'65 Coupe Resto-Mod and '68 Full Custom Restoration

[rbryce1]

Getting ready for taking the '65 to Jamison's Corvette in Charleston. I needed to replace the rear tires on the truck, only 7,000 miles but the sidewalls were totally dry rotted!.

Sidewall cracking didn't worry me that much because they were 10 ply tires, but the deep crack completely around the tires where the tread met the sidewall said replace them. 2 tires are cheaper that a truck, trailer and Corvette!

The trailer comes home this week to get checked out and Friday night we leave for Charleston. At last, I'm getting the windows installed by someone I trust. I'm dropping it off and coming back to get it when they call and say it is finished. Should be able to go back in about a week to bring it back, hopefully the next weekend. Finally be able to drive it again!

[vito]

Your almost at the finish line Bob.

[MaineVette]

Glad to hear your thoughts on the differences between the windshields on a C2 and a C3. Yours sounds to be a nightmare! Thanks!

[MaineVette]

So how'd the trip up to Charleston go? You always manage to come back with some good stories. Hopefully everything went smoothly.

Oh, and we need pics!

[rbryce1]

This time, the 480 mile trip to Charleston went very smooth, except for 1 glitch, that wasn't that bad, well 2 glitches, neither that bad. I left for Charleston at 4:00 AM on Saturday. The truck was really working to pull the trailer, as most of the trip to Charleston was up hill. Could not use overdrive. Gas mileage was about 8 mpg.

First glitch, while driving up to Charleston, I get into South Carolina and it starts getting much colder, so I turned on the heat in the truck, and nothing!!! Only very cold air. Fortunately, it was not that cold yet as it was still in the middle of the afternoon.

Got there and we unloaded the car, unloaded the parts and went over the work list. After that, I parked the trailer next to their building, installed the magnum tongue lock I have on the trailer hitch and removed the tires so no one could take the trailer for a joy ride!! Also did not lock the side door so no one would need to break in to find out it was empty. Kerry keeps their car trailer in the same area where we parked mine and he never had anything happen there, but a couple of other businesses within a few blocks of his shop did. Although he did not think anything would happen, we both felt better with these precautions.

l also discussed the upcoming work I wanted them to do on the '68 Vette. No photos this time, the shop was full of C1's, C2's and C3's being worked on and a single Austin Healy, that I found out later was his wife's car. The 12 volt wet cell battery was larger than the whole engine!

Next came the 2nd glitch. Did not want to drive back home after all that driving and work, so I went to a Motel 6 nearby and got a room for only $55.00. I went into the room and found 1) the light switch controlled no lights. 2) the lights on the bed did not work. 3) the desk lamp did not have a bulb. 4) the heating system would not come on (what's with heating systems this trip?). 5) there was no smoke detector, only the empty socket with the wires hanging down.

I complained to the manager and he said he would fix the items right now. I went back to the room and watched TV for about 20 minutes and my eyes started burning from the foul odor of cigarette smoke in the room, even though they said they gave me a non-smoking room.

I went back to the front desk and asked for a different room, and they accommodated immediately. I went to the second room, unlocked the door and when I looked inside, the bed was all messed up, there was a bag and soda cup from Burger King on the dresser and the bathroom light was on with the door shut!!! WTF!

I went back to the office and told them that I thought they rented me a room that was already occupied! They could not believe it, as there was not suppose to be anyone in the room. They immediately gave me a third room. This one was fine, no odors, all the lights worked, it had a smoke detector and, in fact, it was an ADA room with a huge bathroom and shower. The only thing wrong with this room was the bathroom exhaust fan was hanging from the ceiling with only a single screw. Since it worked, I only told them about it in the morning.

The room was clean, but I don't think I will visit Motel 6 any more, at least not that one.

I waited until about 9:00 to leave as it was 40 degrees outside at 6:00 AM, still no heat in the truck. Had breakfast in a nearby restaurant and left for Florida. The truck was chilly, but with the sun out, it warmed the interior fast. The rest of the trip went fine. The truck ran fine in overdrive the whole time home and I got double the gas mileage coming home.

The car should be ready in about a week, and if it is, it's back top Charleston to bring it home. Hopefully I will have heat in the truck by then!

[nwav8tor]

Yeah, I hear and feel your pain... My days (or nights) of staying in Motel 6 or similar quality establishments are long gone!

Paul

[rbryce1]

I talked with Jamison's this morning. Kerry was busy with a car at the time, but his wife told me the rear glass is in and looks great and they are working on the front windshield. Just so busy it is taking longer than they thought, but I told them no rush, better right than fast.

You know the old saying, there are 3 possibilities for any project, Fast, Good and Cheap. You can always have any 2 of the 3, just not all 3!

You can have fast and good, but it's not going to be cheap.
You can have good and cheap, but it's not going to be fast.
You can have fast and cheap, but it's not going to be good.

I choose good and cheap, just not fast!


Good news is that I now have heat back in my truck. I disconnected the two heater hoses and did a reverse flush of the heater core. Immediately flushed out a lot of wet, brown muck with no trouble at all. I flushed the heater core until totally clear water came out for 15 minutes, then reconnected the heater hoses and tested. Tons of very hot air now. That will make the trip back to Charleston much more pleasant! Plan on flushing the entire cooling system this weekend since I won't be driving to Charleston.

Best part was it cost me $10 for 10 feet of 5/8" clear tubing from Home Depot instead of $140 for a new heater core, plus having to tear half of the dash apart to install it.

[rbryce1]

Kerry Jamison called this morning. The rear window and molding went perfectly like his wife said.

The windshield install is as follows. First they installed all the clips and fit the windshield molding. This is the part I feared the most, as most moldings do not fit well at all. He said after they installed all the molding clips and did a fit-up of the moldings, the molding fits the car body perfectly and sits tight against the windshield frame.

Once the molding was confirmed to fit, they removed the top and upper corner moldings and left the lower moldings in place, just not snapped down tight, then installed the windshield. The problem came in after the windshield was installed and the lower molding had about a 1/8" to 3/16" gap between the molding and the windshield gasket after being snapped back in place. Kerry said he just did not like the way it fit. He asked where I bought the gasket, and I told him the windshield installer who was suppose to do it left the gasket, and I don't know where he got it from.

Kerry feels the reason for the gap is hopefully due to the gasket being thinner than it is suppose to be. I asked him where he gets his gaskets, and authorized him to get one from his supplier and see if that makes a better fit. If it does, great, if not, that's the way it is. He has high hopes this will correct the gap, as he has not had this issue with his gasket supplier in the past. If John and Kerry can't get the gasket and molding to fit, no one can!

In the mean time, he is now working on painting the center portion of the inside of the hood, the part Mason did not paint as expected, while the gasket is in transit. I feel much better with paying them to remove, paint and re-install the hood than trying to do it myself. The center underside of the hood was sprayed with Lizard Skin ceramic insulation and, even though I provided Mason with the Lizard Skin topcoat paint, he did not feel comfortable putting it on. The Lizard Skin topcoat is specifically designed to expand with the ceramic temperature changes without cracking the finish. Kerry has used Lizard Skin before and does not have any issue with doing it. So today the will remove the hood, mask it off, spray the center and re-install the hood. The photos below show the black Lizard Skin coating. It needs top coating because when you touch it, it scratches easily and even though it does not affect the coating, it does not look good. It's more of a cosmetic scratch than an actual deep scratch. The grey primer portion is all Magnetic Red right now, but the center is unfinished Lizard Skin. That is what they will paint with the satin black topcoat.

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If the gasket had fit, the car would be ready for pickup by Friday, but now we wait.

[MaineVette]

Man, that windshield is like the bane of your existence! Hopefully the new gasket makes the difference and all goes smoothly.

Can't wait to see the car in it's new paint job. Should look amazing!

It's odd your heater core was clogged up with a bunch of gunk. I've only heard of that happening when folks put radiator sealant in their coolant to try and fix a slow leak. It may be time to flush the system to help ensure your radiator doesn't end up with the same problem as the heater core. Overheating isn't fun and it always seems to happen at the worst time possible.

I can remember when I was in college my S-10 overheated on the interstate and blew the radiator cap. I lost almost all the coolant and was in the middle of nowhere. I had to walk a quarter mile through an empty field to ask the folks in the nearest house for some water. Thankfully they had a couple empty milk jugs and happily filled them for me.

[rbryce1]

Man, that windshield is like the bane of your existence! Hopefully the new gasket makes the difference and all goes smoothly.

Yeah, it's really been a thorn in my side from the start. Whatever the results this time, that's what it will be. On a similar note, I have since then seen two C2 coupes, and neither had windshield moldings that fit correctly. One had a really tight fit against the body, but had a much larger gap between the bottom rubber gasket and the molding than Kerry said was on mine. This one was between 1/4" and 3/8", and you could clearly see between the gasket and the wiper area. It was not that noticeable unless you were looking for it, because the wipers hid most of it from view.

The other was just the opposite. It fit the rubber gasket nice, but there was a really large gap between the molding and the body of the car, mostly where the molding curves at the bottom corners. Now this was highly visible and really looked like crap.

I was happy that Kerry said mine fit the body nice and only had the gap at the bottom between the rubber and the molding, and it seems like it was even less of a gap than the one I saw.

The more important thing to me is it not leaking.