C4 Frame Project

[Custer55]

This week I worked on getting the frame painted so I can start putting things back together.
I just used spray bombs for the primer so I could just prime what I got sanded out each night.
Since I don't expect to have this paint job on the frame for more than a year or 2, I am using Rustoleum Rust Stop for the top coat. I got the paint for $6.99 a quart on sale. I made my own custom color by mixing Aluminum with Gloss Black in a 50/50 mix. I'd probably mix it with more black than aluminum if I did it again as it looked darker in the can than it does sprayed out.


Primed out ready for the top coat.


Top coat applied today. The biggest drawback to the Rustoleum is how long it take to dry, it's super slow and today's high of 44 degrees today didn't help. I did run the furnace in the shop to warm it up to about 60 inside before I started painting, but my only method of ventilation is to open the garage door, so it doesn't stay that warm when it's 44 or less outside. It does spray out pretty smooth though, but you have to be careful not to get runs with the slow dry time.

My side project of the week was the frame stud for the clutch cross shaft. I ordered one made by Danchuck from Summit Racing but they only had the 56 to 57 one. I was ordering some other parts from Summit anyway so I figured I would just have to modify it to save the shipping cost to buy the right one from elsewhere.


Turns out the 56 to 57 frame stud is an 1/8" bigger diameter and has a longer shank than the 55 frame stud. To turn it down to the right dia. for my 55, I chucked it into my poor man's lathe/drill press. I clamped a piece of stock in the drill press vice to use as a tool rest to file it down to the right dia. I used a coarse file first and just kept checking it with a caliper until it was close and finished up with a finer file.


To shorten up the shank I wrapped the stud threads with making tape so they wouldn't get damaged in the chuck. Then I set the tool rest so I could use the edge of a flat bastard file as a parting tool.


Then is was just a matte of moving the tool rest up to take down the rest of the shank to size. It took a couple of steps to get the whole thing down to size.


Here is the finished stud modified for use in a 55 Chevy. I tried to cut threads on the new shank but couldn't hold it tight enough without risking damage to the stud ball so I'll just have to use a few extra washers when I bolt it on. I should have cut down the shank first then cut new threads before turning down the stud but I didn't figure out the shank was to long until after I had the ball end finished.

Tomorrow I will be working on priming and painting the Corvette K-member, trans cross member and upper shock mounts so those can get bolted back in the frame. It's supposed to be 55 degrees so hopefully paint will dry a little faster.
Brian

[chevynut]

Nice progress....you'll be rolling soon.

[Custer55]

The first half of this week was spent on painting, stating with the Corvette K-member then a bunch of small parts. Late in the week and over the weekend I started on putting everything back together.


Corvette K-member ready for primer. Next time I paint one of these I'll probably set up a mini rotisserie, It wasn't much fun to do it like this.


Primed, ready for the topcoat. Same as what I used on the rest of the frame.


Some of the small parts hung up to dry. I must have done about a dozen or so parts a night for 3 nights. I just worked on prepping parts until I would have time to prime and paint them the same night.


Finally going back together. I installed the front sway bar before the K-member and bolted the steering rack to the K-member before that went back in the frame. I didn't have to do it that way but it is a lot easier that way.


I cleaned the Corvette aluminum parts with Castrol Super Clean as I was installing them. It works good at cutting the dirt and grime and you just have to rinse it off with water. You can see the difference it makes on the spindles above.


Lower A-arms and front spring installed. The spring cleaned up really nice with the Super Clean also.


Compressing the spring with my homemade tool to get the upper A-arm connected to the spindle. I've used this tool many times on the stock coil spring set up also. Just a 1/2" eye bolt, 1/2" threaded rod and connector (basically just a long nut) and a lower mount from an old shock to bolt to the A-arm. The long end of the threaded rod goes up through the shock mount where you use a nut and washers, and tighten down on the nut to pull the lower a-arm up.


Here is where I left off tonight. Today I got the rear end cleaned up and installed, cleaned up the front calipers and put in new seals, (they seemed kind of stuck, but looked to be in great shape inside when I took them apart), cleaned and installed the rear calipers, (the pistons move easily in these so I am going to take a chance they are ok).
Next up will be brake lines and the fuel line. Not one of my favorite things to do but you can't drive it without them!!!
Brian

[rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017]

Very Nice congrats on a job well done!!!!!

[chevynut]

If you can get the weight to match one of the stock springs, that would be ideal. Otherwise, the next best thing, would be if you needed a little more, just fine tune it with a light coil over spring, and let a majority of the weight ride on the traverse spring. That's the way I'm going to do it anyway. Could do the same thing in the rear.

Yeah Custer55 just add some ballast to the car to get the weight to match one of the stock springs. And if you can't do that, try to find a 50 lb/in coilover spring or rube goldberg "helper" spring to put around your shock. Maybe a motorcycle shock would work. Yeah, that'll work out great. LOL!

As I said the rear height is easy to deal with and there are a variety of C4 springs that might work and offer different spring rates. The front is more difficult and if shimming or unshimming the spring doesn't work to achieve the desired ride height you may have to modify the spring, or you may have to go to coilovers. To me a coilover AND a stock spring is a really stupid idea and could increase the spring rate to unacceptable levels.

[Troy]

T

My side project of the week was the frame stud for the clutch cross shaft. I ordered one made by Danchuck from Summit Racing but they only had the 56 to 57 one. I was ordering some other parts from Summit anyway so I figured I would just have to modify it to save the shipping cost to buy the right one from elsewhere.


Turns out the 56 to 57 frame stud is an 1/8" bigger diameter and has a longer shank than the 55 frame stud. To turn it down to the right dia. for my 55, I chucked it into my poor man's lathe/drill press. I clamped a piece of stock in the drill press vice to use as a tool rest to file it down to the right dia. I used a coarse file first and just kept checking it with a caliper until it was close and finished up with a finer file.


To shorten up the shank I wrapped the stud threads with making tape so they wouldn't get damaged in the chuck. Then I set the tool rest so I could use the edge of a flat bastard file as a parting tool.


Then is was just a matte of moving the tool rest up to take down the rest of the shank to size. It took a couple of steps to get the whole thing down to size.


Here is the finished stud modified for use in a 55 Chevy. I tried to cut threads on the new shank but couldn't hold it tight enough without risking damage to the stud ball so I'll just have to use a few extra washers when I bolt it on. I should have cut down the shank first then cut new threads before turning down the stud but I didn't figure out the shank was to long until after I had the ball end finished.

Tomorrow I will be working on priming and painting the Corvette K-member, trans cross member and upper shock mounts so those can get bolted back in the frame. It's supposed to be 55 degrees so hopefully paint will dry a little faster.
Brian

Nice Machine Shop!! I remember those days before I got some machine tools!!! Hey doing what it takes is what it's about!!

[chevynut]

Nice Machine Shop!! I remember those days before I got some machine tools!!! Hey doing what it takes is what it's about!!

Yep, I love seeing guys do things using whatever they happen to have. I've used a wood router on aluminum and rolled some of my under-hood parts over an oxygen cylinder. I've made a brake out of pieces of angle iron before I finally bought a brake. You can do a lot with a bare minimum of tools if you try. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

[Custer55]

Reassembly continues over the last week and a half or so. Not much time to post anything as I've been working until 12:00 am to 1:00 am most nights.


Brake line routing in the rear. The T fitting turned out to be a pain in the butt. After I had the body back on and starting bleeding the brakes I ended up with a huge puddle of brake fluid under the car. All three connections on the fitting were leaking even with no brake pressure on the lines at all. It's good now since replacing it with a different brand (Dorman, The defective one was made by Eddleman). The worst part was having to replace it with the body back on the frame with very little room to get at it. I would mount it in a spot with better access with the body on if I had to do it again, just never had any issues with fittings like that before. I guess the quality is not what it used to be on them.


Right front line routed back to the left hand side. This one ended up just short of making it to the proportioning valve,(60" line) so I had to make a short line for the final connection.


Left front line under the frame and back up and around to the proportioning valve. This one I was able to leave it long and cut and flare to length after the body was back on. The line from the rear I had positioned just right to hook up to the proportioning valve as I had taken some good measurements the last time the body had been on the frame.


The fuel line I routed down the inside of the passenger side frame rail. I ended up making a stand off bracket just behind the sway bar mount to get around that and the last inside body mount.


Line routed up to close to the gas tank position. I just needed a short hose to hook it up the gas tank.


Engine and tranny back in the frame.


Exhaust back in place. I painted it all with POR 20 high temp paint (1400 degrees) I just used a brush to paint as it was a lot faster that way. You can see some brush strokes in it but not bad.


Body back on the frame. Yeah!!


I made a new fluid transfer line for one of the lines on the steering rack by cutting off the original line, double flaring the end and connecting that to new line bent up to clear everything. I'm sure there is a better way to do this but I just needed to get something done that will work for now.
The other line cleared everything fine as is Having an old engine without a harmonic balancer has it's advantages.


This is where I left off tonight. Battery and box back in place, all the wiring hooked back up to the engine, Carb, fuel lines and throttle linkage, power steering pump and lines hooked up, alternator and pulleys back on, and alternator belt tension adjuster made up. On the power steering pump lines I used the stock Corvette for the return line, and made the pressure line with Russell powerflex hose and fittings. I did start the engine today too, just for a few seconds at a time with no coolant in the engine yet, but it was great to hear it running again. After starting it up I had a couple of fuel links though. One was just the o-ring on the fuel filter so that was an easy fix, and the coupling on the fuel line to the tank was leaking. That one I just had to tighten up the fitting some more.
With any luck (no more leaks hopefully) I should have it back on the road by next week end. Just in time for Back to the 50's. Just a week and a half away right now.
Brian

[Custer55]

Work continued this week with re-assembly. I made a to do list and got all but one checked off at this point. The remaining one on the list is not a must as it's just an adjustment rod for the power steering pump that's just more of a convenience thing.


To mount my old fan shroud to the core support I bent the lip of the support in so it would line up the width of the shroud. I just made up some brackets from 22 gauge steel to attach it to the support. I had planed to make a single long bracket for each side out of Aluminum but I just ran of time so these will have to do for now.


Core support with shroud back in place on the car.


Left front fender back on the car.


Late Thursday night the passenger fender hood and grille back in place.


Friday night after work I got in a quick ride down the road and a couple of pics before going to work at the local circle track. All done at this point other than the bumpers and the exhaust tips.


Installed the bumpers and exhaust tips this morning and took the first ride to calibrate the speedometer (Which is super simple with the Dakota Digital dash), and fill it up with gas. Then went to a little cruise in at the local Wendy's tonight. So far so good with no leaks anywhere. The stance is pretty close to what I was shooting for. I haven't taken any high speed corners like an interstate off ramp yet, just a few low speed corners so far, but you can tell it handles way better than before. No big lean like before going around corners. The steering is night and day difference for the better. Nice and tight and quick. 2 turns lock to lock vs whatever the stock 55 box is. Ride wise it's excellent. Smoother than our 90 Vette. I'm sure the longer wheelbase helps, and I have the shocks (Stock 3 way adjustable) set on the softest settings. I may turn the rear shocks up to the performance setting and see how it feels. I just have to manually turn the adjusters at the top of the shocks, no in car switch like on the 90 Corvette the parts came from. The brakes are working good also. I think I need to dial in a little more rear brake though. I am glad I went with the 1" master cylinder as pedal effort is not touchy at all to this point with the stock 55 pedal ratio.
Overall just awesome to be able to drive it again!!!!!
Brian

[55 Rescue Dog]

Car looks great, and what an awesome job getting it back together, and on the road in record time!