DJ Dep

Eddie: Thanks for the info!

And to the rest of you "restorers" that handle your Vettes with white gloves on and make sure all the numbers match.....

It's F-ing BUBBA RAY TO YOU GUYS!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Dep


[Modified by Dep, 8:13 AM 10/30/2003]

Flareside

Dep, how much will it cost me to see pictures of this carnage? :D

DJ Dep

Nuttin! I sent some to Chuck Harmon already. He is still recovering from the shock! :D

I even got pics of the stuff just before I openned the garbage can lid and dumped it. I still need to get a pic of the hole in the firewall that looks from the passenger floor to the side of the engine. Also known as
"Bubba Ray air conditioning" :)

I'll e-mail them to you when I get the chance.

Bubba Dep

DJ Dep

Took off the side eggcrate thingy. AH HA!!! I find ANOTHER thing to rip off!!!
The friggin pollution canister is now resting peacefully on top of my garbage can :) Don't worry...I used a bolt to plug up the hose going to the tank.

Also spotted the electrical connections to the firewall and a big orange wire that went from the heater rely to the horn relay. Naturally everything heater related MUSTGO...so after verifying that the big wire wasn't attached to anything on one side, and to the horn relay on the other...OUT SHE GOES!
It's now laying on the side of the fender. I'll unbolt it from the horn relay later.
Anywho...back to this friggin vacuum box. I found all the bolts that attach it.
Then I started doing some measuring. Nope...won't fit through the egg crate hole. DANG! So much for that idea. Also WON'T come up through the top because of master cylinder AND power brake booster :( MAJOR BUMMER!
I wouldn't mind taking off the master, but I am NOT gonna futz around with the power booster. Plus the brake lines would be directly in the way of removing it.
Soooooo...what to do. Took out my trusty ball peen and a crummy screwdriver and tried splitting the vacuum box down the seam. No luck. Dang thing is built to survive a nuclear blast! My best last hope lies with piece-by-piece destruction. That means grinder and cutting wheel mounted on a drill.
It'll take longer to do, but I won't have to take anything off to do it. Plus I'll get to swear at each small piece I remove :)
Eventually it'll be small enough to slip through the eggcrate hole.
Ahhh...now I need to hit Home Depot for some Bubba tools :)

Dep





[Modified by Dep, 12:12 PM 10/30/2003]

RC73

:rofl: this thread is some funny $it.

DJ Dep

Back from Home Depot. Sheesh! NEVER tell those people what you are doing
when you go there. I tried to describe the stuff I need and all I got was "Que? Que?" :rolleyes:


I just waved at him and grabbed what I needed. Another brainstorm came to me while driving home. Even more Bubbaish is to take a drill bit and drill a line of holes and then chisel through them. May have to do that if the cutting wheel can't get in some spots. So much to destroy...so little time to do it! :D

Dep

Avette4me

true dat!!! :rofl: :rofl:

Avette4me

Had mine out this year. Slipped out from the underside. Must be different on the '80. :confused:

PRESSURERAT

Just take a sawzall and cut a big hole in the fender. Then if you have any rough edges, smooth them out with a big butt hammer. While you're in there feel free to F*** up some of the wiring harness. The wire harness is just a bonus!! :lol: :) :D

PRESSURERAT

One more thing; this very well could turn out to be the next 'roller rockers' thread!!!!

Chuck Harmon

Dep,

You need therapy, my friend. Take a big breath and count to 10 before there is nothing left of your car. Don't buy the Sawzall, it will be too easy and way too much fun to to do more cutting. You will ultimately wish you had done less! I wouldn't even think of mentioning how much weight you would save if you made your car into a convertible!

Chuck

DJ Dep

Well I went out to the garage, and of course, left all my neat new tools IN THE HOUSE!!! :rolleyes:
So I figured "oh well, Bubba time". Found a 3/8 drill bit and drilled a line of holes across the top of the vacuum box. Then hammered a screwdriver between the holes and I have a nice ragged line open across the top. Why the hell did Chevy have to make this damn thing so heavy duty??
I swear the steel is thicker than the frame! A frigging plastic box would have been a LOT lighter and a lot CHEAPER to put in there!! A sawzall won't work. Neither will a sabre saw. Just no friggin room to work in there. I'd use a torch if it wasn't for all the electrical crap in the area. I may be FORCED to remove that damn power booster. I suppose the bolts holding that on are inside the car under the dash where I have to stand on my head to get at them. :(
I do have another alternative in that I have a pistol grip hacksaw that can get in there pretty good. My arm will end up being the size of the Incredible Hulk when I'm done though.

Dep





[Modified by Dep, 5:51 PM 10/30/2003]

toddalin

See now, before you hacked it up you should have put some duct tape over all the fittings and imploded it. If the removal sucks as much as you indicate, there should have been plenty of vacuum for an implosion. :crazy:

When I tried to take mine out of my '70, it too was such a bitch that I just restored it in-place. :lolg:

DJ Dep

Well that's f-in IT for me! I can't even get a good hacksaw job on it.
No room for a cutting disk to move around in.
So tomorrow I do it by the book and dismantle the whole freakin brake system. I crawled under the dash to look for the attaching nuts for the booster and found that there are only 3 installed out of 4 with NO lockwashers on any of them.
So the Bubba that installed the rebuilt power booster must have said to heck with that last one. I don't really blame him. It's nearly impossible to see, much less thread a nut onto. I think there's supposed to be a gasket going from the power booster to the firewall, but I won't even bother going to a parts house for that. I'm sure they DON'T have it. So I'll just RTV it on.
God what a mess! If I didn't need to replace the engine wiring I don't think I would have ever messed with this. :(

Dep

mox 77

I removed the plastic windshield washer resevoir with a small cutter in my dremel tool. Small pieces. The shame of it is that I had the stupid resevoir out but 6 months previous. Spent half a day trying to duplicate what I had done before!!!! This must be fun, right?

moosie982

Hey,,, You realize that if you would have done it the right way instead of trying to cut corners you'd be done with it by now and be enjoying a nice cold beer and planning your next bubba attack, I dont mean to sound like I'm slamming you cause I'm not, I usta do exactly what you are doing, looking for shortcuts that inevitably cost more time, money and sanity :smash: somtimes ya win but usually ya lose :yesnod: ,,,,,,,,,so, peace anyway,,,,,,,,,,,,bye :seeya Peace,,,,,,,,,,,Craig


[Modified by moosie982, 11:46 AM 10/31/2003]

bigvette1

Dep - what is the goal of this ripping and tearing?

DJ Dep

My wiper bag (my car was an A/C car so I had a flexible bag instead of a bottle) was gone when I bought the car. I got out the power booster and that friggin vacuum box today. My arms look like they went through a shredder.
Also tore out about 3 more pounds of vacuum line from under the dash.
Now I have to figure out how to re-install this power booster. I have a sinking feeling it may be a 2-man job. It came off after I took off the 3 mounting nuts under the dash by sliding right out the front of the firewall. Nothing else was attached to it like pedal linkage or anything. I did see some kind of clip gizmo on the end of it though. Wonder if that attaches to the pedal linkage somehow? Oh well...at least I got to heave that stoopid vacuum box down my driveway. MAN that felt good! I now have HUGE open areas under both fenders. Now I gotta dig out the manuals and see how the heck humpty dumpty goes back together. :)

Dep

DJ Dep

Craig: Yeah...but ONCE in a great while you do things YOUR way and it feels SO much better :D

bigvette1: First off, understand that this car will NOT be driven on the street. It is strip-only. So weight is the ENEMY! :)
Next...when I got my car it was pretty much "Bubbafied" under the hood. AC was only partially there. So that was the first to go. I don't NEED AC in the 1/4 mile :)
While removing the AC, I also decided that I didn't need a heater either. So out came the heater, remaining AC crap, and all the ductwork. Now I had a tangled mass of uselesss wires in the engine compartment. So I started tracing them into the interior. Off came the console and all the heater/AC stuff I could unplug or snip (hoses got snipped, wires unplugged). Back out under the hood and I started tracing the remaining wires. Found one that went across to the other side of the car to the horn relay. It was NOT supposed to be connected there, but hey...it's Bubba-kin at work ;) Then I looked down and saw that friggin vacuum box. Since I won't be needing ANYTHING vacuum other that the brake booster, I wanted it OFF. Plus I need to replace the engine wiring under the hood, since most of it was either Mickey Moused or had bare spots showing and was brittle.
The engine wiring ran UNDER that dang box. I took off the eggcrate on the fender and saw the pollution canister gizmo...poof!...off it came. Still not roomy enough to work on the wires, so the vacuum box DEFINITELY had to go. Now it's GONE (I may have set a vacuum box-tossing record!). :D
All I have to do is put the power booster and master back on and I can return to removing vacuum hoses. EVENTUALLY I will be doing an engine transplant and it will be MUCH easier not to have to mess with all this surplus wiring and vacuum crapola. Oh yeah....future removals include the chrome crap around the distributor (radio was also tossed) and probably washer and wiper stuff.
You would NOT believe what all the junk I've removed so far WEIGHS!!!

Bubba Dep...putting his Vette on a "diet" :D


[Modified by Dep, 11:38 AM 10/31/2003]

Kid Vette

Hey Dep,

Why are ya savin' the power booster? Trash it and save more weight. :rofl: