I’ve devoted some time to little fixes on the Vette (and boy howdy are there enough of them…L-O-L). Here are a few…
First was the swiss cheese job on the passenger side door sill. There are four screws in the sill plate but in this case, way more in the sill! I’m guessing previous owner couldn’t get it where he wanted so he just drilled away. Note the goop around the one hole. I'm guessing it was stripped out and this was the fix.
Although this is all hidden by the sill plate, I couldn’t live with it, so I pondered a fix. I could have glassed them in but then it occurred to me that I could also use two-part marine epoxy (it is used to fix holes and leaks in fiberglass boats). It was simpler and probably just as effective. Once I filled the holes, I just gave them a quick dab of touch up paint.
I’ll redrill the sill plate holes when I’m installing the carpet, but if there’s an issue, I’ll use this as a fix. It’s a plastic wall anchor from Home Depot.
A simple job here. I installed the back console reinforcement. Installing the back bolt in the console is a pain. It goes in through a hole in the seat bulkhead. I might try installing the bolt backwards (with the threaded portion sticking out) and then using a nut on it. We’ll see.
I think I might have mentioned I needed to change the hood release…Here’s the new one. Removing and detailing the pedal pads and pedal trim is on my to-do list.
Next up, I reinstalled the door water shields with fresh 3M strip caulk.
I removed the charcoal fuel cannister. I’ll use a vented gas cap instead. By the way, the charcoal cannister takes up residence on the backside of the driver inner front fender. I’m using that spot for the MSD box.
I plugged the vent line. I see in this photo I forgot to remove the clamp. I’ll add that to my to-do list.
Up top, I had no need for the bundle of excess hose that went from the charcoal cannister to the intake manifold. This cleaned up a good size mess on the firewall.
Stole this photo from the Corvette forum (by the original owner). Note the battery cable. Grrrr…
Here’s my fix. It’s just a big heat shrink:
While I was down there, I tied back the yellow wire that goes from the starter to the coil with a stainless zip tie. I bundled up the yellow wire on the top side by re-wrapping the harness with the wire inside. don’t need it because the car is using an MSD box.
Meanwhile, upstairs, the ignition switch wire that normally goes to the coil will be routed to the MSD box. The only two wires on the coil for an MSD system actually come from the buzz box.
A couple of the bolts holding the brake line in place were stripped. I fixed those. You can just see the fix in the back of the clamp. I use a small v-shaped piece of stainless safety wire in the hole. Then the fastener is screwed in. The safety wire takes up the “extra” space and the fastener can be tightened. By the way, that’s not rust you see. It’s a bit of spilled old coolant from the original engine.
Moving back a bit, I added a missing clamp to the fuel lines. LS6 Corvettes do not have a return line, but I’m going to use a pump with a return. I found my old LS7 conversion on the LS6 would boil the fuel and vapor lock on a really hot summer day. Pumps with a return (rather than dead-heading) tend to keep the fuel cooler. I believe every little bit helps.
Done for a while (aside from a couple of little things on my to-do list). Basically, I’m out of parts. I should have an order from Zip in a week or two. So….tap-tap-tap..L-O-L