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Another LS3, T-56 swap into 1981 C3

59K views 234 replies 22 participants last post by  zimmej51 
#1 ·
Greetings to all - I've been a member here for about a year but haven't posted anything until now. I know there have been quite a few threads regarding the LSx swap into a C3, but I thought I'd add my experiences to the wealth of information here!

I actually started my build a little less than a year ago, just in time for the Photo Bucket Phiasco that wiped out a lot of info just when I needed it the most! The car was kind of a "barn find", an 81 4-speed with 46K actual miles. No damage, no missing parts inside or out and most surprising no rust other than some surface rust here and there on the chassis. It was the condition of the car that prompted me to do a full resto-mod.

This is my first attempt at posting with pics by uploading them to DC. I'll probably mess up quite a bit here at first so bear with me! Advise and suggestions are welcomed! So here we go....
 
#99 ·
Zim,

You're treading on dangerous ground here.... the relationship between body and door fit/alignment will change dramatically once the body is bolted to a weighted frame. Fitting the doors and matching body lines at this stage is (IMHO) a waste of time, you'll just have to do it again. Painting the jams on body and doors is fine but comes with the risk of damaging paint during the assembly and adjusting process.

You'll make it much easier on yourself by getting the body attached to the chassis and sitting on all four's before fitting and aligning the doors. Once that is done you can remove them and paint the jams with reduced risk.

As for the bolts, prep and paint them with a thin coat of paint and they are usually fine. If you do get a chip, mix up a small amount of paint and let it dry until sticky. Dab it on the chip with a detail brush and let it dry. It will usually flow out to a smooth repair.

Hope this helps.....
 
#100 ·
Zim,

You're treading on dangerous ground here.... the relationship between body and door fit/alignment will change dramatically once the body is bolted to a weighted frame. Fitting the doors and matching body lines at this stage is (IMHO) a waste of time, you'll just have to do it again. Painting the jams on body and doors is fine but comes with the risk of damaging paint during the assembly and adjusting process.

You'll make it much easier on yourself by getting the body attached to the chassis and sitting on all four's before fitting and aligning the doors. Once that is done you can remove them and paint the jams with reduced risk.

As for the bolts, prep and paint them with a thin coat of paint and they are usually fine. If you do get a chip, mix up a small amount of paint and let it dry until sticky. Dab it on the chip with a detail brush and let it dry. It will usually flow out to a smooth repair.

Hope this helps.....

Absolutely helps. I got a little ahead of myself and didn't do a good job with this post. I heeded your advice about loading the body back when I first read the thread and have every intention of having the body "loaded down" on the frame before any final paint leaves the gun. Now I realize the pics I'm posting show the bare body shell and can give the impression I'm going to do the door fitting (and other fitting) with it bare and on the lift. Not so! Sorry about that, and I always welcome your input!
 
#101 ·
Why Remove Original Seam Sealer

A friend asked me why I was removing the original seam sealer from the "dogleg" area just below the lower windshield corner, just inside the door jamb area. It was smooth and looked to be intact. It looked a lot better than the "before" picture below implies, I had already stripped some of the paint from it. And it did look totally usable. But in my experience I've learned that looks can be deceiving, especially in any windshield pinch weld area.



Our old "friend" Mr. Rust found a good hiding place...





Cleaned and awaiting fresh application of seam sealer.






Jamb area thoroughly cleaned, ready for fresh seam sealer and joint sealer.





So that's why, as a rule, I try and expose certain areas even though they look fine on the surface. Especially pinch weld joints around windshields and back glass on regular cars. I realize that you can't completely clean out the pinchweld, but you can get it as clean as possible and ensure that any additional water infiltration is prevented. It will make a big difference in the life span of the vehicle. In this case I had already repaired the other side of the pinchweld followed by careful inspection to be sure all potential leak areas have been corked up.


It's also interesting to note that this particular 81 has lived a remarkably sheltered life. In it's 48K mile life (confirmed by the way) it slept in a garage most of it's life with minimal exposure to the elements. Surprisingly, I actually could reuse all of the body mount bolts, notorious for rusting away. The point is, even with this pampered life, there was still significant corrosion caused by tiny leaks that developed most likely in the seam sealer. So I recommend taking no chances. If you are this deep into it you might as well do a little preventive maintenance. It WILL make a difference.
 
#102 ·
Your spot-on zimmej51, these are still 40 year old cars and even those low mileage, slightly used C3's can bear surprises. Mine had 9K miles on the odometer when it was parked but the owner obviously had no clue regarding storing a car. Parts of the car were pristine and others, well, not so much. Keep these informative posts coming !
 
#103 ·
Here are two WTF's for you....

Ok, maybe I've been breathing too many stripper fumes, but I thought I'd share a couple of those "WTF" moments with you.


Here is the first one.



"READ AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!" Ok, I'm cool with that. Let's see.... I have this can of "Aircraft Stripper" in front of me. It shows a picture of an airplane on the front. Check it out...





Ok, got it. Now let's look at the back side of the same can...





Well, that's just great... And I was thinking of refinishing that Airbus I have parked out back. Would probably be cheaper than painting this Corvette....WTF!!

Here's number two...
Holy crap, that HURT!!!..... WTF!!!


You have these..... these..... THINGS! See Below




If you look these things up in the assembly manual it says they are part of the front fender skirt or something like that. Don't fall for it. It's a trick.


After extensive research and shop experience I have discovered what these things really are. They are secretly known to GM insiders as "Model C3 Longitudinal Skull Splitters".


I have also discovered that these diabolical devices were designed with 3 primary objectives:


Objective 1: To cause you to stumble around in your shop cradling your head in both hands while quietly sobbing in a manner that only dedicated C3 owners are capable of.


Objective 2: To expose your brain so that your significant other can poke around and determine what is causing all this Corvette nonsense.


Objective 3: To give first year interns at the ER an opportunity to brush up on their suture skills after your wife has thoroughly whisked your brain with a salad fork.


These things I have determined to be facts.




Ok, back to work now. After my last year I find it beneficial to visit the lighter side of life from time to time! Cheers to all my new friends here!!
 
#104 ·
Objective 1: To cause you to stumble around in your shop cradling your head in both hands while quietly sobbing in a manner that only dedicated C3 owners are capable of.

Objective 2: To expose your brain so that your significant other can poke around and determine what is causing all this Corvette nonsense.

Objective 3: To give first year interns at the ER an opportunity to brush up on their suture skills after your wife has thoroughly whisked your brain with a salad fork.
:rolling:
 
#107 ·
Weld through primer failure

Sometimes I think it's important to share failures as well as successes. I read somewhere that you should always learn from the mistakes of others; you won't live long enough to make them all yourself!


So here's a bonehead move that I made when reinstalling the floor pan. I butt welded the new pan on the side of the tunnel and the rocker panel side (even though it doesn't look like it in the pic). The front is riveted to the fiberglass firewall. On the rear I decided to use a lap joint. As a rule, I don't like lap joints, especially in the floor, but in this case it looked like the best option.



The main reason I don't like lap joints is that no matter how careful you are there always seems to be a pin hole somewhere that lets moisture get in. To combat this a pinch weld, a common technique is to coat both inside surfaces with "weld through primer", then spot weld the flanges together. So, without thinking this through, I created a monster.


I don't have a spot welder, and even if I did it wouldn't work here because I wouldn't be able to get to both sides. In the past I have emulated a spot weld by using a sheet metal hole punch to poke holes in one side of the lap joint and welding through the hole to the other panel. So I poked the holes, then decided to paint both sides of the lap joint with Weld Through Primer to help prevent rust. That's when things went way south.


When I would attempt a mig weld in the hole, the primer was exposed and the weld just went bat-stupid in about 9 different ways. It actually seemed to repel the bead. Luckily I had only tacked the pan in so I was able to remove it and start over. It was an absolute disaster! I'm not an expert welder, but I'm a long way from being a novice. I've never had anything screw up that bad with welding. In the end, after removing all the Weld Through Primer, I got it welded up with no problems.


I don't have a pic of the actual screwup, but the attached pic shows the lap joint on the left side where the problem was. This was taken during fitting.

 
#108 ·
Driveline Angles

Had a discussion today with our oldest son regarding drive line angles. He's into trucks and getting his feet wet installing lift kits and so forth.



So the subject of correct drive line angles came up. Everybody knows that ideally the longitudinal center line of the rear differential should be parallel to the longitudinal center line of the engine/transmission. Otherwise the speedup and slowdown on each revolution of the drive shaft can create some nasty vibrations.


But wait, have you ever looked closely at the drive line angles on the C3 with the body off and the drive line in place? You will see that the center lines of the differential and transmission are anything but parallel. What's up with that?


The method of making the diff center line and transmission center line parallel to each other is often called "Type Z" because if you look at the angles from the side, the center lines and the driveshaft make kind of a "Z".


There is another method, not commonly used, called "Type W". In this case, the drive shaft center line becomes the reference point. If the differential is rotated so that the pinion points down towards the ground with respect to the drive shaft center line, AND the transmission main shaft ALSO points down towards the ground with respect to the drive shaft center line, then you have a "Type W" drive line angle. And that's exactly what the C3 uses.


On a "Type Z" setup, the task is to make the center lines PARALLEL to each other.


On a "Type W" setup, the task is to make the angle between the differential center line and the drive shaft center line EQUAL to the angle between the transmission center line and the drive shaft center line.


I was able to get mine pretty close. The differential center line points down about 3.8° and the transmission center line points down about 4.3°.



The pics show the measurements before I started the alignment. For simplicity you can subtract the reading you get from 90°, but you don't have to. The goal is for both measurements to be equal. It is important to jack up one end of your frame so the installed drive shaft is level (0°) OR measure the drive shaft center line angle and use that reading as the reference point. Either way works, but's it's easier if you position the drive shaft level.


If you want to study up on all this Google "Drive Line Basics Machine Service Inc" and look for the booklet "Drive Line Basics". I extracted a couple of pages and posted them here as jpegs, couldn't figure out how to post a pdf.



















Hope this helps if you are working a drive line vibration problem.... Cheers!
 
#109 ·
Thanks zimmej51 - I don't believe I have ever heard of, or at least recognized the "W" configuration. Even searching for it after I read your post I didn't find much - lots on the "Z" but short on C2/C3 specific info.
 
#111 ·
Driveline Angles

One thing I neglected to mention regarding the alignment of the Type W driveline. Since the driveshaft centerline is the reference point, anytime you change the angle of the differential and/or the transmission, the drive shaft angle will change too.



So, after an adjustment, you must re-level the driveshaft by raising or lowering the frame from either end. Then take your measurements again. It's a little tedious, but not all that hard.


Also, you don't have to re-level the driveshaft, you can just do the math and calculate the angles as a displacement from the drive shaft centerline. But you gotta do one or the other!


Point is, you have to recheck everything after an adjustment and keep tweaking it until it's right.
 
#113 ·
Door Hinge Slop

I have the doors off of my 81 and I'm wondering what the wear limits on the hinge pin and bushings are. I haven't measured it but I'd estimate the slop to be around 0.004 inch. Does this indicate that "re-pinning" the hinges is necessary?


Actually, now that I think about it, I guess what I'm really asking is how much slop does a freshly overhauled hinge have? I'd hate to go to all that work only to find out that new ones have slop close to what I have now!
 
#114 ·
Door Hinge Slop

I have the doors off of my 81 and I'm wondering what the wear limits on the hinge pin and bushings are. I haven't measured it but I'd estimate the slop to be around 0.004 inch. Does this indicate that "re-pinning" the hinges is necessary?


Actually, now that I think about it, I guess what I'm really asking is how much slop does a freshly overhauled hinge have? I'd hate to go to all that work only to find out that new ones have slop close to what I have now!

Never mind, I'm gonna change them out. No time like the present while everything is all apart.
 
#116 ·
What is this on my hood??

I had the entire car stripped with no surprises and the last panel was the top of the hood. I immediately discovered that the first layer of hard, black primer was noticeably thicker than anywhere else on the car. Then I discovered why.



Many areas on the surface of the hood panel were peppered with hundreds of small "dimples". Several months ago during my experiments with vacuum forming ABS I overheated several sheets of the plastic and the result looked identical to what I'm seeing on the hood. Whatever it is, I'm certain it was there when it left the factory. There is no evidence anywhere on the car of any previous body work.



Has anyone ever seen this before? I guess I'll just do what GM did and lay on a little extra primer. I don't know if this is something unusual or if it is typical of GM quality back in the Roger Smith days.


The dimples are mostly concentrated in the circled areas.



The next 2 pics are zoomed in on the area in the large red circle on the left in the above pic






The next 2 pics are from the nose area of the hood.



 
#117 ·
What is this on my hood??

Just a follow up here, a reliable source (7TRoadster) identified this anomaly as most likely being excess release agent in the molds when this sheet was formed. I didn't think this would be a serious problem but it's good to get a second opinion.


Guess I'll just make a few more passes with the spray gun when I get to this area!



Meanwhile, pressing forward....
 
#121 ·
Bumper Cover Repair

Greetings to all! I have rejoined the world of the living, chemo keeps getting in the way of my hobbies. Thanks again to 7TRoadster for asking where I was!


Speaking of 7TRoadster, I have been following his excellent guide for refinishing with one exception which I shall explain. The car had original paint, and upon stripping I observed that first was the finish, then a light grey primer that was probably some kind of polyester based primer, then a hard, black primer that I believe was an epoxy based primer, and finally the bare SMC panels. The black primer was noticeably harder than the SMC.



So, the deviation is that I intend to spray the bare SMC with Southern Polyurethane black epoxy primer. I called the nice folks at SPI and they informed me that the epoxy primer was 100% compatible with SMC and it would make the perfect surface for the FeatherFill. In addition, they tell me that it also is an excellent choice for the urethane bumper covers and did not require any flex additive or adhesion promoter.



The main reason I'm doing this is that there is the possibility of unforseen interruptions due to health concerns. I want to get that naked SMC sealed up and durable in case I have another delay. Naked SMC will soak up just about anything that touches it, sometimes irreparably. So that's the deal.


Speaking of bumper covers, that brings me to the next topic in this build thread. The bumper covers are original. The rear is flawless but the front has an impact hole in the lower passenger side. The bumper covers are the yellow PUR stuff common to early 80's GM vehicles. Since there is no damage other than the hole/tear, I believe it's a good candidate for repair. I have refinished several bumper covers in my day, but this is my first foray into actual repair. I'll document it in real time as much as possible, so if I screw something up you'll get to see it first hand!


First, here's the products I'll be using. As always, READ AND HEED THE SAFETY WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS!




Here's some pics of the damage on the outside of the cover. To complicate the repair, at some point in the past someone had attempted an amateur repair using what I believe to be super glue, lacquer based spot putty, and rattle can paint. It was a mess. Anyway, in these pics I have prepped the crack lines, drilled relief holes, and smoothed out the crack surfaces so that there are no sharp edges anywhere.









Now for the inside repair on the cover. According to 3M, you want the inside to be absolutely clean and smooth. Any overspray should be removed so that the patch is applied only to clean, bare urethane. Again, no sharp edges.






To temporarily hold the cracked segments of the bumper cover in place I used foil tape on the outside of the cover. For this picture, I haven't applied the third piece of tape so that you can see the prepared cracks and relief holes.


Now we get to the part where I applied the 3M 05888 bumper patch kit. Using paper for a template, I cut out a patch that would cover the entire cracked area in one piece. That turned out to be a mistake. I'll tell you why in a minute. By the way, 3M says that if your repair area is bigger than the patch then you should probably consider replacement rather than repair.



Here's where I got into trouble. I was a little too confident that I could push the patch down into a confined area with several compound curves. My plan was to heat the patch with a heat gun to make it more flexible.


But here's the deal. The patch kit comes with a packet of adhesion promoter. It's a small sponge impregnated with the promoter. You wipe it on the bumper cover and wait 5 minutes. Then you peel the backing off of the patch material. I'm here to tell you this is the most aggressive adhesive I've ever seen. It's almost like a magnet pulling the patch toward the cover. When the patch touches the cover it instantly becomes one with the cover and the universe! You WILL NOT be able to reposition the patch AT ALL! So, I wound up missing one small area where a crack needed to be bonded. After consulting with 3M, they recommended cutting another small patch that would cover up the exposed crack. They also said the patch material can be stacked, sort of a patch on a patch. What you don't want is a crack that follows along the edge of the patch. In retrospect, careful placement of multiple patches would probably have been better, but as it is all the cracks are bonded under the patches so I think I'm good to go.



Finally, on the outside, I bonded the cracks with 3M 05887 flexible bumper repair adhesive. I used 3M 05907 adhesion promoter on the bare urethane anywhere the adhesive would go. The 05887 is a 2 part mix, and has a very fast cure time. Accordingly, I used one of the 3M mixing nozzles so that I wouldn't have to screw around mixing while the stuff cures. This is good for repair shops because it can be sanded after about 15 minutes. But the working time is only around 3 minutes, so have all your materials at hand and have a plan for what you are going to do, and don't go to sleep while working with it. Squirt enough out to thoroughly bond the cracks/damage with a little extra for smoothing with a squeegee, like Bondo. But it will not squeegee into a smooth feather edge like Bondo or Dolphin Skin. At least not for me. And when it starts to set up, STOP IMMEDIATELY! Don't try to force it around, it will only get worse. Just walk away for 20 min or so.


After it's cured, you will be surprised how it sands if you've never used it before. Even though the stuff is very flexible, and the sanding effort is almost identical to the urethane material, it will not clog your sandpaper at all. Even though I've always been a wet sanding fan, this stuff seems to work better dry. In the pics below you can see what it looks like cured but unsanded, then what it looks like with a quick few minutes from the sanding block. Still have a few low places that need more material but all in all I think it will be a success.






Next up: I plan to spray the black epoxy primer in the morning unless the humidity is wacko. I'll be using my newly built fresh, filtered air supply system that emulates a downdraft spray booth. I'm confident it's going to work quite well but if it doesn't, you will find out about it right here!!


And it's great to be back!!
 
#124 ·
Southern Polyurethane Epoxy Primer

At least it's all one color again! Everything primed with epoxy primer. Uneventful, but took about twice as long as it should have, I still run out of gas pretty easily. A couple of my best friends showed up and took up the slack, not sure I could have gotten it all done today without their help!


All came out well except for the hood. I'm not happy with it yet. A couple pages back in my thread I posted some pics that showed the odd "texture" in the SMC that was revealed after stripping. The consensus was that it was most likely caused by excessive mold release when the hood was formed. It has zillions of tiny "craters" that triggered fisheyes. And I aggravated the problem by applying the primer a little too thick. Oh well, like a friend once told me, that's why they make sandpaper!

I'm also considering using Dolphin Glaze since it's a polyester based product. I've used it before, but never on SMC or fiberglass panels. Anyone here ever used it on SMC or fiberglass?

















 
#125 ·
Pinholes in bare SMC hood

Hood prep part deaux.... I got the entire car stripped to the bare SMC a while back and wanted to get the SMC sealed to preclude contamination since my schedule is a little unpredictable. Consulted several times with the folks at Southern Polyurethane (SPI) regarding their epoxy primer. They assured me the epoxy layer is a good thing to do and is 100% compatible with SMC on the bottom side and polyester products on the top side. So, this is my deviation from the excellent refinishing guide posted by 7TRoadster. I'll let you know how it goes, good or bad.


The rest of the car came out beautifully, but I expected to have a problem with the hood due to a proliferation of tiny "dimples" on the surface, similar to a golf ball but a lot smaller. And I wasn't wrong. Anyone who has sprayed at least 1 rattlecan of paint knows that a pinhole will cause a fisheye 99% of the time. I think it's due to the surface tension of the solvents in the paint - it tries to "walk" out of the pinhole creating the fisheye appearance. The consensus on this forum is that the dimples were likely caused by excessive mold release when the hood was made.


And, no surprise, looked like a school of minnows staring up at me. So, the second deviation from the paint sticky. I've dealt with this a LOT in one of my other hobbies, big RC airplanes. The fiberglass fuselages are notorious for pinholes. I've always used Dolphin Glaze with good success. It's a polyester based product, about like very thin polyester body putty. Sanded well into the epoxy primer and have spread the stuff very thinly over the surface. Then I'll repeat as necessary, block and hit it with another coat of epoxy. If you look closely at the pic you can see the pinholes. Since the pic I have applied the Dolphin Glaze. I'll keep you posted...


 
#127 ·
enjoying following along, so thanks for posting! I don't think I have the skill or patience for bodywork, but seeing all this effort makes me appreciate it that much more!
 
#128 ·
Bumper Cover Repair (Continued)

Think I've got the urethane bumper repair (re post #121) done. The 3M 05887 bonding adhesive worked very well and has very good sanding characteristics. I used 3M 05907 adhesion promoter under all of the 05887.



Got a couple pics below but they make the surfaces look a lot rougher than they actually are. The repair passed the "wet test". For those that don't know, the wet test involves squirting some water from a hand held pump sprayer onto the area in question. The water will briefly coat the surface and looks like clear coat. By holding a light source just right you can see the reflection on the surface and easily spot high and low places. If the water tends to bead up try adding a very small amount of dishwashing soap to the water.



I think this repair will be a keeper, but you don't really know for sure until 2 or 3 years have passed.





 
#129 ·
Pinholes in bare SMC hood

Follow up to post 125 about pinholes in the smc hood. The Dolphin Glaze appears to be working perfectly. As I mentioned, the stuff is kind of like real thin Bondo. You mix it up and squeegee it over the area(s) that have the pinholes, scraping the excess off. After it cures (only takes about 15-20 minutes cure time before sanding) gently block with about 150 grit. Keep going until the glaze becomes slightly transparent, then switch to 220 or so.



When you squeeze out the Dolphin Glaze I recommend squirting out a bead 2 to 3 inches long. Then add a bit of polyester activator and stir until the hardener is uniformly distributed in the glaze. This stuff sets up rapidly so work quickly and have a plan.

Remember to squeegee it out very thin. We aren't leveling here, we are filling pinholes. And just like ordinary body putty, once it starts to set up you need to STOP! Put your squeegee down and walk away until it's cured.


Couple of pics below. If you look closely you can see where the pinholes have been sealed. Based on my experience I'd say that I will get to repeat the process several times. A little tedious but the finished process is worth it. You can't get more out of something than you put into it!









 
#130 ·
Tip for the day - Blind Rivets

Thought I'd share something with you today. You've probably noticed that the C3 has those large head aluminum blind rivets all over the place. These are the rivets that are commonly called "pop" rivets. Those that penetrate the cabin area are normally "closed" meaning the rivet end is sealed. Others are "open" and look like the blind rivets you have probably used at one time or another.

They are all aluminum, in several different lengths, and have a head much larger than common rivets. The head diameters are 3/8" and 5/8", the rivet itself is 3/16" in diameter, and the grip range varies depending on where the rivet is located on the car.



Here in the Heartland they are not commonly found in local supply houses. I don't think they are particularly rare, but I doubt you will find them at the local big box store. I finally located a source that stocks the rivets and they look to be virtually identical to the OEM rivets.



I don't know what the forum rules are regarding sharing information about parts sources, but if I get "gonged" then I guess I'll know not to do it again! However, sometimes the parts labels accidentally get into the pictures, and sometimes the labels show the source, description, and partnumber. And sometimes you love the price.


Since I completely disassembled the car, there really weren't any left to photograph. Then I remembered there were a couple of them on the rear bumper cover that appeared to not be fully seated. So I snapped a pic of a new rivet next to an original rivet to compare the appearance. They are very, very close to original. I doubt anyone other than a concourse judge would be able to tell the difference.


Couple of tips for use:


1. Clamp the pieces to be riveted together. Blind rivets are not designed to pull the pieces together. Sometimes you will get a gap (like the ones on my original bumper cover) or even worse, the mandrel can expand the rivet between the two pieces.


2. For C3 applications, be sure and use all aluminum rivets, including the stem that snaps off. In just about every case, the rivet(s) on a C3 have plastic of some sort on one or both sides. Steel rivets, or aluminum rivets with a steel stem will crush the plastic.


3. If you are drilling a new hole for the 3/16" rivet, use a #11 drill bit. The size of the hole is critical for the rivet to work properly. You did order that set of number and letter drills, right?


And here's another tidbit of information about blind rivets. The size is often expressed in what they call "Trade Size", consisting of two numbers side by side. The first number is the diameter of the rivet shank (NOT the head) in 1/32" increments while the second number is the maximum grip range expressed in 1/16" increments.


For example, if you see trade size 68 on a sack of blind rivets, the shank is 6/32, or 3/16". The maximum grip range is 8/16, or 1/2".


That's it for now, hope this information is useful for someone!








 
#131 ·
Where to sell C3 original parts

Greetings to all! I have a pretty long list of original parts that I removed from my 81 C3. I'm thinking they might be of use to someone needing original parts for 80-82 C3. It's a pretty long list and none of it is junk.


Is the Corvette Classifieds the proper place to list the items? Or is there a better way? I would prefer to make them available to members of this forum. I will sell the stuff for a VERY reasonable price to anyone on this forum. I need to clear out some space in the shop. Again, no junk.


I'll be glad to compile a list of everything I have if someone is interested.


Thanks!
 
#132 ·
Greetings to all! I have a pretty long list of original parts that I removed from my 81 C3. I'm thinking they might be of use to someone needing original parts for 80-82 C3. It's a pretty long list and none of it is junk.


Is the Corvette Classifieds the proper place to list the items? Or is there a better way? I would prefer to make them available to members of this forum. I will sell the stuff for a VERY reasonable price to anyone on this forum. I need to clear out some space in the shop. Again, no junk.


I'll be glad to compile a list of everything I have if someone is interested.


Thanks!
Classifieds is technically the right place for this. However, there's not much traffic through there, so I'd recommend a thread here in the C3 section to alert people to the fact that you posted a list. Not sure if that's technically "by the book" but it's the best way for a DC member to take advantage of quality used parts for sale!
 
#134 ·
Refinishing Bumper Covers

Finally got the front and back bumper covers prepped for epoxy primer then base color/clear. I have to start another chemo session a week from today (29 July) so I have 6 days. Had a conversation with myself and I am going to get the C3 paint phase DONE! When I got home today I finished prepping the bumper covers and got them sprayed with epoxy primer following the recommendations from Southern Polyurethane.


The torn area on the front cover was a mess. It looked like someone had attempted a repair with super glue, spot putty and some rattlecan paint that didn't match very well. It would have far easier if the previous owner had not attempted the repair!



Here's a few pics...














 
#135 ·
Feather Fill Primer

Had a good day today. With the help of a couple of dedicated friends we got all the black epoxy primer prepped for the Feather Fill primer. Went so well I decided to spray all the parts except the main body. It's on schedule for tomorrow I believe.


The SPI Epoxy actually sands very well although it is not a high solids primer, hence the use of Feather Fill by Evercoat which is most definitely a high solids primer. I've never used it before but wanted a polyester based primer since it's going over SMC panels (thanks 7TRoadster!).



Feather Fill is essentially a very thin Bondo type stuff. It is activated with the clear (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide I believe) stuff from a plastic tube. Everything about it is just like polyester filler but much thinner.



Learned a couple of things:


1. You will need a big tip on the gun. The largest one I have is a 1.8, and I'd consider that a minimum. You will have a hard time getting anything out of a smaller tip. This might be a good job for one of those cheapo Harbor Freight guns, just be sure you can get a LARGE tip on it.



2. The instructions say to not leave any material in the gun for more than 45 minutes. In the mid 80's to low 90's temperature range, it's more like 20 minutes. This stuff is difficult to clean out of a spray gun. I use the DeVilbiss DeKups system, so cleanup is minimized, but just running gun cleaner or lacquer thinner through the gun WILL NOT remove all of the Feather Fill. The gun cleaner barely touched it so I broke out my stash of DuPont 3661 lacquer thinner which is some pretty hot stuff. It did better, but still wasn't totally effective in removing the stuff. So, if you spray this stuff, plan on getting it on the car and out of the gun quickly. I recommend removing the tip, needle, and anything else that was in contact with the Feather Fill. The primer was not completely set up, but has to be mechanically removed with gun brushes, compressed air, and solvent. Failure to thoroughly clean the gun will ruin it for sure.




















BTW, the Dolphin Glaze and SPI epoxy seems to have completely cured the fisheye problem I had before on the hood. Only time will tell if everything stays in place. The odd color in the pic is because of lighting and sun shining in through some windows. It is actually light grey, just like the other things in the pic.
 
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