Front Brakes and "The Trailer"

Work continues on the front brakes. All the original fittings are fine. I used a little Scotchbrite on the stainless steel lines and a wire brush on the brass fittings. This is a picture of the main fitting that the master cylinder will feed. Only one line from the master cylinder feeds all four brakes. Another picture of the brake lines. This is the left rear. All new hoses and brake cylinders are installed.

This is the right front brake assembly. I was unable to find a good picture depicting the correct arrangement for all the pieces on a 63 Corvette so this is my best guess. It looks good, feels good, but I am not quite positive it's correct. Click on the photo and check it out. If you think something is odd let me know.

This is the left front.

This is one of the rear brake drums (it still needs to be sand blasted and painted). Other than the size, it's representative of all four drums. Do you notice anything odd? For me, it's the brake adjustment hole. I've never seen one on a drum, they have always been on the backing plate. None of the backing plates have an adjustment hole.

Once the chassis was back in a rolling configuration I thought I'd see if it fit on the trailer. The width is a tight fit for sure but then the car does have over sized tires and wheels. When we get the proper size tires and wheels I'll have to adjust the channel iron for the front tires. But that's for a later date. The trailer works fine for now.

It towed very nice. Shouldn't be an issue at all for Cool Desert Nights.

Clutch, Transmission, & Rear End Assembly

Earlier this week I installed the clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and pilot bearing. In this picture the clutch is being held in place with a splined tool that came with a clutch kit I bought from Napa. The pressure plate was fastened to the flywheel using ARP bolts designed specifically for this application.

Grade 8 hardware was used for the bell housing to the engine and the transmission to the bell housing.

Additional work was done to the front brakes including shoes and brake cylinders. The brakes are far from complete though.

Ty came over today and put in a full 9 hour day working on the rear end. Here Ty is adjusting the rear bearing assembly to one of the trailing arms. This whole assembly is made up of numerous parts that are unique to either the left or right side. It would be very easy to inter-mix these pieces.

Ty installed the pumpkin and cross member first. Only grade 8 fasteners were used.

Both trailing arm assemblies were installed next. They will receive final alignment at a later date.

The installation of the half shafts and the leaf springs completed the assembly. Although the brakes are not installed the wheels and tires were put back on the car for mobility.

Here's the picture you asked for Max. The overall suspension still needs a lot of work but it's back into a rolling configuration. Thanks Ty for another productive day. It really looks nice!