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Started restoring my 76 (It's come a long way)

205K views 548 replies 70 participants last post by  Night Stalker 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
This post is a long time in the making. I bought my 76 1 1/2 years ago. It had problems that I needed to work on before I could start the restore. It wasn't drivable, it needed an alignment and then I had to get the frame tweaked to get it to line up. Changed all the springs and shocks installed new tires and rims. Drove it a while to get the feel of the car. Replaced the rag joint replaced the power steering hoses and a lot of little things.
My intentions are to do a frame off and restore the entire car (modded restore). The PO installed a 79 interior dash and all and I have ran into several Bubba things. Well last week I started on the restore and here is a list of the Not Good:lookinup: and The Good

NOT GOOD
1-Paint & Body work
2-Frame may still need Tweaking
3-Bumpers shot
4-Engine bay horrible
5-Windshield frame rotten
6-79 interior, a lot of parts falling apart
7-Seats need recovering
8-Limited on money
9-PO was a bubba

The Good
1-Have a good place to work on project
2-Engine and transmission are good
3-Have the time to do this
4-Drives real nice and runs good
5-New brakes all around
6-New exhaust
7-New tires and rims
8-Rebuilt carb

I was real disappointed when some of the interior pieces fell apart in my hands and found the windshield frame at the top and corners rotted. Had to remove the windshield to get to the frame and broke it in the process. I did get the rear glass out without breaking it because it was barely glued and leaking, wondered where the water was coming from!:surprised Dash , seats, door panels and all upper trim is out now. This is turning into a big project and I like things to be done right so I am projecting this to take several years because of the expense.I do believe it will be worth the effort I just need to make sure I don't have more money in it than it is worth. So far I have about $5800 in it including the price of the car. I will post pictures and more as time goes on cheers Mark:cheers:
 
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#2 ·
Dude, I can feel your pain, my story is a twin of your. Too bad I got to lazy to cross post, my resto thread is on CF.
Same year, and pretty much the very same good and not good, except I have very little space to work and that I set myself the foolish goal the have all the job within one year.
 
#3 ·
How about a link to your post Denpo:thumbsup:

One of the things I found that Bubba did was connect the windshield washer hoses to the engine vacuum system causing the 4 barrel not to work. When I saw this it was :WTF did I get myself into? I guess he was going to suck the water off the windshield :nuts: I would not ever do anything like that and would be ashamed to let anyone know about it. How does anyone sleep a night knowing they have a car out there that sucks water off the windshield:WTF: :nuts::nuts::nuts: sorry about the ranting I just needed to blow off some steam before I work on the car tomorrow. :cheers: Mark
 
#4 ·
Darkest before the dawn!

IMO breaking the windshield was a blessing in disguise, now you're forced to replace it with a brand new unit that's not chipped or scratched. Really makes a difference from the driver seat.

The whole more than it's worth thing exploded when you hit 5800 in a rubber bumper C3 that still needs paint. From here forward you're upside down in terms of cost, but can still have a machine that's far nicer than it's value. And that's what these kinds of projects are really about, isn't it? We all have to watch costs, but you might wanna think about scratching that specific target off the list as you're setting yourself up to fail.

PS I love bubbas, they move vehicles down into my price range :thumbsup: If you see any ******** selling a pantera drop me a PM!!

good luck with the car!
 
#5 ·
Yea forget the "more money into it than it's worth thing." This is about what it's worth to YOU.

A nice clean all original 1976 with low miles on it with a stock L48 engine will only get you about $9,000...but I wouldn't sell my restomod '79 for less than 18k because I did all the work and I really enjoy the car....even though it'd prob only fetch 13 to 14k at auction.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Follow Along As I Start The Rebuild

Well after a little back ground I decided to show progress as I rebuild my 76. There are a lot of pictures and ill start from January so here we go:cheers:

We received 7 1/2" of snow in January I can't remember ever getting this much snow in North Mississippi.:surprised



Some pictures of my car and my shop.



















My upper windshield frame is rusted and needs to be replaced but the lower cage is good.:D





Doors are in good shape just need cleaning up and the mechanisms freshed up.



Removed interior to reveal floor pan rust, broken trim and a wiring harness that is questionable.:down:









http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/851859/fullsize/18.jpg[/IMG

[IMG]http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/851860/fullsize/19.jpg









Cut out the rusted sections of the floor board. I will be replacing these sections with 16 gage sheet metal that I will forum by hand. Just couldn't bring my self to spend $500 on new pans when I am capable of building my own.



























Started making the patch panels and welding them in, started with the seat belt wells first.





This is as far as I got and as I get time and make progress i'll post more.:cheers: Mark
 
#13 ·
Too bad you're far away, I'm trying to get rid of my former body on the cheap but it's still in better shape than your.
I changed mine because I've been given a clean rust free one, and also because I'm not as good at welding as you are, nice job.:thumbsup:
 
#17 ·
Its a 76 ! no its a 79 ?

If you haven't noticed this 76 has a 79 interior including the wiring harness. As far as I can tell the PO used a donor car and used the interior, doors and engine. I have a modern day engine compartment fuse, relay block that I am thinking about installing somewhere in the vette and doing away with the under dash fuse block. I haven't decided what I will do with the interior yet.

Thanks for the positive commits I really need the encouragement
:cheers:Mark
 
#18 ·
wow! good luck on the project and i will be following it.my 76' was an electrical mess that i had to straighten out first before i trusted it to go very far.now i'll be into the u-joints this weekend and see what it needs.great to see these beautiful cars get the love they deserve, and don't worry about it's eventual value.these cars will come into their own.
 
#19 ·
Continued work

Well had some time to work on the vette today. Also I have the new fuse block I ordered off ebay. The fuse block is going to be installed at a later date but ill show some pictures of it and you all can comment on where a good place would be to install it. Don't bother suggesting under the dash ,I am too old to get on my back upside down in the little space that the factory location is.












I worked on the drivers side floor pan today. this is what I started with.


I basically used the old pan as a guide and measured the bends. Then bent and shaped until it fit good.


















All the shaping is done all that remains is welding it into place. Does anyone know what to use to seal the pan to the fiberglass? I know to use pop rivets but what sealer is used between the fiberglass and front of the pan. :cheers: Mark
 
#20 ·
Update

Found some time to work on the vette this week.:D Finished the passenger side floor pan, fixed the hole in the fiberglass part of the floor and preped the windshield frame. Next I need to weld the new pans in and bond the pans to the fiberglass. The next project is to replace the upper windshield frame.

Heres the passenger side pan





Heres where I started the repair of the fiberglass. I cut out all the bad fiberglass and cracks and glasses in the floor. At this point I am not concerned about looks just strength and I will glass the bottom when I have it off the frame.









Heres a pic of the new pan laid in and the fiberglass fixed





And heres the vette getting some sun.:thumbsup:



And finally the windshield frame cleaned up, next step cutting the top of the frame out and putting the replacement in.



To finish the pan I need to weld them in, grind them out ,and coat them. Ive been looking at Eastwoods products for the coatings and adhesives. Ill post more as it progresses :cheers: Mark
 
#21 ·
More Progress

Took a week off work and decided to tackle a project that has been lurking around for some time now. This will help me a great deal in my efforts to make the car as nice as possible. I knew it would be a lot better on my project and me if I built a body rotisserie so here it is. The only thing I have left to do is make the uprights that attach to the body and make a brace for the front end. This will have to be done after the body is pulled in order to get some measurements and fab up the parts.:rolleyes:

Started gathering materials


And assembling Parts








Here it is put together











And heres my next project finish the floor boards:D



Ill up date soon:cheers:Mark
 
#22 ·
Update

Well things have been going slow, hurt my back at work and the MRI showed a bulging disk.:surprised But I am feeling better now and I just cant sit around so I worked on the vett.

Bought a 8.1L to install in the vette heres the link http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151094 I will post when I get started.

Finished the floor boards and and replaced the rotted upper windshield frame.

Heres the floorboard finished.



I built a frame out of angle iron to support the windshield posts and help align the new frame.







Heres a shot with the windshield frame removed



The finished frame, took about 7 hrs non stop no breaks.





I will continue to post to this thread if there are enough interest, it takes a lot of time taking pictures, resizing and uploading then writing the posts. Hope this helps someone out there on DC.

Next step pulling the body:thumbsup: we will see how my rotisserie works :cheers: Mark
 
#23 ·
Great work, its coming along nicely. I know what you mean about, if there is a enough interest in a thread, not many people post but a lot do look. I have had a few lately that didn't seem to have many people's interest. I think because its warm out, most of us are out taking care of our to do list.

I hope to see more of your build, it's coming along nicely. can't wait to see the big block added to the project, hopefully I can get my LS swap under way and finished soon.

Riggs.
 
#24 ·
hey mark, not sure how I've missed your updates to this thread, but it looks like you've made a lot of progress! The rotisserie looks great and I'm sure it'll be a life (or back) saver for the body work :thumbsup:
 
#25 ·
Thanks for the comments, just sitting here thinking about my project, I cant see anyone selling a vette that they put so much work in. There is no way to get your money back just in parts alone, much less your labor. I can see my self keeping this car to the day I die, then putting the title in my 3 kids names so it takes all 3 to sell it. 2 boys and a girl, what a fuss I would create.:smack Hope to get the body off within 2 weeks. Looks like the economy is going to take a dump.:down: I work at cooper tire and we are shutting down 2 days a week due to no sales. Its good for time to work on the vette but bad on my wallet! :WTF
thanks obama :nuts: :nuts: :nuts: :nuts:
:cheers:Mark
 
#27 ·
I'm subscribed, quite interested, am also working with a '76 and just bought a set of Cooper tires for our Taurus, if any of that makes you feel better!

I have spent over $20k in purchase price plus parts on my '76 and it might not even appraise for half that. I'd do it again and hope to not sell it, but I have two kids plus my wife, and it's very tough to give everyone a ride. We all do what we can.

:cheers:
 
#28 ·
Just keep on working on her!
Just think of the day you climb in, fire her up, and get that mile-wide ****-eating-grin on your face as you leave a cloud of tire smoke when you hit the gas!


Oh.. Art! Your supposed to leave the Vette to me! :rolling:
 
#30 ·
Update

Well been working on the vette. I am close to removing the body. Got the radiator and frame out, doors removed, steering column, break booster and body mount bolts removed. Oh yea rat nest removed! And I scored a 4L80E transmission on craigs list with 10,000 miles on it for $450. :partyon: I have also been working on my new wiring harness, when I complete it I will post some info.



Rat nest in front of left rear tire body mount compartment!





Doors off



Radiator and mount out



Brake booster and steering column out



Rear body mounts





Transmission





Thats all for now :D Mark
 
#32 ·
Thanks Bill
I dont have that much energy, I have psoriatic arthritis and it really gets me down at times. I know that some day I will not be able to work on cars and as long as I stay active at work and at home I will still have more years left in me. So I push myself. 15 years ago I could have finished this car in a year, so now I just take my time. Its funny when your young most of us dont have the money to do this, raising the kids and such, when you get older and have a little extra your body want let you go.:nuts:
 
#35 ·
LOVE IT!!!! Don't get discouraged if others don't post you can see how much it's being used by the thread views. Lots of people will check everything out and not post.

How far are you from New Albany MS? My brother is up there and is always looking for more car guys to hang out with and help.
 
#37 ·
Small world isn't it! I live 14 miles from NEW Albany and in the same county (Union) :surprised
 
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