My 1969 Corvette Project

The Saga Continues

November 10, 2000

Well a little problem held me up. As I was assembling the rear suspension and drive-train, I notice things were not lining up just right. As I investigated and took some measurements, I realized that the rear of the frame was misaligned. I should have been suspicious when I saw that the differential mounting holes in the cross-member had been slotted. It appeared the rear section of the frame, behind the damage I repaired, was pushed over about one inch at the rear-most end of the frame. Fortunately, it appeared that the misalignment was isolated to the rear section, and could probably be bent back.

I had a tough time finding a shop which would tackle the job. Finally, a local body shop was able to align the frame, after searching for frame dimensions for two days. They told me it took a chain of phone calls and other shop referrals. They did a great job, and hardly scratched the paint.

November 20, 2000

I used stainless steel jacketed flex lines for all of the calipers. I was not crazy about how the fittings adapted to the frame mounts, because it was not identical to the previous mounting, but it fit.

The new mounting allows for possible rotational movement at the frame mounting point, but actual rotation is impossible without putting some twist in the stationary portion of the brake line. Since it is a flex line it should take any rotation forces before the fixed line sees any significant load. I also cleaned up the brake switch block and installed all stainless steel lines.

I am also not happy about the brake line fits at the rear. The flex line runs close to the parking brake cable. This may be caused by the offset trailing arms I am using. The new stainless steel parking brake cable is very stiff and hard to bend into position. It also looks like it will rub on the edge of the trailing arm. I will have to keep an eye on this.

Here is a shot of the front of the rolling chassis. It looks pretty good.

December 3, 2000

I got the half shafts in. The only problem I had was the installation of the U-joints. I ruined one using the vise method.

I put the shocks back in and hooked up the lower strut rods. To get thing to line up properly, I had to disconnect the leaf spring. This allowed the chassis to drop into a normal ride position. I will not be able to connect the leaf spring until I get the body on, to provide some additional weight to load the spring.

Here is a shot of the rolling chassis as it sits now.

I pulled the old tank out, and began to clean it up. The inside of the tanks looks clean, but I think I will treat it anyway. I am unsure how to deal with the outside, but I am considering a coat of primer, with a top coat of that tar like sound deadener. The underside of the tank was coated with the stuff already, and it seemed to hold up well.

I forgot to mention that there was a partially intact tank sticker on the top of the tank. I cleaned it as best as I could, and copied the information I could read.

The sticker confirmed everything that I had been told about the car. Unfortunately, I could not read all of the information, including the dealer information, which would have been very helpful in tracking down information regarding the history of this car.