Driveabeater C3, never be afraid to settle.

a_florida_man said:

How do you post videos?

I freed up the wiper door mechanism, and it all works again with the original vacuum servo.

I have videos.

I put them on YouTube and then link from there.

Stampie said:

a_florida_man said:

How do you post videos?

I freed up the wiper door mechanism, and it all works again with the original vacuum servo.

I have videos.

I put them on YouTube and then link from there.

Same here.  I'm weird about privacy, so I set any videos I upload to "unlisted" (they are usually kid/family stuff and I don't want them available to the whole world). Probably not a real concern with car stuff. Otherwise, same process as Stampie said.

Click the circled icon to insert your link into the forum as a watchable embedded video:

Thanks guys.

#4L finally gave it up...

Also shown are the brackets the decklid hinges set on. The drivers side was shot, but I'll replace both.

Here is how the inner and outer brackets line up. The bottom is the new one for the RH side.

Remember these holes?

I think that this will be the plan to fill them.

1" rubber expansion plugs.

The holes are not an even thickness, so this is a good way to get them air tight. I don't want gas fumes seeping in.

And just in case you are wondering why I'm doing all of this... well here is a sneak preview.

I have to lift the body a few inches yet to get them out.

But yeah... toast.

Did I mention it came with extra parts?

Why go this far, you might ask.

Well its really the only way to achieve the goals of reliability, function, and this is important... water tightness.

For instance... when you see people putting sealer where it should not be... (underside of passenger side cowl)

Look around... (top of cowl... there is a crack.)

The wiring in this car seemed pretty good.. I've seen worse... but when you pull it out and go from end to end...

Wrong Fuse.

Scotch locks and a radio cap on the brake light switch. (scotch locks are NEVER ok.)

Ground wire orphaned from a connector

Most of the bulbs are bad,

illumination circuit misssing the bulb holder

Some failed attempts at "finding power"... the incidence of these kinds of hack are highest near the radio lol.

Damaged / bare wire.

same

just cut off....

yellow / grey/ black / the old radio harness

scotch lock, two cut wires and another orphan.

there isnt even a name for this... its just bad.

mashed / cut / bare harness.

And there are more reasons, but you get the idea. It all has to be done . 50 year check up!

Oh yeah... need to address the drivers floor board. On early c3s they are fiberglass and not steel, so this happens a lot.

I bought a full set of fuel lines and of brake lines. Since I'm raising the body to change and repair the body mounts I thought it would be a good time to change them out with all of that access.

Im glad I did. I was just under the car and found that the main fuel line had swollen and ruptured. Never seen anything like it!

What causes that?

And I found a few feet away where someone tried to drill out a seat bolt and cut the return line.

Somebody just had a bath.... and it's been a while!!

Funky Soup!!!

The goal really was to get the ancient rat poop and pee dust out.

I don't want to be too gross.... but it was worth doing. The reconstituted funk was dark brown and very strong smelling. Probably should have done it sooner.

I think the car is happy..

The rate of progress is amazing! 

dyintorace said:

The rate of progress is amazing! 

Thanks!

The disassembly, inspection, and cleaning phases go fast, AND I am in a hurry to get to a stage where things are being reconditioned and reinstalled.... 

I am ALMOST to the furthest point of "apart".

a_florida_man said

 

Matching power washer = Total Pro. 

That 4wd stance though!  Haha.  Crazy how high it sits when everything is gutted! 

a_florida_man said:

Why go this far, you might ask.

Well its really the only way to achieve the goals of reliability, function, and this is important... water tightness.

You do realize this is a C3, correct?  ;)

DILYSI Dave said:

a_florida_man said:

Why go this far, you might ask.

Well its really the only way to achieve the goals of reliability, function, and this is important... water tightness.

You do realize this is a C3, correct?  ;)

True. Water tight is a bit of a reach. 
But you gotta have goals right?

Indeed.  Awesome progress to watch.  

The few times I've turned a wrench on our C3 my biggest takeaway has been just how differently cars used to be put together.  Part of that is that we've got 50 years of engineering progress, part of it is that we've got different materials, but also a big part is just the society from which it came, where labor was cheap, manual, and abundant. 

A tiny example, but which is echoed throughout, is the door sill plates.  In every modern car that piece is an injection molded plastic piece that is held in with clips that you hammer in with a dead blow or your fist.  The entire installation takes 10 seconds.  On the vette it's an extruded aluminum piece that is held in with half a dozen screws.  

It's been a day.

Cleaned the garage.

Inventoried the parts laying around.

Moved them to totes for storage.

Then I got back to work getting the body ready to lift. 
 

Todays task was the front end.

Up front I needed to separate the body from the frame by disassembling the bumpers. I also needed to remove the radiator core support and the cross member that it sets on, as they were in the advanced stages of rust.

I went ahead and made this a full front body tear down. The head lights have to be overhauled as well so might as well break it all down. Future me will be happy the next time I work in this part of the car. A lot of hardware just barely came apart cleanly. Looks like 50 or so years is the max interval for fastener corrosion.

All in all I'm still impressed with how everything is just still on this side of salvageable. I still haven't broken a fastener.
 

Opening up the front end and tackling it all at once just makes it all easier.

Fixing all the small things and a heavy cleaning will make a big difference in the end.

I know this is the consensus, but... what a great build.

Thanks.

Today will be removal of the rear bumpers, and disconnecting of the inner seat belt to frame cable.

At that point I should be able to raise the body and replace the body mounts, damaged #4 mount brackets and the fuel and brake lines.

Putting some new parts ON will feel good.

Ok, lets all sing together....

A little less Corvette,

Oh baby you're waaay to trashed,

A little less Corvette,

You need some love so that you will laaast....

93 deg

71% Humidity.....

It's hot out...

Progress is slow, between the heat and the desire to not screw anything up...

So I did a little inventory of a few new parts sets that came with the car.

Fuel Tank

Front Suspension / Rear Suspension

Brakes

Carpet

Mini split in the garage is the next home improvement project...

Mine is glorious.

Keep going

Getting there. 
Slowly.

Still nothing broken yet...