Long Overdue Progress! Making New Door Panels 12/8/24

BBShark

BBShark

Garage Monkey
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My 68 Corvette has been in my 2 car garage for 10+ years with the body in one bay and the chassis in the other. Engine, trans, suspension etc. taking up the rest of the garage. Garage has been pretty much unusable for years. About 3 years ago I started putting the rolling chassis together with the goal of putting the body on the frame to free up half of the garage (to use it as an actual garage).

Last week I finally got it done. Spent all day doing it but it's a major step forward. Here is how the day started:

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Rolled the chassis out into the driveway. First time it has seen the light of day in a long time:

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Chassis under body:

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Together at last!

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Looks great, congratulations. What is the engine?
 
Thanks. The engine is an early 90's Pro Stock 502. Factory LS6 steel crank, JE forged pistons, Lunati cam and retro roller lifters w/ Edelbrock heads (10:1 compression). Ramjet intake w/ billet machined port injection plenum.

Once I get the body bolted down, next task is to get it running!
 
Wheels, stance and the color all work together so well... Oh and the 502, 5 speed and Brembos too :amused:
Great looking 'vert!
 
5 Month Update

So its been 5 months since combining body with chassis. I try to do at least something on this car every day, I wish progress was more visible. If I took a picture of it now, it would look the same except way messier. I had some mechanical snags in the beginning, clearancing the footwell for headers, putting the steering in (almost done) installing the fuel injection ECU, etc. and then a few months ago started the wiring. I hate wiring, there is stuff all over and it seems like I spend half my time looking for something I just had in my hand.

I'd say the wiring is about 70% done so I can go back to mechanical work. I tend to lose less stuff with mechanical work.
 
Gotta have your head in the right state to do wiring! I find it helpful to designate “sections” to the wiring and write down every wire that should be in that section. I’ve come back to a car days later to add a wire to the list for that section. It gets confusing, especially with EFI. Good to hear you’re still plugging away though!
 
BBShark said:
................... I hate wiring, there is stuff all over and it seems like I spend half my time looking for something I just had in my hand.

.................
Click to expand...

:amused: That's my normal mode (I suspect I have ADD). I seem to get focused on the next step in the process, which doesn't allow my mind to store the action I'm presently doing (like setting aside a part or tool), so I end up looking all over the damn garage for something I had in my hands ten minutes ago.
 
March 2020

So, my strategy for re-assembly has been to start at the firewall and work my way into the interior and into the engine bay. At first that was mechanical stuff like the HVAC, steering column, transmission tunnel modifications, pedals, windshield, etc. At the same time I was installing the wiring for the dash, engine/ignition and lighting.

The wiring is about 80-90% complete and I think I will be able to get this project to the point where I can complete the things that need to be done to make it a running (perhaps somewhat driveable) car. To do that I need to finish:

Top and bottom hose to engine/radiator
Heater hoses
Hydraulic clutch
Brakes
Throttle cable
Alternator wiring

March 2020

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Not to take away from the rest of your great work (really, everything looks fantastic), but the binder clip holding the towel on the fender blew my mind. :mullet:
 
Im happy to report back that the clips raided from the office made my day (and future days) that much easier :thumbs:

What is the relay center under the hood for?
 
The three relays are for the 2 radiator fans. One relay triggered by AC request, same relay triggered by the ECU engine temperature sensor. The other fan is powered by the third relay controlled by a temperature switch in the cylinder head.
 
Long Hood Conversion - Wiper Well Cleanup on 68-72

I am going to convert my 68 to a long hood to eliminate the wiper door and grill. The hood will be made out of a original BB hood with the center "scoop" raised about 1 1/2 inches. A kind of low profile L88 hood.

The downside of this is that you see the really awful looking wiper well with the hood raised. Tried to clean it up but it's just too crude looking. The worst is the wiper arm transmissions are loaded up with some kind of goo to keep them from leaking.

This was never a problem with the wiper door hiding the mess so I can understand why GM did it but the later long hood cars are not really a dramatic improvement.

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So as much as I don't like covers on mechanical parts, I am going to try to make a fiberglass cover to hide this mess. The later cars extended the windshield to hide this but the installers tried to fit one to my car and said no way.

Plan is to visually extend the lower edge of the windshield with a fiberglass piece. First task, find the curvature of the windshield at the bottom and make a template.

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Step 2 - make a form for the fiberglass extension that has the curvature of the window

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Step 3 - apply Polyethylene

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I have one of those. It is for the later cars and doesn't cover the bottom of the windshield on a 68-72. It's also pretty crude looking and really flimsy.
 
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