[ Up ] [ 79 Taking it Apart ] [ 79 Assembly ] [ 79 Body Interior ] [ 79 Debugging Car ] [ 79 Before & After Pics ] [ 79 Show Pics ] [ 79 Status ] February 2, 2003 5:47 pm..... DONE.
Here are some pics of the finished car. In these pictures the molding is not on the back glass as I was waiting to have some paints nicks touched up before that went on. It has since been put on and looks great. The one engine pic is without the air cleaner to show off the motor a little bit.
Issues the car had when it was completed:
1) The low fuel light stays on. I thought this was working because when I buttoned up the dash I only had a gallon of gas in the tank. Now that it's full, the light stays on. The gage works fine but that light is going to drive me crazy!! Corrected week of 3/17 by removing console and finding wire grounded out in harness.
2) Transmission leak at the shift linkage. It is a very small leak and the transmission rebuild is under warranty so back to the shop for a couple of hours Saturday while they put a new shift seal in. Corrected week of 3/22 by Eagle transmission. There was a bur on the shift linckage and this was cutting the seal and allowing it to leak.
3) Timing, timing, timing. I had the motor tuned up, but it had carb troubles..... something about 160k miles making the metering rods stick. They were replaced and the carb was rebuilt, but now the secondaries are sticking under full throttle causing a hesitation. This will be fixed before Valentines. Corrected in April by Don Pyle, father of Kevin, my paint guy. Engine runs strong and idles where is should.
4) The windows need a little adjusting to the weather stripping when rolling the windows up. No prob, just a 2 hour project for some boring Saturday. Corrected week of 3/17 by removing the door panels and readjusting all of the window mounts. The new weather stripping hangs a little on the driver's side rolling the window up, but no issue at all if the door is open. I can live with it.
5) Still waiting on Corvette Central for the new steering wheel. This is not really a problem, but it is frustrating me just the same. According to them, the 'new' ship date is Feb 13. We'll see. This was put on back order after back order, but I finally received it in May the day before the big Lonestar Vette Classis at Texas Motor Speedway. Looks great also!
6) Finally the big problem: the heater core is leaking. CRAP!! I pressure tested it before I put it in, but there was a strain put on one of the necks when the body was being put on (a hose got pulled) and a crack developed. I have the new core and am waiting for the right frame of mind to pull the heater box out and replace it. While I'm in there I'm going to replace the fuel gage. Probably a half day job at best. Corrected week of 3/22 by removing all air ducts, glove box and center console to get to the heater box. The new core was only $50 so next time I will just replace rather than trying to make a 25 year old core work. Also, don't connect any hoses until after the body is completely on!
7) As expected, I dinged the paint in a couple of places. Circumstances like this really bring to surface the personal value of the car and the work that went into it by me and the folks that helped. Which brings up why I like to work alone in the garage.... there's no one around to see my angry dance. The car will go back to the paint shop for some of my and the body shops touch ups next month. This was addressed by the local collision shop and the car was gone completely over. There are new little nicks on the front, but that's expected with driving it. It needs a little buffing on the front clip, but looks great! The paint gets a lot of compliments at the shows even though the headlight doors don't match the rest of the body completely.
