condensor
With the upper control arms removed, remove fan, water pump, and shroud (the shroud is the key, I'm hoping to keep it in one piece)
Install dual Spal fan, with dual-speed motor controller, switch mounted in heater hose, for now.
Replace water pump, with a single pulley if possible (Alternator only)
Replace lower radiator hose, refill cooling system
Replace hood

That sounds like a lot, but I figure I have about a month before I start missing good driving opportunities. 60 degrees today, so of course VDOT sprayed all the roads with brine.

EDIT: I completely forgot, while it's up on the Kwik-Lift, I'll cut the exhaust out and remove the manifolds. She's not coming down until her headers are installed.

 

Here are some photos as the carpet goes back in.

I used 4 lbs of Hushmat, which was hard for me to do for a car that is intended to eventually get on the track. But I still have to drive an hour each way to get to the track. The rest of the floor is covered with Reflectix. The carpet, ACC from Wilcox during a weekend sale, has the Jute only under where your feet go, not on the sides, and not on the firewall (with the pedals there, I guess that's a good thing).

I hate chrome, BTW. I don't mind it on the exposed parts under the T-Tops, but anywhere else on the car, I hate it. My shiny aluminum strips that hold the carpet edges down under the door look like crap. If I clean them up, they'll look like chrome. So I found some carbon fiber wrap in the garage that was a perfect fit!




It's actually just black Gorilla Tape.

 

Looking good!
Very glad you could use the springs, much better for someone to get use from them than sit around in my garage.
I am intrigued by the 3D printing project, please let us see more when the time comes around. Nice build.
Eddy

 

Did you use anything (adhesive) between the Reflectix and the dynamat to hold the reflectix in place, prior to installing the carpet? I just got my mat down and have the reflectix to go in next followed by the same ACC carpet set also from Wilcox. Trying to cancel noise and heat but worried about the carpet etc feeling like its moving around under foot when its done. GIL

 

I did not use adhesive on the Reflectrix, or on the carpet. There was adhesive on the Hushmat, but only on the side that sticks to the floor. My application may be different than yours. I am not building an NCRS car, or even a really nice show car. I fully expect to pull the carpet out a few times in the next few years. I didn't want to scrape adhesive off the floors, or rip up the carpet, and I still need to replace the passenger side floor at some point. But, I am concerned about bunching under my feet (especially since I use both feet when driving). I figured I'll give it a try, and adjust as needed. I might prefer to drill a few screws into the metal floor, rather than add adhesive, but that's a me thing.

This is a worthwhile post to explain why I didn't cover the inside with Dynamat (or Hushmat). I'll have sidepipes this spring, so it may not matter at all.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...do-i-need.html

 

The carpet is done enough. Front is done, rear is placed, but I still need to do the final fit. Whatever. I have other stuff that needs to get done before the weather gets nice.

So she's back up on the Qwik-Lift for the front half of her Stage 1 suspension refresh.




Here's the current state of the rear end. I installed the brackets for the rear swaybar, but I'll need to install that, too.