1964 Corvette Coupe

[FLYNAVY53]

I've been a long time lurker, I figured it was finally time to post my project...

I purchased this car back in April of 2017. I was very specifically looking for a 1964 Daytona Blue coupe with the solid lifter 365 horse motor and a 4 speed. The only additional options this car was ordered with is the two tone blue/white interior, off road exhaust, 3.70 rear end, and for an additional $10.80......reverse lights.

As I had/have no interest in conducting a full on restoration, I looked for an older restoration that still showed well. This one was completed between 1979 and 1982. It then sat in various collections, accumulating just 329 total miles, so for my purposes, it fit the bill perfectly. The intent is to build a fun street car with relatively minor modifications and just a bit of late '60s European sports car flair. The plan at the moment is to complete the work in three stages. As I type this, Im about 90% complete with the first stage of modifications....progress currently being put on hold by a Middle East deployment.

Stage-1 suspension and brakes:
-Global West front control arms
-Global West offset trailing arms
-RideTech shocks with factory springs
-13/16 front sway bar from 1973 Corvette
-1969 Corvette rear camber rod bracket
-Global West adjustable rear camber rods
-1965-67 Corvette spindles/hubs/bearings/discs
-Wilwood D8 brake calipers
-Speed Direct manual rack and pinion steering
-Baer 15/16" master cylinder for manual disc brakes
-all new NiCop brake lines
-all new stainless steel -3AN brake fittings
-Hurst shifter
-15x7 wheels (TBD) with Avon CR6ZZ 225/60/15 tires



Stage-2 electrical and subsystems:
-new nose to tail wiring harness with pinned bulk head connectors
-modern alternator
-DSE headlight motors
-DES wiper motor
-DeWitt aluminum radiator with electric fan
-Rebuilt factory gauge cluster
-Rebuilt factory radio with bluetooth connectivity and modern single dash speaker
-LED lights throughout including headlights/tail lights/blinkers
-power radio antenna

Stage-3 - engine
-Holley Sniper EFI with distributor and ignition module
-Holley EFI tank and pump
-New fuel line
-aluminum intake manifold
-Kooks stainless headers
-stainless exhaust system

Of note, I'm retaining the factory 327, Muncie 4spd, and everything is 100% bolt on, and could be reversed, should I ever decide to do so (not likely).

[FLYNAVY53]

The first order of business was a quick tune up, and removing those horrible factory hub caps until I get a proper set of wheels after the disc brake swap.

I went with Accel 9000 wires with the ceramic boots and shielded cable. This allowed me to remove the tacky chrome trim that covers the factory wires and distributors in these cars. Not only is it ugly but its razor sharp, which makes checking the plugs down right dangerous. Speaking of, the stockers didn't look bad, but I replaced them with NGK XR4s.




Next up was to address the oil leak from the old, factory style cork valve cover gaskets. I went with Fuel-Pro pieces....pricey, but they don't leak! While I was in there, I checked the valve lash on the solid lifter motor, and sure enough, I got lash setting anywhere from .028 to .034. I decided to go through, reset the lash, and then verified it a second time before buttoning everything up.


I took her out for a little rip afterwards and WOW what a difference!!! I don't know if it was the plugs, wires, valve lash (most likely) or the combo of the three, but it runs like a whole different animal. The idle is smoother, and about 200 RPM lower, right at 1000, and the throttle response once its warm is instantaneous. Very happy with the motor....looking forward to eventually getting it running on fuel injection and uncorking it just a bit!

[jimco84x]

Just found your build thread. I love the period road racer type look you are going with.

I'll tell you honestly though, There is something totally bad-ass about the simple, understated look with the black steelies.

[FLYNAVY53]

Just found your build thread. I love the period road racer type look you are going with.

I'll tell you honestly though, There is something totally bad-ass about the simple, understated look with the black steelies.

Agreed....I may get a set of black 17 inch steelies with some more modern rubber at some point....just to alternate the look a bit.

I really wish a set of vintage, made in the USA TT2s weren't $4500+ as thats what Id really like to have on the car.

[jimco84x]

I really wish a set of vintage, made in the USA TT2s weren't $4500+ as thats what Id really like to have on the car.

That is a bunch of money for old 15 inch wheels. We both know that the right wheels can make or break the entire build, but I don't know if I could do $4500 for a set of wheels that wasn't pure track car. New repro TT2's are out there, but it just isn't the same. Not many wheels made in the USA at all anymore.

[Steve68]

I like it!

Used to drive a 64 Roadster in the 80's was my dads friends, always put a smile on my face!!

[FLYNAVY53]

Thanks....looking forward to getting this completed. I've been building this car in my head since about 2012 when I sold my 2003 Z06. Here are some pics of the inspiration for the look and stance, minus the side pipes.

[FLYNAVY53]

Rear suspension completely stripped. As you can see, the frame is in excellent condition. This pocket where the trailing arm mounts is a typical place to find corrosion and rust. Fortunately, this car is extremely clean.



Even with the low milage, clean car, you can see all the dirt that had accumulated in the trailing arm pockets. There is a drain hole in there, but it easily gets clogged if the car is driven frequently. I cleaned out the pocket, opened up the drain hole a bit, and touched up any surface rust or bare metal with frame paint. On these cars, cleaning that drain hole is just one of those things you add to the "routine maintenance" list.



The only permanent modification I'll be making to this car is cutting the factory bump stop mounting off the frame. When converting from drum brakes to disc brakes in the rear, this needs to be done in order to move the bump stop inboard, otherwise the factory drum brake bump stop would contact the new calipers instead of the trailing arm and potentially brake the caliper. A factory 1965-1967 bump stop simply threads into the hole remaining on the inboard portion of the original bump stop bracket.

[Jetfixr320]

Nice ride! Looks much better without the hubcaps.

[FLYNAVY53]

Mocking up the new Global West offset rear trailing arms. The advantage of these is the inboard offset allows you to run a slightly wider tire. Additionally, they move the e-brake cable inboard, to prevent the mounting bracket from rubbing on a wider than factory tire. They're also significantly beefier than the factory pieces. The last advantage of the Global West arms are the Teflon lined spherical bearing that allows the swing arm to move through the suspension arch without bind. The result makes it easier to tune the suspension because the spring rate is not being affected due to bind.

The last two pictures show the shim mock up. 1963-1964 shims had holes in the forward portion of the shim. This made it very time consuming to adjust and change out shims as the pivot bolt would have to be removed and rethreaded through the whole stack with each change during alignment. In the pictures, I've changed to the 1965 and later, slotted stainless steel shims and hardware. These are slotted in the front, so that you can slide them in and out of the pockets without completely removing the mounting bolt. They have a smaller hole in the rear which aligns with the small hole I drilled through the frame pocket. This allows the use of a 2" long stainless cotter pin to retain the shims. Once the suspension is aligned, and the trailing arm retaining bolt is properly torqued, tension SHOULD retain the shims in the pocket. The cotter pin is really just added security that they don't back out over time. This is the factory configuration on the 1965 and later disc brake cars.

[FLYNAVY53]

This is the build up of the new trailing arms. I specifically ordered the new hubs from Van Steel Corvette already pressed together as a unit that includes the mounting bracket for the rear brake calipers and the shock/camber road assembly. In the last photo, you can see the final assembly with the hubs installed along with the brake dust shield and the integrated drum brake style parking brake assembly. For the period look, I'm using PS Engineering "Trans Am style" long lug nuts. You can also better see the teflon lined spherical bearing in the front of the Global West trailing arms in this picture.









- - - Updated - - -

Side note, does anyone know how to rotate pictures before you post them? I can't figure it out as they all appear upright before I upload.

Thanks
Greg

[lobudget]

I don't know it it's true or not but I've been told that the '69 and later front spindle can be used for the brake swap. It gives a larger wheel bearing.

[FLYNAVY53]

You are correct. I didn't bother due to the fact that I'm only using a 15x7 inch wheel and tire package. Had I been going full "Pro Touring" with wide, sticky tires, I definitely would have gone with the stouter '69 and later spindle and bearing.

[FLYNAVY53]

Rear suspension being put back together. Trailing arms are back in, Ride Tech single adjustable shocks installed with the Global West adjustable camber rods. I retained the factory springs (front and rear) on purpose. In talking with a number of guys that race these cars in various vintage racing series, you can set them up to handle quite well, over 1 G on the skid pad, with minimal modifications. By keeping the relatively soft factory front (280 lbs) and rear (140 lbs) springs, you can increase the front sway bar size to 13/16. With the adjustable shocks, and sticky Avon tires, this should yield a set up that exhibits mild, predictable understeer at the limits. Ill be able to adjust the understeer/oversteer balance via font bar changes. Fortunately, front bars are readily available for these cars in 1/16 increments. Additionally, I swapped the bracket the attaches the camber rods to the bottom of the differential from the '63-'67 Corvette piece to the '69 and later bracket. This moved the inboard mounting position for the rod down approximately 1 inch which effectively reduces the amount of camber gain in a hard corner. I posted a good video explaining below.

[OLDFLM]

OMG! I love C2s and this is going to be an amazing car with the changes you're making! Subscribed!

[FLYNAVY53]

OMG! I love C2s and this is going to be an amazing car with the changes you're making! Subscribed!

Thanks....this is kind of my dream car build but its intentionally not a full blown "Pro Touring" build. Its more a modernization of the original design/hardware.

[OLDFLM]

Exactly how I would do a C2! Restomod with improvements to make it more fun to drive... stuff that can easily be undone if you should ever sell it. I'd love to drive a C2 on weekends and to work on a sunny Friday!

Looks like you picked an incredibly clean car to start with too! Keep the updates coming!

[FLYNAVY53]

On to the front suspension...what should have been the easier part of the build actually turned into a massive PITA....

Factory front suspension completely stripped:



Shiny new stuff:



Getting the 15" tall spring back into the frame pockets with everything bolted up turned out to be a major undertaking....far harder than any other car I've worked on as a standard spring compressor, won't work (external or internal). What I ended up doing was taking a scrap piece of 3/16 steel plate, drilled a 5/8 hole in the center for a 5/8 all thread rod. Also drilled two 5/16 holes to mount the plate to the bottom of the Global West lower control arm using the holes and hardware for the shocks. I ran the 5/8 rod through the top of the shock mounting hole, all the way down through the spring and the center of the lower control arm. I put two 5/8, grade 8 nuts on the bottom of the rod under the plate. Up top, I used a captive trunion bearing with a 5/8 inside diameter, and a 5/8 grade 8 nut on top of the bering. After I got everything lined up, I slowly started torquing the nut up top to compress the whole assembly. After much grunting and groaning, I finally had the whole thing compressed enough that i could get the spindle mounted top and bottom. I then continued to compress the assembly by turning the nut up top, to the point where the lower control arms lined up with the mounting holes in the frame. It took a fair amount of "finesse" to get everything lined up, and the hardware installed, but in the end, it was all installed safely.















Finished up with new Timpken bearings in the new hubs from Van Steel Corvette.





Hubs installed, dust shield and caliper mounting bracket bolted up along with factory discs....nothing fancy here as they need to fit inside a 15" wheel, and for a street car, these work exceptionally well. The 1965 and later Corvette brake system was well ahead of its time (more on that later).

[HotWheelz]

Very Cool Project! I like it!

Best Wishes on your build!

[FLYNAVY53]

Thanks very much.....shes getting there slowly...