Cleanup, cleanup

After a week of work, today was spent organizing things and getting more working space. After that, I fabricated the bracket to support the radiator support on the rotisserie frame. With friends visiting from the bay area, time in the garage was limited today.

Stripping paint

On Tuesday I pulled most of the rest of the removable stuff - emergency brake lever and hood release lever, the heater controls, eyebrows and upper grill surround on the nose, along with the headlights. Also pulled the door glass,window regulators and the door handles. The lower grill molding still has one stubborn nut that I haven't been able to get to yet. I think there's only three pieces of trim left to remove other than the doors, deck lid and trunk lid.

After pulling this stuff and doing some cleanup, found myself with a razor blade in the engine bay. Stripped a fair amount of paint off the firewall and inner fender wells. Still have a bunch to go, but it's progress, not perfection.

Got a call mid day Tuesday from the dismantler. Turns out the transmission they were selling me was sold, so they found another one in the yard with 35k less miles on it. Shipping is also $50 cheaper than the estimate, so double bonus.

Almost all torn down

Lots of little stuff. From the driver's side of the passenger compartment I pulled the dash reinforcement, fuse block, body harness, brake pedal, gas pedal (to be replaced with drive by wire pedal), cowl vent lever, wiper transmission and windshield washer nozzle.

From the firewall, I pulled the brake booster, windshield wiper motor, and hood latches.

From the passenger side of the passenger compartment, I pulled the heater.

From the nose, I pulled the hood support, the fans, the radiator, the trans cooler, the air intake, the grill, and the front emblems.

Still left is the emergency brake lever and hood release lever, the heater controls (likely ready to pull out), and the eyebrow and grill surrounds on the nose, along with the headlights. Door glass is also still in the doors, along with window regulators, and the handles are still on.

With a few hours tomorrow, should get this all off, get the body bolted to the frame, and be ready to invert the body.

So much little stuff

First half of the day was spent pulling the chassis out, putting the body on the rotisserie, pulling it off the lift, putting the chassis back on the lift, then figuring out how to get the body back in the garage. Not easy. Ended up cutting two inches off the top of one upright of the rotisserie to clear the lift with the door open enough to clear the body, need to cut the other upright at some point.

After getting situated, started working through the car stripping everything else. No I wasn't napping - the easiest way to get at stuff under the dash is on my back with legs dangling out of the car. Pulled the dash, steering column, radio, convertible top, gas tank, tail lights, trunk latch, glovebox, deck lid hardware and latch, and some trim. Still have quite a bit left, the wiring harness, and a number of things in the engine bay to pull.

Slow Day

Being Christmas Eve, took it easy today. A quick run to Lowes to get a rack to store the parts, and a few hours cleaning up yesterday's mess. About the only work on the car was pulling the rear bumpers. Note to self. Don't wash red shop rags and white tee shirts together. Merry Christmas.

Bulldozer

Susan, started refering to my grace in the garage with the affectionate term "Bulldozer", since nothing is getting in my way. My memory was that it is an eight hour job to pull the body. Unfortunantly, my body removal notes weren't updated to reflect that I had left the bolts in the bottom of the convertible top well, bolted to the roll bar mounting pads. These eight bolts and my impatience will probably set me back another 3 or 4 hours of fiberglass repair time to fix the hole I blew in the rocker right in front of the rear tire well. Did I say I was going to have Eagleton drop the painted body back on the chasis? That was decided before this snafu.



Other than grabbing a neighbor to help me for 10 minutes to take out the 8 body bolts in the tub, it was a six hour solo job to disconnect everything and lift the body. It was about two more hours lifting the body, expanding my vocabulary, pulling out the chassis, dropping the body on the rotisserie frame, and rolling the chassis back under the lift.



Between work in the garage I talked with Cody at AAA Auto Salvage (http://www.aaaautosalvage.com/) in Quinlan, Texas and ordered up a L33 Aluminum block 327 LS motor and a two wheel drive 4L60 to mate to it. With the holiday, they won't get it on a truck until Monday or Tuesday, so it likely won't hit the truck depot in Buena Park until after the 4th. I'm getting a full drop-out package with harness, computer, gas pedal (throttle by wire) and accessories. The L33 is a baby LS6, a few cubic inches smaller, but the same great flowing heads. Plan is to mill the heads and put a a Carolina Auto Masters (http://www.carolinaautomasters.com/) designed cam and corresponding tune in it, get 400 crank HP, and call it done.





Despite the ouch, did achieve the day's goal of body off the chassis.

Ready, Set, Go - Tues 12/22

Took the car over to Eagleton Custom Autobody (http://www.eagletonscustompaint.com/) for them to fit up the doors before the body comes off. These guys are specialists in C1 and C2 corvettes. I counted 5 solid axles and two midyears when I brought Mutt in, and there's more in the queue.

After getting the car home, I spent a few hours turning it into speed racer, pulling the windshield and door posts.

All I want for Christmas is everything between the oil pan and intake

Rev 2.0 is slated for a 5.3L Gen 3 or Gen 4 motor, depending on the donor. Been looking through Craigslist over the past month, and the national salvage database. So far it's looking like it might be an out of state endeavor. Today I picked up the bat wing LS1 Corvette pan with oil pump pickup and windage tray for a screaming $140 off Craigslist. So far for the swap I've got the bottom of the engine (pan) and the top of the engine with the LS1 Vette intake the Milkman gave me my last trip through RTP, and nothing inbetween.

Raining cats and dogs this afternoon, so I'll putter around in the garage assembling the rest of the lift and if the rain breaks I'll shuffle some stuff around.

Muttvette Rev 2.0

Planning has started in earnest for the tear-down and completion of my 1961 Corvette. I aquired the car Memorial Day weekend, 1996, and did a Paul Newman Car Creations http://www.newmancarcreations.com/ chassis over the winter of 1997-1998. I've been driving the car in gray primer since then, and have worn out the red interior over the past dozen years. The car has been a 10 month daily driver, and has made road trips of 1,000-6,000 miles without fault. Over the years the car has been to the drag strip, road course, autocross course, and has done a few open road races. It's a driver. A very fun driver. It's now seeing cruising duty on the Pacific Coast Highway, and making the car show circuit in SoCal.

High level plans for the winter are to clean up the body and get the car painted Red with White coves. The interior will be refreshed, and I'll fabricate a custom center console for the car. I'm looking for a L33 Gen III small block chevy, with the good LS6 heads and aluminum block to shave another 100 lbs off the car, and boost the power 20%. While I've got the car apart, I'll also replace all the wear items on the suspension and give the chassis a deep cleaning to ready it for the next decade of driving.