Firewall, Steering Column and Grounding

The firewall insulation on our heater delete Corvette is 3 pieces.  The largest piece shown required the removal of the steering column, clutch rod and the hood release.  The fuse box did not have to be removed.

The second, or middle piece, is the smallest and the third piece covers the heater delete opening.

Not many heater delete options were sold so I was surprised to find this piece available new.

All pieces are held in place with these rubber push plugs.  A T-handle allen wrench worked great as the installation tool.  A dab of white lithium grease helped too. 

This is a view of the heater delete block-off panel as viewed from inside the engine compartment.  You can see the pointed rubber fasteners from this side. 

New topic.

On the inside of each of the door openings are 3 clips that hold down a long 1" wide cover for the wiring.  All 6 had to be replaced as they were either gone, rusted or broken.  This one is broken.

Here is the new one.  I used a steel taper headed rivet to fasten it.  It's strong and lays flat.

New topic.

About 6 months ago I bought a Flaming River tilting steering column.  This weekend is the first time I was able to test fit it.  I wanted to check out the blinkers, however...

The steering column electric plug in my hand does not fit the plug on my new wiring harness.  I called Flaming River and they recommended I cut the plug on the harness and wire it to their plug.  I don't think so.  I then called Lectric Limited, the people that supplied the new wiring harness.  They were very familiar with this issue and they have an adaptor that connects each.  It's in the mail.

New topic.

Grounding.  Because the Corvette's body is fiberglass the car requires special grounding.  Three in total.  This one is viewed from below the motor looking up.  It connects the motor to the frame at the passenger side motor mount.  That's the fuel pump on the left.

This one connects the frame to the bird cage.  It's located inside the engine bay below the brake master cylinder.

(Jim Q.  There's the O2 bung I welded to the exhaust.  I'll use it to adjust the air/fuel mixture.)

This is the third ground strap.  It connects the throttle linkage to the engine block.

And finally.

Here's a picture I thought was worth sharing.  Early Saturday morning I found a ray of sun light sneaking through the mini blinds shining on the car.  It gives you a good idea how the Cobalt Candy over Lapis Blue paint changes color with various light sources.  Click on the picture, check it out.   

Thanks for watching.

Super Bowl Sunday

Preparations for Super Bowl started a few days before the game.  It included starting the car as part of its routine maintenance.  I did a 360 walk around while it was running.  Check out the video here:

360 Walk Around

Jan and Anna M. were the first couple to arrive.  Both were extremely pleased with the Corvette.  Jan was speechless with the quality of the paint job.  I kept trying to get him to say great or pretty.  He finally spoke and said, "It's stunning."  I like that!

Dennis K. and Dewayne J. spent time talking about the car too.  Dennis sees the car frequently, but it's been awhile for Dewayne.  Dewayne was very pleased with the progress.

About 25 people showed up for the game.  All had to take a look at the car and all were impressed.  It's interesting to note that I asked everyone what color the car was.  Half said blue, half said purple.

The garage worked great.  It was meant for overflow but the guys spent most of their time in the Man Cave.  Who could blame them?  My Harley was the back drop for the TV, the Corvette was eye candy, ice cold beer was plentiful and the garage smelled like solvent and gasoline.  It can't get much better than that.  Oh yeah, the game was pretty good too.

By the way, the video gives away what the next post will contain.  Did you pick up on it?

Thanks for watching.