Final Winter Project 2020-2021

[Jr. Corvette]

Car looks awesome. Been there done that with special tri-colour Crimson Pearl paint on my 1928 Ford closed cab pick up street rod. Luckily for me had a friend who owns a body shop and he is a PPG authorized mix shop. So after I had spent 5,000 hours building, he painted my truck and all its pieces separately, therefore I had none of your problems. As the others here have said about the paint shop's lack of responsibilty it is terrible, but you still have a beautiful and very exclusive car.
By the way, I hope you put "anti seize" on your stainless bolts. If not, I suggest you remove them and add anti seize, otherwise you may have problems down the road if you have to remove them. They will lock so bad the bolt will break before you can remove the nut. By the way your idea of bluing them is totally unique. Well done, it is the detailing that counts!
View attachment 87718

View attachment 87717



View attachment 87716

Thank you very much!!! For the positive words as well as the great advice. I was worried about the stainless bolts as you are right they may experience galvanic corrosion. I was planning on using anti seize but I completely forgot!

Awesome job! Could we get a little video of the car so we can hear her?

Thanks Matt. I will post a video of it once I get the car back and the dash installed.

 

[Cariboocreek]

The car looks great! Well done! Wish I had your skill set. (Mine is more in my signature photo....)

 

[nascar03]

Hi Cody… What an incredible job you have done .
I LOVE that car. Great colour, nice stance, well executed.
I’ve been following this on FB as well.
thanx for taking us on this ride.

graham

 

[YFCvii]

Only 1 hibernation away
from checking the beauty out
Live and in-person

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Thanks for all the positive words guys.

The car is currently at the body shop and unfortunately things aren't going great. I was given the estimate of $500 to repair the front seam. After the owner of the shop saw the car he said it looked worse then he thought so it would cost more to repair that than he estimated. I came down to the shop and after talking with the painters decided to just leave it and I would fix it and prime it over the winter and bring it back in the spring. My dad told me to consider getting it done because I would have to pay for another round trip of it being towed. So I asked the owner of the shop to provide me an estimate. He called me the next day and told me not to worry as it wouldn't be much more than he estimated just a few hours of labor more. He also told me he would give me a price later that day. Later that day he sent me a picture of my car already ground down and fiberglassed and never gave me a price or had my consent to start work. About a week later of them working on it, the car is all filled and sanded and just about ready for paint. I get a text from him with a picture of the car and he tells me he will give me the price later that day. He comes back and says it will be $2500. He said they were actually at $3200 but he would cap it at $2500 for me. Naturally I was shocked and told him it was more than I expected and that he never gave me this price before he started the work. I said this nicely of course as they still have my car and I want to get it back in one piece. He replied rather coarsely but said he'd drop the price to $2100 and told me this would be the last restoration project his shop did. After another text of stating that I was never told a price and that I saved him labor repainting and correcting all the over spray on the rear suspension and how I came by the shop and spent an hour removing all the body parts they needed to paint the car he said, "How about you take the car as is and we call it even." Wow, so take the car now in filler on the front end as is and call it even?? I reluctantly agreed to the $2100 and told him to just paint the car.

So, now I'm stuck paying $2100 for work I never consented to and for a price I was never given. Not a bad price but I really wasn't prepared to spend that right now as I've barely worked 40 hours in the past month. I'm also worried about the car now if his response was to just take the car as is. I almost regret saying anything at all for fear of them destroying my car. I just hope it's done properly and I can get it back in one piece.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Thanks for all the positive words guys.

The car is currently at the body shop and unfortunately things aren't going great. I was given the estimate of $500 to repair the front seam. After the owner of the shop saw the car he said it looked worse then he thought so it would cost more to repair that than he estimated. I came down to the shop and after talking with the painters decided to just leave it and I would fix it and prime it over the winter and bring it back in the spring. My dad told me to consider getting it done because I would have to pay for another round trip of it being towed. So I asked the owner of the shop to provide me an estimate. He called me the next day and told me not to worry as it wouldn't be much more than he estimated just a few hours of labor more. He also told me he would give me a price later that day. Later that day he sent me a picture of my car already ground down and fiberglassed and never gave me a price or had my consent to start work. About a week later of them working on it, the car is all filled and sanded and just about ready for paint. I get a text from him with a picture of the car and he tells me he will give me the price later that day. He comes back and says it will be $2500. He said they were actually at $3200 but he would cap it at $2500 for me. Naturally I was shocked and told him it was more than I expected and that he never gave me this price before he started the work. I said this nicely of course as they still have my car and I want to get it back in one piece. He replied rather coarsely but said he'd drop the price to $2100 and told me this would be the last restoration project his shop did. After another text of stating that I was never told a price and that I saved him labor repainting and correcting all the over spray on the rear suspension and how I came by the shop and spent an hour removing all the body parts they needed to paint the car he said, "How about you take the car as is and we call it even." Wow, so take the car now in filler on the front end as is and call it even?? I reluctantly agreed to the $2100 and told him to just paint the car.

So, now I'm stuck paying $2100 for work I never consented to and for a price I was never given. Not a bad price but I really wasn't prepared to spend that right now as I've barely worked 40 hours in the past month. I'm also worried about the car now if his response was to just take the car as is. I almost regret saying anything at all for fear of them destroying my car. I just hope it's done properly and I can get it back in one piece.

Sorry to hear all this Cody. Too little too late we sometimes get burned in life. Shame it was this big ticket item for you. But, we live and learn. Get your baby, do whatever you need to do to finish it and put this behind you.

 

[YFCvii]

Wow Cody ….
Hold on to the course of decision(s) that you make with a “gut feel”. Yes, we all like a reduced price response as long as it comes with the assurance of no compromise(s) whatsoever. I pray you can come out of this experience with a higher level of acceptability than what it might feel for you at this moment. Those who you know well in your Corvette Circle will never be critical of this restoration endeavour that you have managed.
The Business you are employing for refinishing will have more to lose by not satisfying you. To be even hinted by the owner that the relationship will end - will be is to his detriment with loss of referrals alone. Referrals can bring more income to a business than the value of a single project-at-hand. Keep us posted.

 

[Fred J]

What a fantastic ride Cody, following along on your posts. I learned a lot and makes me want to finally do something with my other C3. The mods you came up with and the way you accomplished them were something to be very proud of. The effort, work and attention to detail was fantastic. Well done my man! Can't wait to see it on the road....

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys!

So I finally got the car back last Thursday. The front end looks great and they've fix the seam. They fiberglassed the front with 3 layers and amazingly you could still see the seam. We found out anytime that front end got hot the seam would show. Even sunlight sinning on it was enough to expose the seam. So I suggested they sand the area while it was hot (with a heat lamp) to allow them to sand down the seam. That seamed to work... Lol. They still primed that section three times and sanded it down, then lifted the front end and painted the entire front clip and headlight housings. Then they finished wet sanding and power polishing the entire car.

Unfortunately they didn't get to the engine bay but offered to come by and fix it for me. I attempted to wet sand and polish the area which was working but because it was a single stage paint it was too thin in some areas so I have to respray it. I have taken off the latches, wiper motor and all the other little bits and sanded that area in the engine bay. The shop is going to give me 2k primer, paint, and clear so I can do it properly.

All in all it's hard for me to be too mad at the shop. Yes they went ahead with the work without my permission or telling me a price but the amount of work that went into what they did far exceeded the price I paid. I'm very happy with how everything turned out.

I'm still in the process of reassembling everything so I'll post some more pictures once I'm finished painting the engine bay and correcting over spray that got on the engine. I have about half of the engine bay clean but wanted to finish painting before I clean the rest. I'm also relocating the inline fuses and relays that are mounted on the fender and installing a small fuse box in the engine bay that I will mount near the firewall.

This project looks like it'll be extending into this winter a little bit! In addition to reassembling I'm going to be installing upgraded tie rods sleeves as I don't want the originals breaking with the 275 tires. I'm also going to upgrade my rear spindles which are currently those cheap imported ones, to 31 spline spindles from Tom's Differentials so they won't snap with the 325's. Trying not to spend much this winter but I have to upgrade these areas as they are safety hazards.

 

[2vettes]

The car and Wngine bay look great. Like a lot, my drivers seat back falls to far back. Can you tell me where I can get new Seats complete?

 

[turbozig]

Looks beautiful Cody. You should be very proud of your accomplishment.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Every bit of sweat and love you put into this build shows tenfold Cody. Be proud man. I did notice a dark smudge on the passenger side fender but my finger wiped it off. hmmmm... It may have been on my screen I'm thinking now...

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

It's has been a while since I posted an update so there's quite a lot to cover.

I finished painting the engine bay. Decided to paint it body color instead of black. The body shop provided me with the paint and some primer and clear coat. Unfortunately I ran into an issue with both the primer and clear coat which caused me to have to repaint one section 4 times. Only on the fourth try did I buy a new can of clear coat which fixed my problems with crazing.

I also redid most of my engine bay wiring and wired in a fuse box. I installed a post on the rear of the fuse box in the wiper compartment for power and ran a 4 gauge wire from the alternator to the post for all of my power connections.

I reinstalled the side skirt, lower valance panel, and center spoiler. I made some custom side grill inserts out of the same aluminum mesh that I made the grills and hood grills out of. To mount the grills I cut some pieces of abs plastic, bent them to shape, and glued them to certain locations inside the side vents to hold the grill in place. Then I glued an elevator bolt to the bottom of the vent and made another plastic mount that bolts into place to hold the grill up. This way the grill simply slides into place and can be removed if needed.

I made some rear strut plates to replace my camber bolts and zinc plated them. With the camber bolts it didn't matter how tight they were I would also get a little movement after running it for awhile. With these plates the strut rods will stay at the same angle so my camber would change.

I had to remove my exhaust because it was touching my leaf spring. Unfortunately my buddy didn't realize that until the car was on the trailer and I showed him. So I marked the exhaust and pulled it off for him to fix over the winter. With the exhaust off I installed some lava shield in the exhaust exists of the car to protect the bumper from the heat. The lava shield has actual crushed lava rock in it and it's the same stuff I used on my firewall. Ironically the name Agate in my paint color (Porsche Agate Grey) is a rock found in ancient lavas. Combine that it the interior color Flame Red and it's quite the volcano theme!

I got my dash back from my upholsterer. Just to recap I left the LH dash in place while the car was being painted and one tech was a little rough with the dash and punctured it down the side. So I booked my dash in with the upholstery shop a month in advance then waited another month and a bit after I brought it in. They weren't able to rewrap it because they already did it once and the glue was causing the plastic dash to crack when they tried to remove it so they preformed a repair on it instead. He didn't charge me for the work due to the long wait time but I also noticed black gunk all over the dash (like glue residue) and I pointed that out to him but he said he just cleaned it.... I brought it home and tried all the cleaner I had but nothing worked. I then tried some isopropyl alcohol and that did the trick. However it also started to remove the paint from the repair. I also noticed red paint all over my gauge lenses, gauge surrounds, knobs, and brand new vent ball. When the upholsterer was painting the repair he didn't bother to mask the dash and over sprayed the whole thing... So I had to repaint the surrounds, vent ball, and clean the gauge lenses and dash knobs. In the end though I was left with a dash that looked better than it did before. I also took some time and cleaned and zinc plated some brackets on the dash. I also painted the inside of the gauges with duplicolor chrome paint to get rid of the blue hue in the dash gauges and get a brighter white reflection with my with LED's.

Now I'm working on my steering column. This was one of the first parts I painted when I got my car and being that I was 15, I didn't do a great job. The color was wrong and the surface finish was really bad. I started with the bottom of the column and cleaned the steering shaft and zinc brush plated it and painted part of it black. I installed a new lower ball bearing and zinc plated the new ball bearing retainer. Now I'm just in the process of disassembling the upper part of the steering column so I can strip and paint the interior pieces.

I also bought a new steering wheel! It's real carbon fiber/leather and is a flat bottom shape. I had some spare vinyl kicking around so I made my first attempt at upholstery and made some red accents for it and glued and stitched them into place.

I'm also going to be making some carbon fiber parts this year which include door sills and an air filter lid. Which should go well with the carbon fiber steering wheel. One day I'd also like to get some carbon fiber sparco seats to complete the carbon theme.

Lastly I finally had the chance to try my new car cover and it just barely fit over all the modifications. Sure makes the car look exotic too.

Lots of exciting things happening this winter!

 

[OL Yeller]

Awesome job...Great work...I only wish I had half the skill and patience. Your car is going to be the best looking C3 in all of Alberta, hell probally the whole country.

 

[turbozig]

Beautiful Cody!! I like the fuse box location and main power tap. Looks very professional on all fronts. So you painted all the blue backlit areas on your gauges with chrome paint? How does it look when lit at night with the white LEDs? I can't wait to see it all in person. You realize how many questions you are going to have at all the cruises and meets. Very cool customization and kudos on taking on all the challenges.

 

[1 BAD 9T9]

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

It's has been a while since I posted an update so there's quite a lot to cover.

I finished painting the engine bay. Decided to paint it body color instead of black. The body shop provided me with the paint and some primer and clear coat. Unfortunately I ran into an issue with both the primer and clear coat which caused me to have to repaint one section 4 times. Only on the fourth try did I buy a new can of clear coat which fixed my problems with crazing.

I also redid most of my engine bay wiring and wired in a fuse box. I installed a post on the rear of the fuse box in the wiper compartment for power and ran a 4 gauge wire from the alternator to the post for all of my power connections.

I reinstalled the side skirt, lower valance panel, and center spoiler. I made some custom side grill inserts out of the same aluminum mesh that I made the grills and hood grills out of. To mount the grills I cut some pieces of abs plastic, bent them to shape, and glued them to certain locations inside the side vents to hold the grill in place. Then I glued an elevator bolt to the bottom of the vent and made another plastic mount that bolts into place to hold the grill up. This way the grill simply slides into place and can be removed if needed.

I made some rear strut plates to replace my camber bolts and zinc plated them. With the camber bolts it didn't matter how tight they were I would also get a little movement after running it for awhile. With these plates the strut rods will stay at the same angle so my camber would change.

I had to remove my exhaust because it was touching my leaf spring. Unfortunately my buddy didn't realize that until the car was on the trailer and I showed him. So I marked the exhaust and pulled it off for him to fix over the winter. With the exhaust off I installed some lava shield in the exhaust exists of the car to protect the bumper from the heat. The lava shield has actual crushed lava rock in it and it's the same stuff I used on my firewall. Ironically the name Agate in my paint color (Porsche Agate Grey) is a rock found in ancient lavas. Combine that it the interior color Flame Red and it's quite the volcano theme!

I got my dash back from my upholsterer. Just to recap I left the LH dash in place while the car was being painted and one tech was a little rough with the dash and punctured it down the side. So I booked my dash in with the upholstery shop a month in advance then waited another month and a bit after I brought it in. They weren't able to rewrap it because they already did it once and the glue was causing the plastic dash to crack when they tried to remove it so they preformed a repair on it instead. He didn't charge me for the work due to the long wait time but I also noticed black gunk all over the dash (like glue residue) and I pointed that out to him but he said he just cleaned it.... I brought it home and tried all the cleaner I had but nothing worked. I then tried some isopropyl alcohol and that did the trick. However it also started to remove the paint from the repair. I also noticed red paint all over my gauge lenses, gauge surrounds, knobs, and brand new vent ball. When the upholsterer was painting the repair he didn't bother to mask the dash and over sprayed the whole thing... So I had to repaint the surrounds, vent ball, and clean the gauge lenses and dash knobs. In the end though I was left with a dash that looked better than it did before. I also took some time and cleaned and zinc plated some brackets on the dash. I also painted the inside of the gauges with duplicolor chrome paint to get rid of the blue hue in the dash gauges and get a brighter white reflection with my with LED's.

Now I'm working on my steering column. This was one of the first parts I painted when I got my car and being that I was 15, I didn't do a great job. The color was wrong and the surface finish was really bad. I started with the bottom of the column and cleaned the steering shaft and zinc brush plated it and painted part of it black. I installed a new lower ball bearing and zinc plated the new ball bearing retainer. Now I'm just in the process of disassembling the upper part of the steering column so I can strip and paint the interior pieces.

I also bought a new steering wheel! It's real carbon fiber/leather and is a flat bottom shape. I had some spare vinyl kicking around so I made my first attempt at upholstery and made some red accents for it and glued and stitched them into place.

I'm also going to be making some carbon fiber parts this year which include door sills and an air filter lid. Which should go well with the carbon fiber steering wheel. One day I'd also like to get some carbon fiber sparco seats to complete the carbon theme.

Lastly I finally had the chance to try my new car cover and it just barely fit over all the modifications. Sure makes the car look exotic too.

Lots of exciting things happening this winter!

Looks fabulous and the detail is amazing. "Best in show" coming up but don't be afraid to drive it, really drive it and share with the envious locals! In my books it should not be a trailer queen. Congrats.....Peter

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Beautiful Cody!! I like the fuse box location and main power tap. Looks very professional on all fronts. So you painted all the blue backlit areas on your gauges with chrome paint? How does it look when lit at night with the white LEDs? I can't wait to see it all in person. You realize how many questions you are going to have at all the cruises and meets. Very cool customization and kudos on taking on all the challenges.

Thanks!!

Ya, it's chrome paint but actually looks more like a zinc finish. I did some testing and found that the chrome like finish produced a slightly brighter white glow on the gauges than the blue finish. I also found that because it was more reflective it seemed to reduce bright spots on the gauges and made it look more uniform. I went this route
instead of LED strip lights because with strip lights if there is a light failure it's a much bigger job to fix it. Haven't tested it at night yet but I will post some pictures once I can test that.

 

[YFCvii]

Would you recommend the upholstery source you used. Is it a Company that can do an entire interior. I have a project … hoping yours might be one that I am waiting to fit into their schedule …. But this is my first complete upholstery project. I need one experienced to do all the removal and refitment. Thx in advance

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Would you recommend the upholstery source you used. Is it a Company that can do an entire interior. I have a project … hoping yours might be one that I am waiting to fit into their schedule …. But this is my first complete upholstery project. Thx in advance

I did the steering wheel upholstery myself. The shop I used before was Degreeve in Calgary and I would not recommend them. Took over two months and absolutely wreaked my dash.

 

[YFCvii]

I did the steering wheel upholstery myself. The shop I used before was Degreeve in Calgary and I would not recommend them. Took over two months and absolutely wreaked my dash.

Thank you …
It’s the same shop - dang … I must reconsider now. Old school workmanship from what I saw but it must be done to satisfaction. Interior parts cannot be resourced and can only be recovered. A $9k+ project.
Appreciate your word