Edzred72

Let me begin by stating that I am not a mechanical moron, and have had previous mech expierence with cars and hot rodding (70's). I am a maintenance mechanic/carpenter by trade (25yrs).
Winter set in up in northern Illinois, and up on stands my new prize (owned for 3 months) went to clean, replace, fix up etc. Poly rear spring bush, poly stablizr bush, new stablizr cam hardware, shocks, clean & paint tire tub. All went well with minor obstacles. Then I moved up front..oh god, what a mistake. New sway bar links and poly bush went well. Clean and paint leaky trans pan..fine. Clean & paint air cleaner and valve covers..fine. Then, the simple task of pulling the oil pan has created a mess that has turned me into a screaming, swearing, wrench throwing wildman. To pull the pan, I Had to drop the exhaust..rusted solid studs broke..cut em. Crossover would not budge..cut it out. Exhaust manifolds have to come out to remove old studs..rusted bolt broke inside the head. (still there) Gently drill and tap manifolds for new stainless studs..broke the flange on both!! 1 piece Felpro pan gasket took me 2 hrs to install. Didn't get the "clips" everyone talks about to hold it up in place..not a fun job at all. Rear main seal went quick..whew. Tell me guys..when does it get better? When is it gonna be fun? When is all my time and money going to make me smile again? This car will probably not be on the road till fall of 02. Please..you military guys, ship me 1lb of C4 so I can put myself out of my misery... :mad :mad :mad :mad :mad :mad :mad
Thanks for listening to me vent...Anyone wanna tow a car away?? "CHEAP"!

KENTUCKY81

I've been breakin stuff for three years now. I'm not sure it gets better, just less painfull when you know its comin. Actually, I think if I started working on mine and some kind of problem didn't happen that created the need for more(you know more... more exhaust, more intake, more bushings, more springs, more seat covers... more) I would be disappointed. :smash:


[Modified by KENTUCKY81, 5:47 PM 2/25/2002]

tsw71

Try changing the pos. battery cable, and while your at it, take a crack at the vacuum system. This will make the other stuff seem easy in comparison. :jester Seriously though, as bad as it seems, it is always worth it once the job is done and you have it out on the road. It's the nightmare projects like this that help me to appreciate the car that much more. All of the hard work will give you a well deserved sense of pride when the work is finally done right.
My latest(and still ongoing) project was/is frustrating too. A simple heater core change. Now what could possibly go wrong with a job a simple as this???? Well, I replaced the old one that had a very small leak with a brand new Modine. Got it in there after replacing all of the rubber and foam seals in the heater box. Fired the car up and let it warm up. I looked in the car a few minutes later and saw a constant stream of water coming from the heater box :cuss I spent yesterday removing the brand new heater core and trying to get the quart or two of antifreeze from my carpet and padding. Now I just forked out another $25 to repair the new heater core and if I have any energy left when I get home, I may try it again tonight. I could have just sent the defective one back, but then the car would sit for another week durring some of the most beautiful Feb weather I've seen in years(70deg today).

Hang in there. It will get better eventually.

Tom :cheers:

Paul Borowski

Silvr77, "Welcome To The Wonderful World Of RustBelt Corvettes"!!! Been doing those kinda things you've mentioned the last 14yrs. Yeah, theres times I've been supermad over some of this stuff(rusted brake lines, broken studs, broken shock bolts, rusted out e-brake hardware, rusted radiatorcore supports, etc). After awhile, after you get everything in shape, you tend to forget it OR just accept it. That's why having a "California clean" Corvette, Muscle car, etc is the ultimate!!! I've seen underneath those cars plus like "Arizona" cars where it looks like you could take the body off the frame with an "open end" wrench. My most valueable wrench has two bottles, one oxygen, the other acetylene!!! Priceless :lol:

killain

Ok, so you had some rough times lately, I assure you it WILL GET BETTER! I've had mine for almost ten years now, and the man from Kentucky said it best. It will get better. You just have to concentrate on getting past these one battle. There are lots of things that will drive you crazy, heck some of the simplist things have turned into a crazy swearing fit for me. but it gets better. Just today I had the Vette out and some women said to me, "That's the cleanest Corvette I've ever seen" so it does pay off in the end.
:eek:

mrvette

on my headers here I haven't bothered, but on any cast iron exhaust system, it's allways reassembled with stainless bolts, would not have it any other way...lubricate with RTV on assembly and never fight it again...
the manifolds can be welded, no sweat...pain in the butt though....

GENE

Carl in LA

get a beer, take a break, try again tomorrow. Just like I'm doing! Believe me... the car can wait until your ready.

1979toy

Buy stock in the company that makes Liquid Wrench. When you plan to do a job next week, spray the hardware every time that you pass the car. It'll be messy but everthing should come loose.

rjs82vette

I thought that was the fun part??????

ylose

It'll be "fun" when I come down to give you a ride in "moving vette" !!

no more "vroom vroom" runs to the Virtual Drive-In !!

:seeya

Alwyn678

In Fact have 2 for me....and yes there is ALWAYS something to do...That is part of the JOY :cheers: :D

sray454

My winter project ( 1 ) was to replace the tach cable --- did ya know that once you start that job, all kinds of bad things happen ... to the point where ... right now the car has no windshield, no dash pads ( none ) no interior basically ... and I'm thinking about a new wiring harness ... all because my tach cable housing was freyed ... should been about $50.00 --- will now be 30 times that... :cheers:

Edzred72

Thanks for all the words of encouragement, and sharing your "nightmare" stories. I tend to forget that I am not the only "oarsman" on this ship called classic car restoration. Your responses, and half a fifth of Captain Morgan later... I feel better again. :crazy: :D :crazy: :D :crazy: :D :crazy: :D