Sue's 59 Corvette project....

[55 Rescue Dog]

I am impressed, wow!

[TrifiveRichard]

It’s really not that difficult, RD. A quality crimper is important, as well as working just a few wires at a time (2 to 4). Molex is proud of their contact crimper, it’s expensive, but it does an excellent job. The other item is being careful to not cut two wires at the same time that are the same color. There were a half dozen or so cases where identical color wires were next to each other. Other than that, it just takes time! Lol

[chevynut]

The other item is being careful to not cut two wires at the same time that are the same color. There were a half dozen or so cases where identical color wires were next to each other. Other than that, it just takes time! Lol

That seems strange to me unless those wires were all the same function, like grounds or power. Often one contact won't carry enough current so they use multiple contacts to carry it. If they're different signals, I wonder how GM or their manufacturer kept the wires straight if they're the same color. Anyhow, I think you did the right thing by shortening it. Nice work. Did I say 3 hours? I meant 3 days. LOL!

[TrifiveRichard]

Some wires were taped in groups (2 to 4 wires). I didn’t notice, but maybe the factory used these groups to keep things straight, not sure.

On another subject, we water sanded the body door jambs, trunk lip, and engine bay (including lip) with 400 grit today. With any luck, we’ll paint the jambs, etc. this Thursday. Color isn’t too far away!

[TrifiveRichard]

We actually have color on the body, at least the jambs, behind the seats and the engine bay. We sealed the areas, then shot 4 coats of base, followed up with 3 coats of clear. The sealer is PPG K36, reduced and with some 2021 clear coat.

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The base coat is Custom Colors, Toyota H8R Hot Lava. There's quite a bit of metallic in the paint, so 4 light coats were sprayed, rather than 3 heavier coats. This keeps the metallic from clumping and sagging.

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After this, 3 coats of PPG DCU2021 clear were applied.

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The approach was taken to jamb out the body, followed by jambing the doors, hood, trunk and deck lid and gas tank cover. After this, the body will be mounted on the chassis, assembled, and remainder wet sanded/painted. This way, the outside of the body, doors, hood, trunk and deck lid will be painted at the same time. This will ensure the color and metallic in the paint is the same on all panels. With a relatively high metallic content, the final paint look is very sensitive to temperature, humidity, gun pressure and application technique. If panels are sprayed separately, you can often see a difference at the panel joints.

In addition to painting, made some progress on getting the chassis ready for the body, including plumbing the PCV ports in the valve covers and connecting the fuel line up to the motor. Still have a few more items left before the chassis is ready for the body, including running the brake line feeders front and rear, and changing out the oil pan.

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We're making progress, a little at a time.

[BamaNomad]

Is the 'color' making Sue Smile, Richard?

[TrifiveRichard]

She’s glad to see her color actually in paint on the car, but I don’t think she’s getting too excited yet…still a ways to go until she can drive it!

[chevynut]

That "Hot Lava" was one of the colors I was looking at for my Nomad, along with about 8 other oranges. It's a nice color. I thought when I first saw the pic that it was the Corvette "Atomic Orange". I was worried about painting my car in pieces too, but my painter assured me it would all look the same. We hung the doors vertically and set up the fenders in front of the body and the tailgate hung behind it, just like if they were on the car. He sprayed everything at one time. I just noticed the "stand" for the steering shaft bearing. Is that something you added?

[TrifiveRichard]

That would probably work for the Corvette, too, Laszlo. The only problem is my paint booth is too small to hold everything and have it paintable, especially for the Corvette where the front end and fenders aren’t detachable.

The other approach to save labor is to paint the body one day and the fenders, etc another day. We did that years ago on a metallic paint job. I can see the difference to this day. It’s subtle, but it’s different.

Yes, the steering shaft stand is added. The main reason I swapped out the factory gauge cluster bezel for a custom one was so we could put in a tilt column. This column has a much shorter shaft than the original. Given this, it required an additional u-joint, with its support.

[WagonCrazy]

It is magnificent Richard. Stunning will be how to describe Sue's corvette when its done and on the road. Great job documenting this build for us all to drool over.