1971 Corvette Hot Rod Build

[Too Many Projects]

If you haven't sold the original engine/trans, put them back in and make it a driver. I believe it will sell much quicker.

[Arrowsmith]

I don't have the engine and even if I did I wouldn't do it for various reasons.

[Arrowsmith]

I had a very recent conversation with someone over my Corvette sale and this came up. And it’s a legitimate question and concern: “Now that you might sell it, will you take some shortcuts in the build?” And the answer is definitely a big No! If I did that and I didn’t sell the car, it would constantly bother me. A good example of sticking to the build plan (and not cutting any corners) is this:

I needed to run wires from the MSD box to a source of power. There are several options available (for example, the alternator, the Corvette horn relay (don’t laugh….GM used it for darned near everything on old Vettes), the starter and the battery. There’s a catch though. MSD boxes need clean power. The alternator is out because it makes “noisy” power. And I suspect the horn relay is a big stretch too. I’ve always run the boxes right off the battery. It’s the best possible location.

The battery in a Corvette (behind the driver seat) is a long way from the driver side inner fender (where I’m mounting the MSD), so I had to go up in wire size to 12 gauge. A practice I’ve used from my race car days is to use MIL Spec wire – Tefzel to be exact. The jackets on these wires are thinner than regular auto parts store wire. That means the bundle is smaller. The wire is slightly stiffer (due to the Tefzel jacket). That means it is actually easier to route. The wire is far more resistant to heat. You can test it with a heat gun and see the difference. An average heat gun will discolor and melt the jacket on automotive wire rather quickly. Not so with Tefzel. It has a rating of 150-degrees Celcius (300 degrees F). It’s also much more abrasion resistant. But it has a downside. It’s definitely not cheap. I bought two 10-foot lengths for the project from Aircraft Spruce & Specialty. By the (short) time it arrived, the bill in Canadian dollars was $165. As you can see, I’m certainly not taking any shortcuts (I have plenty of good automotive wire on hand that now cost me nothing…not $8.25 per foot...including freight and tax…L-O-L).

None-the-less, here’s the good Tefzel from Aircraft Spruce:



I wrapped the wire with harness wrap (it’s non-adhesive):



Next, I punched a hole in the seat bulkhead and installed a rubber grommet. FYI, I typically use a sharp step drill bit to finish the hole. Unlike a regular drill bit, it leaves a nice clean, round, burr free hole. Then I tied it into the OEM harness bundle.



From here, I ran the wire alongside the antenna cable and the rear harness (at the rocker sill), and zip tied it all together. Down the road, I’ll run it through the firewall in an existing hole. What I did on Plain Jane was to route the MSD power wire through one of the carpet grommets (cut the end off of the grommet). I’ll do the same here. That way you don’t have to drill any extra holes.



And speaking of extra holes…I used another carpet grommet hole for this -3AN bulkhead fitting. Old Corvettes usually have a plastic (small block) or copper (big block) tube for the oil pressure gauge. I’m not into that ….L-O-L. So I’m converting the gauge to accept a -3AN line. It will hook up to the interior side of the bulkhead fitting while the engine side will accept another -3AN line that routes to the an engine oil gallery. FYI, I use -3 line instead of the common -4 line for one reason: It makes the gauge much more responsive. Just more old racer tech…



So there it is…I’m not cheaping out or cutting any corners. Next up….waiting for my order to arrive from Zip with more parts…