C2 Corvette Drip Rail Clips

Back in 2009 when our Corvette was delivered Ty made me promise not to throw anything away during the restoration.  I thought that was an odd request but I've since seen the wisdom.

These are the original upper door drip rails that we replaced over a year ago.  They're nasty, rusty, difficult to store and they have sharp edges.  It would have been easy to toss them but I kept them and I am glad I did.  They have original trim clips and they tell us where the trim clips get installed.  You won't find that information in any book.  In this picture I have already drilled out the spot welds and removed one clip.

The drip rail requires 5 clips but ours only had 3 usable ones.  2 had to be fabricated.  Can you pick out the replica in this picture?  I can't either.

4 of the 5 clips are ready for welding.

Each was plug welded then ground smooth.

All 5 are now installed on the drivers side. The passenger side is next. 

Thanks for watching.

More Odds and Ends

My time in the garage is still limited but Lester (Wilson) says that's no reason for not posting.  So here's a few odds and ends that I hope will satisfy one of my most faithful followers.  You can also check out Peter's blog on his 1966 Corvette restoration.  Peter is another faithful follower that lives in Spain and his blog is at http://elcorvettedepeter.blogspot.com/

Ty and I continue to align the drivers side door.  As was the case on the passenger door, we had to grind away some of the thickness on the upper hinge.  The lower hinge will need 4 shim plates.  We didn't have any so Ty made 3 with available material but we need more.  I have since ordered several.

With 3 shim plates installed on the lower hinge you can see that the upper part of the door doesn't fit quite tight enough.  The extra shim plate should do the trick. 

Overall the door looks really good.  It shouldn't need much glass work at all.

Switching topics, the brass fuel float in the fuel injection unit had a leak and had been filling up with gasoline.  When the float doesn't float the car doesn't run.  This float has two halves that are soldered together.  After a couple failed attempts to repair the old soldered joint I removed all the old solder and resoldered with new.  The FI unit is back together and it's much better now.

Changing topics again, mechanical fuel injection experts recommend calibrating and tuning our engine using an air/fuel meter.  Sounds good to me.  Here I just finished welding the bung for an O2 sensor onto the drivers side side pipe.  Don't worry, this is the reproduction side pipe, not the original one.

The meter was installed in our make shift dash and it works great.  The optimum reading would be 14.6, that's 14.6 pounds of air to 1 pound of fuel.  The reading you see is a little rich but it was taken at idle.  We hit 14.6 when the car is cruising down the road.  Our Corvette currently has 108 octane racing fuel in it but it will soon be changed to pump gas.  When that happens we will retune the engine using our new gauge.

That's it for now.  I will not be able to work on the car for the next couple weeks so, Wilson, you're just going to have to grin and bare it.  Keep checking back though!