1964 Corvette Coupe

[andrewb70]

With TBI there is no need to use a dual synch. I would use a TerminatorX Stealth with a Sniper distributor and HyperSpark box.

[FLYNAVY53]

Yea, the plan is to use the full Holley set up with their distributor

[andrewb70]

Yea, the plan is to use the full Holley set up with their distributor

Let me know if I can help with tuning.

Andrew

[FLYNAVY53]

Definitely!

[andrewb70]

Definitely!

Shoot me an email if you want to discuss options.

Projectgattago at gmail dot com

[SPLATT71MC]

Great looking Vette. Just needs some white gumballs and some numbers on it.

[FLYNAVY53]

Thanks....its has crossed my mind. I keep going back and forth about pulling the bumpers as well to complete the look.

[FLYNAVY53]

I thrashed on the car for the last few weeks to get all the final details ready for a cross country drive to Austin including a new fuel pump, new high torque starter and getting the timing dialed in on the MSD ignition. We will be moving permanently at the beginning of June, but with multiple vehicles that I dont trust to the care of Navy movers, I decided the best course of action was to burn some leave and enjoy a cross country road trip. A good buddy of mine from college flew in to assist with the driving/breakdowns/hijinx. We took all B roads, and did it over the course of 6 days in an effort to provide ample time for break downs, breweries (and the end of the day) and side adventures. The tentative schedule was:

27 MAR - Norfolk VA to Danville VA
28 MAR - Danville VA to Asheville NC
29 MAR Asheville NC to Chattanooga TN
30 MAR Chattanooga TN to Oxford MS
31 MAR Oxford MS to Lake Charles LA
01 APR Lake Charles LA to Austin TX

We made it on time and casualties were limited to:

-1 brake line
- speedometer
- tachometer
- odometer
- battery
- driver door lock

In general, I couldn't be happier with the car. It cruises great at 75 mph, even with the 4 spd and 3.73 gears. The exhaust selection is perfect as it rips at WOT but is barely audible at cruise. There is a bit of gear wine from the built differential, but that was expected. I'm also super happy with all of the ergonomic changes I made....I was still anticipating to feel beat up after a few hours but even after 6-7 hours straight, I didn't feel any worse than I would in any modern car.

Areas that definitely still need addressing include the steering....the manual rack and pinion with the sticky tires and smaller steering wheel is too tough to enjoy around town. I may look into adding electric assist, or going back to a power box....we'll see.

Additionally, the pedal assembly NEEDS to be addressed. The brake pedal is much too high for proper heel-toe downshifts, and the power pedal ratio with a manual brake application requires far too much effort.

That being said, I'm very happy with the car and look forward to the next round of modifications. Enjoy the cross country photo dump!

































And finally at home in the new shop....very excited to be out of a one car garage for the first time in my life!!!

[C Presley]

Nice Ride Dude! Pic in front of a SR71 too! Both are Classics.

[Motown 454]

Glad you had a good trip with few problems. It must have been a fun ride. I agree great picture with the SR71. Nice shop.

[andrewb70]

What am awesome roadtrip!

Andrew

[FLYNAVY53]

Nice Ride Dude! Pic in front of a SR71 too! Both are Classics.

Fun fact, its actually one of the 13 A-12's built for the CIA.....the predecessor to the SR-71. The big giveaway is the lack of a rear cockpit among other small details.

[FLYNAVY53]

Finally time to resurrect this thread....lots of life stuff since the last update but I'm finally back to working on the car after the move to Austin. It took a while, but I finally got my "shop" set up the way I wanted it.









First project was to remove the 1.0" master cylinder I had been running for the Wilwood 15/16" master cylinder and the pushrod specifically spec'd for the C2 Corvette. The pedal ratio still isnt correct in these cars for a manual brake application, but the change was definitely a step in the right direction, and the best its going to be without changing the pedal ratio completely....something Ill eventually get to down the road.



Next up, as much as I hated to do it, I decided the car needed power steering. I very much want to keep this car as analog as possible, but with the smaller steering wheel, and sticky tires, the change was a must. I decided to go a little different route and instead of buying the usual gen 1 pump with the "canned ham" reservoir, I found a bracket that Detroit Speed sells enabling the use of the GM Type II pump off the LS motor. I like this set up because it allows the use of a flow regulator to limit output all the way down to 2-2.5 GPM as I still wanted to have some effort required in the steering. I'm using the Borgeson steering box, along with a remote Detroit Speed reservoir I mounted to the core support. I fabricated all the lines myself using Fragola PTFE hose and fittings. The benefit to the remote reservoir is that the increased volume "should" negate the need for a power steering cooler...we'll see.









I only have about 100 miles on the set up, but so far, I'm VERY happy with it.

The next project was to replace the factory rear, transverse leaf spring suspension with Ride Tech's suspension kit and Viking Coil-Overs to match what I'm running in the front. I spec'd the springs to match the spring rate of the factory transverse spring, as the car rides and handles great. The point of this change was to make ride height adjustable, and to lose some weight. All in, I lost 41 lbs by ditching the factory set up.









Thats where the car sits at the moment. I still need to adjust the ride height, then get it on the ground and go through the painful process of aligning the rear trailing arms...1/32 toe-in on each side with a half degree of negative camber.

I do have a few more projects on deck...

[brickwhite]

Sweet,love this build.

Did you have to change the front arms to use the viking coilovers?

[FLYNAVY53]

Yes, if you go back to post #63, you can see I used the Global West upper and lower control arms. The lowers are specifically designed for use with coil overs. The upper portion of the coil over sits in the factory frame spring pocket and mounts to the factory shock location. That technically makes it a "semi-coil over" I suppose...but functionally, its the same.

[brickwhite]

Any updates? did you get the Trans in yet?

I'm going to go with the 15x6 AM VN105 TORQ THRUST D on my 64.

But still wavering on a Tire... The Avon looks great and seems sticky but I wonder with lack of more treads how would it be in the rain?

The Pirelli Stelvio or the Michelin XWX (same price as the avon or more) seem like a good choice also.. doing more research.

[FLYNAVY53]

Just finished the alignment this afternoon...the rear trailing arms are tedious because I have to re-square the string set up after every adjustment. I havent started on the transmission yet...

I went down a rabbit hole of getting some more supportive seats in the car, which led to teaching myself how to use Fusion 360 so that I could design some proper seat mounts....



Now I'm waiting for the parts to come back from Send-Cut-Send so that I can weld them up and test fit the seats. Once thats done, I want to put a few miles on the car to get the ride height and shock settings dialed in and verify my alignment before I put the car back in the garage for the transmission swap.

As far as tires go, I cant comment on the other options, but I found the Avons to be perfectly stable in the rain. I wasn't running any canyons or doing anything aggressive on them in wet conditions, but we got rained on multiple times while driving cross country and they handled predictably at speed. In spirited driving in dry conditions, I think you'll be very happy with them!

[1968driver]

awesome writeup man. beautiful ride.

[FLYNAVY53]

Thanks!....it's been a long process but it's getting there finally. If anyone has some used race scales they're looking to sell, I'm in the market. I need to corner balance this thing and do some math to figure out if I've got the correct spring rates in this thing.

[ryeguy2006a]

Looks great, and love that garage! How did you do that floor? Looks really cool. Also just noticed you are in Norfolk. I'm just north of Charlottesville.