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.

Four Days - we hope

Chris says Wednesday we'll know if we're going to make Friday. Still to do on the body is paint the blackout in the wheelwells, paint the engine bay, and black out the eyebrows on the nose and the area behind the grille. The hood, trunk lid, doors, and deck lid still need final wet sanding and polishing, and the bottom of the hood also gets painted black. The weatherstripping also needs to be installed on those parts.

 Here's Ron polishing the paint after the final wet sand with 2500 grit.

One shot of the car all polished.  

Another shot with exposure closer to the paint color. 

All done but the clean-up

Installed the LS1 intake on the motor tonight and found it only requires 89 inch lbs of torque. Ugh - not much past finger tight. Glad I bought an inch-pound torque wrench last month. Touched up the paint on the battery tray and the rollbar mounts. All that's left I hope is to give it a final wash before bringing it over to the shop.

Tailpipes are wrapped with a fiberglass wrap and hit with high temp coating. One fire due to hot tailpipes is enough.

Still have a couple accessories to mount but will get that later. Everything torqued from head to toe.

Chassis Progress

I've been working this past week to finish up the chassis in hopes of dropping the body on it next Friday. Today was a full day of working through the checklist. Headers are installed and torqued down, as is the water pump, water neck, and power steering pump bracket. Transmission is bolted to the engine with all the bolts, and torqued, and the exhaust is all properly hung and tightened up, save for the band clamps. All the exhaust hangers were treated to a vinegar bath to remove the rust, hit with metal prep, then painted with high temp paint.

I've been trying to mate the truck fuel injectors to the LS1 intake. I picked up some o-rings and found they were too big. Turns out my orings were fine, but the cap on the injector was bottoming out on the fuel injector boss. A few turns of a 1/2 drill bit by hand in each boss, and they were opened up sufficient for the injectors to properly mount. Now I just need to get some AN-8 nipples welded to the fuel line to remake the crossover, and need to make some brackets to bolt the fuel rails to the manifold.  The intake also needs to be bolted down and torqued after I get fresh intake gaskets.

About the biggest mandatory item is to get the transmission cooler lines run. Nice to do would be to mount up the power steering high pressure lines and the power steering cooler. Five more days to go. I might even get a chance to clean up the garage a little before the homecoming.

Still Not Pretty

I got some more pictures from Chris yesterday of Ron's color sanding of the body and other panels. Monday will be some wet sanding at 2500 grit, then the cutting and polishing to restore the luster.

Here's the start of the color sanding of the deck lid.

 Here's the panels after the machine sanding

 The white shop rags aren't staying so white with the red dust from the color sanding.

 Here's the body after wet sanding

 Wet sanded through 2000 grit.

 Shot of the passenger side wet sanded through 2000 grit.

 Front side of the car wet sanded through 2000 grit.

Left side sanded with DA to 1500 grit, back wet sanded to 2000 grit. 

Left side wet sanded at 1500, right side machine sanded.



Not Pretty

After the shiney new paint last week, things took a turn towards ugly today. Ron started on the color sanding. Things will be better tomorrow, but all that shine was replaced with dull as the paint was knocked down with 1000 grit paper on a da sander, followed by 1500 grit.

Here's the start of the 1000 grit.

The whole car knocked down in 1000 grit, starting on the 1500 grit.

I've got another week to finish the chassis. I received some small parts in from Summit today, will be back on it tonight, hope to be ready in two days and have the week to clean things up and organize for the homecoming.

PS - while still shiney, she made it in the Orange County Register on Wednesday, slide 11 of the album.  http://www.ocregister.com/news/womack-300891-shop-national.html

New Family Room Furniture

Countdown 11 days until the planned day of reunification of the body and chassis. This morning I went over to SoCal Upholstery and picked up the interior bits. The leather looks really good. Susan graciously suggested it sit in the family room for a few weeks until I'm ready for it in the car. 

Here's all the pieces. The headrests mount to the rollbar when it's in the car. The seat covers and armrests were stitched by Al Knock Corvette Interiors. The rest was done by the local shop - headrests, steering wheel, shifter cover, shifter boot, and shifter knob.

Here's the shifter boot, cover and knob. The button was painted with the instrument cluster and rest of interior parts. Match is very good, and it was pulled from the ABS dash pad, and not the leather. Other side of the boot is double stitched like the shifter cover and arm rests. The shifter cover is upholstered over a fiberglass cover I molded last week after I touched up my mold I made a number of years ago. I still need to make a fresh Aluminum plate - I don't need both the SES and Alternator lamps that were in the previous version. 

Here's the steering wheel. The hub cover was painted with other interior parts by CW Rod & Restoration. 

She's Red

After work Friday I grabbed my camera and went by the shop to get some more pictures of Mutt all painted. I told Susan I'd be right back. She said "Right." An hour and a half later I made it home with pictures in hand. 

 Driver's side from the front

 Driver's side from the rear

Rear straight on.

Rear from the top. 

Passenger side from the rear. 

 Passenger from the front. 

 Head on at the front. 

Today is the Day - Red at last...

Yesterday, Ron finished the masking and sealed the primer. After that, the coves were painted. 

Passenger cove

Driver's Cove

Today the victory red was painted. Here's the shot from the tail of the car on the driver's side. 

From the nose of the car, looking down the passenger side of the car.  

Looking at the nose of the car, with the engine bay still masked off. 

Bye, Bye Grey Primer

It's been a long time, with the first media blasting done 14 years ago, and the grey primer seeing duty in two Corvette caravans, several open road races, three moves and three job changes, but it's time to go. Ron finished the wet sanding today, and the crew rolled her into the paint booth to say goodbye to life in primer and say hello to life in color again. The car left the factory Ermine White, though not clear if the coves were painted. It saw numerous other colors over the years including blue, yellow, brown, light metallic green, and white again. Now it's finally time to see Red. Ron expects to paint the car tomorrow after just a bit more masking and prep.

 Here she is rolled in the booth and set up on jackstands.

A shot from the side.

 Masking off the nose and front wheel wells.

Masking off the firewall. Deck lid hinges were down when the glovebox and trunk were sprayed, so trunk hinges down this time and deck lid hinges up.

 Masking off the interior.

 Masking off the trunk and rear wheel wells.