1971 Corvette Hot Rod Build

[Arrowsmith]

Wee update: I went back into the shop and tried to mock up the end play on the cross shaft gear with a couple of AN washers. The hardened washer that was in the distributor is 0.028-inch thick. The AN washers measure 0.63-inch thick (each). Using one of the AN washers alone helped. Using two AN washers didn’t work. Using one AN washer and the original hardened washer together more or less worked. I’m not leaving the AN washer in there, but I’m sure someone was inside this distributor before me (no surprise I’m sure…). So…is it possible the thrust washer is too thin? Sure seems so. I’ll find out tomorrow.

[Arrowsmith]

I just spoke with Jeff Vinyard, owner of High Tech Innovations. He machines new couplers and gears for Corvette distributors. He also has an upgraded setup with captured needle bearings and a stainless steel coupler (picture below). He agrees and thinks the thrust washer in my distributor is wrong. I have one of his setups on the way...

[Arrowsmith]

I don’t have anything earth shattering for progresss. I’m just plunking away at some of the little things….stuff I’m not crazy about doing…L-O-L. I’m still waiting for the $$$ Al Knoch order. Man, they’re slow….

First things first: I finally refinished the center stack gauge bezel. I think it came out pretty good:



Here it is assembled with the gauges and center stack warning lamps. I don’t have the clock knob installed. Reason? Somehow, I lost the fancy little specialized nut that goes inside the knob. I’ll have to order a new one:



I stripped the wiper bezel today and I’ll repaint it and detail the raised chrome letters later this week:



When I took the car apart, I found it had a new tach cable. In fact, it had an odd mix of new and old parts in it. If you recall, I had to fix the tach needle. Seller told me it fell off. I think I discovered the real problem: The cross drive washer mentioned earlier is wrong and the tach cable has never seen lube.




Bone dry:



Here’s a very recent picture of the car. I still think I will sell it once the interior and a few other odds and ends are done. It will make a Great (small) project for someone. I’ve done all of the heavy lifting….L-O-L:

[Arrowsmith]

Corvette Baby Steps…

My interior parts order should ship from Al Knoch on Monday. So I should see them in a week or ten days. Meanwhile, I finished some of the odd jobs. And I’m officially out of those odd jobs, so I’ll just to wait to get back on the Corvette. Here’s a look at those tasks:

I painted and detailed the wiper bezel:



Here it is installed in the center gauge stack (cluster). I think it turned out pretty good. I’m positive others here can do finer work than me, but this is the best I can do. I discovered part of my problem (having to paint, strip, paint, strip over and over again) is not using an adhesion promoter. More on that down the page.



In case anyone is interested, these are the two products I used for the cluster re-restore. Even though I’m in Canada, I’m thinking you should be able to get these easily in America. For Canucks, the only place I could find the right black was through Grainger. Note the “Industrial” label. Hang on to your wallet…L-O-L. Adhesion promotor is clear. It’s easy to find. Even Canadian Tire had two or three dozen rattle cans in stock.



Paint booth…L-O-L. High Tech is Us!



I lubed the speedo cable (recall, it was bone dry). Typically, I’ll lube the entire core except the last four to six inches on the gauge side so that it doesn’t make a mess while spinning the tach. Here’s the stuff I use (and I’ve used it in the past with the Jones Motorola tachs I used to run in my race cars). Works great. Now that I said that I’ll probably get a bunch of fish eyes in the next thing I have to paint.



The last thing on my list was to fix the orientation of the heater hoses (clamps in relation to the hose nipples on the heater core). Aside from being correct, I think it looks cleaner than it did before.



Done for now. Once the interior parts arrive, I’ll step up with another update.

[Too Many Projects]

Syl-Glide is a great lube, but it has no place in a paint shop... that stuff seems to migrate up walls and across the ceiling... Clean your hands with lacquer thinner.

[Arrowsmith]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

Syl-Glide is a great lube, but it has no place in a paint shop... that stuff seems to migrate up walls and across the ceiling... Clean your hands with lacquer thinner.

L-O-L...I'm an old drag racer ....certainly no painter...and like I mentioned above…Fish Eyes R Us ... . . W

[Arrowsmith]

Almost like Christmas (except Santa didn’t pay for it….L-O-L). Interior parts arrived from Al Knoch over the past two days. Included in the mix are door panels, sound deadener, carpet (without jute, as per the original GM install), sun visors, sun visor mounts, and an offshore built storage compartment frame. The rest of the stuff aside from the sun visor mounts look like Al Knoch built them. BTW, as I understand it, using the separate sound deadener and carpet without jute sound deadener makes for a cleaner, tighter installation. I’ll soon see.


First up, I test fit the sound deadener. I have to determine what piece goes where. The protective plastic has to be removed from the top of the sound deadener.


Mistake! The set had two passenger foot well pieces. But it was missing the sound deadener piece for under the driver seat. I’ll make one out of the extra piece. Not a big job, but slightly annoying. I called them on it. There’s still quite a bit of trimming to do on the back pieces inside the storage compartment. It will definitely take some time.


Here’s one of the new door panels. Thus far, I’m pretty happy with the pair. We’ll see how I feel after the installation….L-O-L. In case you’re wondering, the original door panels were cosmetically a-ok, but the window fuzzies weren’t without flaws. They just looked their age. Plus I added power windows which left me with a gaping hole in each door panel…and one more thing. See below…


Chrome trim up close. It too is good to go. Fits as good (?) as the originals. The camera angle does distort it a bit. In person, the trim fit is better. I couldn’t use my originals because Bubba had (are you ready?) soldered the backs of them on instead of using a push on fastener.


Back side of the panel: I had it made with fiberboard backing, as per the original. I think this is what took so long for my order. Knoch usually builds them with a plastic backing. Apparently, the fit is better with the fiberboard backing, but obviously, it’s not as durable as the plastic arrangement.


New sun visors and new hardware. My old examples were good, but not 100% perfect, so I stepped up to new examples. I’m glad I did. These are wonderful.


Over the next weeks, I’ll plod along with the install. I’ll get the carpet installed before the dash. My complete instrument cluster re-restore (tach, speedo and center cluster along with the wiring and a bunch of other new small pieces) turned out far better than I had anticipated. Whew. I know some here could have done it way faster (and probably better) than me! I just had to do things over and over (and over!) again until I got it right. My hats off to you fellas!