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Monday, March 12, 2012

We Gather Here to Join this Body and Frame... Forever

This body bolt is one of 12 used to fasten the body to the frame.  It took a whole day of measuring, shimming and torquing to complete the installation.  A total of 12 Grade-8 bolts were used.  When it was all done, 10 locations required no shims and 2 required 2 shims each.


Switching topics, I removed the chrome American Racing Torq-Thrust D wheels from the Corvette.  The replacement wheels are American Racing Torq-Thrust D's in grey spoke.  The gray spoke wheels were very popular in the 60's and we feel they're more appropriate.  At Dennis K's recommendation we also put the raised letters to the inside.  Raised white letters were popular but the word Radial was not.


The picture does not do the wheels justice.  You'll have to trust me that they look awesome.


We put the chrome wheels on our newly acquired Nomad.  Bob D, my brother Jim and I have owned this car for the last 40+ years.   We just keep handing it off every 12 years or so.  The old Cragars are finally gone and the new wheels and tires look great.


We had three open issues from a recent post.  One was to replace the universal joint bearing caps with the correct U-bolts used in 63.  All 4 U-bolts have been installed and we even gave the rear cover of the differential a new paint job.


Another open item was to replace the transmission shift forks.  In this photo the new forks are installed.  They are made in the USA and are substantially beefier than the ones removed.  Lets hope they work.


Getting the transmission back together was a bit of a chore because of limited space in the tunnel.


We also purchased and installed a clutch fork push rod for the 1963 ball-and-socket clutch fork.


That about wraps up the mechanical work which means I'll be block sanding the body soon.  Either that or I could paint a test panel to figure out what color racing strip we want to use.  I think I like that.

Stay tuned and thanks for watching.   

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Installing the Body - Finally

It's been a long time coming.  The body is finally being installed, permanently.  It will be bolted down and will hopefully stay that way for many many years.


I am using a $65 12-volt electric hoist bought at Harbor Freight to lift the body.  This hoist has been a real work horse over the last couple years and it has never failed me.  A friend even borrowed it to move a small shed in his yard.  He said it worked great.


Without the doors the straps have a potential for putting a lot of stress on the body.  I used softeners (towels) at all contact points.  They worked great with no issues.


Although I've never heard of anyone doing this I decided to cover the rolling chassis with plastic before installing the body.  The theory is it will act as secondary protection when we paint the car.  It should be easy to remove when the time comes (I think).  As the body is lowered we have to pay particular attention to the distributor and the gas tank.  Experience tells us these two items can easily get hung up and the distributor will scratch the firewall if we're not careful.


Touchdown!


Nothing scratched and the body to frame holes all line up nicely.


I couldn't have wrapped the motor better.  If nothing else it will keep the dust off while we finish sanding.


I am impressed.


How sweet is that!


Next we crawl under the car and start shimming and bolting the body.