71 rebuild

[Jethro]

I reckon you'll be ceramic coating those side pipes to Brad :)

[wabco40]

I reckon you'll be ceramic coating those side pipes to Brad :)

I reckon your right Jethro 

[craigh]

Wow, I will be interested to see the change in look with all black side pipes Brad

[wabco40]

Wow, I will be interested to see the change in look with all black side pipes Brad

Hi Craig,

I dropped them into the ceramic coaters on my way to work this morning. should be ready when I return home next week. I still have chrome heat shields. will see how they look, might have to change these as well.

[wabco40]

I've got the newly coated side pipes back on. I quite like the satin black look.
The heat shields are chrome plated steel, I'll put them on tomorrow and see how they look. If they don't suit then I think I will look at getting them re-plated in black chrome.



I also replaced the stock diff cover with a HD aluminium cover. Also looking at upgrading the side yolks and half shafts.

[craigh]

Satin black pipes look great Brad

[Lefty]

Brad,
Car looks great.
What's next?
And how much is that diff cover.?
Lefty

[wabco40]

Brad,
Car looks great.
What's next?
And how much is that diff cover.?
Lefty

Thanks Lefty. I still got to finish smoothing out the underside of the hood and get rid of the rough fibreglass texture. The interior door panels still need doing, but I'll do that after everything else is done.
I am also working on the fuel lines leading to and from the fuel rails and regular. I am bending them up from seamless stainless tube. I had previously tried doing this before but used seamed tubing and could not get them to seal properly on a 37 degree flare, I ended up using braided teflon hose. This time with seamless tube and soft aluminium flare seals I think it should be ok.
I got the diff cover and install kit (bolts, gasket and breather) for 300 usd plus postage. It came from Corvette Central, it had a normal price of $330 (same price as speed direct) but they where having a 10% discount at the time.

[wabco40]

Satin black pipes look great Brad

Thanks Craig.
I fitted one of the chrome heat shields today but don't think I like the look. I am thinking about getting them done in black chrome instead of satin black. There is only one shop in WA that does this so I'll go and talk to them when I return from work.

[Jethro]

Yeah BradO black chrome the the heat shields s or leave em off !

[Lefty]

Thanks Craig.
I fitted one of the chrome heat shields today but don't think I like the look. I am thinking about getting them done in black chrome instead of satin black. There is only one shop in WA that does this so I'll go and talk to them when I return from work.

[Lefty]

Sorry, user error on previous reply.

Brad,
Have you driven yet on those bilsteins?
How was the ride?
Lefty

[wabco40]

Yeah BradO black chrome the the heat shields s or leave em off !

Black it is Jethro. Can't leave them off or I will end up losing the skin on the back of my legs or worse still my wife will. Then I would never hear the end of it!!!

[wabco40]

Sorry, user error on previous reply.

Brad,
Have you driven yet on those bilsteins?
How was the ride?
Lefty

Yes I have. I am using a 330 lb rear spring and a mono leaf front spring setup on its softest setting. The bilsteins seem to work well with this. The ride feels nice and firm, certainly not soft but not that hard that you feel every bump in the road. I like the way it feels when cornering. I think if I setup the mono leaf on its medium setting then it would be to hard for normal street driving.
Brad

[wabco40]

I spent the weekend bending and flaring new hard lines for the fuel rails. I used 3/8" seamless stainless tube. I previously had -6 braided hose with the feeds entering at the front of the engine and the return at the rear. This time I have got both the feed and return at the rear. The back of the manifold is a bit cluttered as I had to route the tubes to make room for the distributor and avoid the wiper motor when its back in the car.
Taking the fuel block and feeds away from the front of the engine cleans it up quite a bit. I was going to use 1/2" (-8) tube but decided to use what Aeromotive suggest for their phantom efi pumps and stay with -6 tube.
When its fitted back in the car, the feed and return pipes will be bent and then sercured to the back of the right cylinder head. They will then be hooked back up to the existing braided teflon hose.

[Jethro]

Fooken neat as BradO :) Just one thing if I may..... Is that pressure gauge is in a shyte position ?

[wabco40]

Fooken neat as BradO :) Just one thing if I may..... Is that pressure gauge is in a shyte position ?

Thanks Jethro. Yes your right, I had to rotate the pressure regulator to gain hood clearance with the adjusting stud on top of the unit. With it sitting upright it was just rubbing on the under hood insulation.
I wanted to mount the regular between the fuel rails and then run hard lines, however there is no room at the rear with the dizzy and in the front there's the thermostat housing and throttle body.
I settled on mounting it to the end of the left fuel rail. I made a steel bracket that bolts it to the fuel rail instead of just relying on the -8 orb fitting and hard lines to hold its weight.
I have a fuel pressure gauge in the center consol (the sender is on the end of the fuel block) so I may even remove the gauge on the regulator.

[wabco40]

I have also been doing more work on the forward electrical system. Previously I fitted a five relay/fuse box for the cooling fans, low, high beam headlights and the headlight open and close motors.
I needed to add another two more relays to the system. One for the horn (the original horn relay/key buzzer have been removed) and one for the wiper door motor.
Instead of adding another five relay box to the system I pickup a Eaton VEC (vehicle electrical center) which is setup with eight relays and fuses. I got the standard model which has a common ground on pin 85 for all eight relays.
On my system I need to have the ground isolated on three of the relays (two for the ECU controlled cooling fans and one for the horn). Its was a easy task to open the box and cut the ground rails to isolate the first three relays. The ground for these three relays where then bridged to the unused track for pin 87a of each of these relays.
The VEC has two main power inputs, one each per four relays and fuses and uses Delphi 280 series connectors for the remaining inputs and outputs.

I am in the process of hiding as much of the wiring as possible so will possibly mount the unit down low behind the left inner fender.

[metalhead]

Neat!

[wabco40]

Neat!

Thanks metalhead.

No more pictures from now on tho, not unless there is another way of putting them up. The pricks at photobucket want 400 bucks a year to restore my service and that ain't going to happen.