My 64 Corvette Pro Tour build, Long view of how car eveolved into what it is today.

[Poorhousenext]

I would like to share my 64 Corvette Coupe build with members here. Hope you bear with me while I go over how build. I have waited until car was painted before posting about it's details and how it has evolved via Project Scope Creep. I wanted to make sure it could be finished and not draged out of a couple more years.

My story is not short. It will require a few post to try an explain it.

Purcased car in Dec 2007. Started gathering parts for it in Jan 2008. By June of 2008 I had all the major parts in hand to start build. Car was a barn find that had gone through 2 other owners prior to my buying it. It was a perfect car to turn into a Pro Tour.

Frame had rusted completely through in about 4 places. There was also rust in the windshield frame, sill plates and door lock pillars that need to be repaired. Only fiberglass body parts that were usable were the doors and top panel due to car having been raced prior to be stored in barn.

First thing I bought was aftermarket frame/chassis with C4/C5 Corvette Suspension from Street Shop Inc. in Athens, Alabama. Frame rail are rectangular hydro formed tubing rather than welded round tube type used by some who are doing Corvette Restomod builds. Had chassis equipped with Bare Brakes rotors and calipers rather than stock Vette ones. Rear end is Dana 44 with 3.54 gearing. Sort of in between gearing compromise for touring aspect of car.

I wanted to use a latest GM LS design engine and decided on LS3 480 HP crate engine. Would have been nice to have gone with LS7 but felt the extra dollars good be put to better use elsewhere. Original plan was to use a 4L65 A4 trans built to handle 600 HP and upgraded with ISS to support LS3 ECM rather than a manual, as both my knees need replacing. Even the new clutches with hydraulics that take lot less effort didn't help when caught in traffic.

Two weeks ago I made the decision to not to go with a 4L65 but go with a 4L80E based transmission instead. Two main reasons for that. 1. While 4L80E adds more weight to car, it is by far stronger. Not only should it take track use better, it will allow me to upgrade my HP & TQ later on should I decide too. 2. Better gear splits modifications for competion use offered. There is a third reason for it also, but can't talked about it at this time. That reason may make the car competive with a manual car when auto crossed or on a road track. Time will tell on that.

Torque converter, like the 4L80E based trans is overkill for amount of HP engine puts out. It's a multi disc unit design made by Circle D Specializes that is designed for 1000-1100 HP 4L80E based drag cars. Major difference is it only stalled to flash to 2400-2500 RPM, so it's purpose is to limit slippage to same are lees than a manual trans clutch when up shifting and take pounding when down shifting and getting in and out of throttle. It's not designed to give awesome 60 ft times. All the converter people I talked with understand what works for drag racing, but none were sure what it would happen if you beat on converter up shifting and downshifting for say 1 hour on a road course. All they agreed on was keep the trans fluid as cool as possible and if possible less than 180 degrees. Time will tell if I made the right decision.

Next I had to find a shop to assemble and do the bodywork car needed. Shop I had planned to use had problems getting customer's car delivered. Found a shop that agreed to take on job, B Rod or Custom located in Knoxville, TN. They believed in having a plan to work too. They also had their vision for Project which didn't match my vision. I was looking at just using aftermarket 1.0" stretched rear quarter panels so I could run a wider tire on rear.

They, being creative had a vision of making the car distinctive by putting wheels on back with minimum of 4.0 inches of exposed wheel hoop. Problem with their vision is Vettes suspension is designed with positive offset. Using current aftermarket stretched quarters panels allow for using the wider tire size they wanted car to have, but not more wheel hoop than stock wheels.

Here is 1st rendering of what they thought would work that included one of the two requirements for build, adding a third taillight on each side and improving the look of lower front fender dummy vents bland looks.

Shop thought they could just move the frame rails in and shorten the suspension. You can do that, but you ruin the rear suspension geometry if you shorten it. You can more the rails in and tub the body so you can use wider tires and rims, but that want get you more exposed wheel hoop. Just still means using late model C6 style positive wheels is required.



There also was a problem with wheel design. Shop like old school style wheels, while I had no problem with the late model Corvette style wheels. When I saw the rendering I said no to those wheels and they said no to my choice. They asked me to see if I couldn't find a wheel that was maybe an updated old school wheel style that was acceptable to us both. They still wanted a wheel that looked good with minimum of 4.0 inches of exposed wheel hoop.

To try and get me to buy into their vision they installed a set of wheels off a Camaro that had the tire size they wanted to use and had 4.0" of wheel hoop. They had came in on a customers, and available to use even if they did look like crap. They were install under 1.0 aftermarket quarter panels I had already purchased for build. You can see that in order to get them to fit inside the quarters, shop had to adjust the suspension to tilt them in toward frame. Standing up straight they stuck out about 3/4 of and inch and were 2.0 inches away from frame rails. In the second picture you can see we had been trying to work on improving the front lower fender dummy vent look and make it functional.







In the meantime, I started searching for a wheel that was acceptable to both me and them. It's unreal how many wheel companies there are. I just happen to run across a company name Schott Wheels. They have a very distinctive cover loc wheel style, and one of their models intrigued me. It was their Modsport K.O. wheel with spinner. Found it was based of both the old Halibrand Kidney Bean style of mid 40s to late 50s and their Sprint style introduced in the early 60's. Shop loved the look for car. What happen next changed the entire direction of build. It's what made me decide car had become a Pro Tour one.



Shop said they would order the wheels with correct back spacing for car. I assumed that meant wheels and tires would fit under the 1.0" aftermarket stretched quarter panels I had already purached. Wrong, shop order the wheels with backsacing that got them their 4.0" of exposed wheel hoop for their vision of car. Doing that meant the front fenders would have to stretched at least 1.5 inches to maintain any kind of front to rear body proportions. This post is getting a little too long so I'll end it for now. Then I'll so you what problems that caused and how using High Tech Redneck Engineering shop overcame them.

There 4.0" of exposed wheel hoop. Not what I was expecting. I was expecting 2.0" at most.