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Wow, what a train wreck for a "restored" car. Must have been a "trailer queen, show car" resto. All those lose fasteners could have been dangerous on the road. With the body bolts "lose" maybe it's a good time to just start over with the mounts and check for needed shims ?? Seems likely no one checked, or added any.
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Next up I decided to go through the wiring harness assemblies. The front two harnesses (engine and lamp) appeared to be new, but slightly messed up (figures). The dash harness was chopped up while the original rear harness showed signs that Bubba was there. So I decided I could fix the two forward assemblies, but the rest were FUBAR.
Because Bubba the Electrician was in the front harnesses. I needed to fix those, uh, modifications and add my own. In almost all of the hot rod builds I do, I take out the unnecessary electrical components and slim down the harnesses. It looks better plus there's less of chance for it to burn to the ground. So I unwrapped the two front harnesses, fixed the Bubba repairs, removed circuits (in particular the bulky Transmission Controlled Spark and ECS solenoid system) and re-wrapped the respective harness. FYI, those devices worked in concert with a lean carburetor and late ignition timing to reduce emissions. Since I won't have a lean carburetor or retarded ignition timing, I can delete them. It also makes for a much cleaner engine compartment. FYI, the idea here was to redo everything and make it look like it came that way from Chevrolet. This is the "before" of the engine harness... https://i.imgur.com/IMm85t7h.jpg Some parts of the harness included this type of, uh, repair. https://i.imgur.com/Llghfbgh.jpg Another "repair" was this candidate for a dead short. https://i.imgur.com/Ws4BxFih.jpg Opening the harness is easy. I used a pair of sharp electrician's scissors to cut apart the wrap https://i.imgur.com/qJSSYEPh.jpg When I found the circuit I needed to eliminate, I'd trace it back to the fuse box plug. Then with a little needle nose pliers, I push down on the spade wire terminal. This allows it to release so you can pull it backward from the fuse box plug. https://i.imgur.com/v08HThWh.jpg When putting the harness back together, I tape it every few inches. That keeps it tight. FYI, 3M Super 88 is costly compared to Chinese stuff, but it is exceptional electrical tape. https://i.imgur.com/nh5CjFuh.jpg Then I used harness wrap (vinyl tape without adhesive) to re-wrap the harness. This is exactly what Chevrolet used way back when. https://i.imgur.com/ajJVM7Nh.jpg Aside from fixing the Bubba repairs, this mess is what I removed. FYI, I also removed the stock evaporative emissions canister and engine compartment hoses (not show).... https://i.imgur.com/xgCYubCh.jpg Here's one of the slimmed down harnesses... https://i.imgur.com/zPoQ06Kh.jpg Here's a look at some of the revised engine compartment wiring and plumbing. Strange fact: Chevrolet eliminated the headlamp washers on most '71's (like mine), but they kept the hoses. I removed the headlamp washer hoses from the inner fender and re-arranged the hose and wire pack...I think it looks cleaner... https://i.imgur.com/rA62EXKh.jpg Having fun, but this was a little bit gruelling |
Doing all that modification and repairing others mods is really time consuming. Been, there done that. When I got my '66 Chevelle it had a late model Gen V engine and the owner had rewired the entire engine and headlight wiring with ONE roll of Red wire....:shocked: I still have over 20 ft of it. It comes in handy for splices and other things...:cool2:
I was online this morning looking at AAW for a complete "update" kit for my Camaro... what a friggen shock ! The prices have gone up a lot since the last kit I bought and since mine is an rs car, that harness is a separate purchase with an additional cost of $200. Gonna cost about $1,200 for complete system. Glad you were able to save some of what you have. |
L-O-L on the headlamp harness! And yes, I sure do understand the cost of harnesses today. If anyone is contemplating the purchase of a harness, hang on to your wallet! The dash harness for my car was $785.27 while the tail lamp harness with rear fibre optics was $474.23. The power window harness (I did a conversion to power windows with OEM style parts) was $247.99. If I wasn't able to fix the front harnesses, and had to pony up for the headlamp (with fibre optics) and the engine harness, it would have been another $1,000 or so!
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The finishes on the car look nice. It reminds of a car I had one time that spent time in different restoration shops. The left hand didn't know what the right hand had been doing, so a lot of things were over looked.
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Great observation and very true with regard to this car. As I understand it, the previous (and original) owner farmed out a bunch of stuff and then he filled in with the rest. To me it looks like where he took over is when the trouble started! In fact, he is a prolific poster on a Corvette forum so I can pretty much track the way it went together. I'm delighted with the paint, the finishes on the chassis, the chrome and the stainless. They are all of show quality. I think in the end, it will be a beautiful and fun car. I just can’t get discouraged…it really bites when I find more foul ups.
The good news is, in the rehab, I'm almost out of bolts, parts and pieces that the original owner touched....L-O-L |
More excitement...L-O-L
With the front-end wiring done and the vacuum manifold fixed, I decided to turn my attention to the interior. It was an interesting adventure to say the least :). First things first: I noticed there were a couple of loose wires poking out from under the dash. One I spied was bare. I also discovered what looked like a radio noise capacitor laying on the passenger side floor. In addition, the tach needle was laying on bottom of the gauge. Oops.
Let's back up a bit: Initially, I had planned on a few upgrades (power windows, tilt-tele steering column and a radio upgrade) but as I progressed, it was easy to see the entire interior had to come out. And the previous owner blunders sure didn't disappoint... The front two mounting bolts for each seat were reasonably tight but all of the back bolts were loose -- I'm assuming it was this way because they're harder to reach. When I yanked the seats out, I found the seat belt anchor bolts were loose. One side wasn't even close to tight (see the accompanying photo). Not good. The window glass adjusters were loose – in fact, never tightened or adjusted. Some pieces (electrical) were held in place with duct tape. The carpet was spliced in several spots and “fixed” with duct tape. I found a number of wires were spliced (poorly). The mix included four bare wires, four "amateur" spliced wires (a couple were twisted wire loosely wrapped with electrical tape), several Scotch Lok connectors, one broken connector, a couple of damaged bulb sockets, several missing fasteners, and one "mystery" added circuit that goes to the engine compartment. I also found plenty of missing fasteners. The fibre optic system (which monitors the exterior lamps in an early C3) was "repaired" with, and held in place with electrical tape. At this point, I knew the wiring harness had to be replaced. The repairs were beyond what I wanted to attempt. And I found a mysterious piece of binder twine holding something up in the driver side kick panel vent....Hmmm. I have most of it out here: https://i.imgur.com/ofB3cQqh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lKy1cu3h.jpg Just about every adjuster was loose on the side windows: https://i.imgur.com/FPPfAkch.jpg This was really alarming: https://i.imgur.com/3V92pQ5h.jpg This was actually one of the nicer harness mods/repairs I found: https://i.imgur.com/B5wwKJrh.jpg This was more normal: https://i.imgur.com/dA3mOgxh.jpg When you don’t have a zip tie, then use duct tape…L-O-L https://i.imgur.com/dv8xR24h.jpg I still haven’t figured out what this is holding. I asked the previous owner, but he won’t respond. https://i.imgur.com/PWnTbJUh.jpg It is pretty much bare here: https://i.imgur.com/cBSz5Q5h.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mLqKi26h.jpg And here’s the tach needle issue: https://i.imgur.com/ZdZenjJh.jpg |
Despite all the BS you found within, it looks like you have one helluva bird cage. As you know, that is a win with a C3!
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Totally agree. It has absolutely great bones. As point of interest, there's a really nice Top Flight '69 400 HP automatic roadster for sale in Portland. Drop dead gorgeous and priced right.....except....the passenger side A-pillar and door jamb is heavily stained in rust red. I don't even have to look at it in person to think it's probably a huge, potentially very expensive job with lots of hidden grief.
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