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76 project

327K views 1K replies 73 participants last post by  brent319 
#1 · (Edited)
hi all. I got my first (and last) corvette last week and am pretty excited. It is a '76 that once belonged to Bob Wallace at 'vette magazine many years ago as a project car. I think it was probably one of the first LS1 swaps at the time. The car got a crate LS1 and 4L60E and Bowtie Overdrives did a lot of the work on making it fit, but the project was never finished and the car was passed around until it wound up at Custom Image Corvettes and eventually with me.
How this all came about was really strange story. I will TRY to keep it short.. but here goes.
About a year ago my wife said we should get a "fun" car in a couple of years. I have always admired the lines of C3 'Vettes since I was a kid, but did not (and compared to most of you.. still don't) know that much about them so I hit the internet each day reading all I could. I became interested in a LS swap so I hit the forums to gather info. I noticed that this one guy kept answering everyone's questions and really knew this stuff. He even had parts. I wished I could find somebody like that in Iowa. Yea, right. Iowa. Then one day I clicked on that guy's profile and found that he not only lived in iowa, but he lived around the corner from me. "it's a small world after all...."
So I walked over to his house and introduced myself. There was Kaos in his garage. Man, I was blown away by that car. I had seen it on the internet all the time and even mailed Chris McDonald to tell him how much I loved that thing. Then a few weeks later when I figured out who Josh was I realized that exact car was around the corner from me. "It's a small, small world"
Josh and I talked and I was impressed with not only his knowledge of cars, but how happy he was to stop what he was doing and talk to me. We kept in touch and then a few months ago I started my "internship" with him. I went over there with the intention of sweeping floors and fetching wrenches, but Josh is a great teacher and has given me years of insight in a few short months. It started with "fiberglass 101" and has continued from there.
Somewhere along the line I got sucked up by all of the fun and wound up buying the '76.
We are working on getting it on the road and will be able to hit it a lot harder soon. Right now priority 1 is to get Kaos back to Rob, and getting flares out to folks.
*****
On to the build so far...
I got the vacuum parts stripped off of the lights. Being from Iowa I can't believe how little rust there is on this car! We will do an electric conversion on the lights down the road.
frontstripped by brent hagist, on Flickr
Josh and Adam got the wires all hooked back up and I replaced some of the sensors. After working through the night, it was almost ready to run, but the sun was about to rise and I had to rush out and go to work. I stopped by after work and got to start it up. There are no seats or carpet inside the car, so sitting on the floor with open headers was a pretty rumbly experience for me.:laughing: Here's video of my first running of the LS1:

I brought home the interior parts and cleaned them up. They were pretty ugly looking when I got them there, but once 10 years of dirt was washed off they looked pretty good.
88470aa8 by brent hagist, on Flickr
Josh is working on modifying my water pump and when he can get that done, the radiator will go in and we can run it a bit more before we tear it all out, clean things up, and stuff some new goodies on this old shark.
So far it has been a LOT of work. I am glad I did the "internship" so I had some idea of what I was in for. It ain't like Overhaulin where it gets done in an hour. But it has also been a lot of fun along the way. Here is a video my wife is not so proud of:

Hopefully more to come soon
*****
EDIT: Fixed broken links.
 
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#317 ·
#320 ·
If I am not mistaken led are pretty much off or on, but you can dim them a bit by adding more resistance in line. I am looking into a pulse width modulation dimmer for them. I have found some but not exactly what I want.
I keep seeing this one..
http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-Dimming-Controller-LED-Lights/dp/B003L4KKF2
Anyone know if I am on the right track here or have suggestions?
I think you are on the right track.

My LED flashlight has a bright mode and a dim mode.
 
#321 ·
dimming the LED's

I found a cheap PWM box on eBay that will control my LED's for about ten bucks with shipping.

I took it apart and as I was hoping, it looks like I can take the pot' out of the box, extend the wires a bit, and mount the knob in a good location with the box hidden.


The box seems to work well from full down to nothing so I should be able to make it work. (Click below for really bad video)



I may wind up painting the inside ring of the bezel a flat black so it does not get the glowing ring around it, although it is not nearly as bad as it looks in the video.

I am working on finding a time in January when I can go back out to SD and get some more work done on the car. I am getting to where I really want to have this thing home again. The plan is still to have it on the road this spring. I am sure it won't be totally done by then, but then again I don't think it ever will be "totally" done.:thumbsup:
 
#322 ·
Your usual outstanding work. I swiped one of your ideas and installed a MP3 player in place of the ashtray in my car too.

I'm sure you will be tempted to admire all the light candy while driving. I hope you don't get distracted so much watching where you're going becomes secondary. :D
 
#324 ·
Brent, concerning your dimmer, I'm on the same very path.
But I've found something quiet annoying.
Ok, at least on my dimmer, it has the exact same same casing, but the board inside has a different layout (but same design as far I can see).
On my dimmer, if you look at the back at the board you can see the two V+ connected. That means it's a sink design, shutting on/off the V- side of the circuit.
This means you can't use the ground of the car and need to wire V+ and V- down to each led.
Is that what you're doing?

I'm looking into making my own dimmer that could work with the car common ground and keep most of stock harness.
 
#325 ·
Wow. I did not look at the board other than to take it apart and see if the pot was soldered onto the board so I could relocate the pot if I wanted to
All I did was hook it up to a 12v battery charger and try it out. If it is modulating the negative side of the charge to the leds, would that not work in the car? I don't know as much about this stuff as I would like so I am not understanding why it is a problem.
Thanks for the reply. :thumbsup:
 
#328 ·
Hey Brent, I have been studying the dimmer problem with specialists on a electronic forum.
Our problem is not simple, dimming by switching the negative side il the way to go ("low-side switching" is the term)
When doing high side switching, the switching component takes the load and heat up (don't ask me why).
It's definitely doable, but component have to be sized according to the Amp the system behind is going to draw and adequate heatsink provided. In our case (interior led lighting) this shouldn't be a problem.

So I'm talking to these guys and will try to come up will a custom board design. If it works I'll make you one, I'm pretty sure we'll find a way for you to return me the favor.
I'll let you know.

One a side note, I also learned that as soon as you mention your design is going in a car they'll just stop answering you.
 
#329 ·
Headed out for Custom Image next week....

Denpo: I am still not sure why the dimmers won't work the way they are. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you want to run the + side from the box to the LED and then run the - to a chassis ground. I am just going to run the pos and neg into the box and run small pos and neg wires to the LED's. It is my understanding that all of the other switching done with the LS is done on the neg side. (low side switching?)
Anyway, I am quite a ways away from installing the dash, so I think it will work out by then. After all of the time I spent on the gauges, I am thinking about going with the Dakota Digital VHX gauges. I might be selling a full set of Autometers if that happens if anyone is interested. They have fancy turn signal indicators :)
I am headed over to South Dakota to work on my car next weekend. I should be there for a week or longer depending upon how it goes and also the weather. I am hoping that we can get the front fenders on and the back end finished up. Ideally I can work on the custom hood I have in my brain. Nothing too radical, but a bit different.
The plan is still to have it on the road this spring. My 50th birthday is coming up in June and this would be a perfect mid life crisis... I mean celebration:thumbsup: Also my wife "sidepipes" and I will be celebrating our 25 anniversary in May. She always said she wanted to go on a cruise. While I don't think this is what she meant, it would still be sweet to take a cruise in the 'vette.
I will post up some pictures in about a week.
 
#330 ·
Hey Brent, my 50th birthday is in Febuary! Wish my Vette was ready for a cruise. But I do enjoy working on it and dreaming up what I want the finished car to look and drive like. I have several other projects planned after the Vette. One being a teardrop camper that will match the Vette. Sounds weird pulling a camper with the Vette but I think if it is done correct it will be cool. :cheers:Mark
 
#334 ·
Started working on the back of the car. There are some seams that need to be worked. I had built them up from the back previously and needed to blend them in from the outside. I ground the seams out and got that done this morning..


I will fill the cutouts tonight. We are working on the top half of the rear end. I forgot how much fun fiberglass is to work with.
 
#336 ·
Those are some sexy looking duds you got on. Kind of a woody allen movie look alike thing? :rolling:

Just givin' you a little raz! If it keeps the glass dust off, it's a good thing. I get glass shards between my fingers and it keeps me up at night itching.

The rear valence came out nice. Progress is good.
 
#337 ·
Looking good Brent, keep the pictures coming. When you get time please give all the details on the rear bumper install. I will have to install mine the same way. A step by step would be great and would help Josh sell more of them. Keep up the hard work :cheers:Mark
 
#338 ·
Not too much to report. I was at it all day and if you look at the car it looks about the same.
Got the pass. door lined up much better then it was. Still not perfect, but I can tweak that tomorrow.
I was working on lining up the front fenders, and Josh noticed that the nose was not sitting right with the car. We put in the core support and found the brackets that keep the nose where it should be. I had gotten used to seeing it with the nose sagging a little. We moved the nose up a bit and it changed everything. So I guess I learned that today. Slow down and make sure everything right because each part can change the next...
Josh is having a piece made for the back that should be done tomorrow or wed. and then I can finish up the back and have something to look at.
 
#339 ·
Oh the suspense!!!!!! Talk less ,work more, post more :laughing:
This is driving me crazy, :surprised come on work harder we are all watching :WTF yea all of us have a eye on your work so don't let the pressure get to you Sir Brent :rolleyes: :rolling::rolling::rolling: Just having some fun with you Brent:cheers: Mark
 
#357 ·
Hey Brent,
I really like the way the rear bumper is looking. It might just be the angle but it doesn't look near as long in the rear as my 76. I would really want to take about 4 inches off the back of mine when I replace my wavy rear bumper. I would like to do something like the C3R Concept car. Keep up the great work. I've enjoyed reading about your 76. It is going to be super nice and I can't wait to see it finished!
Darren
 
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