My '85 C4 restoration

[Skvitt]

Pretty certain now after following this, that the PO installed a kill switch. These were a kind of home made security to prevent someone driving off with the car and were quite popular to install at one time.

Hmmmm, very strange to have a NO push button to a NO relay. I will have to think on this some more. Hopefully someone out there will have a better idea.

Edit: Is the push button a momentary contact?

It is a momentary switch. But now I remember that GM cars from that era had another NO contact parallel to fuel pump relay - oil pressure switch. It was done for redundancy, if FP relay fails, than you can still drive the car as long as you have oil pressure. Perhaps that button was like "third line of defense"

 

[12cents]

It is a momentary switch. But now I remember that GM cars from that era had another NO contact parallel to fuel pump relay - oil pressure switch. It was done for redundancy, if FP relay fails, than you can still drive the car as long as you have oil pressure. Perhaps that button was like "third line of defense"

I had forgotten about that one. You could be right, maybe it was back-up or something used for troubleshooting a problem.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

it makes no sense. was done for another reason as a relay is cheaper than that setup.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Cross member behind driver seat is damaged, and brake line routing doesn't look very safe.

that brake line should pass through the notch. its to prevent a lift pad from crushing it.

 

[Skvitt]

Pulled door panels, ordered new carpets for them. Mice damage. Rear view mirror needed some attention too.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

to install the carpet, the easiest and most professional result ive been able to create is using 3m spray 90. nothing else. i have some pics on cf ill see if i can find them.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

ill copy and paste my post from cf below:

time to apply the carpet panels and i wasnt going to staple them
One of the things that was clear when I was rebuilding my door panel is that the Staples cause the ABS to fracture overtime.So with today's technology of 3M spray 90, that's what I was going to use. Note that I am not using spray 77, or spray 80. The only spray from 3M but I have found to be a permanent adhesive in the face of solarium level heating is the 3M spray 90 pictured here. Here's how I did it. My first application was on the top so I can handle it from the bottom. But I found actually is that after the five minute wait time for it to tack up it was actually handleable. But once you get it set up you can't take it off again. So you have to be prepared and I did many dry runs with no glue.

cleanup or a bit of overspray is easily cleaned with varsol as per instructions to clean the tip with varsol.

ive read these are a bear to install. this was really really easy with a few planning dry runs, 3m spray 90 w/ 5 min tacky time.

if you get any overspray that wraps around to the front of the vinyl under wrap, just use your varsol and wipe it comes right off.

you definitely do not need staples with 3M spray 90. In fact, I pity the next guy in another 20 years who has to change these.

I did not want to cut to the very edge of the whole.

next stop, hanging it on the door! Everything has now been fixed.

 

[Skvitt]

Thank you, looks good! Thank you for advise! I was looking at 3M 90 myself the other days. I'm going to order some from Amazon. Where did you get your carpets from? I ordered mine from Corvette Central. And after that I found they are available at RockAuto too.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Thank you, looks good! Thank you for advise! I was looking at 3M 90 myself the other days. I'm going to order some from Amazon. Where did you get your carpets from? I ordered mine from Corvette Central. And after that I found they are available at RockAuto too.

i purchased an entire kit from auto custom carpets on ebay.

1984 - 1987 Corvette C4 Coupe Molded Complete Carpet Set Cutpile w/Pad 12 Piece | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1984 - 1987 Corvette C4 Coupe Molded Complete Carpet Set Cutpile w/Pad 12 Piece at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.ca

carpet
your skinny on the pictures......but if your exterior paint looks GOOD then a set of NEW carpet is likely worth it, but i went the cheap route in terms of quality of carpet. its OK. it looks GREAT. but the quality of carpet is NOT even close to factory. i had a set of old sacrificial floor mats i used and put the new ones in right as i sold it because the new mats just didnt hold up.

Thats why in another message i mentioned to save your carpet if possible. infact this may sound strange but if i was on a budget, im at the point where id actually buy a few cans of SEM brand vinyl and carpet dye (its pretty much a special spray paint) in a matching color and spray it on and rub it in combing it so it doesn’t matte. there are videos of how to do it so it looks professional. u dont just layer the dye on and call it good. it takes finesse. i did it on my 87 that had graphite interior and it looked new when i was done.

but there are limitations obviously and your doors are a good example. cant change that.

you will likely want to do your entire interior now. granted, when its all done, it looks incredible!!

here are some pics of the interior with new carpet. honestly it looked AWESOME.

restoring a 1986 manual 4+3 "z31" PICS - CorvetteForum - Chevrolet Corvette Forum Discussion

C4 Tech/Performance - restoring a 1986 manual 4+3 "z31" PICS - One problem with one big thread is you dont get the exposure when new questions come up. so for many of the individual items ive repaired i made new threads for. here they are. : oil slime removal ideas:...

www.corvetteforum.com

and actually if u go to page 1 on that thread, there is a good info for as you go through your refurb.

 

[Skvitt]

Excellent write ups! Thank you for sharing. My plan is to save as much as possible of existing interior, get it ready for this summer. And then will see what to do next. I'll try to clean the carpet and seats. I hope I can get rid of some of that mice smell . Also, funny enough, I was thinking if there is some sort of carpet dye out there.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

here is the sem brand i used.

Color Coat™ Aerosols | aerosols | SEM Products

Color Coat™ restores or changes the color of most vinyl surfaces, flexible and rigid plastics, carpet and velour.

www.semproducts.com

for a match to the “graphite” interior, use sem “graphite”. for the early cars “light grey” interior, sem “titanium” was a match.

i assume u have blue interior. u will have to find an autobody supply shop (usually these guys are commercial and i think u can still go there even in ON right now?) to do a match. if you end up doing things like the center console lid, and arm rests on the doors, the key key KEY here is prep. i was BLOWN AWAY by the quality and adhesion. you COULD NOT scratch it off.

if you end up doing the black interior items, i used SEM “landau black”.

light coats! have fun! pics! we like pics!

one more thing, if you have vinyl that needs to be glued , i found “dap weldwood” was the only commercial grade level adhesive to use in those instances. im sure spray 90 would work but you couldnt control the spray. gotta let that contact cement fully dry or it wont work

if you need to add “backing” to any broken/cracked plastic....get very thin tin. i used tin chimney vent and cut to shape, i used paper first for template, then dap weldwood it to the bottom. that glue.....i would let it completly dry. then the two pieces were inseperable. thats how i repaired the door grab handles on the panel.

 

[Skvitt]

Thanks a lot again! You know exactly what I'm looking for! I was searching for the glue to fix cracked plastic. Looks like SEM and DAP Weldwood are available on Amazon. There are actually 5 Weldwoods -
25332 (green can) , 25312(blue), 00271 (red ), 00272(red) and 00442 (teal). Do you remember which one did you use?

 

[VikingTrad3r]

ill take a pic of what i used and post it here.

that said, which plastic are you fixing? i did a LOT of plastic welding too. basically a gun-style soldering iron and repaired heap of abs this way. i even used pieces of lego to melt in and add more plastic into the area. also had a piece of abs pipe id take from too.

but there are also issues doing that. i found using the tin as backing, wiping the plastic with isopropyl alcahol then wiping with lacquer thinner or acetone, then applying weldwood to both surfaces, allow to tack up, and press fit was the best. added heaps of strength and did not distort shapes as the welding can do.

post up some pics of ghe problem areas. dont be shy every single early c4 is the same.

 

[Skvitt]

Here are some cracks in plastic

 

[turbozig]

SEM vinyl/plastic dye works well, but you need to clean the parts so there is not any armor all left in any of the pors. A super good cleaning with dish soap several times and a thorough rinse. SEM also makes a prep spray before dying, also mandatory. Once thoroughly dry, several light coats, generally about 4-5. I have used this formula several times and changed interior colors and freshened several interiors with fantastic results.

Best of luck, ambitious project you have.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Here are some cracks in plastic

for the inside of the door panel, today, id use a piece of tin, and span the crack, using probably weldwood dap, properly applied onto the plastic properly prepped. I should say that what I did in the beginning was do the plastic welding using the soldering gun on a hidden crack like that. but later in my refurb i came to realize that extreme bonding and the tin strips worked even better.

On the door handle release bezel, i rebuilt those from the back, carefully, using a soldering gun and black abs pipe. all i aimed for was making it strong, giving it backing, so the screws would actually hold the bezel rather than just screw through the big hole. SEMlandau black works great on those, and the metal door release handles. for the handles i drilled out the rivets, and re-riveted using a basic mastercraft canadian tire rivetgun.

for the last one, the dash, same deal, i used abs plastic to build up the back in a way that strengthens but still allows the panel to seat properly in position.

in my case the pa els were all painted with several colours.....so i repaired and the. coated with landau black. you couldnt tell it wasnt factory unless u were a major afficianado, but there were no switch decal/icons on the panels after i dusted them with landau black.

i would NOT paint the panels unless you absolutely had to.

 

[Skvitt]

I ran a VIN decoder and Carfax. Nothing suspicious in Carfax, no accidents reported. I'm 7th owner! In the Build Sheet everything looks OK, except for exterior paint.
I can't understand exterior paint code. It doesn't look like it's been repainted, there are a few chips here and there and there is no trace of different color anywhere.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

I ran a VIN decoder and Carfax. Nothing suspicious in Carfax, no accidents reported. I'm 7th owner! In the Build Sheet everything looks OK, except for exterior paint.
I can't understand exterior paint code. It doesn't look like it's been repainted, there are a few chips here and there and there is no trace of different color anywhere.

thats because its wrong. 20 is the code for Light Blue Metallic. 20u means the upper panels and 20l means for the lower panels. different upper and lower color codes are for two tones. your car is perfectly fine. 7 owner is pretty cool.

u r getting distracted.

we DO NEED to determine of you have a z51 or not. it would help in the determination of the cooling fan switches. they got all mixed up depending if you had thw front auxiliary fan. this was installed in thw FRONT of the rad.

do you see on there?

there are a few ways to determine if you have a z51 car
- put a caliper on the front/rear sway bar. what is diameter?
- look for the round domed cap on the steering rack, what are the letters embossed on the cap of this rack. will be two letters.
- what are the rim sizes.

you can contact the corvette museum and buy a new rpo sticker or build sheet i think.

ill see if i can get some pics.

 

[Skvitt]

I'm not trying to determine it it is Z51, not that I really care This car will be my daily driver for the summer.
There is no auxiliary fan installed. I almost finished wiring cleanup and getting ready to hook up the battery and start testing. But it got cold here, -14C, even with my torpedo propane heater running it is a bit cold in a garage Also there is something suspicious with knock sensor wiring too.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Sorry my reply was not thorough enough.

EDIT: this is a quote from cliff harris on cf. he is generally always right. i think i was WRONG below for the 84/85.
from cliff harris: “The auxiliary fan is controlled by a thermal switch that was located in the passenger side head between spark plugs #6 and #8 in 1984 and 1985. In 1986 and later years the thermal switch was moved to the driver's side head between spark plugs #1 and #3. The thermal switch turns on at 238°. There is a relay mounted on the front of the radiator shroud on the driver's side for the auxiliary fan.

You can test the auxiliary fan by unplugging the connector from the thermal switch and connecting it to ground. The relay and fan should turn on.”

anyway, see, they switched it around after 85.

on the ither thread you mentioned potential for overheat. plus the wierdness with the cooling system wiring. throughout the years, gm swapped positions around of the coolant switch sensors. coolant switch locations were z51 dependent.....thats why i was trying to determine existence or not of z51 option.