clay9_24

Okay here goes:

So I asked my roomates what they thought about clearing out our garage so I could get my 1973 Big Block in for a complete overhaul. A unanimous "Hell yeah!" was all that I heard.

So i figure i would document our process through the build somewhat. Being that;
a-we don't have a shop and by no means could our 2 car garage ever be confused with a shop
b-this car is my dream and i plan on carrying out every detail of the build with my own hands. ( i would rather it take twice as long and be half as good than not be able to say that i did the work myself)
c-well for starters i have been reading posts on corvette forum for years, the countless things i have figured out just by reading answers to other people's questions. So, i will gladly read any comment, complain, tip, advice, joke, or general bs that anyone feels like adding to the process.

1-The Canvas
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...88788_6923.jpg
(I will get more pictures up soon)
I bought this car my sophomore year in college after saving for what seemed like decades and drooling over every corvette trader magazine i could get my hands on.

Its not original and that is the way that i wanted it. i like being able to tinker with things and make them my own more than i like trying to accurately copy what gm did years ago.
It is a original big block 4 speed car though, so we are off to a good start.

2-The Idea
Well the car was by no means in pristine condition and it just flat out ran horrible. whoever built the motor managed to squeeze a 1100 cfm double pumper under the hood and it was constantly way too rich. So since we have zero idea about the guts of the motor we are opting for a complete overhaul

3-What we plan on doing.
this is a long list and i am sure it will change
1. full rebuild of the motor, put a hot cam in it, bore it over and mainly we are looking at going to a efi setup on it.
2. repair the entire heat/air system so that driving on those 110 degree oklahoma summer days are more bearable
3. completely and i mean completely rebuild the entire wiring harness, i don't know how the thing still ran as bad as some of the wiring was. And luckily I work for an electrical engineering company here in town that has a huge store room full of wire that wire that is out of certification for use and is pretty much free game oh, and also enough stainless steel braiding to wrap everything up real nice
4. suspension and drive train rework, its not bad but all the bushings and bearings need replacing so while the car is tore apart its just the best time to do it.
5. cooling, aluminum radiator and electric fans are a must.
6. interior, all those years of work at the body shop in hs might finally pay off. creature comforts are going to be ramped up to the top notch. and yes, things will be changed away from stock.
7.exterior, the body on this car is in good shape overall, and my best friend that runs a body shop is who i am going to turn to for paint and such.


Wow there really is a lot to this so I'll call this enough for now.

clay9_24

(i always see post saying 60-75% done so we are starting at low %)

well jumping into things head first; Dixon, Ryan, Randy, and myself began to disassemble the car so that the glorious task of cleaning and scraping can begin to get the car cleaned up.

Surprisingly we were able to pull the motor in about 4 or so hours, not to bad for our first night.

And so begins my new full time job of parts searching. For the record i am probably going to have to sell a kidney to finance this operation, so if your in need...

Here are some pictures thus far...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...d3&id=17131041

That is all i can write at the moment i have to climb into the belly of the beast and start cleaning.

We are pretty social, and keep a fridge full of cold beer for anyone that feels like stopping by, so come on out.

400hp427vette

Cool keep the pics comming as you go

clay9_24

I am reposting our pictures thus far. My link to my facebook album didn't work like i had planned. Progress slowed down to a halt last night. it was poring hail and the power kept going on and off so we decided to go to the strip for awhile.



The "Danica is always watching you" jokes never seem to get old. Or the constant asking for her to send her pit crew out to lend a hand.






Soon this will be the car's new heart. we are boring it out to a 502 and putting a cam and edelbrock efi setup on it so it should crank out roughly 9,000 goat power (1hp roughly equals a team of 20 goats)



We don't have an expensive workbench with a vise and all that fancy stuff. We have a tall cardboard box and a deep freeze.



So we have a 4speed vette with an empty engine bay. What would you put in this spot?



As always, feel free to stop by, lend a hand and have a cold one with us.

BTAL

But, you do have the beer fridge - most critical shop tool of all.

bashcraft

You can't bore a 454 that far.

SteveG75

502 is based on a different block with siamesed bores. Best solution to keep the 454 block is a .060 overbore and +.25" stroker for a total of 496 cubic inches. You can easily get a complete balanced rotaing assembly for that combo.

Sully1882

best of luck and sounds awesome.... just wish you guys were around Stillwater when I was there for undergrad back in the mid 90s. I never had a garage to do any work on, but i did drink plenty of beer! Keep the pics coming and best of luck with the project! Go Pokes!

Sully

clay9_24

Thanks for the input everyone!

This is a gen V block (10114182) so i thought the 4.4660 bore was achievable?

clay9_24

Just a side note;

That beer fridge holds 4 pony kegs full of our home brew. 2 pale ales, an ipa, and a russian stout(for the really cold days). our garage was our brewery before it became our shop.

bashcraft

No kidding! I've got a fridge full of home brew myself. 2 scottish ales, 2 english browns an alt beir and an oatmeal stout. Just brewed a chimay red last week. My garage is also my brewery when it's too cold outside.

temvette72

Excellent! I have a 3-tap tower on a chest freezer for my homebrew next to my 72 in the garage! Bench racing and beer drinking go together like, well, malt and hops.

temvette72

clay9_24

well we have been super busy lately taking out the motor and the tranny. I have a complete front suspension kit on order and it will be in on monday so we are getting ready to pull apart the front end.

So.... we pushed my vette 1/4 mile down the road to the car wash at the On Cue so we could degrease everything under the hood.

it was only a 1/4 mile from our house (straight line) so when i had 4 extra guys to help push we decided to go down the road on man power alone.





I estimate our quarter time to be aboutg 1:15, (could be better but we were to busy drinking and having fun to be serious about pushing the car)



But... it wasn't that far so we only had to go about 1/8 mile down the highway. so many people were giving us funny looks that it made it that much more worth it.

clay9_24

we have not updated this as often as we should. here are a few more pictures of whats going on.

With the motor out i wanted to power wash out the engine bay. Luckily we are only a block from the car wash so we gave it a push. we got alot of looks from this one.





this car looks like a wiring nightmare when you get the dash out!


i would say it was running a bit rich


this was super lucky. the height of my truck and the height of our jackstand line up perfectly. someone sitting on the tailgate it goes in and once they get up the block rests on the tailgate and the bolts come out easy.


its not real attractive without the dynamat.


our first piece of dynamat!






10 dollars worth of paint and some scrubbing sanding helps things alot!




a look at most of the dynamat finished




At the moment we are installing a vintage air system which is going pretty smooth! I will make a post with all the pictures of it soon.

vettekid333

You are doing a great job! I had to laugh out loud when I saw you pusing the car a block to the car wash. Only young bucks wouls do that! Keep up the good work and give us more pics as you progress!

rajsid

Great job

'75

You guys are doing a good job and making some good memories too !!

68AIR

Great job. Make it your college thesis. Reminds me of my 7 1/2 years in a four year college.

Smadoo

You're making good progress, especially in around classes. I'm in college now and i know what it's like to have an old vette in college, everyone assumes you are just rolling in $$$

clay9_24

ya I get that a lot too. But not from people that know me and know I am working three jobs to get everything done. Its crazy trying to manage everything that is going on. Thank god I'm 23 and don't need any more than 2 hours of sleep per night.