This is a photo chronicle of the restoration of my BB Corvette. Body was removed to restore the chassis and mechanical components. It is a matching numbers car that was in need of some TLC.
Incredible attention to detail, it's nice to see someone who truly cares about a proper restoration. I had a 71 C3 454 automatic roadster when I was in the service. I traded it in for a new Honda at the time. I don't know what I was thinking. It still bums me out that I did it. Don't ever let anyone pressure you into getting rid of that beautiful Corvette. You've done a remarkable job with it.
This is an insanely detail oriented restoration. Would love to see more finished photos. Most of us could only dream of having this type of dedication and precision for any project in our life. Excellent work.
Thank you. Just create some spreaders with 2x4’s so the straps aren’t contacting the body. Keep it balanced, go slow and don’t forget to disconnect the negative battery cable. If it is a convertible be sure to make some bracing across the cabin because of flex front to rear.
Thanks Jerod. That is terrific that you are restoring one also. I don't know what your end goal is but try to reuse as many original parts as you can. I don't have a way to upload photos to the web, but maybe I can figure something out or I can send you a DVD. Try to find as many inspection marks as you can and take photos so you can duplicate them when you get the components restored. I used the NCRS Technical Information Manual and judging guide quite a bit & compared it to what I saw.
Mate great job. I just had a 72 imported from Showroom Classic Cars in Florida to Melbourne and its completely rusted chassis frame and suspension is stuffed . The guy was a total AR__HO__ about it .I cant get it on the road without a full chassis rebuild . Enjoy your beautiful machine.
Awsome!!!! I've got an 81 and love it! First car! An early C3 is still my dream car though, I obviously wasn't able to afford an early chrome bumper one, so I went with a later one! No regrets! These are such great cars! My tech school has the shell of a 69 BB 4 speed, pretty cool even though it's just a shell!
An excellent job in your restoration. I love the attention to detail, it looks better than it did when it left the factory. I have always been curious about the signal light lenses on the '71's. My '71 coupe is a January build and it has amber lenses and your late production build has clear lenses. I'm wondering if one of the previous owners of my car replaced the lenses with amber. But, I also suppose there is no way to determine what the St Louis factory had in stock on any given day. I was under the impression that the early production cars used up all of the remaining clear lenses from the 1970 model year and when they were gone switched over to the '72 style amber lenses.
Meticulous resto. I have a 53 k all original convertible 71' 270 horse 4 speed. Great work. Love seeing the markings. My car was undercoated from the dealer when purchased. "Live in Chicago" A lot of my markings were covered in goo.
Nice Work, I was lucky I bought a 71 Californa car 500,000 miles on it from the original owner no rust. I replace the engine with an HP 383 430hp I went through the drivetrain for $10K still need to do front bushing and rubber otherwise very clean for a 49-year-old.
Wow...you have done an incredible job! Would it be possible to upload your library of high res digital photos to the web? I am restoring a 1971 Convertible for my father and it would be a huge help!
Thanks for the comment. Typically a good degreaser and sometimes a metal brightener work. Blasting with walnut shells is a good method. Glass beads will strip the paint and grime off quickly but tends to open the pores in the metal that will attract dirt and oils more quickly after the part is done. Try doing a search on aluminum re-skinning and you will find more info. Have fun with the restoration.
Beautiful... really a stunning job! Just one comment/question: Could it be that the shaft-levers on the transmission were installed in the wrong position as per your images? From memory, I think they needed to face downwards... I had them on the wrong way when I converted my 72 from AT to manual... quite interesting it had felt to take off in 2nd gear and then shift into first ;-)
You did an amazing job restoring this beautiful Corvette. I can see you are a perfectionist and I love that. Are you a professional car mechanic? How long did it take you to finish this project? I would love to do the same thing one day. Do you think this is possible for someone who is not a professional car mechanic? I would have liked to see more photos of the finished car.
Thank you for the kind words. I am not a professional mechanic, it is more of an intermittent hobby. This car took two years and I ran into periods where I lacked the motivation to continue. If you are mechanically inclined, you can do it. You can farm out the work for the more difficult tasks if you need to. Take your time, plan out the project and break it down into smaller sub -categories. Re-use the original components if they are still serviceable. There was a lot of cleaning before the fun part of reassembling all of the restored parts.
You’re correct. The hard part is cleaning and restoring all the parts in preparation for final assembly. Assembly of the clean and restored parts is the most fun.
How do you keep track of all the parts?..lol...You must have a great inventory system! Really nice...I'd love a ' 69....(Watching this makes me want to sell my sky redline : ) ) Ps. How long did this restoration take?
I am also restoring a 1971 corvette. However its a SB 350/270 convertible and I have decided to perform a frame on restoration. I have been at it for 4 months and think I should of did a frame off like yourself. How long did it take you to do the restoration and did you purchase new parts or restore the original ones. By the way love your video you did a great job.
Two years. I restored the original parts if they were still serviceable. I had to put it back together before we moved. Have fun with your 71. It is alot of work to plan and get it all to come together.
I see you're still watching this. Very nice project. A question. You put vast amounts of effort into the chassis restoration. But I assume you didn't separate the birdcage from the body panels. Any worry that it had rust issues and needed the same treatment as the chassis?
Hello. I try to keep up with the comments but sometimes I do not do a very good job. You are correct I did not separate those items and yes it needed some attention around the A pillars. We moved shortly after the chassis was complete and I needed to mount the body to transport the car.
+Rusty Rooster If I remember correctly the exhaust manifolds were jet hot coated. I have used cast blast in the past and they look good for awhile. The transmission is just the raw casting after being cleaned up. The driveshaft and half shafts were cleaned to the bare metal. Stencils applied and then clear coated with gloss on the tubes and with matte on the end yokes to prevent future rust.
Congrats , you did and excellent job. DO you mind sharing what kind of manual/material you used to keep track of parts and assembly and disassembly? I have a 1980 Corvette in need of much work and was planning to do a restoration similar to what you did.I purchased the Factory Assembly Manual and the Haynes book (limited help) - I hope this is enough info for what Im planning to do.
+clima Hello. I used a combination of the Assembly Manual, NCRS Judging Manual, Corvette Fact book and the Corvette Chassis Restoration Guide 53-72. When there were discrepancies I looked at what was on the car and went with that data versus trying to make it into something the Judging Manual defined. An example of this would be bolt finish - black phosphate vs. cadmium. This car was a late production unit and differed slightly from printed material references as the '72 models were coming into production. A camera and spiral notebook are handy for tracking your progress and jogging the memory many months later.
Great info, I will look into those books/manuals. Did the NCRS had more info or details than the assembly manual? In general, what did you used the NCRS manual for?
+clima The A.I.M. is very detailed as you know and once you figure out which section you need to be in for optional equipment like C60 for A.C. it is a great reference for torque values and part numbers. The NCRS manual is more a collection of known data from production cars that have been judged. It does have some part numbers and sketches in it and is a valuable tool for restoration. It is broken down into sections like interior, exterior and mechanical and will cover details like seat belt labels, radio knobs, stitching, differential tags, radiator labels, etc. It is put together by enthusiasts. Hope this helps.
They came from various sources. Obviously somethings can't be restored or have a finite life such as o-rings, bushings, seals and rubber parts and tubing. If something couldn't be restored and needed to be replaced I bought stuff from various places. Wiring harnesses came from M&H. Master cylinder, brake and fuel lines came from Corvette Stainless Steel Brakes. Miscellaneous small parts, sway bar kit and bushings came from Paragon. Fuel tank, engine belts, chassis marking kit and rear spring rebuild kit came from Quanta. Cotter pin set from Corvette Central. Exhaust came from Gardner (Not sure if they still have a photo of my chassis on their website or not). Dr. Rebuild for the heater core foam and AC ducting felt seals. Local GM dealer for some switches and bushings. NOS vacuum can and distributor cap off of ebay. Some restoration services from NCRS people. John Pirkle did the alternator overhaul. Richard Fortier replated all of bolts. Bair's Corvette overhauled the t-arms, a-rms and differential. Vintage Air overhauled the AC compressor. You will spend some time trying to find the correct parts or NOS parts if you need them. Hope this helps.
SO did you clean, sand blast and put new parts into the original parts of the car, like the transmission, Diff, suspension, or did you buy new parts, like a new diff, new gear box, and new suspensions parts and put them on the frame ?
I restored the original parts. If an individual component was worn out in an assembly such as a bearing or rubber bushing it was replaced. Lots of cleaning, sand blasting and documenting.
There was a combination of a media blasting cabinet, wire wheel and degreaser/solvent. It just depended on the part. Parts were then wiped down before painting.
Have you ever heard the term do dot fix it if it is not broken. If you use a car it will get nasty underneath. There was nothing wrong with it. Was the engine or transmission acting up? Why would you take them apart? If it is original and functional leave it alone.
Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned from all public streets in entire EU, CH and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke criminality......
Awesome vette
Restoring my low mile, numbers matching 72 LT-1 convertible...really appreciate your video and documentation techniques. Thank you!
Incredible attention to detail, it's nice to see someone who truly cares about a proper restoration. I had a 71 C3 454 automatic roadster when I was in the service. I traded it in for a new Honda at the time. I don't know what I was thinking. It still bums me out that I did it. Don't ever let anyone pressure you into getting rid of that beautiful Corvette. You've done a remarkable job with it.
Thanks buddy.
Money talks 😁
This is an insanely detail oriented restoration. Would love to see more finished photos. Most of us could only dream of having this type of dedication and precision for any project in our life. Excellent work.
Incredible detailed job! I did frame off for my 75 and now i'm restoring parts of my 72 with frame on.
Absolutely awesome. I'd love to see a video of it driving! Your work is unparalleled!
Great restoration. any tricks to pulliing the body with an engine hoist.
Thank you. Just create some spreaders with 2x4’s so the straps aren’t contacting the body. Keep it balanced, go slow and don’t forget to disconnect the negative battery cable. If it is a convertible be sure to make some bracing across the cabin because of flex front to rear.
Very nicely documented and excellent workmanship. Thank you for sharing this.
That is just absolutely amazing! Great work.
Thank you very much!
Thanks Jerod. That is terrific that you are restoring one also. I don't know what your end goal is but try to reuse as many original parts as you can. I don't have a way to upload photos to the web, but maybe I can figure something out or I can send you a DVD. Try to find as many inspection marks as you can and take photos so you can duplicate them when you get the components restored. I used the NCRS Technical Information Manual and judging guide quite a bit & compared it to what I saw.
Just Astonishing !
Thanks for sharing, congrats you did a magnificent work ! =)
Mate great job.
I just had a 72 imported from Showroom Classic Cars in Florida to Melbourne and its completely rusted chassis frame and suspension is stuffed . The guy was a total AR__HO__ about it .I cant get it on the road without a full chassis rebuild .
Enjoy your beautiful machine.
Wow must have cost a small fortune plus you have hands of gold . Have a so so 80 I love it God bless you you are gifted
Thank you for the comment.
Awsome!!!! I've got an 81 and love it! First car! An early C3 is still my dream car though, I obviously wasn't able to afford an early chrome bumper one, so I went with a later one! No regrets! These are such great cars! My tech school has the shell of a 69 BB 4 speed, pretty cool even though it's just a shell!
@@daveb1081 I'm so eager to find a 69! My wife was born in 69, so that's a personal thing between us 😁
An excellent job in your restoration. I love the attention to detail, it looks better than it did when it left the factory. I have always been curious about the signal light lenses on the '71's. My '71 coupe is a January build and it has amber lenses and your late production build has clear lenses. I'm wondering if one of the previous owners of my car replaced the lenses with amber. But, I also suppose there is no way to determine what the St Louis factory had in stock on any given day. I was under the impression that the early production cars used up all of the remaining clear lenses from the 1970 model year and when they were gone switched over to the '72 style amber lenses.
Thank you.
I owned a 71 LS5 for many years--a wonderful car, very fast.
Very nice!
Très belle auto et bon travail, félicitations ...
Meticulous resto. I have a 53 k all original convertible 71' 270 horse 4 speed. Great work. Love seeing the markings. My car was undercoated from the dealer when purchased. "Live in Chicago" A lot of my markings were covered in goo.
Beautiful job.
thank you for the photos. i bought one disassembled
Cool. Have fun with your project.
I brought this car back from Beaumont Texas in 1991
Great video, my only criticism is that there was no photo of the finished product. I really wanted to see how the whole car looked at the end.
Just beautiful!
Excellent! Thank you.
Thank you.
Stunning!
Work of art.
Thank you! Lot's of time and research.
Nice Work, I was lucky I bought a 71 Californa car 500,000 miles on it from the original owner no rust. I replace the engine with an HP 383 430hp I went through the drivetrain for $10K still need to do front bushing and rubber otherwise very clean for a 49-year-old.
Very nice!
Wow...you have done an incredible job! Would it be possible to upload your library of high res digital photos to the web? I am restoring a 1971 Convertible for my father and it would be a huge help!
Awesome Video
Yes, yes, yes, professional!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks guys
Excellent video!!! I am doing the same thing to my 81 Corvette. Gear your transmission came out beautiful, what did you do to clean up the case?
Thanks for the comment. Typically a good degreaser and sometimes a metal brightener work. Blasting with walnut shells is a good method. Glass beads will strip the paint and grime off quickly but tends to open the pores in the metal that will attract dirt and oils more quickly after the part is done. Try doing a search on aluminum re-skinning and you will find more info. Have fun with the restoration.
Beautiful... really a stunning job! Just one comment/question: Could it be that the shaft-levers on the transmission were installed in the wrong position as per your images? From memory, I think they needed to face downwards... I had them on the wrong way when I converted my 72 from AT to manual... quite interesting it had felt to take off in 2nd gear and then shift into first ;-)
Amazing work! Do you still have the car?
I no longer have the car. Thank you
Excellent
I hope my after photos are as good as this cars before photos?
You did an amazing job restoring this beautiful Corvette. I can see you are a perfectionist and I love that. Are you a professional car mechanic? How long did it take you to finish this project? I would love to do the same thing one day. Do you think this is possible for someone who is not a professional car mechanic? I would have liked to see more photos of the finished car.
Thank you for the kind words. I am not a professional mechanic, it is more of an intermittent hobby. This car took two years and I ran into periods where I lacked the motivation to continue. If you are mechanically inclined, you can do it. You can farm out the work for the more difficult tasks if you need to. Take your time, plan out the project and break it down into smaller sub -categories. Re-use the original components if they are still serviceable. There was a lot of cleaning before the fun part of reassembling all of the restored parts.
You’re correct. The hard part is cleaning and restoring all the parts in preparation for final assembly. Assembly of the clean and restored parts is the most fun.
How do you keep track of all the parts?..lol...You must have a great inventory system!
Really nice...I'd love a ' 69....(Watching this makes me want to sell my sky redline : ) )
Ps. How long did this restoration take?
I am also restoring a 1971 corvette. However its a SB 350/270 convertible and I have decided to perform a frame on restoration. I have been at it for 4 months and think I should of did a frame off like yourself. How long did it take you to do the restoration and did you purchase new parts or restore the original ones. By the way love your video you did a great job.
Two years. I restored the original parts if they were still serviceable. I had to put it back together before we moved. Have fun with your 71. It is alot of work to plan and get it all to come together.
I see you're still watching this. Very nice project.
A question. You put vast amounts of effort into the chassis restoration. But I assume you didn't separate the birdcage from the body panels. Any worry that it had rust issues and needed the same treatment as the chassis?
Hello. I try to keep up with the comments but sometimes I do not do a very good job. You are correct I did not separate those items and yes it needed some attention around the A pillars. We moved shortly after the chassis was complete and I needed to mount the body to transport the car.
@@GearSwinger Thanks for getting back to me. Did you ever get around to that work? How's the car holding up?
I sold the car and I am not sure what he did with it.
8:50, wheres the other half of the cotter pin?
Bent and nipped
At 14:42? It's installed correctly.
Cool vid!
Thanks for the comment
Very impressive indeed. Can you tell me what size tires you have on the car. And do they rub anywhere when turning? Thanx
Hi there was no rubbing.
235/60-15 Front
245/60-15 Rear
What did you use on the exhaust manifolds, transmission and drive shafts for finish? Amazing job on this car!!
+Rusty Rooster If I remember correctly the exhaust manifolds were jet hot coated. I have used cast blast in the past and they look good for awhile. The transmission is just the raw casting after being cleaned up. The driveshaft and half shafts were cleaned to the bare metal. Stencils applied and then clear coated with gloss on the tubes and with matte on the end yokes to prevent future rust.
Congrats , you did and excellent job.
DO you mind sharing what kind of manual/material you used to keep track of parts and assembly and disassembly? I have a 1980 Corvette in need of much work and was planning to do a restoration similar to what you did.I purchased the Factory Assembly Manual and the Haynes book (limited help) - I hope this is enough info for what Im planning to do.
+clima Hello. I used a combination of the Assembly Manual, NCRS Judging Manual, Corvette Fact book and the Corvette Chassis Restoration Guide 53-72. When there were discrepancies I looked at what was on the car and went with that data versus trying to make it into something the Judging Manual defined. An example of this would be bolt finish - black phosphate vs. cadmium. This car was a late production unit and differed slightly from printed material references as the '72 models were coming into production. A camera and spiral notebook are handy for tracking your progress and jogging the memory many months later.
Great info, I will look into those books/manuals. Did the NCRS had more info or details than the assembly manual? In general, what did you used the NCRS manual for?
+clima The A.I.M. is very detailed as you know and once you figure out which section you need to be in for optional equipment like C60 for A.C. it is a great reference for torque values and part numbers. The NCRS manual is more a collection of known data from production cars that have been judged. It does have some part numbers and sketches in it and is a valuable tool for restoration. It is broken down into sections like interior, exterior and mechanical and will cover details like seat belt labels, radio knobs, stitching, differential tags, radiator labels, etc. It is put together by enthusiasts. Hope this helps.
+GearSwinger thanks for your time. It has been really helpful.
+clima You bet. Have fun with your project.
Awesome !
Thanks!
Can I ask ..... where did you buy all your new parts from?
They came from various sources. Obviously somethings can't be restored or have a finite life such as o-rings, bushings, seals and rubber parts and tubing. If something couldn't be restored and needed to be replaced I bought stuff from various places. Wiring harnesses came from M&H. Master cylinder, brake and fuel lines came from Corvette Stainless Steel Brakes. Miscellaneous small parts, sway bar kit and bushings came from Paragon. Fuel tank, engine belts, chassis marking kit and rear spring rebuild kit came from Quanta. Cotter pin set from Corvette Central. Exhaust came from Gardner (Not sure if they still have a photo of my chassis on their website or not). Dr. Rebuild for the heater core foam and AC ducting felt seals. Local GM dealer for some switches and bushings. NOS vacuum can and distributor cap off of ebay. Some restoration services from NCRS people. John Pirkle did the alternator overhaul. Richard Fortier replated all of bolts. Bair's Corvette overhauled the t-arms, a-rms and differential. Vintage Air overhauled the AC compressor. You will spend some time trying to find the correct parts or NOS parts if you need them. Hope this helps.
@@GearSwinger awesome THANK YOU
That's great!
SO did you clean, sand blast and put new parts into the original parts of the car, like the transmission, Diff, suspension, or did you buy new parts, like a new diff, new gear box, and new suspensions parts and put them on the frame ?
I restored the original parts. If an individual component was worn out in an assembly such as a bearing or rubber bushing it was replaced. Lots of cleaning, sand blasting and documenting.
hi I just found your restoration pictures and I am wondering what and how did you clean up the parts before you painted them?
There was a combination of a media blasting cabinet, wire wheel and degreaser/solvent. It just depended on the part. Parts were then wiped down before painting.
How long did it take you?
2 years
This was MY car
If your initials are A.J. then yes. It now belongs to someone else.
Super!
Great great!
Thanks.
I would love to own this car............. is it for sale???
nice vette
How much did it cost you
I hope others do the same.
Have you ever heard the term do dot fix it if it is not broken. If you use a car it will get nasty underneath. There was nothing wrong with it. Was the engine or transmission acting up? Why would you take them apart? If it is original and functional leave it alone.
+Wayne Bryant Possibly if you reread the title of the video you are commenting on, you might be able to answer your own questions.
So much better than porn... Great job!
Sent you a private message through UA-cam!
Thanks!
Adding in Some 70’s porno music would have been great. Jk lol
European car that could race with the Chevy Corvette
seen on UA-cam :
Peugeot 207 swap v10 first ride
Peugeot 207/Lambo
Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned
from all public streets in entire EU, CH and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the
Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025
on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas
station per city or county. From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be
banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine
and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027
on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any
longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke criminality......
To bad the car is a automatic transmission car.
Muncie M20 4-speed RPO ZW4.