Marks Hotrod Garage

Its been a little while since I have posted. Still hanging out for the frame before we get too far. We got a little bored yesterday so decided to do some cutting....




We got the front fender bonded back on and glassed......




We would have finished up the front but I lost my front grill It wasnt that nice but I hate i cant find it. Looks like I will order one from Zips??...any other recommendations?




OK, so its not like we all havn't seen an SRiii frame but we all have to show ours off like its something special or something. My frame will be done by Friday. Looks like I will be having it shipped to me here in Sarasota. I really dont have the time to go up there right now.

Marks Hotrod Garage

The only thing I can say it has been a long 6 months to get this frame. It finally rolled off the truck this morning. I made sure we got the body on the frame and ready to start rolling. Hmmmmm, how can I fit a 345/25-20 on the back?

65silververt

I see yet another mid year Corvette in the background and something that looks like a sixties mustang on the other side of the split window...correct?

Marks Hotrod Garage

Chris, The car in front is the 58 restomod we are doing with the "frameless" windshield, you can see the top of the sunfire yellow 67 couple 427 tri power with A/c...original owner since 1968. He crashed it and we are piecing it back together. On the other side of the 63 is a 70 Bronco...it is widened 7 inches right down the middle.....it is bad bad bad. High dollar build. If this wasnt a corvette forum I would show you a picture of it.


We took the easy road and ordered the rear fiberglass kit from SRlll so we wouldnt have to build the wheel tubs. I decided to widen them by 2 inches and raise them 1" to make sure we have plenty of room for rubber. I will have the first set of tires in tomorrow to check them out. The rears are 345/25-20's and the fronts are 255/30-19's. They are Nitto Invo's. I will see how they fit. I really want 20 x 13" wheels in the rear.

Marks Hotrod Garage

We spent most of the week on the rear cargo area with the floor and tubs supplied by SRlll. We ended up with 17" of width in the fenders. Plenty of room for the 345/25-20's if we chose to use them. They are a good 13" of rubber and just look awesome. The Nitto Invo's look a little european and I like the look of the tread. We will have the ever sought after "dish" in the rear wheels so elusive in the Corvettes. Not a lot but enough to make a difference. Will be bringing the car inside and set it up to work on ride height and see how we will set up the tires and wheels. Right now I am looing at Boze and Nutek wheels. Something that will come close to looking like a factory Z06 wheel but with a little edge. Most of the C2 restomods I see use the same wheels..............stock Corvette wheels and the cars look the same to me.

Marks Hotrod Garage

We got the rear quarters bonded and glassed on and I am very happy with the look of the widen quarters. We have glassed the rear exhaust openings and are moving the license plate up slightly.........this to allow us to move the center exit exhaust up to pass through the body. We will most likely be fabricating custom exhaust tips. We are currently working on a few theories for the rear of the car but have not made any final decisons. One was to add a very low profile rear lip (spoiler). Right now just doing some thinking and guessing

biggd

A spoiler would be a big no no for me but it's your car.

65 fi

I agree. Tacky.

biggd

I love the 6 tail light look myself but others like the stock look. They seem to fill out the rear bumpers better and add a little extra chrome to the back end.

Marks Hotrod Garage

Ok I promise.....no rear spoiler Its always good to run these things by you guys!

Marks Hotrod Garage

Its always a good week when new parts are purchased. I am starting to buy some nuts and bolts for the car. I decided to start at the top and work my way down. New LS3 525hp from the local Chevrolet Dealership.....got it in one day. Ordered the Tremec T-56 Magnum. I got my DSE highlight motors and wiper system this week as well. I plan on mocking up most of the car before paint. Safer that way.

Ausbrian

The Tremec T56 is a big gearbox,have you thought about how you are going to fit it in the floor pan? I am using the same type of gearbox, like to see your ideas.

Marks Hotrod Garage

Recipricating saw I will be working on this within the next few weeks and will post the photos. I was kind of hoping to find someone who had already done it on the forum here but willing to jump into it head first and see where it goes.

You might still call me an youngster when it comes to old Corvettes compared to most guys on the forum but I am learning. One detail I found out is 63 coupe door skins are as scarce as frogs teeth. I needed one for this project. This car was really nice but it needed a drivers side door skin. I met an old guy from Colorado who purchased some of my 63 parts. He called me a few weeks ago out of the blue......we chatted and I said "hey do you know where a 63 door skin is"? Come to find out he had a buddy who had a NOS door skin that had been in his garage for 35 years. I got it today........its beautiful.



I am currently working for on a concept for side rockers on my project. I spoke with Jere (Poorhousenext) who built Lydia and he was very helpful with a few tips. I was introduced to a gentleman who worked in Detroit and did clay concepts in the automotive field. We are trying an old school method of design and modeling our design out of clay. I purchased 50lbs of clay, we build a temporary oven, and starting to lay clay on the rocker area. I am not sure where this will lead but I am hopeful we are able to come up with a design and turn it into a mold.

Here is a little oven we build out of 2 inch styrofoam and used a few incandecent bulbs........I know it looks like we have something illegal in our oven for those of us who grew up in the 70's



Spreading on the clay..........

Marks Hotrod Garage

We had a fun day with clay. It really is a great idea if you want to mold a center console or other body part to see what it looks like. My original thought was to mold it into the body but I have decided against it for many reasons. It will be a removable piece in the event of damage or if someone would want to put the factory skirt back on. I went with some european design with the detail on the side of the skirt. I thought it would break it up so it didnt look so big. This clay skirt is about 1/2" narrower than the factory skirt.

Mr. Wizzard

It would look better if you "wedged" the skirt, so it's parallel with the ground. Shorter up front and taller in the rear.

Marks Hotrod Garage

We did talk about a wedge shape and werent sure if the taller part would be in the front or the back. We might try it just to compare.

Poorhousenext

Like slight front to rear taper idea. Might look at letting the ends follow the wheel well openings front and rear rather than rounding them like stock rockers.

Also might take a look at letting them flow downward and inward at same angle as door, deviating more from stock rocker look of straight up and down. That would mean bottom of door would need to fair into rocker.

Beggers

Nice progress Mark, I hope to see it in paint by my spring annual visit! Brian

Marks Hotrod Garage

Another update here. We put the split window aside for a few weeks and decided last week to spend a little time on it. There was a 2 week delay on the bell housing which added to the extra time. I wanted to get the 6 speed bolted up to the ls3 and drop it in the car. It was a little bit of a squeeze but it dropped right in. I wanted to get the trans tunnel cut and get started on the console. We are raising the console just a bit to cover the transmission but I like the look with the center console higher. I also wanted to lay out the new inner fenders. We will be building new inner fenders that will flow with the SRIII frame all the way back to the firewall. The battery and the brake pump for the ABS power brakes will be the only obstacles. We are thinking of access panels in the rear of the front fenderwells for access. I want to hide as much clutter as possible and go for an extra clean engine compartment.

The first picture I have here is the mold we made for the fiberglass side rockers. Dang its alot of work to make a mold. I am still not sure if I am using them yet or not but I wanted to experiment and see where this idea was going to lead. Car building is always an excercise in expression for any of use building cars and can be the most rewarding part of the build.

65 fi

Jeff, Can the fiberglass at the rear of the car be cut and removed as one piece, when using the SRIII chassis?