1971 Corvette Hot Rod Build

[BJCHEV396]

Originally Posted by Arrowsmith

Here are three not so great Instamatic pix I found in an old album. Things to note: You can't see it, but it had a Lakewood scattershield behind the big block. The clutch was a dual disc (stock) setup. You can see the M/T valve covers. And if you look closely it had a trailer hitch! That won't be going back on. It also had an aftermarket eight track tape player with headphones (you could hardly hear it through the speakers over the sound of the big block). That won't be going back on either...L-O-L. I had planned on switching it over to an L88 hood and an open plenum L88 intake manifold. I sold the car before that happened. But I think the new incarnation will have those induction parts.

Basically, this is the blueprint. And by the way, my heart still goes pitter-patter when I see these old photos (for more reasons than one).

Love the look!!

[Arrowsmith]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

Since you are already going non original engine and a 509 BB to boot, Day 2 under the hood should be mandatory...

😀 I sure can’t argue with that! But back in the day I was pretty attached to Chevy’s Green Pages (“High Performance Parts And Modifications”) manual that would eventually become the Chevy Power Manual. So I was never enamoured with Super Coils, fly air cleaners and so on. This car will be a mix of high perf Chevy and select aftermarket pieces just like my old one.

[Too Many Projects]

I meant like your Blue one, headers, valve covers, open cleaner. I did have a Mallory unilight electronic conversion on my '70 Chevelle in the mid seventies with their coil on the firewall, but that was it.

[Arrowsmith]

We’re on the same page Mitch! Thank you. W

[markinnaples]

Can't wait to see how this comes out as I'm a huge C3 fan as well as Day 2. It's gonna be awesome when it's done, I can tell. Thanks for sharing.

[Arrowsmith]

I haven't posted about my Corvette build for a number of reasons, but suffice to say, I'm back...

A couple of things have changed. My diagnosis of a bad main seal was all wrong. The problem was, the oil pressure gauge line wasn't tightened (at all) at the back of the block. The clutch was wonky because the fork alignment on the release bearing was wrong. I'll dig deeper in the issues the car had down the road. There were a lot of them.

Another change was my idea of using Team 3 ET Wheels. They do not make a 15 X 8 wheel to fit over the Corvette caliper. So the car now has Torque Thrusts on it. Preview (no engine, no trans, no interior):



With that out of the way, here goes:

I forgot how much fun it is to extract a Muncie out of a C2 or C3 Corvette . I think the tunnel is bigger in a C3 like mine when compared to a C2, but it’s still a struggle. Reason: The transmission crossmember is not removable. So the driveshaft, exhaust, shifter, back drive cable, speedo cable, trans mount, etc. has to come out first. Then with a hydraulic jack under the engine oil pan, the trans can be unbolted, slid backward and rolled over as much as possible (side cover rotated upward). At that point the hydraulic jack can be lowered a bit and it’s possible (by holding your tongue just right) to barely sneak out the gearbox. Shifter bolts (big pain in the ass to access) were super tight…but the trans to bellhousing bolts were finger tight. Restored car…Figures!

BTW: I'll show you my removable crossmember mod down the road.

[Arrowsmith]

EZ does it. The engine came out from the side because my cherry picker doesn't have sufficient reach. There was no damage aside from the fact I broke a spark plug while removing the temp sensor in the cylinder head. FYI, Charles Atlas installed one flywheel bolt. The rest were finger tight (!). I dragged out my longest 1/2 inch breaker bar to remove the balancer bolt and almost tripped over because the bolt was ....you guessed it. Finger Tight! 😅Removing things like the spark plug shielding and exhaust manifolds was, uh, interesting. It proved to be the "standard" mix of flat washers in the wrong spot...loose fasteners...etc.😁. The Rad support and rad are next. Then I can go to the back of the car and remove the rear end. It's getting love...

[Arrowsmith]

When working on the engine on the Corvette, I noticed the French locks weren’t folded over (as they should be) on the exhaust manifolds. Hmmm. Red flag…And this was in addition to many of the other issues I discovered even earlier.



With that in mind, I decided to remove the back shock absorbers. I started on the passenger side. Thinking I wouldn’t drive my shop buddy Teddy nuts with the shop air compressor, I decided to use a breaker bar and a ratchet to remove the back wheels. Ooops. Lug nuts were just over finger tight. Didn’t need the breaker bar, let alone an impact gun. The lug nuts hardly moved this beam torque wrench....



Investigating further, the lower shock mount nuts were loose. On the driver side, take a close at the top (both sides), the sequence of hardware is wrong (lock washer on the bolt instead of the nut). This means there is nothing to actually keep the nut in place. In fact, there was no nut on the driver side.



Moving up a wee bit, I noticed the cotter key for the castle nut for the (extremely important) trailing arm bolt wasn’t bent over. It can easily vibrate out. And on the driver’s side, there was no cotter key. Okey-Dokey!





Since I was close, I checked the (also extremely important) French locks on the rear stub axles. They weren’t engaged either (you must tap the tab over the properly torqued fastener). There’s nothing to stop the stub axle fasteners from falling out.



And since I was in close proximity to one of the body-to-frame mount bolts, I decided to check the torque. I have a number of torque wrenches, and this is the right task for a good old fashioned beam job. Chevy specifications for these bolts call for 45 foot pounds of torque. The bolt I checked barely cracked 15 foot pounds. Oops again.��

The bottom line is, my Corvette sure is pretty and sure is beautifully detailed. Check it out:



I absolutely love the car. But it's a beautiful train wreck. As a result, I’ll have to verify and fix pretty much everything on the car, from engine, transmission, rear end, suspension, steering, brakes, fuel system, cooling system, electrical system (I’ve found black electrical tape “fixes” here and there!!!) and so on. Essentially, a complete re-rebuild.

[Arrowsmith]

I removed the small block rad and small block rad support.



Cleaned up the engine bay a bit and I’m finding more “restorer” stuff . I don’t think this is supposed to be loose and flopping around in the nose ...L-O-L



It was another interesting day doing Corvette stuff (here I'm working on the rear end). I have everything out except for the centre section. Got tired and so did Supervisor Teddy. He regularly crawls underneath to inspect my progress.



The next photo (alongside my sled) is stuff I don’t need from the car (aside from maybe the Muncie)



...and the last photo is stuff I’m keeping, aside from the drive shaft and half shafts. Quite a difference

\

Having fun I’ll have the centre section out next...

[Arrowsmith]

Mission Accomplished! The rear centre section is out, and drained.







I sent it off for machining and other custom modifications. Basically, it's a mix of stock Corvette 10 bolt parts and Chevy 12 bolt parts, new 30 spline stub axles, a 3.70:1 gear set and a 1350 pinion yoke. While it's vacationing at Van Steel in Florida , I can begin the process of fixing things. Like what? For example, the rear "Corvette" emblem threads are stripped (of course) and the fuel gauge doesn't work. Most of the body mount bolts are finger tight (Yikes!). Since everything is out, it gives me access to the sending unit (and the back of the emblems). While I'm at it, I'll spend some quality time under the back of the car with a Chevy Service Manual and a torque wrench or two.��



I have to admit it's really nice underneath....and I'm inching forward!