My '76 restoration (long post)

Denis, check the first post out (C2 taillights), from a shop whose Facebook page I follow:

https://www.facebook.com/GodSpeedRidesSarasota

At first it looked very similar, with the three groove, but turned out quiet different.
The design is not bad at all, but it's a bit "heavy" to my own taste.
I've got an appointment with my mechanic on Saturday. The four taillight may be completed at that stage, can't wait to see them installed.
Seems like everything feel like coming together at the same time.
Well, let it be!
 
Almost done with the louvers/blades/vents
Need a final sculpting with small files, shouldn't be long before I glass it in.
I'm still wondering if I need to create some perpendicular blades as support. I surely don't want to recreate the egg crate look, support blades would be recessed anyway. We'll see.

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Looks good, lots of effort in that.

WOW weeeee!!! that's bad ass!!!

Thanks fellow modder.
Surely it did took effort, but more than that it required patience. It was all about glassing a little a waiting for the day after.
If I posted every I did lay resin the hood would have taken pages of posts.
Some don't like epoxy because it take ages to cure, but I like it.
I glass one day, 12h later the cast can be removed but I still can correct details with razor blades. Wait another 12h hour and it's fully hard and ready to sand.
Ok, I could shorten this up with the heat gun, but I like the pace as it is, takes longer to screw up.

I'm getting the warm feeling I can soon pack all my bodywork tools, tear down the dust tent and move on. Man, that feels weird.

I'm still uncertain about the grill work, I'm not sure I can do decent job without seeking the help of a TIG welder, I have a very thin honeycomb aluminum grill to deal with.
 
Due to sun angles, the photos do not show too good on my grill, a welder buddy built my custom grill that is one piece from side to side in the stock glass structure....I had it powder coated black some years ago, it's nothing but 3/4x 1/8? flat stock common hardware store aluminum....

it suffered a good bit some years ago when the Verizon truck backed his hitch into the left front, and took out a LOT, which is why the headlight openings are so much modified.....:crutches: but that's ok, he did me a favor, I took their insurance settlement, and saw the Grand Canyon, worry over the car later.....

9 years ago.....jeebus....
 
Damn that's looking great !!!!

One thing I wanted to do to my hood is adding the stinger scoop on top of the L88 just like Panic did a few years ago..... But until I get my house finished and moved in all my car stuff is on hold....

I wonder if the Stinger plus those louvers is too much..... At some point it is looking too much like the Corvette Summer hood.....LOL
 
Damn that's looking great !!!!
Thanks Karsten.:beer:
One thing I wanted to do to my hood is adding the stinger scoop on top of the L88 just like Panic did a few years ago..... But until I get my house finished and moved in all my car stuff is on hold....

I wonder if the Stinger plus those louvers is too much..... At some point it is looking too much like the Corvette Summer hood.....LOL

Ok, let's play backyard engineers (drunk on a golf kart) if you don't mind.
-A stinger scoop is supposed to Let the filter gobble up all the air it can while making room for some monstruous ram intake.
-My louvers are "supposed" to let hot cooling air out of the engine bay, and maybe have some aero effect (that's the drunk part).

So if any of those apparatus ever function like we envisioned them it would let the intake recycle hot air from the radiator.

Anyway, we know it's all about the badass look, and on that domain I'm from a different school.
To be honest, it I know I ended here I would have take the time to retro fit a '80 hood.
That's how I see it : by the mid 70's, with the Vettes EPA-choked to death, designers had to come up with some sort of compensation, hence the bulging hood.
So macho-cucumber-in-the-pants.
If I could make the hood flatter, I would, especially if you put an LS engine.
To me a high-rise hood Vette is a muscle car, while a flat hood Vette is a sport car.
Plus, I don't know, I kinda like to see where I'm driving to.
May I had all this babbling about hood size don't apply to REAL racing Vette, where it all about function.

Of course this is just a personal esthetic options, like the one you would expect from some snotty Frenchman.
Of it's just me who can't help conceptualizing.

That's why I've always been unimpressed bu the L88 hood, but see the LT1 hood as pinnacle of beauty.
It's so elegant and subtle.
Surely my version is much wilder, but I want to keep some of its essence.

Here's the lastest example, some mocking up tonight :

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Not bad huh?
Well, I don't like it. It's cool, but too much egg-crate, the initial shape get buried under the square shapes.
 
May not seem obvious to everyone, but I think it make a big differenc :

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I lowered everything as far as I could.
I'm gonna go this way for the support.
The actual support will be thinner, and sharpened at the top.
I'm thinking about painting them darker (probably black) to make them disappear.
Now for the grill, I still have two options:
I can do as mocked up here, four little grills perpendicular to the vents.
(You'll note I made a some artistic efforts to symbolize the grills)
Or I can shave some of the bottom of the blades and install a single, horizontal piece of grill, like what Richard posted on CF.
This configuration gonna take a little more time to mockup.
 
No time tonight to do actual work, so I'm making myself lie and do one last mockup
hide.gif

This time with both sides

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This look egg grate a certain angle, and it's growing on me, I'm set.

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And you get to see the underside.
The actual part will go flush, and half of the cut will go in the blades, half in the support to get them intertwined.

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Again, looking great what you're doing there but now after your comment I wonder: what would a lowered hood - like cut the mid section and lower the scoop as much as possible (with a LSx engine) - look like ????
Might actually be really awesome.......
 
Again, looking great what you're doing there but now after your comment I wonder: what would a lowered hood - like cut the mid section and lower the scoop as much as possible (with a LSx engine) - look like ????
Might actually be really awesome.......
This would have made a more aeroVette-like hood.


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Again, looking great what you're doing there but now after your comment I wonder: what would a lowered hood - like cut the mid section and lower the scoop as much as possible (with a LSx engine) - look like ????
Might actually be really awesome.......
This would have made a more aeroVette-like hood.
Karsten, I read you again and I realized I got your post all wrong. What I would have get in that case would be a profile similar to the original LT-1 hood, where near the winshield the hood profile is totally flat.
 
LED are finally glued in.

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You'll notice I'm missing the smallest ring on the bottom left ligth. It has been casualty of the first glue test, a replacement is on its way.

That how they look from the rear.

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If anyone wondered why I wasn't posting much lately, here's the answer:

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This 'detail' took me an awfull lot of time to get right.
Each corner had to be filled, smoothed, scultped...
Actually there are 108 corners on this thing.

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That's how it looks from underside.
The piece are from the cutout of the hood.
They are interlocked with the blades.

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Now that I've done all the fine work of the scoop, I can start glassing it into the hood.
There is still a tricky part, as the line of the backbone of the scoop doesn't match the hood, but I have an idea for that, this gonna be a make it or break it. stay tuned.
 
I'm really impressed with the outcome of this! It looks awesome :thumbs:
You have done a great job, please keep the photos and text coming!

Regards, Daniel
 
Denis -
man that is awesome. I've been sweating my nuts off here doing body work outside. 90+F (45+c) and 80% humidity.

I am getting some work done - and you are an INSPIRATION!
Excellent. I owe posts - I know. Thanks.

Cheers - Jim
 

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