Restoration & Modification Projects > Modification Projects

My Black Bitza

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craigh:
Hi Scott

What brand were your coated headers.

I am looking at some Hooker ones at present and want to be sure they fit well with no clearance issues.

Regards

Craig

Scott:
Hey Craig,
They are Patriot tight tuck headers.  They are the shorty type ones.  I chose these because I'll be able to hook them up to sidepipes in the future if I feel the need :drool: I had some factory chev manifolds on there before, but they were the wrong type and hit on the floor.  These ones will require the re-routing of the auto cooler pipes and the earth strap from the starter, but that's about it.  Them clear everything else fine.  I started a thread on the corvetteforum.com site about fittment befire I purchased as I wanted to make sure they would fot fine.  Unfortunately, purchasing from the US was significantly cheaper than buying from here.

Scott:
I finally have gotten around to an update.  The front end rebuild is coming along nicely with only a few hiccups.  I left the last update pulling the front end apart.  Fun and games.



Last bits off.



Time to start cleaning up. Every thing was de-greased and hit with the pressure cleaner, then the wire brush on the bench grinder and angle grinders.  Finally, a nice coat of cheap enamel, applied in my 'state-of-the-art' spray booth.



The lower arms were a little more difficult.  Took a bit to get the bushes and cups out.  A little fire did the trick though :drink:



Then, new grease and bolt all the pieces back together.



Rebuilding the lower arms wasn't too bad.



The first one went together fairly easily.  Getting the new bush cups in was a bit of a hassle, but I got there.



The tubes that go inside the bushes are too long, so had to be cut down by about 3-4mm each to give just the right fit.  That took a while but I got there.



When it came to the second arm, experience meant the cups went in much easier and faster.  So fast in fact that I forgot to put the rod in... :mmm:

So I had to bash one of the cups back out, put the rod in and then bash the cup back in.  That was not fun.

More to come.  I have a cricket game to go to :)

Scott:
I was still struggling to get the steering rack off, so I bought a 2nd, different tie-rod splitter.

The one on the left here uses leverage and a bolt to pop the ball joint and tie-rods.  It took me about 30 seconds to pop the steering off.  :grr: I wish I had bought this one in the first place.

Next was the actual chassis.




I wasn't looking forward to this.  Using a bright light and a blunt 25mm chisel, I scraped most of the major chunks of body deadner and crud off.



Then spent a fair while lying under the car with the angle grinder with a wire brush attachment again.  There are some awkward places to get to, but after a few long hours, it was looking much better.





After getting both sides fairly clean back o the body mounts, and welding up a crack in one ot the outriggers that holds the engine, I spent more quality time lying on my back under the car with a paint brush and the fish-oil.

Then last weekend, more quality time with the paint brush and the undercoat (2 coats).  Finally on tuesday I managed more quality time with the paint brush and the black top coat.  I managed to paint one side with a single coat, so there are still a few more stints under there.

But after paint comes re-assemble :grin:

I don't seem to have any pics of the painted seat shells, or the chassis for some reason.  I'll have to try grab some next time I get to the shed.

72vet:
The Joy of cleaning & replacing parts:thud:. Keep the pic's & updates coming Scott   :ado:

The way you have the car chocked up with timber is a bit of a worry though.

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