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.