Railroadman

Did it arrive in a big box labeled "AMT" or "MONOGRAM"? Looks like a model kit but full size. Take your responsibility seriously now, the fate of that '59 is in YOUR hands, and it's up to you to bring it back to life. Don't let it down!

(My very first car was a '59 so I'm a bit partial to them.)

turkeyman28

Boxes 9-13

Trim and more trim



License plate and another emblem

front trim

more front trim and light trim

Light trim

grill - missing a couple teath


I have lots of trim pieces and not sure where they all go. This is just a few pictures, I could take dozens. There are also lots of hardware bags with the trim stuff I assume to secure the trim. It was really fun going through all this stuff. I know I am missing the cove trim and the front cowl trim and probably some more but I have a bunch.

Well this ends the boxes I have to open. The next post will be the arrival of the body.

turkeyman28

OK well the rest of the body arrived. My wife has some pictures from the delivery that I will add in the future but for now I will just put the one I have on my phone.




The next order of business is to clearance the trunk to get her sitting on the frame flat. After that I will be adding back the body mounts the previous owner removed from the frame and then we should be ready to start work on the motor. This is starting to look like something. Still lots of work to do but exciting to see something resembling a car.

Ok one last thing: While I was out of town last week I picked up the block from the farm along with a bunch of engine parts. Many of which are not useful or in good shape but I plan to go through them in the coming weeks. I took the block to the local machine shop and got in line to have it cleaned and evaluated for cracks before I start planning the engine. Once I get confirmation the block is good I will post my plan for the motor. If it ends up not being usable I will have to go back to the drawing board on motor.

Hope everyone has a great week!!

PS is anyone in SW MI going to the corvette show at the Gilmore this weekend?

BOB WINSKI

Wheels and tires on my 60 Restomod

Evod Wheels

jimgessner

I THINK YOU HAVE A LOT OF THE 1959 CORVETTE BODY AND PARTS. YOU NEED AN ASSEMBLY MANUAL.

I SUGGEST YOU VIST CORVETTE CENTRAL https://www.corvettecentral.com. THEY ARE IN MICHIGAN AT
13550 Three Oaks Rd,
Sawyer MI 49125
800 345-4122

AND BUY A ASSEMBLY MANUAL. YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN, TO GO GO FAST. THE MONEY METER WORKS FAST

turkeyman28

Jim

Thank you for reminding me. I also got a tub with 2 owners manuals, a bunch of receipts/papers from the previous owner and an assembly manual. The manual is kinda blurry in places but will be a place to start.

Are there any other good reference materials to consider?

turkeyman28

Bob

those wheels look super sharp. Thank you for sharing.

Hermn59

An ambitious project for sure. It looks like you have more than just 59 parts in your treasure boxes. I saw dash *****, wing vent handle, and emblem that look mid-year and the hood is 58 with the louvres, The previous owner did a good job of bagging, but it looks like he forgot the tagging. Oh well, turns it into research and scavenger hunt.

You have the right mental attitude, so I think you will have a great time with this. The search function on this forum provides some of the best reference material one could ever want. Many of the posts from extremely knowledgeable members have been converted into PDF documents that you can store them for later use.

I look forward to your progress!

jakvette

Hi ,

looks like you have a great looking project running . Keep up the great job I am sure you will end up with a fabulous looking vehicle .
The project you have embarked on is very similar to the one I am currently trying to do with a 58 . I have splashed out at least $65k on an Art Morrison chassis as well as an Ls3 motor six speed manual transmission and only a few parts to get the ball rolling . I still have to import all of these things into South Africa so I know what your experiencing on your build .
Good luck keep posting pics of your journey , I need all the help I can get and have spoken to some of the great guys who have also replied to your thread .

good luck

John

turkeyman28

Don,
Thank you for the words of encouragement!! I think your analysis is correct this will be like a huge tinker toy build since it is already mostly apart. I am really looking forward to getting into the motor in a month or so when it comes back from the shop and getting it installed before turning back to the rest of the car.

This is my first Corvette so I am sure I will be very partial when I get it done. From what I have learned this car has not seen the road since '74. It was purchased after a front end wreck as a project then and held onto without much progress from then until early 2000's when it was sold to the guy I bought it from. The guy I got it from worked on it a bit but did not get it back to the road either so I am looking forward to getting it back to the road!!!

I think it is going to take me quite a while maybe 2 - 2.5 years based on my current projection to get it done but I am really excited about it. As I have said before so far this has really been working out well. Before I started I decided I wanted a more modern suspension, breaking, steering and drive train packaged into a classic body. I didn't even know there was a term for this but as I began to learn a bit I picked up the word restomod and it accurately described what I wanted. A car that is partly restored and also modified to the owners liking. From there finding the chassis was the spark that started the project after 5-6 years of talking about it and trying to decide when the right time was. I did not expect to run into a pandemic right after I started but just another story to tell when I get to show the car off.

Thanks again and I look forward to more dialog as I continue! If you have any suggestions from your '59 experience please send them my way! I can use all the feedback I can get to make sure she gets back on the road.

turkeyman28

Barry,
Thank you for the words of encouragement!! You are correct on the hood. I asked for this hood instead of the '59 hood the previous owner had. I like the louvers. I am also planning to add the trunk spears if I can find some without going broke. On top of that I am playing with the idea of re-routing the exhaust and adding back up lights to the old exhaust holes. I have seen this on a couple other cars and thought it was a neat feature. My car is not going to be a STD '59 or even C1 car, I am hoping to use my uncles SBC 350 from the early '70's (C3) and maybe some other parts from other generations. One idea I had was to take features from a bunch of different years and blend them together. Not exactly sure yet but having fun dreaming so far.

Can you be more specific on the handles, **** and badges that look mid year please. I am not knowledgeable on that stuff yet.

Regarding your comment on PDF's of useful content. Is there a library somewhere on the sight. I have not found this content yet? The only searching I have done so far is for things I have been working on for example I found info on adding a drain plug to my C4 rear end that was super handy when I did that work a couple weeks ago.

Lastly you have a beautiful car!! I hope you get lots of chances to drive it.

Railroadman

OK, if you are estimating 2.5 years, it will take at least 4. whatever number you have budgeted, double it and that will get you partway there.

The biggest thing to remember is it needs to be fun. If it gangs up on you and wears you down, take a week or a month away, then go back and pick up where you left off. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination. You have a wealth of knowledge on here and SO many people eager to help. Going the restomod route takes away the pressure of getting something "wrong" and having to replace it. (I have great respect for the NCRS types and I love their beautiful cars, that's just not me).

I'l be glad to help with info if I can but my '59 was my first car at age 18, I was just beginning to learn how to work on things so I usually paid the local garage or dealership to fix stuff. And it's over 50 years ago so I have probably forgotten half of what I did know about it! But if it helps give you motivation, here it is:

Hermn59

Here are a couple of search options. One “borrowed” from one of Don’s (Railroadman) post.

1. In the red bar near the top of this page click "search"
2. Click "advanced search"
3. Type what you seek in the "keywords" box
4. Just below that box change the selection from "Search entire posts" to "Search titles only"
5. On the lower right side find "Search in forum(s)", scroll down and highlight "C1 and C2 Corvettes"
6. At bottom, click "search now"
That may not get both words together only, but will narrow your search way down. Don't forget to check the date of the threads before replying, you don't want the wrath from above for (gasp!) replying to an old thread!


OR


Via Google, enter something like this in the search field:c1 corvette search term site:www.corvetteforum.com and it will only display posts from the forum


DZVette (member Dave Zuber) has created a number of PDFs. I am sure he has quite a library, but the search and posts they are within are worth the the journey.


https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...placement.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nd-install.pdf

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...5-and-2008.pdf

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...f-is-here.html

This should get you started and give you an idea of what’s available.

GTOguy

I'm not seeing anything 'midyear' in those boxes. Pretty much all first-gen stuff.

Hermn59

Jeff,

Here is what I was referring to, although I could be mistaken.

The longer ***** are not 59. I thought they looked like midyear.


And these two items.

turkeyman28

Holy cow there is a ton of stuff!!!! I tried both of these methods and got tons of stuff. Thank you for the info it was really helpful. I am not sure I did not get what I expected with the other search unless it was just hidden in the list somewhere.

Thank you for clarifying what these were. I am a long way from needing them but knowing where they go is helpful. Would it be helpful if I took the ***** out and took better pictures of them? If so I am happy to do that.

One additional question for interior stuff I don't have any speakers but it had a radio based on the dash holes so are they just missing as well? Also where would the speakers go? I don't see any holes in the door panels to put them in.

turkeyman28

I think these are the same parts but the black one is broken on the side in the picture. Not sure but the curve is exactly the same and the edge looks broken.

turkeyman28

Good morning corvette people.

I continue to work on getting the body clearanced to the frame. I am still scared to cut anything, so things have gone really slow the last week ½ in at a time. I need to get over it this body is not in excellent condition at the present moment so I don’t think I am making it worse but after spending $$$$$ to buy it I have some heartburn cutting it up but it needs to start sitting on the frame square and letting me open the doors and figure out what body mounts are missing. Anyway, I have also been learning about some of the other parts that came with the block I picked up. Specifically, the cast pieces. I found some interesting info on them and wanted to share that. So to begin I found the following cast intakes in the pile of parts with the block.

Casting # 3997771 – Which from looking in the forum and generally on-line seems to be a corvette intake from 1973. My cousin and I believe this is the intake from the corvette my uncle owned however I did not do a good job and get the block casting info to confirm that before I dropped the block off. I was not planning to drop it off the day I went to the machine shop but the guy insisted I leave it so he could leak check it before we continue with the discussion about the machining. This was an exciting find in the group of stuff. I am not sure what I am going to do with it but was interesting to find.

Casting # 6263751 – Which after looking it up in several places on-line seems to be an intake for a SBC 350 from 1972. My cousin and I are almost sure this is off my uncles 1972 Chevy half ton pick up that we both remember well. This truck was the farm chore truck for many years and also the vehicle I happen to lean to drive stick in. Many fond memories of that truck. My uncle before he died sold it to a gentleman who just drove up one day and asked to buy it and made an offer my uncle took. Last I knew he had refurbished it and was driving it as a fun hobby truck. I will have to see if we can find him and inquire if he wants the original parts.

Now on to the heads. We found 3 pairs of heads and 2 not matched heads.

Casting # 333882 – E-8-5 and D-7-76 Not sure why these are not the same date of manufacture but must not have come from the same vehicle being made about a year apart. My cousin and I have no idea what these were from but probably a farm truck that was around

Casting# 3998993 – B26-72 and B24-72 My cousin and I are fairly sure these are off the ’72 pickup the dates look right and close in time. Interesting I did not know my uncle changed the heads on that truck. I knew he changed the intake because he had a duel carb on it for a while.

Casting# 3774692 F-16-1 and F-19-1 From what we can find out these are off a 283 from ’61 but no one seems to remember a car from that year so not sure what is up here. We are going to investigate the photo albums from the ‘60s and ’70s to see if we can identify anything but an interesting find.

Casting # 354434 L-29-6 Based on these numbers it is a head from a ’76 SBC not sure from what so will need to visit the photo albums again

Casting # 3973487 G-28-7 This head is another mystery to us. It is a SBC head from ’77 but no one we have talked to remembers what it might be from so back to the albums



Wondering if anyone has an idea what to do with these heads. They all need to be reconditioned to be used again and with the cost to do that I am not sure anyone would want to go that way. I am considering listing them on marketplace or maybe here but not sure it is worth it. The history lesson was fun adventure but they are not useful for my project and I don’t have a use for them so not sure hate to make scrap out of them but they can’t live here.

Other items from the last couple weeks, I took the ’59 heater core and another radiator found with the block to the radiator shop to be tested and repaired if needed so waiting on that to come back this week. Lastly checked in on the block Fri and the shop had not begun the leak check yet but was working on prepping the block for the cleaning process so hoping to hear for sure on the block this week.

Lastly I have been trying to learn about fiberglass repair. I seem to have waded into a Chevy vs. Ford debate. It seems some folks prefer an epoxy resin and other a polyester resin. Each say the other is not good but really don’t understand the pros of the other just the cons so not sure what to believe. I need to search the site here and see if there is any consolidated info to be had. From what I understand the polyester is what was originally used but has some shrinkage, adhesion and paintability challenges but is “easier” to apply due to longer open time. The epoxy seems to be more durable, paintable and bondable to anything but if not handled properly can not cure or cure really fast making repair hard. Seems I have more to learn on this topic so I would love any thoughts from someone who has done this work before. I have purchased kits of each resin with the intent of trying them myself off the car some how to see what I like better. Based on the lack of consensus both must work just need to figure out which one works better for me.

Hope you all have a great week. My next post will be for all the gear heads out there. Once I have the confirmation the block is good, I plan to put my build design out for review. I am really excited about this. I have spent a bunch of time looking and learning about how to design a motor and figure out what variables I need to achieve my goals. I am sure I am missing as much as I am thinking about so it should be fun to get some feedback on the design and work to improve it before I order parts.

turkeyman28

One last item for today I have been noodling on. My wife thinks I should name the project and car when it is done. I am not normally one for this formality but it is kind of a big project for me so I am entertaining the idea. Please give me some thoughts on names. Here is what I have so far:

For the project
St. Louis - This is where the car was originally made
Le Dragon - the word Corvette comes from the sailing world "small maneuverable war ship" and the Le Dragon was the last Corvette lost in the Revolutionary war. I could not find the first ship in the class but that name might also be interesting
Sapphire - I am leaning toward a deep blue color and this gem stone is deep blue
Roger - This was my uncles name and he got me started working on stuff and some of the parts on the car will be from him

For the Car
Winni - after a lake I like to fish in Canada
Sylvia - after a wilderness I like to visit


Have not decided if I am going to carry this forward or not or what method I am going to use to find the names if I do so any thoughts would make this more fun I think

Railroadman

Maybe let the wife name the car - makes it more of an "our" deal and helps keep her on board?