Another 67 L79 Corvette story.......

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by olredalert

----Stop looking for a dimmer grommet. Don't think I have your address but when you get it to me I'll send it off.....Bill S

Received and installed tonight Bill - thank you very much.

[napa68]

#taskmaster

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by olredalert

----Jake,,,As far as heater operation goes, you should know that Florida Corvettes and other FL cars are famous for having a plug in the in line to the heater core to keep any heat coming in to the interior.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I spent some time this weekend on it and can verify there is no plug in the line. I took the heater control valve out and hooked up the heater hose directly to the heater core (after removing the hose and making sure there was no plug). The heater works perfectly this way. I bench tested both the original control valve and the repro control valve with a vacuum pump and both function as intended.................so I now need to get into the dash to see what is going on with the vacuum source that hose is connected to . Good news is that it appears the heater core is not leaking.

[dykstra]

Great news!

[RPOLS3]

In between some of the mechanical stuff I have been working on I experimented with the paint a bit. The car was repainted around 2011 when Pro-Team had the car. It is a medicore paint job that looks good from 20' away. When the car arrived it had a very rough texture to it and I used the Surface Prep Mitt to take care of that. There were a bunch of small surface scratches all over the car that needed to be buffed out. When Dad sold the car he had 2 gallons of Rally Red lacquer that stayed with the car and I understand that paint made it's way to Pro-Team with the car. Based on the look (you can see some of the fiberglass texture underneath like you would on an original paint car) and the amount of red color that comes off when working the paint, I think they may have used that lacquer when it was painted in 2011.

While at MCACN with the 409 last fall I had one of the mobile detailers there take out all of the scratches and paint damage from years of putting the cover on and off. All of the high spots on the paint were damaged up pretty bad and I did not have the confidence to tackle that. They did an amazing job and I took note of the equipment they were using. I have an old (like 40 years old) Milwaukee buffer that I used to use and it seems that technology is grossly out of date now.

I purchased the Rupes HLR15 kit (the same equipment the mobile guys used at MCACN) and had a chance to try it out the other afternoon. I used the fine sponge pad and the fine compound - this is the least aggresive combination in the kit. I did the drivers side of the hard top and drivers side hood/hood surround. So far it looks pretty good for an amateur. This is a D/A machine so it is really hard to screw anything up.

Hoping to get some more time on things this weekend and figure out the heat/vacuum issue (I spent some time digging in the assembly manual and now know what I am looking for) and replace the gasket on the accelerator pump in addition to getting the paint dialed in a bit.

Little by little.............

[67since67]

That's a top shelf unit you have there Jake! These modern polishing systems get amazing results. My cars benefit from a Flex cordless and Menzerna system followed by Black Fire sealant.
A friend who recently saw my Chevelle that he painted asked "What did you do to this paint??!!" He could see a difference from his own cut and buff.

Great results there Jake!!

[napa68]

That looks really good Jake!

[RPOLS3]

I was able to put in some time yesterday afternoon on trying to resolve some of the cars issues with varying degrees of success......

I replaced the leaking accelerator pump gasket.

After that I re-installed the original heater control valve.....the retaining clip that holds the valve on the firewall bracket mysteriously vanished after it slid off the fender protectors and fell somewhere into oblivion on the frame rail. I am hoping it is wedged in somewhere I can't see it and won't fall out on its own. I also removed the glovebox to see if anyting was astray with the vacuum hoses behind the dash. Nothing looks out of place so I need to do some more testing with a vacuum pump and gauge as I still don't have heat with the correct heater control valve in place. More work to do there........

I was able to grab the lock cylinder numbers from the glovebox door and ignition to get some original keys made up - sent those off to Steve Walker this morning.

I wanted to check timing and related just to know what where things were at. The car seemed to run pretty well so I didn't expect to find much. When I took the distributor cover off, the #5 wire was not in the terminal. I was able to just move the boot back and get the wire properly seated.

I dug out Dad's old school tune up equipment and set the dwell at 30 (it was 15) and the timing at 8 degrees initial. I was able to source 5 gallons of 100LL fuel as well.

Was hoping for significanlty better results and not sure why - but now the car breaks up above 3,500 RPM. After some consulting with my brother and Tim I sourced some new AC 45 plugs that will be here tomorrow. Hoping that is the culprit.

Took some pics of what appears to be the original starter and coil. Ended the afternoon with polishing and waxing. Paint still is what it is, but definitely took it up a couple notches and is now pretty presentable.

I also found out what needs to be my next priority, the upper control arm bushings are beyond smoked, so I need to get those replaced sooner rather than later.

[RPOLS3]

Spent some more quality time on the red car this weekend.

After I topped off the gas tank with some more 100LL Saturday I swapped out the plugs with some NOS AC Delco 45's I found. I forgot how much fun it is to do this with all of the shielding, bracketry, and tight spaces on the passenger side with an A/C car. 3-1/2 hours later it was done. Glad I did it as the old ones were suspect. The new plugs didn't solve my mid range RPM breaking up problem but more on that later......

While doing the last 2 passenger side plugs from the underneath I found my heater control valve retaining clip that flew the coop last weekend and installed that.

Pics of the starter and coil I forgot to upload in my previous post..

Today I spent time on the mid RPM range breakup and the vacuum switch for the heat.

After doing some research online last week I was pretty confident my no heat issue was the result of a failed vacuum switch that is mounted on top of the heater box behind the glovebox. If you have ever tried to get one of these out I don't know how you get to the nut on the firewall side to remove it. No room to get a wrench on it, no room to put a ratchet on a socket as the ratchet hits the birdcage/firewall glass.....another hmmmmmm moment. I asked myself what would Dad have done here. He would modify a tool to make it work, so that is what I did. I took a spare 11/32 - 1/4" drive socket and ground the edges so a 1/2" open end wrench would fit on it to turn (there is enough room to slide the socket on but not the ratchet). Worked like a charm. With the switch in hand I was able to spray brake clean in it and then WD-40 to get it moving. It was really loaded up with years of crap. With the car at operating temps I bypassed the switch and the heat worked fine and manifold vacuum opened the heater control valve as it should. I tried re-installing the switch to see if loosening it up solved the problem...........and no. I can't blow air through the ports so something inside is fouled up. While I look for someone to rebuild this original switch I ordered the plastic repro that is availble in an effort to keep things moving along and get the car buttoned up for the upcoming driving season. I also ordered a new glovebox liner as the original is about shot. As an FYI - that is not rust on the birdcage you see behind the dash but the overspray of old adhesive for the insulation that has turned brown over the years.

I then swapped out the set of points in the distributor with a set of NOS Delco ones that Dad had in leftover stock. This is where I realized that Dad's old dwell meter may be NFG. As installed they read 14 degrees on the meter (if you go back to my previous thread those points were also at 15 when I checked intially) ..........I cranked them up to 30 degrees and took it for a ride.......still breaking up pretty bad at 3-3,500 RPM. Hmmmmm......so just for sh*ts and giggles I put them back at 14 and it runs like a scalded dog - just how I remember it. I will borrow another meter to double check next week but am happy with how it runs now. I finished that just in time to take Mom for a ride as she came up for a visit..........emotional ride for sure.

While I was at it and have the glovebox out I started to make a run at removing the wiper motor to get sent out but that will have to wait until another time. I was 2 bolts away (the ones closest to the drivers side) from having it out and realized that I had no clue how I'd get the bolts back in as you are working blind on an A/C car around all of the ductwork.

Little by little we are moving forward.

[A12pilot]

Fantastic stuff, Jake! What an awesome car!

Cheers
Dave