Glad to see you back on it Wayne!

FWIW, the shock bolt lock washers are configured as you found them from the factory. Not much room on the back side of the shock mount.

Thanks Tim....my mistake. I managed to get a lock washer on the backside during the reassembly though...and I didn't find it that difficult....W

Grizzled old car builder tip ...L-O-L: If you bugger up the threads on emblem studs, gluing them on with dum-dum doesn’t work :). I replaced all of the back emblem letters and while I was at it tightened every bumper, valence and trim piece fastener at the back of the car. 90% were loose.

https://i.imgur.com/YZAFTmzh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/m7GV6qGh.jpg


In the last photo I’m test fitting my 15X8 Torque Thrusts. They clear the calliper! But you already knew that... :)

https://i.imgur.com/alzATN6h.jpg

Previous owner mentioned something about replacing the fuel sender....It turns out he said it was replaced, but I had a look myself:

https://i.imgur.com/FH8r9JMh.jpg

Oops...While it's possible to get a replacement sock, I just swapped the whole assembly out:

https://i.imgur.com/cwE0Aamh.jpg

Meanwhile, the fresh rear end showed up from Van Steel...note the flange stub axles:

https://i.imgur.com/sDk7tqsh.jpg

It's just about ready to go back in the car:

https://i.imgur.com/0XvVjw8h.jpg

A wee backstory: The previous owner obviously boogered something up and stripped one of the two crossmember bolt threads in the frame (next pic)

https://i.imgur.com/1O9zvN1h.jpg

The passenger side was metric - I guess 12 mm is one size up from 7/16-inch thread was the rationale. It's a blind thread so I couldn't access it from the back. I thought about it and decided to use a crossmember reinforcement kit from Van Steel. They replace the bolts with a common stud. For the metric side in my car, I had a local shop make up stud that was 12 mm coarse on one end and 7/16-inch fine on the other. Meanwhile the parts from Van Steel are 7/16-inch coarse and 7/16-inch fine (next pic).

https://i.imgur.com/5JAhOxah.jpg

Worked out great. The finished crossmember reinforcement is shown here:

https://i.imgur.com/FbBPcSzh.jpg

Van Steel makes nice parts. Along with the rear end centre section, I opted for their adjustable camber strut rod setup. You can see the mount bracket installed on the rear in the next photo.

https://i.imgur.com/BKuXLzWh.jpg

And yes...I used a torque wrench on everything...:)

Next up: Getting the half-shafts assembled on to the flanges, install a Van Steel composite spring, add Bilstein shocks and drop the thing down to Mother Earth.

My old pal Mark Williams built me a new set of chrome moly 1/2-shafts (as usual for M-W components, they're awesome!).

https://i.imgur.com/BiIH0Zuh.jpg

I added the adjustable camber rod setup from Van Steel, a Van Steel composite leaf spring and Bilstein rear shocks. It all went together smoothly (usually does with good parts). I still have to torque the centre spring bolts (must be done with the car on the ground) and install an OEM type rear sway bar (low HP small block cars don't have one).

https://i.imgur.com/S61FENJh.jpg

BTW...the car sits a little high on the back end but there's no gas in the tank, no wiring harness, no spare tire or carrier and a completely empty interior. I expect it will drop down at the back and obviously a bunch more in the front with an engine and transmission installed. I can't accurately set the camber until it's at ride height and ready to drive weight. In addition, one of the techs at Van Steel suggested I ditch the French locks on the half shafts and use lock washers and Loctite....

https://i.imgur.com/3OSZqN3h.jpg

Small (accomplishment) happy dance...

I bolted in the rear big block stabilizer bar in my Corvette. No drama. While I was at it, I decided to check the fit of the wheel and tire combination at the nose. Yippee! It fits. I can step up and buy two more "mud & snow" Radial T/A's! Actually, I eventually went with one size smaller in the front (P225-70R15 while the rears are P235-70R15’s).

https://i.imgur.com/gSSfsulh.jpg


Next I worked my way up to the front end: Back up in the air and a job I don't usually like that much (changing coil springs). I have a good spring compressor but a long time ago (when I last lived in the city), I had a shaky borrowed compressor let go as I was compressing a spring. I launched it out the open garage door. It took its first bounce in the middle of the street. Eeek. Anyway, I’m still gun shy.

https://i.imgur.com/ScifaPlh.jpg

None-the-less this is the stuff that's going in. I'll fire up my shop compressor and dig out my big boy tools too (air ratchet, 1/2-inch air impact, etc.). And I kept my head down...

I survived Removing & Replacing the front springs on my Corvette. But I also tie a ratchet strap from the spring to the opposite a-arm as a secondary safety check. In the attached pix, you can see the OE small block spring (long one) versus the big block high performance handling package spring. Since the 550 pound spring is so short, the install was a breeze. \

https://i.imgur.com/1mdOBFIh.jpg

But wait! During disassembly, I had to knock out the tie rod ends. The nuts were loose and I didn't even have to use a ball joint separator or a pickle fork. Both tie rod ends fell out of the spindle. I struggled to get the cotter keys out of the tie rod ends. Now I know why (loose nuts....geez that sounds a little racy.. ).

https://i.imgur.com/7gpwyTXh.jpg

But then on the passenger side when the time came to knock out the upper ball joint, it came out by hand (no tools). Reason was, the same process the builder used on the tie rod ends: No correct tightening, and no proper lining up of the cotter key. I'm not finished yet... There's more: Builder didn't even bother with cotter keys on the the upper and lower ball joints on the driver side. And...Loose nuts again. And once again, no tools necessary to split the ball joint. Oops.

https://i.imgur.com/4qRTK7oh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lnAw5mlh.jpg

I forgot to mention the brake caliper mount bolts (including the anchor bolts) were finger tight on both sides....More to come...W

https://i.imgur.com/uQJoSoah.jpg

I finished the front end of the Corvette. Basically, it includes a large diameter front sway bar, the 550 pound springs I showed earlier and Bilstein shocks. It all went together well (aside from 90% of the fasteners being incredibly loose), but I also discovered the front end was never greased. None. Nada. Nothing! . I resolved that and by the way, I use John Deere severe duty Polyurea grease, thanks to my old drag racing buddy and big time farmer Grant M. Don't laugh...this is serious high performance grease that's very happy in an automotive environment.

https://i.imgur.com/HexBt7th.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5LscgMmh.jpg

With that out of the way, I just about ran out of parts. Plus I needed a change. As result I decided to work on the paint. The paint is pretty nice on the car but I dug into it with Meguiars fine polish and my go-to shiny maker for lacquer, which is Meguiars Number 7. As you can see in the pix, it works great. I have other Meguiars product, but I don't need it here (although I might use yellow wax on it when it's done). Besides some of it is for use with an electric buffer and I'm doing this all by hand. You can see how much red is coming out on the microfibre towels. FYI, I have a big variable speed Makita buffer, but I'm really (Really!) hesitant to use it because I don't know how thick the paint is on the car. I don't have a thickness meter and I'm not sure if they work on fiberglass.

https://i.imgur.com/bp233vXh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5iGvBGzh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KO3yxAMh.jpg

Looking great Wayne!!

Next up, I went to work on the headlamp vacuum manifold system. Previous owner installed the vacuum manifolds with self tapping sheetmetal screws instead of 10-24 machine screws (if you look back, one manifold had fallen off and was held on by the vacuum hoses). Aside from not being right, it could have been a quick way to ruin fiberglass because the pointy end of the screw(s) was right up against the backside of the body. I tried running a tap through the holes in the mount plate, but the tap just rattled around. My fix was to enlarge the mount plate holes slightly and use stainless button head (Phillips or "cross head") AN screws with AN flat washers and nylock nuts to hold the manifolds in place. The button head side faces the fibreglass.

https://i.imgur.com/dcneOnzh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mbDIBDsh.jpg

In addition, I installed a new driver's side fresh air vent (mine was beat to crap and was missing the seal) along with adding a couple of 4X6 Kenwood speakers to the dash. I covered the speaker wires in GM harness wrap. The plan is to use an aftermarket radio conversion. I just want to listen to good old-fashioned Rock & Roll ....at least when parked. And yes...I have a new hood release handle to install.

https://i.imgur.com/n26muMkh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vGjRyewh.jpg