Pocket

First post on corvetteforum

My dad recently picked up a basket case 74 corvette. Its nothing special, 350/400. This thread will chronicle our resto-mod

Basic overview is a stock body, LSx/auto cruiser. My specialty is the mechanical/electrical side, he will be doing the body work. This is my first experience with a corvette so please forgive me when I call some strange bracket a thingy

Ok, lets get started. First job is to get the car off the trailer as the seller plopped the frame down then dropped the body on haphazardly. Upon first inspection, the two cubbys behind the seats were smashed to oblivion, but the body overall seemed intact

The seller also was nice enough to include a whole shed full of corvette parts including 90% of the suspension. He was also nice enough to cram it all into the interior of the car before forking it to the trailer, so the interior is pretty messed up, and the console is smashed from the TH400 being dropped on it. Who does that?

On the bright side, the frame seemed to have a little resto done to it already. It was cleaned up and painted with no apparent rust repair or collision damage. It also had a manual steering box attached, so Im suspect the frame may not be original as I pulled a PS pump from the interior jumble. Who knows

Next step is to build a body cart and get the shell into the garage. She's got a long road ahead of her

My camara seems to be DOA too, so Ill use the pics from the for sale ad for now until I can get a replacement. When it rains it pours right?

my 76 ray

Good luck on your project.

FYI. Even with power steering, the steering box is a manual. The power steering pump supplies the fluid to a ram that assists with the steering effort.

Alwyn678

You do have a JOB in front of you! I am partial to the 74

74modified

Good luck with the build. Look forward to watching your progress.

oldalaskaman

it already has some good mods, you'll have fun, good luck

oldsarge

Welcome to the forum and good luck to you and your dad, keep us posted on the project.

vetteguy22

Welcome to the forum and have fun with the project. It's great that you and your dad can do it together. Keep the pics coming.

76strokervette

My son and I have a similar project with a 76.Our engine will be a dart shp based 400.Enjoy your time together because as time goes on these
projects become much harder to do due to time constraints.I am
confident that you and your father will greatly value this experience in
the future.I look forward to checking in on your progress.
Good luck,
Dave
ps(we'll be posting pictures of our progress as well)

Taijutsu

When you get into something too deep, and you need help,
Use the Search first!
No matter what your problem or malfunction is:
Someone has already done it.

I have had the forum respond very fast to a crisis,
but usually the info is available.

Be patient and upgrade as you go.
Remember, you are supposed to be having fun!

R

Farmdawg

Welcome to the Corvette Forum and good luck with the '74. Looks like a BIG project. There's a lot of good info here on the forums.

72LS1Vette

There is a mega-thread on LS swaps that is buried up in the sticky threads section. There is a lot of work on a LS-engine install that is done a lot more easily when the body is off the frame. You will also find multiple solutions to common problems. ls1tech.com is another great source of information.



Rick B.

Pocket

This is definitely the biggest project to date and will be my 7th LSx swap. Once the "whats needed" list is completed for a chassis, the swap is simply unbolt the old and bolt in the new for most of it. I specialize in marrying different electrical systems together, so this isnt a huge undertaking

Repairing and modifying the body is beyond my skills though

72LS1Vette

OK. Good luck with it then. Looks like you won't need any advice.



Rick B.