Wheel Wells, Body Brackets, Shift Linkage & Stabilizer Bushings

In the last 2 weeks we've had -8 degree weather and 8 inches of snow.  Neither of these are conducive to painting.  None the less that's just what we did, we painted the passenger side wheel wells. Since we couldn't go outside it was necessary to build a make shift paint booth to control over spray.  Plastic was wrapped around each wheel well and a plastic flap was positioned over the wheel well opening.

The shop vac was used to collect the over spray.

A fan was used to blow the fumes outside.

It worked great.  No over spray, the house didn't smell, and nothing blew up.  The matt finish POR 15 paint looks real nice.

The front wheel well looks just as good.

We also installed the shift linkage.  1963 was the only year that had the 1-2 gear linkage cross over the 3-4 gear linkage as shown.  All other years the linkage ran parallel to each other.

Ty replaced the last rusty body mount.  This one is located inside the engine compartment, on the firewall, on the drivers side.  This one drew blood just like the other one.

Ty swapped out the previously installed generic front stabilizer brackets and bushings for these GM manufactured brackets and bushings.  These are exactly what would have been installed on a 63 Z06.  The stabilizer bar is 7/8" in diameter.

I am not sure what we will work on next.  I'd like to complete the drivers side wheel wells but that requires sand blasting and that has to be done outside.  I don't have snow tires on the body dolly so the snow has to melt first and that may happen later in the week.

Thanks for watching. 

Head Bolts and Body Brackets

All of the coolant leaks are fixed.  Every head bolt was removed, cleaned and reinstalled using Permatex High Performance Thread Sealant.  This required the removal of both exhaust manifolds and the valve covers.  Part of the air meter assembly (intake) had to be removed before the drivers side valve cover could be removed.  The exhaust manifolds were sand blasted then painted with high temperature paint.  Antifreeze is in the engine and it's ready to be started.

The shifter boot backing plate was installed.  This is looking up from the transmission tunnel.  Alignment bolts were installed in all the threaded holes that will hold the shift boot.  The bracket was clamped tight near both of the rivets.

Using an air hammer with a blunt attachment and a piece of rubber hose to keep the tool on top of the rivet...

The rivets were hammered flush while holding a heavy piece of metal on the back side (I used a body dolly).

The 10 alignment bolts were later removed and the passenger compartment side was cleaned up.

Using the same general technique, Ty replaced the hood support brackets.  This is inside the right front wheel well.

Ty also replaced an old body bracket located inside the engine compartment.  This is on the fire wall behind the right wheel well.  This bracket used 5 rivets and the backside was almost impossible to gain access.  I think some of Ty's DNA is back there somewhere.  The installation looks great and it's very solid.  Thanks Ty.

The rolling chassis and the body are now rust free.  If I can figure out a way to spray paint in the garage while controlling the over spray I might paint the two passenger side wheel wells next.  Stay tuned.  Thanks for watching.

Installing the Cooling System

I started with a 185 degree thermostat then...

Modified it by drilling two  3/8" holes as shown.  This will allow some water to pass the thermostat should it ever fail closed.

A water temperature gauge was installed...

Then the oil gage was reinstalled. (I know, it's not part of the cooling system)

The fan shroud was sandblasted then later painted with Por 15

A new aluminum radiator was installed.  The original would have been copper.

 It looks good.

The lower radiator hose is worth talking about.  It took me 30 minutes to install this thing.  Can't imagine what it would be like with the body on.  Look how it snakes around everything.

When it was all done we ended up with a motor that was ready to be run.  And that's just what we did. We ran it for about 10 to 15 minutes and found a few issues including:

• A couple of the head bolts leaked because sealant wasn't properly used on the threads.  Each bolt will be removed, cleaned, sealant will be applied, then re-torqued before moving to the next bolt.
• The paint on the exhaust manifolds cooked off within 30 seconds.  These will be repainted with high temperature aluminum exhaust manifold paint.
• The timing and fuel mixture needs to be adjusted.  We will start that work after we redo the head bolts.
• We found a threaded hole behind the idler pulley that leaked like a sieve.  It was lacking a plug.   A quick trip to Ace Hardware made this a quick fix.

The engine ran nice, sounded nice, and it's throaty.  My neighbor even came over and jokingly mentioned the noise.  I am not sure we'll ever be able to drive this thing without getting a ticket.  If we do get tickets we will frame each one.

More body work should be next.

Fiberglass Work - Before and After Pictures

BEFORE & AFTER pictures of things we've been working on lately.

BEFORE - Both front and rear wheel wells on the right side of the car have cracked bonding.  Double click on the picture and you'll see the crack near the bottom.  This is the right front wheel well.

AFTER - Ty used the burr grinder to remove all the old bonding agent then, using a cake frosting bag, he piped in all new bonding agent.  It sounds simple but this was a dirty job that took several hours.

BEFORE - This is the right rear wheel well.  It has cracked bonding agent located behind the body mount.

AFTER -  Using the same technique, Ty removed the crack and installed new bonding agent.

BEFORE - This is a view of several unfinished fiberglass repairs we made to the transmission tunnel last year.  This is looking up from underneath the body and it's near the shifter.  Before we tilted the body on the body dolly, access to this area had been very limited.

AFTER - The hole at the top of the photo is for the ash tray.  The area just to the side of it will be cut out for the shifter.  We are waiting for the shifter boot plate so we can use it as a template.

BEFORE - This is a fiberglass repair we made last year that was temporarily painted over for Cool Desert Nights.  This repair area is located in the passenger foot well, on the firewall, viewed from the engine compartment.  The paint was removed this morning to finish the repair.

AFTER -  Fibre Strand Body Filler from Napa was used to fill irregularities in the fiberglass.  Although it looks far from finished, the area is flat and ready for paint.  This will be painted when we do the wheel wells.

And finally, Max H. likes an occasional big picture of what's going on in the garage so here you go Max...  Enjoy!

327 - HOME RUN! Our 1963 327 FI Corvette Engine Sounds Awesome!

After weeks of frustration we finally got our 1963 327 fuel injected engine to run on its own.  We are extremely excited and we love the way it sounds.  It's awesome!

ORIGINAL FOOTAGE OF THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL START

ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE

Note:  I wasn't able to download the audio file mentioned in the second video.  This blog does not accept that audio file type.

MYSTERY SOLVED - IT WAS THE HIGH PRESSURE FUEL PUMP

I spoke with Gary Hodges yesterday.  Gary is one of just a few people that really know how these mechanical fuel injection units work.  Gary has been dealing with these units for the last 40 years.  Gary sells FI parts and his web page is  http://www.garyhodgesramjet.com/2001.html


I discussed the high pressure fuel pump with Gary and he recommended that I scribe all three main housing pieces before I take the pump apart.  Ty is scribing the fuel pump in this photo. 

Double click on this picture to see the scribe lines.  It's important.

Now, take note of the tiny hole on the end cap near the center of the pump.

This tiny hole is located on the high pressure side of the pump and it shouldn't be there.  When the pump is running the fuel escapes through this hole and goes back into the fuel bowl, not to the injectors.  The end cap had been installed 180 degrees out of position.

This is the correct orientation.  The vent hole is now on the atmosphere side of the pump.  We verified this by examining a picture of an original fuel pump found on Jerry Bramlett's web page.  Check it out here http://www.jerrybramlett.net/museum.html

Note the missing scribe line on the cap.

It's on the opposite side now.  The pump is now assembled properly.

Time to reassemble.

Everything lined up perfectly.

We hooked up the spider and gave the pump a test.  OMG!  We could have drowned in all that fuel!

We were running the drill motor on the lowest speed possible.  Fuel was gushing out like never seen before.  Whoo hoo!

So, what happened next?  Why we grabbed our spouses and celebrated with a little bubbly of course!  Check it out:

Thanks for watching.

Cleaning Up the Wheel Wells

All of our wheel wells have vintage undercoating.  This would be old hard and dried undercoating.  I removed large patches with an air chisel but it didn't remove years of dirt and road grim.   I dug out several air tools and I tried all of these discs. 

They worked well but they couldn't get into the nooks and crannies.

This area would have been impossible to clean with a die grinder.

So I decided to sandblast.  It's messy, it's dirty, but I knew it would work.

I like using Quikrete Commercial Grade Medium Sand because the granules are small enough to get through the nozzle yet large enough to do a good job of removing rust and paint.  Play sand doesn't work in my blaster, it plugs up the nozzle.

The results are pretty spectacular.  In fact, this wheel well  is ready to paint.



But this is only 1 wheel well and it took 100 lbs. of sand.  Three more of these are waiting plus the transmission tunnel.

 

Ty, you're missing out on all the fun!