1964 Corvette Coupe

[FLYNAVY53]

Thanks....funny you mention the garage floors... They were stained concrete when the home was originally built in 2007, but over the years, the stain has been pulled up due to hot tires being parked on it. It also has plenty of scratches, tape marks, etc. Some day, I'd love to redo the floors in porcelain tile that looks like hardwood but that would be a pricey undertaking.

For better or worse, I currently live in Austin TX. I was stationed in Norfolk for 10 yeas, and made many trips to Richmond and Charlottesville on the weekends, but we left in 2021. I do miss thinks like green grass, rain, and you know.....seasons!

[brickwhite]

got my Avon's , well one... waiting on the others... We'll see if I can get all 4.

Do you remember the size of the GoodYear letters you put on your tires? 1 inch? Did yo have to shave the hairs off the side walls?


Found out Avon is closing their factory in UK and sold the name / tire to another company so Nova is the new name of the company and will not start production till Spring of 24... :(. This is what Roger told me from Roger Kraus racing.



Also, when you upgraded your front springs to Viking, you used a 350lb spring are you glad you did? Or would a 250 be closer to stock?

Their website is terrible.

[FLYNAVY53]

Yes, the white Good Year letters I used are 1 inch tall. I mocked them up before applying the adhesive and just used a nail clipper to trim any tire nubs that interfered.

Thats unfortunate to hear about Avon....it seems like every time a small market company gets bought out, the niche products are the first thing cut from the production line. I had a set of wheels on order with Vintage Wheel Works when they were acquired by Coker. Got my money back, but really wanted the wheels.

As far as spring rate, I found the 350 pound springs in the front were just right at a 1 inch lowered ride height. I think 250 would be too light and 450 way too stiff unless you have a big block motor.

[FLYNAVY53]

Borrowed a gantry from a buddy of mine that just barely fits in my garage with the wheels off...hold my beer.....

[FLYNAVY53]

Got the motor and trans out, started disassembly and cleaning of the parts that will be going back on. All black parts are getting painted with "Steel-It" while the motor and anything else orange will be painted using Eastwoods 2K AeroSpray engine paint. More to come once my engine stand gets delivered.

[FLYNAVY53]

Here's the Steel-It paint I use for anything flat black. It's by far the best product I've found if a can with regard to durability and how it lays out.





I also spent some time cleaning up the factory aluminum intake. This will likely go back on the car despite the fact that I have a '69 Z/28 service replacement intake in my parts collection. The Z/28 intake is a slightly better design than the factory L76 intake but it also sits roughly 1/2" taller, which can lead to hood clearance issues under the factory small block Corvette hood. I have seen guys machine a bit of material off the Z/28 carb mounting pad to get it to fit, but at my current power levels, it's probably not worth the effort.

[ryeguy2006a]

I'll have to check out that Steel It product! Looks great.

[FLYNAVY53]

I'll have to check out that Steel It product! Looks great.

I've had good luck too, if you prefer a more satin or gloss finish, painting the part in steel-it, then doing a top coat in VHT's Chassis/Roll Bar paint.

And for what it's worth, I painted my mailbox in the Steel It two years ago....it's faded slightly in the laser beam that is the Texas sun, but overall I'm pretty happy with how its weathered.

[FLYNAVY53]

Everyone loves a good bit of "project creep", so here we go.... Ive got a new set of Tillett Racing seats to put in the car, and we'll get to those later. But in order to make sure I had the measurements for the mounts properly taken and the design finalized, I pulled up the carpet to get to the floor board. That led to the decision to pull up all the jute insulation to replace with something more effective and less musty smelling. I'm open to suggestions....leaning towards DynaLiner. I'm not concerned about noise or rattles as it's a fiberglass car, just thermal protection as the floors got pretty hot in the Texas summer with just the old jute insulation.

While I was at it, I decided to remove the inoperable heater box and core. At some point down the road, I may decide to install Vintage Air, but for now, I pulled the whole assembly and will install the firewall block off plate from Dynamic Corvette.

[FLYNAVY53]

The last step before things start going back into the car was to get the motor on the stand, and push the car into the driveway to give it a quick rinse and a wash/degrease of the engine bay.

[c3rocket]

I like your vette keep the pics coming and you will really like the borgeson box and vintage air if you do it .

[FLYNAVY53]

I like your vette keep the pics coming and you will really like the borgeson box and vintage air if you do it .

That sir, is one angry looking C2....love it!

[Jimbo1367]

Man that’s a beautiful car!!!

[FLYNAVY53]

Been doing a lot of work on the car, but nothing particularly exciting or photogenic. Lots of cleaning and painting parts. I did a test run on some of the accessory pieces using the Eastwood 2K aerosol paints. They dont lie, it's as close to a spray gun as you're going to get out of a can. That being said, it is expensive, and the coverage is VERY thin. It took 6 coats for a total of 2 cans just to do the oil pan, bell housing, and a few other pieces. The finish is very nice so I ordered another 4 to do the engine with.





Speaking of the engine...when I dropped the oil pan, I noticed that at some point in its prior life, a beaver had made its way into the motor, and chewed up some of the baffling in the pan...



There was also dozens of small dings in the bottom of the pan. My assumption that a rod let go at some point in the past was confirmed when I flipped the engine over and looked at the rotating assembly. It's not as apparent in the photo, but the number 1 rod is actually a lighter gray than the other 7.



On closer inspection, I confirmed one of my big fears which is that when this motor was rebuilt during the restoration in '79-'82, the engine builder reused the factory rods (or at least 7 of them). The early 327 rods were prone to developing cracks where the rod bolt head seats. Starting in 1966, the rods had material added to them in that area to prevent the issue. From what I've been told, it's a matter of when, not if one or more will fail.

So for now, the plan is to put it all back together and drive it, but maybe dial back to frequency of the 7000 RPM blasts. Ive been kicking around some ideas for a replacement in the future, with my current line of thinking being Dart SHP bored 30 over, Lunati XL Extreme Lightweight rotating assembly, AFR 210s, and a solid lifter comp cam. That should give me a snotty little 357 at about 10.5:1 compression that has the same characteristics as the factory L76 but with more power and torque across the board. Then I can pull the factory motor back out, clean it up, and turn it into a coffee table or something.

While I had everything pulled apart, I went ahead and replaced the cam bolts with ARP bolts and red Loc-tite just for piece of mind. I also installed an aluminum timing cover to replace the factory piece....it's a little bit beefier so hopefully it will seal better. Additionally, it gets rid of the tac welded timing pointer as I'm dropping from the 8 inch factory balancer down to a 7 inch ATI balancer and a bolt on pointer.



The factory oil pan went back on with a 1 piece Fel-Pro gasket, ARP studs, and one of those oil pan girdles to help evenly distribute the torque and hopefully seal up better than before.



I completed an initial cleaning with purple power and taped everything up. Once the paint arrives, I'll do a final wipe down with brake cleaner and hopefully have it at least in primer by the weekend.

[Vjjack03]

FlyNavy53,
Johnny J. here from Hereford AZ. I posted a few responses and such over the years on Corvette Forum. Man you post a good, detailed thread. I, of course, am in a different direction with SRIII chassis and LS but still have the same hot rod thought process so its good to see what you are doing. I don't have any points or comments except one, and I am sure you have thought some about it. As you know, if you intend to put in a vintage air unit, going ahead now will make it that much easier. The unit has so much behind the front box that is is a "bear" to deal with. I also put a piece of fiberglass over the original firewall hole. I glued it in and then smoothed if with filler. I was just thinking about it as I typed. If you could put that Dynamic Corvettes filler panel in with small button head screws to make it an access panel, not a permanently glued in piece, it the long run it would help with access when you do put in Vintage Air. The vintage air hose connections are right there and if they leak you have to pull the box. Anyway, just a thought.

[FLYNAVY53]

Hey Johnny! Love the LS and SRIII combo, it's just beyond the scope of this project, both in cost and performance. I do love the LS platform and in looking for a replacement motor for this car, I had considered it but in doing the math, building what is essentially a circle track small block with super light weight rotating assembly will cost the same as a base LS3 with heads and cam. If that were the only costs associated, I might still go LS, but then theres the additional expense in motor mounts, ECU, fuel system, headers, radiator, accessory drive, converting to a hydraulic clutch, etc. It would rapidly exceed double the cost of the motor to complete the swap....at least if I did it to the level I would want to.

So for now, the plan is to build a replacement small block that will be a simple swap when the time comes. As for the vintage air, I hear what you're saying and completely agree with you. That being said, I really dont want to put a/c on this car. I'm trying to keep it as mechanically simple and bare bones as possible. I'm hoping that Dyna-Liner on the interior and DEI heat shield in the trans tunnel will help keep excess heat out of the cabin. My plan with the Dynamic Corvettes heater block off panel is to use nut certs in the factory firewall holes and stainless button head bolts as you described. When I rewire the car, that will not only provide an access panel, but also a place to drill a hole for a single aviation style bulkhead connector for the harness to pass into the engine bay without drilling any holes in the factory firewall.

More to come!

[FLYNAVY53]

Pain finally showed up....this is what $280 in rattle cans looks like. A little pricey, but if you dont have a compressor and gun, probably your best option.



I randomly mocked up the water pump and realized that it no longer fit with the cast aluminum timing cover...the interference point is the bolts on the back of the pump, so I'm going to replace them with 1/4-20 stainless button head bolts without washers and that should solve the interference issue. Just another one of those issues when you're mixing aftermarket aluminum water pump with aftermarket aluminum timing chain cover.



After some intense yet disorganized Hot Wheels with my 3 year old, I moved on to prepping to spray the motor with primer....doh!





Through much back strain, I got the motor outside and primed. Very happy with the way this stuff layed down. Two good coats, just under one full can. I moved it back into the climate controlled garage over night since its 1 million% humid here tonight and hopefully I can spray the orange paint tomorrow.

[Dodge383fi]

Progress looks great.
You have the same crane I do. Have you thought about something like:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

& something like:

https://www.harborfreight.com/1300-l...rol-62853.html

I have them and it makes life easier, especially with my bad back.

[Vjjack03]

FlyNavy, I like your plan on the car, you seem to be keeping a "race-e" theme but addressing the little things across the spectrum. Solid lifter SBC will be awesome.....and wow, spray can paint is getting out of control. I recently bought some SEM Trim black and its over $20 a can. Hard to believe. Anyway, your engine paint job is pretty cool. It all should be fun when back together. I know you drive that thing, hard.

[FLYNAVY53]

Progress looks great.
You have the same crane I do. Have you thought about something like:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

& something like:

https://www.harborfreight.com/1300-l...rol-62853.html

I have them and it makes life easier, especially with my bad back.

That gantry crane I'm using is actually borrowed from a buddy of mine. At some point, I'm going to open up the ceiling in the shop and see if I can run a steel I beam between the two sets of pillars supporting the middle and rear of the house and then run another I beam between those to have something of a permanent overhead crane that can move forward and aft in the back half of the garage.