4 hours

Some time ago I made a number of business trips to Japan, and it seemed every customer we visited, it took us three hours to get there, whether taking subway in Tokyo, taking the bullet train out to the customer, or driving with our local manufacturer's rep.

Lately, it seems like everything on the corvette is taking four hours. Gas pedal has an S-Bend right into the trans tunnel. Build a new arm out of 1/4" steel  for the pedal that bends to the left rather than the right - you've got it - four hours.

Arm for the shifter on the transmission is shorter than the one that I had with the 93 Corvette shifter I'm using, but the one from the 93 corvette hits the exhaust pipe. Time to make a new one out of some 3/16" steel. Needs a square hole on one end and an oval hole on the other. Don't know about you, but my drill bits only make round holes, and I don't have a mill.

New wiper transmissions for the new wiper system replacing the old cable system. Brackets rub against the windshield channel - some filing to make clearance. Well, I'm not four hours into it, but I'm hardly started on this one.

New location for the power steering reservoir - well that bracket was easier to fabricate, and I only got it wrong and had to redo half of it, so it was probably only 90 minutes.

New Aluminum master cylinder - fittings were different than the old iron master, so tried re-flaring in place, ended up fabricating two new lines to the first tee or junction. Probably only 2 hours all said and done.

So not everything is taking four hours, but it all takes time. Looked at my checklist from last weekend. Crossed two things off the list of 22 must do things before I pull the car into the driveway under it's own power, but put four more things on the list, so I've now got 24 things left to do.

Not depressed, just struggling to accept the reality of how many little details there are when building a car from the ground up.

Brakes

Now that the car starts, time to get other critical mechanical systems together. Cleaned and painted the front calipers and rebuilt them using the AC Delco seal kit. Pretty easy to rebuild - just slightly more involved than a drum brake cylinder.

Was going to get a fresh master cylinder, but didn't know what Newman Car Creations used. Contacted them, and found it was a booster system put together by Vanco Power Brakes, but then Paul contacted me, and said he had one last Aluminum master cylinder from the second design they produced, so Newman is shipping that off to me to replace the cast iron master cylinder.

Vroom, vroom

Well, missed the goal by a week, but I'm still happy. I think a ground wire did me in. I also had a burr on the crossover on the fuel rail causing a leak, and a fuel regulator that wasn't at 58 psi.Once I fired it, found the serpentine belt was jumping around - not enough tension, so I swapped the 75mm idler pulley for a 100mm pulley I had sitting on the shelf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOjuTW1VA5s

In my frustration over the engine, I put the spears and emblems on the coves. Turns out the driver emblem placement wasn't straight on the replacement panel, so had to add new holes - luckily the wrong holes stayed behind the emblems.

Didn't get my birthday wish

Had hoped to start the engine today. Got close, but no cigar.

Many minor inconveniences along the way today. Power steering pressure line hit the suspension cradle, so I had to straighten it out and rebend it.

Starter install was challenging with the bat wing pan. Needed to drop it in from the top, pull the dip stick, and wiggle it in place.

Oil line to the gauge ended up two inches too short due to the fitting being near the pan rather than the top of the block, so required a trip to the store for a union.

Got the front dress on, and the belt ended up too long. The tensioner bracket has two positions, but the one that would have taken up the slack hit the steering rack. Trip number two to the parts store, to get a couple smaller belts and a bigger idler pulley. Came up empty on the pulley, but got a belt an inch smaller, and one three inches smaller. Both were too small. Time to pull the tensioner bracket for a second time today, and redrill it to move the tensioner.

After getting the wiring done, the tranny cooler line looped, the starter installed and  the front dress on the engine,  turned the key and had no fuel pump activation, and no PCM through the OBD-II port. Bypassed the relay and found several fuel leaks. Need to check one flare tomorrow that I can't seem to get to seal, and figure out why the gauge isn't reading any pressure, since it's the return line that's the last one leaking. Then it's time to debug the PCM wiring and see what I missed. So close I can smell it. Or was that all the gas I spilled? ;-)

Radiator full

Chipped away at a number of things today to get ready for the firing of the motor. Remade the tensioner bracket - first pass wasn't up to my quality standards.

This afternoon I ordered up a new tensioner, and got hoses so I could fill the radiator. I know the block is full - didn't have the rear caps on the steam ports, and got the water level up that far. Doh!. The cooling system is now water tight and full. I still need to figure out where to mount the expansion tank - hose routing makes sense on the driver's side, but with headlight and fan relays, and the brake booster, that side is a bit congested.

The fuel system is now ready for a pressure test. I put in a new fuel filter, hooked up the lines from the tank after replacing a line, and tightened all the fittings.

Still to do - finish the front dress, hook up power steering lines, replace spark plugs, finish hooking up the wiring, hook up the oil pressure gauge, and measure and set the fuel pressure to 58 PSI.

Fuel at 90%

Took Sunday and Monday off to enjoy the holiday weekend. Went back at it yesterday, spending the whole day wiring in fuse blocks and relays for the engine harness. I think it's pretty close to ready to hook up and test.

Here's the lower hose in place.

And the upper hose, snaked away from where the air intake will be.

Here's the modified truck rails with AN fittings joining the pieces together.

And here's most of today's effort, putting in the Aeromotive fuel regulator. I'll need to put a safety shield in front of this, since the lines are in the direct path of projectiles from the front tire.

Engine got oil today. Tomorrow it's time to start filling the cooling system.

1961 Corvette, 5.3L radiator hoses

Went to the local parts store to get hoses for the Corvette. Didn't even bother to say I needed hoses for a 1961 Corvette with a 5.3L motor. Just handed the parts guy the four bends I had pulled together from yesterday's test fit, and said find me two hoses with two of these bends each. Within 10 minutes I was walking out of the store with the two hoses, and with part numbers for future reference for the next hose replacement.

Toolmaking and tubing

I'm on vacation for the next week, and my primary focus on the car will be to get it to a point that it will fire up. Small matters such as a cooling system, fuel system, and electrical systems need to be finished up. In prep for this, I made a trip to Burns Stainless in Costa Mesa to drool over some headers and pick up some Aluminum maderal bends for the cooling system and for the intake track from the filter to the MAF to the throttle body. I also picked up some 3 1/2 silicon hose to connect part of the track together.

I also made a stop at Mesa Hose to get the AN fittings brazed on my fuel lines for the crossover between the fuel rails and for the supply line. I also had a piece of 1/2 stainless tubing bent to join the two sections. I installed tube nuts and flared that tube myself.

Here's the two radiator lines. The long one is 1 3/8 tube, the 45 is 1 1/2 tube. I cut them to length, then made a bead with my new custom beading tool.

Here's the final section of the intake. Before was a section of steel 3 1/2 tube and a section of hose. I'm replacing that with 3 1/2" aluminum tube and a silicon hose section to join the to the rest of the system.

Here's the rest of the system. The black section and section with the concave portion were from the old system. I trimmed the black piece to get room for the MAF.

Here's the section that will go to the throttle body. It starts with a 4" manderal bend, then goes to the MAF, then to a straight section of 4" tube, then to a 4 to 3 1/2 silicon reducer. The straight section off the MAF had to be expanded to take the transition to the MAF.

Here's my beading tool. I used a couple pieces of angle iron for the swing arm and the base plate. I bolted a couple round sections with grooves for the base. The action part of the tool is a couple washers on a half inch bolt, with a sleeve to space it to the grooves, bolted to the other piece of angle iron.

Arbor ready to come down on the tool.

Here it is with a sample of tube on it. We only mashed one practice piece.

Here's a shot in the arbor press.

A close up of the press arm coming down on the beading tool.

slow going

Spent pretty much a full day in the garage today. Installed outer door handles in both doors. Installed the mirror bracket on the driver's door, and the antenna on the rear fender. Started putting the nuts on the top fender trim and decided it needs to come off to open up a hole slightly so it's not so forced.

Most of the time today was in the dash area. Pulled the column and reinstalled with all the gaskets in place. Put the column/dash support in place. Put the dash in place, but still need to bolt down. Glued the dash pad and put the defroster vents in place. Put more wiring from the engine harness through the firewall. So much more to do.

Reassembly Day One

The car came home yesterday, and I started a couple things last night, but not much. I got the left hand rear bumper brackets in place, but realized the right side would have been a whole lot easier before we bolted the body last week. Had to unbolt some of the right side body bolts and lift the body to get the right side brackets in place.


Along with putting on the bumper brackets, we cleaned the taillights and I mounted them, and we cleaned the chrome around the licence plate, and I installed the back bracket, license plate and the chrome. I also put the trunk lock in place.

The interior took the bulk of the time today, mostly in putting in seven sheets of dynamat and taping all the seams with aluminum tape. I started running the engine harness into the interior - I'll put the PCM on the tranny tunnel. Soon I'll want to get the instrument cluster in place so I can start the remaining wiring and get key gauges hooked up so I can fire the engine.

Home at last

Took a late lunch today and had a tow truck meet me at the shop to get the car home. Tow truck driver rolled her right off the truck and on to the lift. All good.

Ready to come home

Got word today the car is essentially ready to come home. Ron will do one final pass with a glazing compound, and she'll be as good as done. There's also a few small parts that still need paint he'll work on in the next two days.

Ron and Jason hanging the deck lid.

All new weatherstriping on the deck lid - I won't recognize the car without the rattle of fiberglass on fiberglass.

Trunk lid now hung. It also has fresh weatherstripping.

A shot of the back of the car with the trunk lid and deck lid on the car.

And from the front with the hood in place.

Back together again

This morning I trailered the chassis over to CW Restoration Shop to have the guys drop the body back on the chassis. Chris had removed all the bolts on the dolly the body has been on for the past 18 months. Ron measured the door openings before the body was lifted, so that we could ensure the same gap is left when the placed on the frame, and shim appropriately. Our initial stack worked out perfectly, so no additional shimming required. And yes, being early fiberglass, and with some work over the years, there was 7/16" difference between the two door openings.

Using the two post lift, the body was back on the car and the bolts were tight an hour after I pulled up. That included pulling a 1962 Corvette out of the shop, pushing out a cab from a 1957 Chevrolet Cameo pickup, pushing out the chassis of the Cameo, and unloading the trailer.

Next week Ron will get the weatherstripping on the car, and mount the deck lid, trunk lid and hood. He also will do a little more polishing work, since it doesn't quite meet his standard for shine yet.

Here's the chassis in position, prior to lifting the body.

Body in the air, carefully balanced on a pair of 2 x 4's with the chassis basically in position.

Later in the day, after Ron hung the doors. You can barely notice the rear flare, the biggest tell-tail is the slight kick to the rocker right before the tire.

The 1962 behind Mutt is in Eagleton Red, a custom color Ron had mixed just for it. The Eagleton Red has a bit of a pink tinge to it, where Mutt's Victory Red has more of a blue hue.

Full shot from the driver's side.

And a shot from the rear.

Off to CW Restoration Shop

Loaded on the trailer now, off to the shop for the body drop.

Body is Ready for the chassis

8am tomorrow I'll bring the chassis over to the shop to reunite body and chassis after slightly more than eighteen months of separation. The body came off the chassis on December 23, 2009. It's scheduled to go back on the refreshed chassis tomorrow, May 27, 2011. This is the longest this car has been off the road in the fifteen years I've owned it. 

 The hood was the last major panel to be finished. Today Ron sprayed the black on the back side. On the right side as you look at it is the modification he did for extra clearance for the brake booster. He modeled it after the factory indentation on the left side. 

Yesterday the engine bay was painted black.

The wheel wells were all painted yesterday with a bedliner type paint. 

 The car is now sitting by the two post lift, ready to have the dolly removed and the chassis put in it's place.

Along with the wheel wells, the front grill area, and the two openings below the headlights were also painted black.

Three Days

Today Ron finished the cutting and polishing on the big panels - doors, hood, trunk lid, deck lid. He also started masking the body for the black paint. The car should move on to the lift tomorrow, have the masking finished, and get the engine bay sprayed, along with the wheel wells and nose of the car. The hood also needs the back side sprayed black. If that gets done tomorrow, and it dries well Thursday, we should be set for marrying the body and chassis Friday.

 A shot of the doors, with the car to the left and the other panels to the rear.

 Driver's door looking good.

 Trunk lid with hood to the left and deck lid to the right.

Car with the masking for blackout starting. The red below the headlight area will go black, along with the grill opening.