Restoration & Modification Projects > Modification Projects
My Black Bitza
Scott:
Suprisingly enough, the strip of foam is still there. I'll make sure I reseal that when it all goes back in. It appears that the sound deadening stuff was supposed to seal the housing to the firewall from the factory.
I'm not sure what I'll do to seal it up when I put it back together, but thanks for the tip about the heat entering in through the air-con box. I want to keep as much heat out as I can.
Scott:
I've managed to get a bit done on this lately.
A few months ago I tried to align the bellhousing so that it was within the specs Tremec give.
The dowels didn't line up with the holes in the bellhousing by a little, so I had to give it a little persuasion with the rubber mallet. I then had to use offset dowels to centre it.
It was different every time, possible since the bellhousing would deform a little to fit the dowels. After climbing under the car 30+ times in one night to check the dial gauge, then spin the engine over a little, inbetween pulling the bellhousing, swapping ans spinning the dowels, I had enough and made a new purchase.
I was able to use the engine lift to help build the car lift. I got most of it up myself, which is no mean feat considering the weight of the parts and not wanting to stratch the floor.
Much easier working under it now.
With the car up high, I sorted the bellhousing alignment pretty quick, using one factory dowel and one 0.014' offset dowel. IT also made it heaps easier to sort out all the mounts for the trans x-member, which were a little out of place from a forklift bending the cross member during shipping...
It also made it way easier to finish the fibreglass work required to patch up the floor, which had also been damaged by a forklift prong. There was also the trans tunnel patch that consisted of poorly mixed kitty hair and cardboard...
Scott:
After a lot of sanding, grinding, dust and cleaning, I was able to spray the interior just to make it one colour and tidy it up a little. It also meant all the random steel panels and the birdcage were coated.
Once it all dries, I'll start bolting bits back in I guess.
Scott:
Still slowly chipping away at it. I figured I needed to put the aircon box back in first. Only issue was it looked like it had been partially buried in a bog hole for a while. There was a definite scum line on the inside.
So I pulled it apart to clean it up.
This pic shows the high tide mark fairly well.
The rubber seal that keeps the hot air out when you don't want it was also borked. Of course these aren't available for purchase.
A bit of quality time with the spinning wire brushes on the bench grinder and drill and it was looking OK. I bought some adhesive backed foam to 'create' a new seal.
The new foam seal turned out pretty good in the end. It should keep most the hot air in it's place. I'll probably add a tap to the heater line so I can switch it off for 9 months of the year.
Next was the task of adding an extra pedal in to the left of the brake. That one was easier than I thought it would be. Undo a clip, slip out the main pin, slip in the new pin, which haw a clutch pedal welded to it and I also got a new brake pedal as part of the kit. Cleaned every thing up with the wire brush and doused it in satin black. Done.
After bolting the aircon back into place, I started with the sound deadening. I'd hears installing dynamat was time consuming. It's true. The footwells in a vette are like an abstract art piece, with angles everywhere. Plenty of cutting, bending, heating, shaping etc to get each bit in. So far after more than a week of lazy attempts, I have done one footwell. The first sheet I installed simply did not stick. I was wondering if the dynamat had gone off or something as it's been sitting on the shelf for a few years, but it turns out I just needed to add a liberal dose of heat to make the action happen.
It looks like the dynamat will keep me busy for a while longer.
Scott:
I have decided I need to get the gearbox back in this thing soon, so I can use the hoist for oil changes and other useful things, rather than just 'car goes up, car goes down'.
Easy bits first. I threw the clutch on and bolted the new gearbox mount to the cross member.
I bought some hydraulic oil and topped up the trans hoist I bought cheap on gumtree, then manhandled the box up. Then threw on the hydraulic throwout bearing, and the stud that locates it.
Bolted the bellhousing onto the block to do some measuring.
According to the instructions for the hydraulic throwout bearing, I need 150-200 thou clearance between the bearing face and the clutch fingers. It also stated that chev bellhousings are shallow, so you may not have that much. Sure enough I measure it all up and I have around 20 thou clearance.
Apparently It's OK to space the bellhousing out a little from the block using washers.... No thanks. Or I can buy a 250 thou spacer from the supplier and then shim the throwout bearing up to the correct clearance. It's from a US company, so wouldn't be a fast turnaround time, of cheap. I figured I'd have to make my own up instead.
Of course no decent aluminium place is open on a saturday arvo, so I went to masters/bunnings for a look. Sure enough, masters sell sheets of 3mm plate aluminium.
3mm is around 120 thou, which gets me pretty close. The instructions say 100 thou is still OK, so 140 though should be fine. Plus there's more spiggot engagement that if I used a thicker spacer, which I like the idea of.
I've gotten as far as marking the plate up with a scribe and hopefully I get some time tonight to cut something out.
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