Engine Bay And Electrical Fan

I needed to install the expansion tank and electrical fan to the engine bay. The tank just needed to be bolted in place but the fan needed a custom bracket. I started from the tank.

The right side inner fender in my car was in pretty sorry state. Not broken but dirty, faded and paint was stripping off. I didn't want to add the tank before tidying it up a bit. So I sanded the old paint with some sandpaper and cleaned the surface. Then I applied some flat black paint to it. I did this with a brush because I didn't want to cover everything up for spraying.

The fender looked much cleaner afterwards. Also note the near-factory radiator support brackets! For some reason they were loose and didn't hold the radiator in place. While testing the car we just tightened everything up with a piece of wood :D It would have to be fixed later. Most likely the bracket is just a bit in the wrong position. Then I just bolted the expansion tank in, connected the hoses and filled the tank with coolant.

Then it was time to tackle the fan. I bought a fan that had a large shroud around it. Its size was almost perfect for the original radiator and I hoped that if would cool the water more evenly than just a basic fan. The shroud had a groove at the bottom and couple of bolt holes on top. I would need a support that would fit in the groove and another for bolting the top to.

I decided to use the original fan shroud attachment positions for my own brackets. So the first thing to do was to cut a piece of cardboard and see how large my brackets needed to be. After getting my approximate measurements, I drew the shape on a metal sheet and cut it out. The difficult step was next: bending the sheet without a brake. As I didn't have any real tools for shaping metal, I just squeezed the sheet between two planks and then hammered it to submission.

After a few nights of cutting, bending, hammering and cursing, the brackets were ready. I smoothed the edges with a file and then painted both parts. I wanted them to be matt so I first sprayed three layers of red primer and added four layers of matt black. After the paint had dried for about a week, I also decided to add some clear to protect the paint some more. At least the bottom bracket would need this as it would receive all the water and dirt from the road. I sprayed both parts with a few layers of matt clear and left them to dry.

After a week it was time to put the fan in the car. I checked the brackets and for some reason the clear had turned them really glossy. Perhaps two matt paints make a glossy one? Oh well, luckily the surfaces were quite smooth so the glossy brackets would do.

I bolted the brackets to the car and the fan to them. I was quite happy with the results as everything lined up perfectly. Next needed part was the fan sensor.

Rest Of The Interior

After getting the center console in the car, rest of the interior was somewhat simple to put together. When I bought the car, I got a large box of interior parts with it. They had been sitting in storage for nearly two years so my first task was to thoroughly clean and inspect them. I had some Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care that I used for nearly all pieces. It returned a nice shine to the old parts.

While going through the interior, I found out that it was far from complete. It was missing the rear wheel well carpets, rear window frame, rear window lower trim, kick panels and center console side trims. And to add a few more, the air ducts to the side vents were also missing. Wonderful when I thought I had all the pieces when buying the car... Oh, and all the pieces that went to the roof were black. I had thought they should be black but later found out that they should be the same color as the rest of the interior...

I started from the T-top center panel as it seemed to be under other parts. Then came the windshield trim. They were simple to screw in but I needed to fiddle with them many times to get everything lined up. Finally I added the sun visors over the trim.

I had noticed the missing kick panels quite early in the project so I had already bought some used ones for my car. They were black but I simply cleaned and painted them to the correct red color. While attaching them, I also noticed that the door sill plates were on the wrong sides of the car. Luckily they were held together by just a few screws.

Then came the rear panels. I started from the roof trim that just screwed in. But when installing the rear quarter panels, I noticed that they should come first as some screws were cowered by the roof trim. The quarter panels were also the most problematic panels in the car. They had some glued metal inserts for screws but both sides had many rusted in screws that I couldn't remove. On top of that, both sides had many broken off screws.

I found a repair kit for the inserts but now needed to get the old screws out. A couple of them were quite easy to remove but some seemed almost impossibly tight. I tried pulling, turning, drilling, shouting, cursing and kicking but couldn't get all of them out. I'll have to see if I can come up more ways to try. Maybe crying? For now I just put the panels in the car without all the screws... Finally I placed covers for the seat belt retractors and the "trunk" was done.

One of the final pieces were the door cards. But of course they had problems as well. The panels are held in place with velcro like retainers. Unfortunately most of the retainers in my doors were broken or full of paint and unusable. So I had to order new retainers and am still waiting for them.

The last missing piece is the left dashboard panel with the speedo and tachometer. I need to attach the headlamp switch first but when doing that, I saw that I'm missing the nut that holds it in place. So, yet again, I had to wait for three weeks for it to arrive from the US before putting the panel in the car.

Center Instrument Bezel

The original bezel in the car was missing the top part that had the air vents. Annoyingly it seemed to be really easy to break if it was bent even slightly. And repairing it was impossible. So I had bought another bezel from an earlier Corvette. This version still had the button for canceling the seat belt buzzer. As the horn was missing from the steering wheel, I desided to temporately use it as horn button. I also wanted to replace the steering wheel at some point so buying the horn hardware would be a waste of money.

I also wanted to add a modern DIN-sized radio to the car. I didn't care that much about original look so the normal position would be used. There are aftermarket versions of the bezel that already have the DIN-slot but they are pretty expensive. The one I bought already had some holes drilled to it so it didn't feel bad to cut it up. If it had been in perfect condition, I would not have used it. So, I used a saw and file to cut a large hole to fit the radio.

While working with it, I also removed all the gauges and cleaned them to the best of my ability. They had some small rust spots on their faces that I couldn't fix but at least the connectors were good. While fighting with the electrical gremlins, the fuel gauge also had let out some smoke. It still sort of worked but for some reason the needle went well over the full tank marking. Maybe I should also replace the gauges at some point but for now they were OK. The clock wasn't working either but for some reason it cost a lot more than any of the other gauges so I could live with a broken clock.

Finally I built a simple switch below the button to act as the horn button. Pushing the button grounded the horn relay and would play the horn. In theory at least because when testing the system, I found out that the relay was not working... Connecting it was simple: I just added a wire running from the steering column connector to the button.

Connecting the bezel to the car was again quite fiddly. I connected a huge bunch of wires and lamps to the gauges and started fighting. Getting the bezel to the correct position was hard but after trying about a dozen times it went in. I quickly added a few screws to hold it in place so it wouldn't fall out.

Radio wiring was also quite simple as all the necessary connectors were close by. I bought a normal ISO connector and searched the needed wires. I would only need 4 wires: permanent 12 volts (pin 4), illumination dimmer (pin 6), ignition (pin 7) and ground (pin 8). Three of these were already in the original radio connector: black for ground, grey for illumination and yellow for ignition. Permanent 12 volts was also near: orange wire for the clock. As the clock was not working, I just used its wire for the radio. The other ISO connector is for the speakers so I just installed those wires and had a working radio!

For testing, I borrowed a cheap Clatronic AR 817 radio from my friend. I wasn't sure if a CD-player would fit in the radio slot so the AR 817 was perfect. It only had an MP3 player from USB card and a radio so it was really short. After installing it, I'm still not quite sure if a CD-player will fit. There is some room behind the unit but not much. I guess the only way to know for sure is to test...

Sound quality is not good by any standard but I'm not sure if it's because of the Kicker DS 460 speakers or the Clatronic. Probably both :D I'll have to try a better radio later. For now the system is good enough for testing as I'm not even sure if you can hear anything from the radio when driving. Or even when just idling the engine!

Center Console

Then I had to assemble the center console. This meant the parking brake and shifter covers. I figured that I should begin with the parking brake console and tried it on. Quickly I found out that I must first remove the seat belts as they should not be bolted under the carpet. At about this point I started to feel that bolting the seats had not been a good idea as there was no room to remove the belt retaining bolts. *Sigh*, out came the seats once more.

I unbolted the seat belts from the center console, cut small holes to the carpet and bolted the belts back in over the carpet this time. Now the edge of the carpet would go neatly under the console. Placing the console itself was quite simple. I attached the power window switched to it, connected the wires and screwed the console in.

Next was the shifter cover. I feared connecting it wouldn't be so simple. It had a lot of wires and vacuum hoses connected to it. Quickly I found out that removing the trim plate and AC controls made the job much easier. I then screwed the cover loosely in place, connected the wiring and vacuum hoses to the AC controller and placed it back in the cover. Last job was to attach the cigarette lighter wires and couple of lamps to the plate and screw it in place.

A Million Small Things

Now that the car was finally in my own garage, it was time to put it back together and register it. But there was a lot to do before getting to that. Things on my list included:

• Building brackets for the electrical fan
• Adding the fan temperature sensor
• Adding expansion tank for the radiator
• Adding the valance panel and front spoiler
• Rebuilding the interior
• Adding weatherstrips to the doors
• Adding gasgets to the exhaust
• Adding heat shield for the starter
• Build a horn button (original button from the steering wheel was missing)
• Fix a small oil leak from the driver side valve cover
• Align the headlamps correctly
• Align the rear wheels (because of the risers in the spring)

That's a lot of big and small jobs. I started from the interior. When driving home, I had placed some of the panels in the car but now had to take them out again. It seemed that the interior must be assembled in the correct order so I removed pretty much everything. The carpets also smelled a bit musty so I also took them out and washed them with some water and soap. Unfortunately they had some stains that didn't come off but luckily the stains would be covered by the seats.

The drive home had been quite noisy and hot. I hoped that the volume would drop with the weatherstrips and interior but the heat needed more addressing. So I bought some noiseproofing/heat insulating panels. They had glue on one side so I just cut them to correct size and attached to the firewall and floors. Then I put the carpets back and bolted the seats in.

With that out of the way, I placed the air ducts below the dash. Simple job of screwing a few screws and positioning the wiring harnesses better. Lucky that because I had to do it again when I realised that the air vent vacuum hoses were installed in the wrong places...

There is a huge mess of small vacuum hoses inside the dash. Luckily I found a good diagram of them from Willcox Corvette. I checked the hoses and, if I remember correctly, they were all wrong... So out came the ducts. Correcting the hoses was quite fiddly as some of the vents were in really tight places but I managed with only slightly bleeding knuckles. Assembling the interior would be much easier if I had taken it apart myself...

Hurry Home Wayward Son

After midnight we returned to the garage for final cleanup and the drive home. When backing the car out, we also measured the exhaust gases. It seemed that the engine was running a bit rich but that should be OK for now. Again my friend drove the Corvette and I followed in the "support vehicle".

This time things did not go as well as before. After driving about 10 km, my friend pulled over and told me that the engine temperature was rising above normal again. He didn't dare to let it go above the red limit so we waited a bit. Oh, and we couldn't get the hood open again! Most likely the hood lock was now in the wrong position as we had tuned it at the garage...

After some cooling we continued but had to stop again soon. My friend said that if driving over 50km/h or driving up a steep hill the temperature started rising. We suspected that the missing valance panel and spoiler meant that not enough air was going through the radiator. So, we continues slowly and got to my friends place at 3 am.

I had been thinking that I would drive the car home in the next day but now it seemed that I would have to drive really slowly. Me and my wife had to be home quite soon so I decided not to drive the car while it was still overheating. It was really disappointing to leave the Corvette behind once more.

But then I got some good news in the following morning. As the temporary plates were good for the whole day, my friend had took the car for a test drive in the evening. He had drove around for an hour and a half without any problems! Maybe there had been an air bubble in the cooling system and it was gone now. Anyhow now I could fetch the car any day! Only I would need to buy a new alternator because the old one was making weird noises, getting really hot and not charging any more. Luckily it had not broken the new battery I had just bought.

Then on 3. of June, 2011 I got myself another set of temporary plates, got on a train and went to get my car home. We connected the new alternator, packed as much stuff in the car as we could and I jumped behind the wheel.

After driving for about 20 kilometers, I again noticed that the temperature was rising above normal. Luckily this was just because I was had been driving on first gear the whole time! Yes, this was the first car with automatic transmission that I had drove for any length...

Along the way I quickly noticed that if I kept the engine RPM below 2000, everything was fine. Above that the temperature started climbing slowly. This meant a maximum speed of about 75km/h. The car really needed new radiator seals and front spoiler! At first I only used smaller roads but after a while went on the highway. Everything went fine and the 'Vette arrived home for the first time!

Finally I could start putting the car together myself and hopefully get it registered as soon as possible!

Long Weekend

After getting to the garage, we immediately found a problem: the hood would not open! We pulled the lever, tried using the hole in the wiper pit, pulling the release cable through the alarm switch hole in the fender etc. but nothing worked. Finally we gave up for now as we didn't need to get it open right away.

I started working with the firewall and placed three layers of fiberglass to the bottom of the car and two layers inside. That took care of a lot of holes in the floor. Meanwhile my friend worked with the rear body mounts. The brackets had rotten badly and the body was not really connected to the frame at all from the back. The old bolts had also almost completely turned to dust and broke when trying to turn them. Luckily I had ordered a complete body mounting set with the first delivery so I had all the necessary parts.

Just changing the bushings was not enough. My friend also needed to weld new metal to the brackets. When both sides were done, perhaps the body would stay on the frame when braking heavily :)

After I got the fiberglass installed, I started cleaning the final hole in the driver floor. Like everywhere else, it had been "fixed" by screwing a thin sheet of metal over the hole and then sealing it up with urethane foam. A floor just like Chevy intended...

"Fixed" floor

And what do we have under the metal sheet?

Much better

I wasn't going to use the original seat belts so we removed the pit and just made the floor flat. Much easier and faster to weld. And now we finally had waterproof floors in the car!

Then it was time to tackle the speedometer gear. We removed the driveshaft and pulled the yoke out of the transmission. Next we had to add some support for the transmission so we could remove the frame connector. That allowed us to remove the few bolts keeping casing together. Now the axle was visible and we could install the gear.

When ordering the gear I wasn't quite sure how many tooth it should have. I took one with 10 teeth but later learned that the correct one would have only 8. This meant that the speedometer would show about 10 to 15 mph too much. Oh well, changing the driven gear was really easy so I would correct the error with it after a measurement with GPS. Perhaps I could even change the speedo to show km/h :)

Strangely the gear and the clip holding it in place didn't fit together. The clip was way too wide to fit in the groove in the gear. As the gear was made from plastic, I just trimmed it a bit with a knife until the clip went in. Then the gear was placed over the drive shaft and locked in place. Unfortunately I also noticed that the  yoke seal that I bought was too large. Most likely meant for TH400. After calling a few places I found the correct piece from Soini Car Parts. Phew! Without the correct new seal, transmission fluid would most likely leak out and we couldn't leave the car to the garage.

Reassembling the transmission went quickly now that we had all the parts. We also noticed that the U-joint behind the transmission had been installed incorrectly before. It was little off from the right position. Naturally we corrected this and put everything back in place.

Then we finally had to get the hood open for the oil change. After fighting some time, we finally got it open by loosening the hood bolts through the wheel opening. We checked what was the problem and found that the pin holding the hood release cable had broken off! This was most likely the cause of the strange noise during the drive to the garage. No wonder the locks would not open. We replaced the pin and the hood release cable worked again...

Then it was time for the final small tasks. We poured new oil to the engine and added a few inch risers to the rear spring. Now the exhaust wouldn't hit the ground in every bump in the road...

And then everything was finally done! We couldn't drive the car yet because the temporary plates were for the next day. We went home to relax and barbecue for a while and intended to return after midnight to drive the car back to my friends place.