1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

Sun 10 Feb 08 21:49

1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

Well, as it seems to be the trend at the moment, I foolishly decided to start a body off restoration of my little baby this weekend, after much deliberating and soul searching it has been giving Ben a little help and ridicule with his car that gave me the impetus to finally sort out ALL the problems that my car has, and there are many. so after a quick garage sort and clean the project began...

more to come

Last edited by Ben on Sat 07 Jun 08 09:18; edited 1 time in total. [0 %]
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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 21:56

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

WTF! Seriously having body off envy now! just wish I could find a double garage to use!!!!!
Good luck and keep the pics coming!

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www.mycorvette.co.uk Under construction again....
About to start restoration of www.pamsghia.co.uk
http://www.mycorvette.site50.net 79 Project sold....
http://jottosvette.bravehost.com/ Now Sold.....

Sun 10 Feb 08 22:08

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

First job after removing wheels and sitting on axle stands was to remove the body mount bolts, so starting at the no.3 mounts, access covers were removed easily as there isn't much underseal on the car. the bolts were in good condition, but as i was to find all over the car, that didn't mean it would be easy to remove them. the left finally came out okay, but the right only unscrewed half way, then it seems the nut in the cage on the chassis has come loose, so bolt and nut now spin freely - great. I am now decidint how to deal with this, but expect to cut the bolt in some way if possible, would a reciprocating saw do the job, is there enough access any experts????

The same problem happened on the left no. 4 bolt, so i removed the rear speaker etc only to find that i have illegally imported a north american mouse!!! curled up and very dead, infact quite crispy. should i own up to the immigration authorities??? So eventually with the nut contained, i was able to unscrew the bolt - easy really. the bushing seemed in reasonable condition.

not so easy on the right side no. 4, eventually my unpaid labourer Ben managed to pull hard enought to shear the bolt.

After a good look around underneath, it appears that virtually every expsed bolt head is very rusty and will all be seized solid aswell, just to make the project easier. but at least it has vilified my decision to do the job....

Last edited by andymuir75 on Sat 07 Jun 08 17:58; edited 1 time in total. [0 %]
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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 22:22

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

So, onto the no. 2 bolts and finally a repreive, they were soooooo easy, i mean, why cant every bolt/screw be that easy? oh i know, then it would be no fun..

The no.1 bolts are not the easiest to access, plus a wrench need to be held on top of the nut as well, so far they have proved a little too difficult, so i have moved on for a bit whilst i ponder, might use a mate's impact breaker...

so onto the front bumper assembly, and on the way i had a good look at the power steering gear, it does leak a bit, which appears to be from the pump itself, looks like all jobs under the car are going to be nice and clean....

firstly i removed the front grilles and lights etc for easier access, though there still wasn't much room on the side attchment bolts, there are 2 either side, 3 along the underneath of the headlights, and only 2 in the centre on mine, though i think there should be 4. still, 2 less bolts to try to access

Eventually the bumper cover came off, and amazingly the retainers underneath were in pretty good condition, but after removing them from the cover, th 2 side retainers are pretty shot.

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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 22:26

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

Looks like there's going to plenty of parking at this summers Sussex meets....

Good luck Andy

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Sun 10 Feb 08 22:29

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

so onto the bumper itself, and following the advice of mr haynes, this came off pretty easily, apart from an other bolt whose captive nut was no longer captive. so the car is now quite a bit shorter and the garage floor a lot more cluttered!!! i was quite suprised just how heavy the bumper assembly is really, but i suppose it has to be

Well not much more will happen for a few weeks as i am busy til the end of feb, but now i have started, i just want to keep going,

more to come

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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 22:37

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

Oh and i forgot to mention that the valance is tattered, so one more thing to add to my growing shopping list..

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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 22:58

Wow! Nice one Andy.
I was thinking of phoning you tonight to see how you'd got on today. I'm impressed. I'd better get that chassis welding sorted out and get my arse in gear, or you'll overtake me. Did you open a 'Frequent Customer' account at Halfords in the end?

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Blue-with-white-stripes 1976 manual L82 since 1995
"A stiff upper lip is always well dressed when accompanied by mountains of torque and an indomitable will." -unsprung

Sun 10 Feb 08 23:04

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

Ben,

cheers, i've managed to curb my habit and not visit Halfords at all today - decided to go cold turkey. Well, now i've had a real go at the car as i said to you, thats it til the end of feb, must do some studying etc, but it'll always be sitting there alone in the garage when i am sick of studying, so watch this space. out of interest, did you remove you're rear spoiler before your bumper, or vice verca, and that rocker panel scre wis still giving me the runa round, any thoughts other than my heath robinson drill approach?

Kepp on destroying

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Andy and Vette are back on the open road

Sun 10 Feb 08 23:20

Re: 1979 Corvette Destruction and Renovation

My spoiler has bolts through the rear deck and through the rear bumper so there's no way the bumper would come off with the spoiler in place.

I've just been out to take a picture of the no.3 body mount position on the chassis.



The cage that contains the nut comprises two parts: the main (visible) box; and an inner box that you can see peeping out in the picture below, like a bashfully-rusty, square-shaped lobster under some equally angular rust-coloured coral. I'm not sure why there are two. It's conceivable the nut could be turning within the inner box, I suppose. I'm pretty sure (having looked under your car yesterday as the bolt span freely) that there's no way of getting to the nut or the lower threads of the bolt from below. Any attack you launch on the bolt will have to be to the head of it through the wheelarch access hole.

Good luck!

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Blue-with-white-stripes 1976 manual L82 since 1995
"A stiff upper lip is always well dressed when accompanied by mountains of torque and an indomitable will." -unsprung