1966 Corvette L72 Light Refresh

[olredalert]

----Tim,,,I see a bunch of NCRS wonks looking at the bottom of that oil pan and then running to their garage to remove the multiple layers of Chevy orange on the bottom of theirs. Not every engine is lacking that much orange, but many did. Did I say that it's very, very cool!!!. One cool 66....Bill S

[napa68]

Originally Posted by TimG

Tim, I know we talk often and I could ask you in one of our conversations, but what type of Go-Jo do you use? Do you just apply it and steam clean it off? I thought others may want to know, also.

It is the old white hand cleaner that has been around since George Washington chopped down the cherry tree. Having said that, the product has been discontinued. NAPA has what looks to be the same product # MAC5005

[napa68]

Originally Posted by 60sStuff

Tim,

Your endless energy spent on refining top of the line Corvettes that you seek out and bring to BMC is exciting to watch.

And yet “another” gauge cluster, soon with eyes closed.

Thanks for sharing the preservation of such awesome cars!

Chris.

Thanks Chris. One item I have learned from pulling all of these clusters, the speedo heads and tach units need love. In this case, both units had bushings that were out of them, as well as the magnets. I was told by Roger today, the odometer while it worked, would have taken out the speedo cable sooner than later. The tach was wandering ALL over above 2500 rpm. It would have not been long before that shit the bed.

With shipping both ways, I'll have about 750 invested in that alone. It's not cheap nor easy to do these things correctly. It's the right thing to do. I'll have an update tomorrow on the chassis. So far, I'm happy with the results.

[napa68]

Yesterday was a long and dirty day of cleaning / preserving the chassis on the car. Considering the history of the car and where it spent a good amount of it's life, I'm happy with the results. You'll see the non OEM shocks in the pics.....those are old school Koni's As I have mentioned before, I have more history to seek, prior to 1995.

There is some evidence the car was used for it's intended purpose. The car is not documented to be an F41 suspension in the car, yet there is an F41 front sway bar, F41 rear spring (aftermarket bolts securing it to the trailering arms) and the aforementioned Koni's. The lips on the rear wheel wells were shaved assumingly for larger rear tires.









I had ordered up a set of tires for the car right after it landed. When purchasing the car, I was told the tires were new back in 2022. He wasn't lying, they were new TO THIS car. They were reproductions from (what I figure) back in the 90's. Made in Argentina. They were just about as hard as some of the original non DOT's I've mounted and dismounted. The spare is the original Firestone Deluxe Champion, so I followed suit with the new skins. Another little surprise, was none of the wheels were original to the car. They were all 15x6 (should be 15x5.5). One of them was not even a GM wheel. Luckily, I had a nice survivor set of 65-66 wheels at the shop.




Today's task, get this installed.......

[TimG]

I wish I was there to help with the harness, but it would take an extra day if I offered a hand.

The chassis is looking VERY good. I hope to see this car at a judging event in 2025.

[jer]

Love your '66 Tim. You're killin' it, and imo, you really had no choice on a cherry like this to approach it's preservation in way you are. I'll be following very closely, we have similar cars, but mine is an AOSmith body, so some differences. My car is getting close to finish and I just got my gauges shipped back, still in mail. Right now I'm fumbling around with the dash wiring.......if there's one thing that rings true on a C2 is EVERYTHING has it's place, every wire and cable needs to be exactly the way chevy engineered or it just won't fit or work right. I took plenty of pics, which helped, but still scroll through archives of other builds and completed cars. I'll be watching. Again, thanx for bringing us along.

[olredalert]

----Under carriage is my kind of spectacular, Tim. Neither Jan's or mine are original unrestored. Wish they were just like what I'm looking at....Bill S

[napa68]

Parts are continuing to roll in. The dash harness is installed and the circuits of concern have tested out. They never fit quite as well as what was original, but that is just the way it is.


I removed the bad / incorrect water pump. Then proceeded to clean the fan shroud and other areas that would be much less accessible. The car has it's original lower radiator hose and clamps. Looks like I'll be able to preserve them and reuse. Fingers crossed.


While waiting, I cleaned up the ignition shielding and installed a D308 non "R" distributor cap that I had in stock




I found a perfectly dated water pump. I sparingly painted the unit. Once everything else is installed and I get a couple of heat cycles on it, I'll see how it looks. I may wipe it down with some thinner just to kill the color and gloss some some.



Lastly, the speedo and tach came in. I was able to get the cluster reassembled with the exception of the gauges on the left. The fuel gauge was kind of wonky in bench testing. I have found one and that is on the way in.