Colorado C2 project

[brickwhite]

How many posts do I need before I can post external photos?

Looks like I needed one original post!

Anyway... here is my 1964 C2 Corvette I'm working on.



Picked her up in June after I sold my 1960 Austin Healey 3000


I sold the Healey...to buy the C2. Fun but British, and leaky and issues ridden, and British




The C2 Runs and drives



Not numbers matching, not original color. Does have disk brakes, 327 small block (300hp maybe), and Muncie wide ratio 4 speed.. which all have their issues.

Towed her home in June from MN to Colorado with the old trusty LX 100 series.

[FLYNAVY53]

I didnt know there was a minimum to be honest....excited to see the car though!!

[TGWINER]

Hell yeah! C2 projects coming out of the woodwork lately. Looking forward to following along.

[FLYNAVY53]

Sharp looking car! You and I have similar taste....my summer dad-mobile is a '97 LX450. I realized I needed something with a third row and modern air conditioning. The '72 Suburban is awesome, but the vintage a/c just cant keep up with that much volume in the Texas heat.

[brickwhite]

S.

Funny... had a 95 (back in 2017 in Missouri) 80 series LC (with Rear lockers...ooohh never used them) then bought the 06... looking to buy a 200 series soon.. My 15 yr/old Daughter will probably get the lx470 even though it gets 13mpg. (she'll hate it)


That 4.5L straight Six is a beast!

[FLYNAVY53]

yup, here are my good weather/bad weather daily drivers...

[Vjjack03]

BrickWhite,
You're still on the Corvette Forum too, right? I am very interested to see what "Pro Touring" plans you have for that '64 Coupe. Nice looking car. I like Austin Healys as I do like other sports and hot rodded car, but the C2 is just the quintessential American sports car; just a great form of design. So if you have time, list your plans for the car. Not as many folks over here, but also nobody worrying about proper engine stamps, whether or not coil overs are better than stock, if Pertronix will leave you stranded, or if trim tag is too shiny. (I know that all has its place, but woah, sometimes). Anyway, glad to see your car and what you might do to and with it.

[brickwhite]

I am on the Corvette forum but not a fan of it. Too many concerns with the matching numbers and the correct folding chair for the car show.

Not enough technical knowledge transfer for me or how-to.

In that forum, I love when people post on old post saying this is too old to post on???? Just because a post oil leaks is 10 years old why is it now not valid? It's still a 327 with a leaking rear main???


As for my C2 I feel I'm copying what FLYNAVY53 has done. Not sure I have quite the budget... but I like what he has done.

Plans:

- Base line the car to get it running best a possible
- Fluids replace all
- Carb (carter 4bbl) rebuild re-jet for CO 5200ft above sea level
- replace master cylinder or brakes to make it brake correctly
- Fix stiff ride
- replace Red line bfg tires / starburst wheels with something that handles better
- Alignment
- Too quite mufflers
- oil leaks
- Fix speedo (trans speedo gear not engaging)
- fuse box replace/fix
- 3.08 LSD diff whine/groan - replace rebuild (3.36/3.73)
- Trans 2nd gear syncro going... (maybe TKX)


Future Plans:
- Engine replacement (LS - 383 - rebuild cam head) not sure yet
- maybe new frame
- suspension (tubular arms,coil overs, front rear) car already has new QA1 single adjustable shocks front and rear.
- Make it a little faster and handle better...
- interior, needs carpet and new seat covers or different seats...






with my other problem child

[Vjjack03]

I look forward to seeing the progress. Nice Impala. Takes up more real estate than the Corvette.

[FLYNAVY53]

Love the Impala. For what its worth, if you end up pulling the body off the frame, but down want to go the very nice, but very spendy aftermarket frame route, the Chevy Power Manual from back in the day has a whole chapter on adding reinforcements and additional beads of weld to the factory frame that from what I've been told, does a pretty good job of stiffening the factory frame. Its still certainly not a modern frame with C6/7 suspension but definitely a good budget conscious option if you're taking the car that far apart.

[Jimbo1367]

Nice plans. Sweet ride.

[brickwhite]

The C2 was purchased with Newer replica 67 aluminum starburst wheels and redline BFG coker tires (2020 dates) which are not great, expensive but not great.

The side walls were cracking already I cannot believe for nearly $2k tires they are such crap.






I wish they would make an aluminum wheel that looked like the caps on an original 64 that would be cool that didn't cost $2000 each.



I wanted to keep the 15" retro theme going on my c2... not moving to 17" yet... I know I'd be limited to tires but the 17" are just too much on this old car in my opinion...

So 15x6 American Racing VN105 TORQ THRUST D is my option to fit in a wheel wells and clear the calipers... almost. .. and pay homage to 60's racing corvettes.

Wheel specs...
size: 15X6
Bolt pattern: 5X120.65
Backspace: 3.66
Offset: 4mm
Bore:83.06
Weight:13.15 lbs
Lip size:1.69






On to tires options...

The the 15x6 fit the fenders on a 64 but calipers see below...

Stealing research done by FLYNAVY53 in another forum I went with a 215/70R15 size tire that fits in the wheel wheel and gives you the balloon look of race cars and performance of a W rated tire. Yeah they are expensive for a 15" tire and are only 80 tread wear but they will probably date out before they wear out.

Here are some options I found on the size and tire rating I was looking for. Yeah $500 a tire Ouch...


I ended up going with the Avon CR6ZZ which I found state side discounted price.

Good by Starburst hello AM Torq thrust D...
I'm sure I'll make a boomer out there cry getting rid of Redlines... but I sold them for decent money and they went to a good home...











So... Sticky... compared to the BFG mini-van tires



One thing with the Torq thrust D and stock rear C2/C3 65 rear brake calipers... They don't fit... without a little altering of the bleed nipple.




I have another solution to that issue....

different calipers



till next time...



I'll get into brakes and suspension further...

[FLYNAVY53]

That's interesting....obviously we share the same taste in C2 aesthetics and performance....I have the Wilwood D8 calipers on my car which are essentially aluminum copies of the factory '65-'67 calipers and I had no such issue....with the exact same wheel/tire combo. The ONLY issue I ran into was that the wheel weights used when I had my tires mounted and balanced were oddly tall, and rubbed on the top of the caliper body once I had the wheels mounted. My solution to that was I found some "low profile" wheel weights on Amazon, and simply replaced the weights on each wheel with the lower profile pieces.

[TGWINER]

I have those wheels and tried them on my '67 with stock calipers and they fit just fine. (although, very close) I wonder what is different between what you have and mine. I hope the Avon tires are available in the future, thats what I planned on running also.

[brickwhite]

Saw those black ones were clearanced out but out of stock when I was read to purchase... good buy... may want another for a spare if it fits in the box.

Not sure why some calipers fit and some do not, there was a thread on the corvette forum about it.

I'm going to test the stock replacement front and back 4 piston D8 wilwoods since the conversion kit I have does not work well with the 7/8" master I have anyway...

[TGWINER]

That thread was a good read, thanks. Now it makes me want to take all of my wheels out of the boxes and try them for fitment. Rex on there (which I value his opinion very much) suggested that maybe dimensions are off wheel to wheel. Never thought of that! They're Chinese made after all.

[FLYNAVY53]

I'm going to test the stock replacement front and back 4 piston D8 wilwoods since the conversion kit I have does not work well with the 7/8" master I have anyway...

I'd try the Wilwood 15/16 master cylinder assuming you're running manual brakes with their calipers. I tried everything from 7/8, 15/16, and 1.0. In my (extremely picky) opinion, the best of those 3 is the 15/16. In reality, the problem with these cars is the pedal ratio is ideal for a boosted brake application. If memory serves, the pedal ratio is 4.5:1. It should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 or 7:1 for a proper manual brake set up. One of the primary reasons I'm going to explore an aftermarket pedal box down the road at some point. I've found the braking to be very good with the 15/16 master and D8 calipers, with good pedal feel and modulation, the effort is just higher than I would like for street driving.

[brickwhite]

You have D8 6 piston calipers on front right? Mine are D8 4 piston front and back in which yours would increase area of the brakes.

[FLYNAVY53]

That is true...though Id have to look again...for some reason, I was under the impression that the D8-6 and the D8-4 had the same total piston area, it was just divided up differently to provide more even brake pad wear (or as a marketing gimmick).

Either way, I called Wilwood when I was having trouble with the 7/8 bore master and they told me that the 7/8 wouldn't push enough volume for the D8 calipers and I needed to go to at least 15/16. Now that being said, that information may have been specific to the D8-6. But if your car brakes well with the D8-4 and 7/8 master, thats certainly all that matters. In my case, I couldn't get adequate pressure at the calipers because I wasn't moving enough volume. I was only seeing 600 psi at each of the front calipers.

[brickwhite]

- fingers crossed the 7/8" works! if not 15/16"



From the Wilwood site on the D8 calipers

Pistons: 6 Piston Type: Stainless Piston Area: 5.51 Piston 1 Dia: 1.88 Piston 2 Dia: 1.38 Piston 3 Dia: 1.25

Pistons: 4 Piston Type: Stainless Piston Area: 5.56 Piston 1 Dia: 1.88 Piston 2 Dia: 1.88

Running this calculator - https://brakepower.com/piston-area-calculator.htm

They are nearly the same at 22 in total