CraigH

Spent this morning cleaning up one half of the front frame.

Will need another go over but its getting a step closer to be preped for paint.

CraigH

Spent some more time today cleaning up frame forward of the firewall.





In fact I managed to destroy the bearings in my Aldi air drill in the process. Oh well for $20 it did well.

Tomorrow I will go over it all again and hopefully it will be close to being ready for paint.

CraigH

The vette has been very rust free so far, but......................

While cleaning up the frame I notices the radiator support.





Rusted through on both sides at the bottom.

CraigH

Pulled the radiator support out and will now have to look to import a new one.

At least I now have more access to cleaning up the engine bay :-)

CraigH

I had hoped to spend a day cleaning the frame but got side tracked.

First I removed all the headlight solenoids and actuators.





I want to add new actuators and re run the wiring harness at the top rather than where it is now.

CraigH

Then I started on what took up most of my day.

Have always been less than happy with the front apron on the vette.

The drivers fender had been replaced at some stage and it sat perfect up the top and around the hood however they did not do as good a job on the front apron.

It sat over a centimeter lower on the drivers side.

Not much you may say but it annoyed me so i decide to look at how to fix it.

Now that the vette is on stands I can do good measurements.

I decided it was going to be easier to lower the passenger side than raise the drivers.

First a cut where the apron connects to the uprights.



Then I was able to move it down a centimeter.

Fabricated a bracket to hold it in the new position. then went about adjusting the other brackets etc.







A bit hard to see but it is now much better.

Next step is to glass it all back together.

Played with the bumperettes and grills for a few hours and will have some more fun there after i glass it up.

CraigH

Did a bit of glass work today on the front apron.

This is what it looked like before I sanded back all the glass ready for new matt.



Then started to add layers of glass.



Built up with a number of layers.



Some reinforcement behind the crack in the lower lip.





Once it dries I will start to do the back of the same panels

CraigH

I have cut and adjusted both sides and re-glassed them in.

There were two hairline cracks in the passenger side inner guards to glass as well.

I taped around them, ground down the existing glass around the cracks.





Then did the other side as well.



Then I glassed both sides.

CraigH

Sanded down some of the crack repairs.



Once it eats away the tape your down to the level of the adjoining glass.





And in the guard.

CraigH

To get in and do a good clean up front I pulled the front wiring harness out.



After removing all the electric tape i found heaps of scotch locks and crimp connectors.





A combination of getting it ready for rego here and some butchery in its past.

I will take them all out and solder and shrink wrap all the joints.

May even re wrap the entire harness with new harness tape.

CraigH

I stripped the harness down the other day to get a better look



Wires are in great condition for 40 years of use.

CraigH

I dropped off the radiator earlier this week to get it boiled out and checked for leaks.

They found a small one that was repaired then they media blasted the tanks and repainted it.

Was not totally happy with the paintwork so I spent an hour sanding it back and gave it a new coat ?

Probably a waste of time as it wont be seen but :-)











Need to replace the trans cooler outlets with adapters to AN fittings as I am going to add an extra cooler and use AN-6 connectors and hose and build the brackets for the fans

CraigH

Engine bay frame has now had another round of wire brushing and is as good as it will get.



I then wiped it all down with prepsol and applied a rust treatment to the surface.



Now it is ready for painting :-)

CraigH

Frame has its first coat of paint.

CraigH

To paint the engine bay I need to get everything out.

The Breaker near the brake booster needed its bolts cut as I could not work out how to get up under and hold them from spinning in the cabin.

CraigH

The column needs to come out so I can shorten it a couple of inches for the new steering box.

Very easy to get out

Remove the two nuts on the firewall from inside car.



One is a coach bolt so pull it out from engine bay and rotate the firewall plate that holds column in place then remove it.





Then undo the 2 bolts where column connects to dash.



Undo the wiring harness and pull it back

CraigH

Forgot to mention you need to remove the lower dash panel and the aircon cross over vent pipe before staring.

CraigH

Picked up the a-Arms from having the old bushes etc removed .



The front rotors still had the original rivets in place.

A bit of clean up then off to be media blasted and powder coated.

CraigH

A bit more stripped down.

CraigH

Started removing the firewall brackets, vacuum hoses, wiper motor etc.