63 Corvette Graveyard POS to Restomod Build
 

I purchased this 63 convertible project site unseen on my Birthday this past December. I was told it had a small rust area in the birdcage, the body was in good condition, and the chassis was solid. :shakehead: None of that was true. Just a reminder to never buy a car without looking at it in person!!! I know better, yet i trusted the guy since he sounded knowledgeable and nice over the phone :warning:
[IMG]http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb3adf454.jpg[/IMG]

Chassis: SRIII Still making final decisions for the build

Body: The body will remain stock overall, but i plan to add wider rear quarter panels and use the 67 big block hood. IM going to switch the front end back to a 64 unit.
Something fishy is going on here! Looks like somebody took the front of the passenger sill/rocker channel and installed it on the rear of the passenger side.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...2f25c8a6-1.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ba2994-1-1.jpg


Problem area #1. Looks the same on passenger side. Fortunately, the outer area is still solid. I can see it through the holes. i poked at it with a screwdriver and hammer and it did not puncture or flake.

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The worst area is at the bottom of the driver's door hinge pillar. The area in the front, from the sill to about 2.5" up is more or less worthless. Ill fab up some new metal and weld it in these places once all the glass is removed.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...2d873b0e-1.jpg

Two weeks ago I decided to do a little exploratory surgery. It took around 3 hours to remove the front end. Somebody was all over this car previously, which sometimes makes it more difficult to repair.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf72a19a7.jpg

The rust in the birdcage is concentrated in the lower areas. The tops of the pillars look good overall.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps07acdf28.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa30b1f29.jpg

2/17/14

The car needs to have all fiberglass removed to repair the birdcage, so I am slowly removing pieces as I can.
Here is what was left of the internal body mount support on the firewall end piece.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2f42b827.jpg

The rust is a bit worse than I thought, but it is still repairable. However, i did post a wanted add for this pillar if anybody has one.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscb91d64c.jpg

Here is some of the outstanding work that somebody did in the past...apparently they did not have a clue how to weld or did not have the right equipment to weld. That glob is a pile of mig wire.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa116dd9c.jpg

2/20/14

I managed to remove the firewall after a long battle. I didnt realize there were 3 rivets hiding under the mass of bonding adhesive in the middle of the firewall panel at the cross over section between the wiper cowls. To say it looks like a bomb went off in the garage is an understatement. If you attempt a project like this, you better have a lot of storage space.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2d3e352e.jpg

The passenger side channel and pillar were replaced already and somebody did a really crappy job of patching the section in. They also did a really crappy job of welding the z-bar back in place, so i broke it loose. Ill need to take some measurements off the split window to make sure i weld it back in correctly.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdffca4b6.jpg

The fiberglass was literally holding the driver's side pillar in place. If i rock the pillar back and forth a few more times, i have no doubt that it will break. Fortunately another forum member has a pillar he is going to sell me. This one is repairable since it is only rusted at the bottom, but it's better in my case just to replace the entire thing.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf8a7090c.jpg

I find it interesting how the rust is concentrated to only the lower portion. I believe this must mean that the car was driven for a long period of time in area that had salted roads. The way the metal is corroded reminds me of salt air damage I see at the Gulf Coast.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6d51162d.jpg

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My arse is going to hurt from this purchase for a while. However, i will eventually enjoy bringing it back to life and will make something special out of it. :cheers:

2/21/14

I had to fix the z bar where "Cletus" had cut it from the center connecting bracket and the passenger hinge pillar while replacing the passenger rocker and pillar from another car. The gray pillar fiberglass dated march 1965 on the passenger side, the 6 holes in the sill, and the dark green paint still remaining on one portion of the pillar glass indicated that the frame graft was from a 65 Donor. The connecting bracket was cut loose and then welded back on crooked. I cut it loose and then drilled out all spot welds.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6afb44ac.jpg

Weld through primer and plug welds. I smoothed out all the plug welds after all welding was completed.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2b18e02b.jpg

After drilling out the sheered off glove box support bolts from the z bar, I mounted the dash frame and glove box surround/support to help locate the correct position of the z-bar, cross bar, vin bar...whatever it is called.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps100c3a59.jpg

After welding the bar back in place...One small step in the right direction!!!

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps714c78a6.jpg

Next I fabricated a piece of steel to reinforce the rotten drivers side pillar and welded it in place. I then removed the Birdcage from the frame and floor pan. Im going to order the luggage stop metal tonight and I will put it in place next week. After that I will address the pillar and inner windshield frame.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd9491df2.jpg

The cage is sitting crooked here because one of the rocker brackets is still in place on the front driver's side.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9be75934.jpg

67 chassis will be going on ebay tomorrow with the front end, quarters, and the 65 small block hood. The frame is pretty rough, but the rear end is a BB differential out of a 68, the trailing arms are nice, and so are the front a arms and brakes. Springs are nice and firm.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps31071175.jpg

Strip dance! She is parked on the 67 chassis that i have for sale for the time being.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps526e7ebb.jpg

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Proud of my welding work here, especially considering i accidentally had the gas off while welding. for some reasons it looks like there is a crack in this picture, but there isn't. The z bar had been cut from the flange/tab by someone previously when they "repaired" the birdcage.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa289e038.jpg

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When money is involved, trust no one. A many of people will sound intelligent and well versed in whatever it is they may be trying to scam you with when they want your money. Shoood, family sometimes can't be trusted. So you know you can't trust a complete, total stranger most often. Nonetheless, seems you've got lots of work to do. Being a convertible and all, it'll get major points when finished. Good luck!!

Heck of an under taking. Good luck!

Will this one be black like the coupe?

Midyear Corvette coupes are actually more valuable than the convertibles currently. Times have changed!

I'm thinking super dark blue with a ghost stripe on the 67 stinger hood.

I like that better :thumbsup: It's not that black looks bad. Hell, it looks great. It's just too common like red on these cars, IMO. Milano Maroon is also a great color that's not common at all. I'm sure it'll look great no matter what you do. Good luck!

Really? I never see black 63-67 Corvettes. It was the most rare factory color, but i assume you are referring to non matching paint colors on restomods. I see a lot of maroon cars. My father has a 66 427 maroon car that i restored a few years ago and the 66 i built into a restomod last year, which i painted dark blue, was maroon from the factory. The majority of the restomods i have seen are either silver or red.

Definitely referring to restomods. Maybe I just feel like I have seen more or the black ones have stuck in my head longer. I certainly haven't kept count. Like I said, blacks a great color. I'm just kind of bored with seeing it :lol:

I replaced the luggage stop ends, which someone had cut up for some reason, and installed the luggage stop. Now the rear is set up correctly and is stable. I used the extra 1966 Convertible frame I have as a fixture. The next step will be to replace the rocker channel.

Step 1 was to drill out the spot welds on the old end pieces.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psddf1e09e.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps98c350a2.jpg

New pieces compared to the old. I really dont understand why someone cut the end pieces up, but i assume it was to remove the center luggage stop. They must have overlooked the 4 rivets.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0ca0dcb9.jpg

New metal!!! I decided to plug weld the luggage stop in place to make it stronger instead of using rivets.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc09f49df.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps82ae63c4.jpg

I like the added strength. :thumbsup:

nice work on the birdcage. Keep the pics coming.

I installed the new rocker channel and repaired the pillar.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd0143cb7.jpg

Here you can see where someone attempted to repair the old rocker channel by splicing in a decent rear section from another car.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6243b45e.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb45674cb.jpg

The hinge pillars are not reproduced. Fortunately, I put an ad out for a pillar and found one that would work. The one I found was rotten at the top, but solid at the bottom. Mine is solid at the top and rotten at the bottom, so I removed the metal I needed from the other pillar and spliced it into the one original to the car. After much thought, I decided it would be best to overlap the metal for strength.

My welds are not the prettiest, but it will look nice once they are smoothed out.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0856a0b5.jpg

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Always fun to see a Corvette Forum guy over here. I imagine your project will be better received here. Looking good!

At least you like to follow the build on the Corvette forum! This build shouldn't bother any purists since it was so far gone. I doubt most people would have bothered to fix it. I can assure you that if I had known its true condition I would not have purchased it!!! I've never built a restomod out of a numbers matching car, so technically none of my builds should have offended anyone. Should being the key word.

I know that I am enjoying this thread. Thanks for sharing all the details and great pictures as you progress. It really is coming along great! I look forward to each post.

I've decided that the car shall be named Maybelline. I just discovered that when someone replaced the passenger side hinge pillar in the past that they decided to hack through the windshield frame in two places and then weld in the donor pillar plus a portion of it's windshield frame instead of drilling out the spot welds and replacing it in the correct manner. They then covered up the poor repair with body filler. Maybe it's Maybelline???
So, with that said, let me introduce you to MayBelline!

Well, it looks like I am going to need another $1100.00 worth of metal before the cage is finished. Im going to repeat what I said in the last post... Whoever replaced the original passenger hinge pillar did not drill out the spot welds and graft in the metal correctly. Instead, they cut the windshield frame in two places, as seen below in the pictures, and then welded in the donor section with a portion of it's windshield frame. The passenger pillar is leaned in 3 degrees and the windshield frame is crooked. I put the windshield from the split window in place to check the alignment and once in place, it confirmed that things were out of whack. It is so tight at the bottom the glass and rubber barely squeezed into place.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps4915434d.jpg

Outside of windshield frame where it was cut then very poorly welded back together.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9c17613f.jpg

Interior portion of windshield frame. This was all covered up by filler.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7279719b.jpg

Here is where the second cut was made.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3a4fd1b1.jpg

Wow.

Thanks for the encouragement and nice comments!

The bad portions of the windshield frame are now out. Unfortunately the lower channel was not in stock, so I am going to be forced to wait a little while for it to arrive.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps380b2dd9.jpg

This spot weld cutter bit from eastwood makes drilling out the spot welds a thousand times easier than using regular drill bits.

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Unfortunately the pillar is in worse shape than i thought and will require a repair section on the top. I knew it needed a small repair, but I didn't realize quite how pitted it was underneath the windshield frame.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1f04d742.jpg

I thought these welds were made by someone messing with the windshield frame, but after looking the assembly manual, i see that arc welds were used on the center sections of the outer metal, while spot welds were used on the edges. So, that is a relief...at least the upper portion and driver's side is unmolested.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8519943a.jpg

I finished up the cage over the weekend and then dropped it off to be soda blasted on Monday. I'm going to paint over the black epoxy with green zinc oxide paint(ordered 4 cans today) so the cage will have the factory look.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps650dfb26.jpg

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In Black Epoxy after being soda blasted.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa4731fa5.jpg

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I had one very old can of green oxide paint, so I sprayed a little bit of the cage.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6049b519.jpg

It's awesome seeing another one getting saved ! I went down that same road.

I'd say yours was a bit more challenging than mine, Doom! That is scary!


Cage is now in Zinc Chromate Primer and ready for the bonding strips to go back in place. I found the brand I used, called Moeller, did not spray well at all. Two cans were ok, but the other two splattered all over the place regardless of how much i shook them or how many times i cleaned the nozzle. Not super impressed with the Moeller brand due to the way the cans sprayed, but the color is very close to the original.

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Fantastic work! That really looks good and now you know you have a great foundation.

Thanks! One very expensive and time consuming foundation! :hairpullout: However, I think it turned out pretty good for my first birdcage repair.

She has a floor and part of an arse again.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps83bf1f8e.jpg

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I sanded all the garbage and paint off the tub and rear this past weekend.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps38f28bd9.jpg

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The driveshaft tunnel was cut out and replaced with a later piece of fiberglass to utilize a 67 style e brake.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb8b12796.jpg

incredible work. the Little work I have done rewiring a 64 was enough to make me really appreciate what your doing that's awesome.:computer:

Super cool, and great work. I will be watching this one.

Mounting the upper deck like that, how do you know it is in the right spot for everything else to line up?

I mounted the cage on the extra 66 Convertible frame i had using 1 spacer per side on the #2 and #3 body mount locations. The rear deck was from another car, which i didnt realize until recently. Once i realized that, i broke the two apart at the bond. I mounted the rear deck and rear floor tub onto the frame next and used one spacer per side at the #4 body mount location. Then I made sure all holes were lined up and pulled the rear tub tight against the pillars where they rivet in place. Finally, I checked the alignment of the latch pillar covers to the deck and all looked good, so i moved forward with riveting the tub to the luggage stop and extensions. If the cage is set up correctly, then aligning the fiberglass is pretty straightforward. I would think it would be near impossible to align it correctly without using a frame or properly set up jig.

Not much to show, but I did recondition the reinforcement plate that goes behind the hinge pillar fiberglass on the passenger side. This little piece is what the rivets for the sides of the dash go into.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb132b897.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps621f8996.jpg

I also stripped the passenger door. The driver's door had a very large crack that had a poor repair and it might just be cheaper to replace it than to try to fix it. This door is definitely from a 65 and so is the hinge pillar and sill fiberglass. Every part is different, some from a 63, some from a 64, some from a 65, and I found one piece from a 67. This poor car must have been in some sort of bad accident and then pieced together from a pile of fiberglass leftovers. Or, it was parted out long ago, then rusted, then pieced back together with random parts. Who knows...

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3e3410ff.jpg

I dry fit her new fat hips. lots of work still to do before bonding them in place, but making some progress.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1ffed998.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc400830c.jpg

Those look really nice.

They are made by a company called GTS customs. They provide an extra 1" of clearance, which is much needed for fat tires for the convertible. You can only tub in so far before getting into the soft tops space.

GL with the build.Very cool undertaking.

More dry fitting. It's slowly starting to resemble a car again. Im now waiting on the taillamp panel, inner skirts, and 67 side panels to arrive.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...psab1827fc.jpg

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jydracing 63 split window
 

Thank looks like a lot or hard work!!!!!

badassery