340 HP or 360 HP - Second Thoughts

I may have jumped to a conclusion earlier when I discounted the 360 hp high performance engine. I had discounted it based only on the radiator support configuration. I've re-examined the radiator support and I don't find any evidence of the Daytona Blue color that came with the car (the radiator support would have had some over spray from the painting process). Colors I do find are copper brown (the last color the car was painted) and gloss black (one of the other colors originally offered). Based on this I don't believe we can say conclusively that the radiator support is original to the car which means we can not conclude the 340 HP engine was originally installed. In fact, the Heater Delete and sintered brakes options suggest 360 hp. From the Complete Corvette Restoration publication I quote, "Of the 124 1963 Corvettes equipped with Option C48 (Heater Delete), our survey located less than a dozen. Most were equipped with the Z06 performance option (360 HP engine) and one of these were originally sold in Hawaii. Only two of the 1963 Corvettes reporting option C48 were not equipped with Z06, and both were coupes... ". I have no expectation that this is a Z06 car, I am only pointing out that most Heater Delete cars came with the 360 hp engine. So, what does this mean? What do we do? What motor gets installed? Lets think about this...

Paint Removal & Body Prep

I spent lots of evenings and a couple weekends removing the old paint. I tried paint remover, sand paper, sanding discs for the dual action sander, heavy duty scotch brite wheels, sand paper flapper wheels and the FEIN Multimaster (the oscillating tool seen on TV). The FEIN was the best tool for removing the paint. It was recommended to me by Dennis S. so I bought one and found it to be the coolest tool I own. Excellent recommendation Dennis. Thanks.

These are pretty high resolution pictures so feel free to double click on them and check out the condition of the car. It has a little nose damage and a little tail damage but nothing major.

Fiberglass matting and resin are on order. All areas that have exposed fiberglass threads will receive liberal amounts of epoxy resin then the excess will be squeegeed off. Some areas will require additional treatment with fiberglass matt and resin. When all is complete the car will receive a couple gallons of spray gel coat. This will occur months from now.

A little bump to the nose but overall it's not bad. There are suppose to be bonding strips that go on the inside of the front wheel wells where the seam is located. The original bonding strips were probably cut when the front wheel flares were removed. Instead of patching what's left of the existing bonding strips, new, full length, bonding strips will be installed. They're on order and should arrive this week from Eckler's.