vittal

Hi guys.

Well I got my vette last Friday and I love it. It's better than I could have expected.

Finally my very own V8 and a Corvette at that.

Here are a few shots of when it got delivered.

Getting of the truck


The first walk-around






First look at my very own V8


But there are still loads of things that I've got to fix so I took a week and did some stuff.

Here's what I've done so far (I'll post a detailed description of the procedures in the following posts):

- fixed the weatherstripping around the doors (was cracked),
- fixed the weatherstripping around the hatch (it was loose),
- fixed the roof weatherstripping (it was a bit degraded),
- fixed plastic molded panels around the hatch (they were cracked and needed to glued together),
- fixed the hatch roof latch (the plastic holder got broken of and is now reattached),
- fixed the console compartment door (it was broken on the inside under the courtesy light),
- fixed the drivers seat (the left side lower lumbar support was torn and the upper lumbar support was so distressed that it had a hole in it),
- fixed the gear lever leather cover (it had a nasty hole in it where the leather can get caught between the R and P gear position),
- fixed the stereo left channel (right channel was louder that the left),
- refurbished the steering wheel,
- refurbished the gear lever ****,
- refurbished the rest of the leather on the seats,
- got rid of the tint foil on the windows,
- deep cleaned the carpets (took out the seats),
- cleaned the whole car from the outside (top of the car and under the car),
- cleaned the plastic interior panels.

Stuff that I still have to do:
- buff the whole car form the outside,
- clean the plastic rubber off the center console (perhaps put on a thermal molded sticker),
- fix the high beams (apparently the high beam steering column rod has gotten detached from the switch),
- install a remote entry system (doors and hatch),
- fix the door panel plastic (it's cracked),
- reline the roof with new fabric and put a foam under it,
- fix the license plate light (don't know where the heck I'm going to find a bulb like that around here),
- fix the antenna not going up and down,
- fix the window swaying from side to side,
- fix the door closing nicely,
- fix the corvette logo or sign on the fuel door,
- get a fuel cap with a lock (wouldn't want some idiot to put something in it),
- reline the sun visors with new fabric or leather,
- clean the engine bay thoroughly.

And that's about it for the start.

I'll post more on the progress of things in the coming days.

I can post individual threads on how I did some stuff if anybody is interested (you guys have probably done all of this things already)? Or I can post here as individual posts.

Best regards and bye

vittal

Ok here's how my friend fixed the drivers seat.

[Drivers Seat]

Since I'm a little stretched on the budget side right now and I wouldn't want to spend money on reupholstering the seats at this point we had to do everything in our power to fix the most that we could with as little as possible with the best possible result.

And here it is. A low budget seat repair.

1. I took some of the leather that my girlfriends parents got as an example of leather they would use for their sofa. Since they got a lot of them I could choose the right color and grain that fit best.

2. I got a sowing needle kit for a few bucks (with a curved needle and a puncher) and black sowing yarn.

3. additional tools and materials were super glue, tracing paper, some thin foam (from out of an old mattress), pencil, masking tape, sizers, box cutter, hand or face cream (the one that gets absorbed into the skin and doesn't seep out) and black shoe polish paint (the kind that doesn't leave black paint after it dries.... the one for white pants).

Here's how the seat look at the beginning


4. first thing we did was fix a little hole in the middle of the back support.

This was done by cutting an exact shaped peace of leather as the hole. But only a little bigger so that it could get so that it could get glued under the original leather.

Then using the black shoe paint polish buffed the sides so it look like it was just distressed that way. And for the final touch the hand cream lots of it so and buff it in with a very fine cloth (a used T shirt or something) to make it look a little younger and newer.

Here's the result


5. The big hole.
My friend cut out the ruined leather so that there was a clean edge to work on and stuck some tracing paper under it and made a pattern of the hole.
He cut an exact peace of leather to match.
Then started sowing with the curved needle and strong black yarn all the way down to the edge or the leather.
Of course not to forget we stuck peaces of foam under to make the needed shape.



some progress


the cut out part to make a clean edge


Then he traced the shape of the hole on the side (the material is sky and not leather). So since sky tends to rip he glued another peace of leather under it so that it was more ridged. He stitched the new peace to the one that he did previously and then stitched down the side again as before.

Preparation of the decorative stitch


For the final touch he stitched another row of stitching to make it look like the double stitch on the seem where both sides meet.

Finally he put super glue all over the done stitch so that it binds together the minimal gap that remained.
Again the shoe polish for the final finish and a little sanding paper to distress the leather and make it look old. The final step is again the hand cream to make the leather feel more younger and newer.

The final result




There it is the fixed drivers seat and when it's inside the car you can hardly tell that it's been repaired from a distance like when entering the car.

But in ether case it looks a lot better than it did 7 hours before.

Thanks to my very good friend who is letting me use his garage, tools and helping me fix everything.

When I get some extra cash I'll get the seats reupholstered.

Coming up the weatherstripping next.

Best regards and bye

bizaro

nice job, right color too!

vittal

Thanks.

As you'd expect the weatherstripping after about 15 years is a little worn out (cracked and torn). So as with everything else we fixed it.

[The door & roof weatherstripping]

Here's what it looked like when I got it.
Used a pressure hose and it shot right into the passenger compartment.


Most of the weatherstripping was like this


So I asked the guys at my dad's company that do glass what they use for sealing windows. And they gave me a tube of black silicone type thing (Sika 11FC) that I could try with.



And something that cleaner for the silicone and put ti inside all the cracks. Also I put some on the top and used a peace of plastic to shape and get rid of the excess silicon. After it settled for a few moments I took some of the cleaner and shaped the surface so that it looked like or as similar to the original surface was.

Here's the result (but on the other side where it looks a little nicer that the driver's side)



(still need to fix the door panel but I'll do that when it's detached)

As for the torn bottom part on the driver's side I used the same thing. I used it to add a lot of mass and let it dry.


After it dried I cut of the excess and put on a little more so that I could shape it into it's almost final shape.


Not the best picture but the mass is there and the shape also. I'll still need to do some more work on it. But I'll have to wait a few days for the weather to get better.

I'll post the final result when I'm done with it.

And when I get a financial injection I'll change out the whole thing.

Best regards and bye

Joe B.

I like your old country way of taking something that most people over here would consider beyond repair and making it serviceable. Nice work.

dukeallen

You really think on your feet.

pianoguy

+1 Well-done!

You should've had them leave that Road Runner with you, too

vittal

I would have gladly taken the Road Runner too but it was for the friend who helped me get the vette here. So if nothing else he deserves it..

Thanks

kyyote

When you don't have money to burn, a little creativity, and initiative can go a long way. You are making progress, and really learning along the way. Nice.

mtwoolford

truly appreciate your posting those pictures. it's easy to find pic's of $10,000 engine builds....not so easy to find pic's of the day to day reality of trying to keep these cars in shape. Thanks.

Benny42

Nice car and good job with the creative repairs!

Mohammed_z

Nice vette, and thanks for sharing those pics. amazing repairs.

buy a weatherstriping kit , it will look much better than silicon

but that was a good idea though .

post them here , we are subscribed

zaragoza

Good luck with your new toy, and keep up the good work on it.

cgantner5150

Awesome work - I like your style and willingness to "fix" things.

Good job. Keep it up.

vittal

Thanks guys

I'll keep posting stuff that I get done here. I have some more but I'll post when it's done.

I think the next thing on Monday morning (I think I'll skip some boring classes) that we're going to tackle is the roof liner, finish the hatch weatherstripping and the refurbish the center consoles. So I'll need to get some foil to put on the consoles and I've already got the fabric for the roof liner.

I'm already dreading installing the remote entry system and fixing the high beams. I'm still not sure if the steering column just pulls out or do I need to detach something else on the engine side of the firewall.
As for the electronics I need to figure out what wire goes to the hatch release (in the console it was blue) and what wires go to the driver's side door switch. Of course the finding a constant power supply to hook the unit up is also something to be done.

While I know that pretty much all of the stuff we've done could have been replaced for not that much cost. But I was really looking forward to tackling a few problems myself and like I said I was on a tight budget to begin with when I started shopping for the vette and I still have to replace the rear tires.

Anyway thanks again guys and I hope I'll be as successful with all the other stuff I have to do as I was with this one.

Best regards and good night

vittal

Another one done.

Fixed the emergency break
When they put the car on the truck in port I guess someone put on the emergency break a little to much and when we took the car off the truck and it wouldn't let go. So we detached the emergency break wires at the wheels so that I could move the car off the trailer.

Anyway took the emergency break lever apart and sprayed it with an anti-lock spray. Lubed it a little and put it back together again. Reattached the rear wires and it works.

Oh right I almost forgot I took same black spray paint and painted the visible parts of the emergency break lever so that it looks black inside the plastic casing and you can't see any bear metal.

Best regards and bye

Mohammed_z

very interesting ,

post pics

Gear Jammer

Goood work.

Im curious on how you fixed your stereos left/right channel balance. Mine has the same problem, right channel is louder than the left channel. Ive rebuilt/replaced the problematic amps, so I dont think the amps are the problem.

Good luck,
John

kyyote

If we think it is hard to find parts over here, it has to be a real treasure hunt over there. If you can get a hold of a Haynes Repair manual, at least, it will be worth its weight in gold to you. It has wiring diagrams, and tons of very important, and helpful information. Much of what you need to know can be found on the internet, if you look hard enough. As special as our Corvettes are here, and the feeling it gives us, yours has to be a real standout there. Very cool.

vittal

Well I found a part of the sound system behind the passenger side seat. As I have read the amps are somewhere around the speakers?! So I took the wires out and sprayed a little contact spray on the connector but it didn't fix the problem. So when I removed the center console I also took out the head unit and did the same thing with those contacts and it just started to work.
I can't imagine what I would have done if it didn't because I really love the sound of the original system.

Well actually as far as parts go it isn't that big of a deal as you'd think if you don't mind spending a whole lot of money. We actually have fairly large US car club (my granddad had a Caddy 48 or something and he said if he knew my enthusiasm it would have waited for me) and even a large Vette club here. A friend of mine said that there are between 40 to 60 vettes in the country of 2 mil. people. They were quite popular when they came out. So guys order parts frequently and you can get most of the stuff you need. But a big part of it is your own ingenuity. As I figured most things can be fixed just by taking them apart and reassembling them and maybe changing a couple of things along the way.
The manual I've got. I wanted to order it before I got the car but I just didn't get around to it and to my surprise the previous owner had it and left it in there along with all the recipes what had been done.

So at least now I know that the fuel, water pumps have been changed a few years back along with the opti and some other minor details that I was worried about.

In the manual I found the diagram of the door lock mechanism and I figure where to wire in the remote. I just hope I'll be able to trace the wires from the door switch to under the console and also find the hatch wires and the constant power supply. It will probable take a day but I've got time.

Thanks a lot guys.