1972 Vintage C3 Corvette Race Car Restoration...

The front view

The rear 3/4 view

A rear view

The interior

Another interior view

The engine bay

The radiator

The radiator & air box

We pulled the front bodywork off. Here is a shot of the nose box.

The engine bay w/o the body work

We rolled the car outside an pulled the rear bodywork off.

The right side w/o the bodywork

The bare rear end

With the bodywork off, we could see areas that needed help...rust, structural problems and a good cleaning

The dash area from the right side

The nose box assembly

We found a good dent in the right side frame rail that will need to be repaired.

The right side floor pan was rusted through and there was a good amount of rust elsewhere on the car.

Rust on the left side frame rail

We got the fuel cell out

Then we cut out the fiberglass firewall, which was coated with oil.

A view of the driver's compartment w/o the firewall

The next thing we did was cut out the rusty floor pans

The interior was beginning to look pretty empty!

We removed the front birdcage piece

Front shot of the almost bare chassis

We removed some bars that we'll re-engineer later & began to smooth out rough places on the chassis.

The repair work begins

Sand blasting began with the birdcage. We blasted on the driveway outside the shop.

We cut out the dented metal in the frame rail and will weld in a new piece.

The sand blasting of the chassis was underway. (April, 2013)

Keith Corderio tackled that miserable job! Thanks, Keith.

We pulled out the rear. Pretty soon it will be time to flip the chassis to blast the underside.

The sand blasting is a tedious process that must be done before we can begin start doing any welding of changes to the chassis.

The chassis is looking a lot better!

The rear is looking good

Our sand blaster, Keith. What a fun job!

Finally, Keith is finished sand blasting!

A 3/4 view of the sand blasted frame

A front view of the sand blasted frame

The kick-up area

Rear view of the sand blasted chassis

First, we tackled the dent in the frame. We cut the dent out, straightened the metal and welded it back in.

The straightened metal tack welded into place

Then we welded it in

Next, we worked on filling in the kick-up area.

The cleaned kick-up

The filled in kick-up

A rear view of the filled in kick-up

The bottom is sand blasted clean

The upside down chassis

Remember those rusty door bars? We cut those out and replaced them

We are going to re-body the car as a C3 hardtop convertible. Here is the new hardtop.

A rear view of the new hardtop

The trailing arms before and after refurbishment.

Refurbished trailing arms

We started the mock-up to see where we will need to weld in new structural tubing. (June, 2013)

The mock-up with the motor

A close up of the motor mock-up

An interior view of the mock-up

A rear view of the mock-up

We purchased a Tilton pedal bracket setup

We cleaned and painted...and cleaned and painted...

We repaired a couple of small cracks around the water temp sensor hole.

Keith did a great job on cleaning and polishing the oil tank!

Refurbished oil tank top

July, 2013 - Time to do some fabricating & welding. First, the battery box that we placed behind the passenger seat area.

We fabricated a bar to mount the pedal bracket and firewall structure

The pedals mounted

The new right forward bar

A front view of the new right forward bar

Then we worked on the rear hoop and seat mounts

We added a bar for the passenger seat

A trial fit of the driver's seat

Driver's seat bracket

A rear shot of the seat bracket & belt bolt holes

We also, put in a bar on each side to reinforce the shock mount area.

An over-all picture from the rear

For safety, we fabricated the forward hoop to completely encompass the driveshaft.

A close-up of the drveshaft hoop

This is easier with the car flipped over

Forming the underside sheet metal

It takes a lot of clecos

We put the car right side up again

A shot of the underside floorpan mock-up

An interior shot of the floorpan mock-up

The brake masters are moved forward an inch to help with leg room

Next, we re-installed the differential assembly to mock up the interior sheet metal and to fit bodywork.

A rear shot of the differential

An interior view

The oil tank on its new mount

We re-worked the floor bar to make more foot room.

A close-up of the re-worked the floor bar

The firewall mock up was next. All of this is done in cardboard and then we'll cut it out of aluminum sheet.

The cardboard firewall mock-up

A cardboard mock-up of the gauge panel

An interior shot of the pedal area

We started on the trans cover & oil tank enclosure patterns.

An overhead shot of the cardboard mock-up

A left side view of the trans box

We put on the headers.

We mocked up the top of the firewall & the cover for the brake masters

Our 1st mockup of the oil cooler compartment

A picture of the cardboard mock-up from the rear

Mounted, refurbished a-arms with new bushings & ball joints

Temporarily, we mounted the wheels for the street Vette on the race car.

Nice to see it roll again!

An over-all shot from the back

The body has arrived! Sept., 2013

The bubble wrap is off

The hardtop is here (Dec., 2013)

The hardtop on the car

Brand new fuel cell

The inside of the red box

The top is bolted on the fuel cell

The fuel cell in the car

Boxes of wheels! (Jan., 2014)

American Torque Thrust wheels

Wheels with used Hoosier tires

Let's try them on

Checking the body for wheel clearance

The new and old rear springs

We had to cut out some of the interior door panels to get them to fit around the door bars. (March, 2014)

Inside of the door

Checking the door/bars fit

In order to mount the doors, we had to reinforce the door jamb (April, 2014)

The steel reinforcement plate

The reinforcement plate bolted to the hinges

The door jamb before we welded the plate on

The reinforcing plate is welded on

Ready to bolt the hinges on

The hinges are bolted on

The doors are mounted

Driver's side door mounted

We used aluminum with pop rivets to hold it in place

We applied fiberglass matt and resin

The upside down nose with the lower valance

Then we removed the aluminum & pop rivets

Next, we riveted the rear roll pan to the rear bodywork

We called on the experts to mount the body and took the car to Tommy Riggins' shop. (July, 2014)

Here's a shot of the rear t-bar body mounts

The new steering box is mounted

The power steering box

We asked them to do the interior sheet metal work (Sept., 2014)

The pedal box

Leon does great work

Forming the trans tunnel box

The rear aluminum wall

An additional bar was added to the halo

A view of the trans tunnel and hoop

Another shot of the steering box

The nose structure

The radiator and ducting will be mounted on this

A rear bar was installed to protect the fuel cell

Leon did a super job fabricating the radiator duct work

The radiator shroud

The inside of the radiator shroud

Making progress...the sheet metal is tack welded

The rear wall and back deck

Looking in through the front window

The engine bay view of the firewall

A close-up shot of the hatch for access to the brake masters

The headers are tack welded

The steering column support is done & now we can bring the car home from Riggins!

With the car back at home, we finished the sway bar setup

The steering shaft firewall bearing is finished

Here you can see the front tow ring & nose box structure

The radiator is mounted also

The hard top is on & the window net latch is installed

The passenger seat is installed

The oil tank is mounted in the engine bay area

Here you can see the window net latch without the hard top on

...and the fuel cell is in

We trimmed down the back head rest of the passenger seat

Here is a good picture of the fuel cell structure

We're finishing up the "final" fit of the body and putting on the Dzus fasteners (Oct., 2014)

The nose of the car

An over-all shot of the front end of the car

The rear bodywork dzus fasteners

The sidepipes are on

The dzus fasteners on the rear bodywork

Once we got the body mounted we worked on the gap between the fenders & the door (Nov., 2014)

We used fiberglass matt & resin to fill in the gap

Both sides needed some adjustment

The gap looks better now

The driver's side

The passenger's side

We fitted some grill inserts

Checking the fit on the underside

Grill insert fit with tow hook

The left insert held on with clecos

Trying out a cardboard spoiler

A front end shot of the inserts

The pin on the door

The latch on the rear bodywork

The pin in the latch.
Later, we hooked a leather belt to the pin.

We decided the car looked better with a dashboard cover

The new dashboard cover is made from aluminum instead of steel like the old one.

We will paint it flat black

That meant cutting out the gill slits

We reinforced the area with some resin

Sue found some side vents on eBay for a reasonable price

The underside with the vents

The side vent installed

They will need some cleaning & painting

This picture shows the air dam and epoxy reinforcement

We made up a spoiler out of flexible plastic

We put some stainless steel mesh in the hood vent

We adapted the air box by adding an aluminum extension

The top side of the air box

Test fitting the air box

We added some rubber edging for a good seal

...and added some heat shield

The air box with the air cleaner on the car

The new carburetor throttle linkage & pedals

The gas pedal held on with clecos

A picture of the pedals in the foot well

Originally, we tried to fabricate fiberglass brake ducts for 5" hose

The 5" hose would not clear between the upper a-arm & the hood

...so we came up with a dual 3" hose setup

Test fitting the ducting with the rotor

Duct with the backing plate cut out

Another angle of the backing plate

Checking the hose fit

Looking for interferance between the tire & the duct hose

This picture shows the diff heat exchanger & vent mounted.

The heat exchanger & diff pump

Another perspective

We mounted the trans cooler inside the tunnel

The dry sump tank & engine heat exchanger

The engine bay is getting full

We put a reinforcement bracket on the new power steering gearbox

We fabricated a mounting bracket for the fire bottle in the rear compartment

The radiator fill bottle & the oil dry sump tank vent bottle are mounted. In the far corner is the transmission vent bottle

Next we fabricated a dead pedal

The dead pedal next to the brake & gas pedals

This is a picture of our "Corvette" shifter

We made some reinforced jack points on the lower frame

We used a short piece of steel tubing

A close-up of the jack point

We put one of these on each side of the car

It's loaded in the trailer to go for powder coating

Can't wait to see it in "race car" grey

Powder coating sure does wonders!

A front view with the front clip & windshield structure

Left side 3/4 view

A left side over-all view

Right side view

Interior - driver's compartment

Interior - foot well & trans cover

The right rear kick-up

The fuel cell structure

The rear deck

...beginning with the heat shield

Next up, the driver side false floor and dead pedal

...and the gas pedal

The gas pedal linkage

The gas pedal and stop mounted

The power steering box is in

The trans tunnel cover

On the left & front underside of the front nose we attached some air scoops for the brake ducting

The bodywork stood up on its nose so you can see the scoops

We started assembling the radiator shroud

In this picture you can see the heat shield and the trans & oil heat exchangers

The inside bottom of the radiator shroud

The top is pop riveted on

The back side of the radiator shroud

The nose box with shroud

Pedals are in

The right front A-arm assembly from the rear

The right front A-arms from the front

The rotor is on

A close-up of the air ducts and backing plate

The radiator is in

Here is a shot of the rear compartment and the cross member

A close-up of the cross member

The fuel filter is mounted

The dash is painted and will be held on by dzus fasteners

The steering column is in & we fabricated aluminum dash panel

Next we mounted our gauges & switches on the dash panel

We put a big red oil warning light on the dash

...and the fun job of wiring begins

A shot of the wiring from the right front side

Here is a picture of the engine bay at this point

A close-up view of the engine bay firewall

Next, we started plumbing the fire extinguisher system

We mounted the pull cable on the trans tunnel

Our diffs are back from being rebuilt by Van Steel

They look real good

The differential is assembled to the cross member/mount

We routed the cable from the battery to the cutoff switch

...and through the cabin

The fuel cell is in the car

It's just about ready for the dyno!

The left side of the engine

The right side with the oil pan fittings

The rear end is in

We flipped the oil cooler around to prevent air bubbles

The fuel line is routed through the cabin on the passenger side

Next, the antenna cable was run from the back to the driver's side

We put the antenna on the rear deck

A picture of the accessory drives

You can catch a glimps of the dry sump pump on the left side of the motor

We're starting to run the lines

Lots of steel braided hose and AN fittings

We made a bracket to mount the oil filter

A closer view of the mounted oil filter

The distributor

The trans & diff cooler hoses are in place

A picture of the trans & diff cooler hoses from the underside

The Oberg screen is properly mounted

Most of the plumbing layout is completed now (August, 2015)

We picked up some aluminum connectors for our radiator hoses from Riggins Engineering

The upper radiator hose

The dash & taillight wiring is almost finished. We just need to make it look pretty now.

The rear compartment is getting fill up too

The right side headers needed a little customizing & welding. Thanks Leon & Daniel for your help

Sue put her sewing skills to the test and customized the shift boot to fit nicely

Ok, now the wiring looks pretty and is all "wrapped" up

The spreader bar was welded & bolted into place

We pulled the engine & trans out to install the new clutch, bell housing & throw out bearing

The bell housing is located and installed

The throw out bearing is in

The headers look good with the ceramic coating

The engine, clutch and trans assembly is ready to go back in the car

The engine is back in the car. Here is a shot of the trans with the cooler.

We have headers on and are getting all the lines hooked back up

A left side header picture

The Oberg is in

With all the lines run, the headers are a tight fit

The fuel line fed by a mechanical pump

Here is a close up of the drives with the AN lines clamped down

This is a nice shot with the air box on

An over-all view of the left front side

The carb linkage is installed and the engine is ready to be run

Co-driver seat :) is installed & the starter cable is in place

The plumbing for the diff cooler is finished

Finally, the race car rolls again! (October, 2015)

We still need to put the brakes on though

We mounted the brake & clutch reservoirs on the interior front panel

We have the removable upper windshield frame in place

The interior is looking good

We installed some stainless steel mesh to protect the radiator

Brakes were next (November, 2015)

We ran the brake line along the frame rail

-3 line & fittings were used for the brake system

The original hat and rotor were replaced with 2 piece upgraded parts

The rotor hats required a trip to the machine shop to get the spacing correct

Calipers were bolted & shimmed to get proper center spacing

A rear view of the front brake

The left rear with the wheel mounted

A close-up of the left front brake

A nice inside shot of the left front

We decided to relocate the master cylinder reservoirs to avoid air pockets in the feed line

A view of the brake masters through the engine bay hatch

Moving the reservoirs required a hole to be cut in the dash top

A shot of the interior from overhead

The first step was to cut the headlight openings in the bodywork

The plastic headlight covers

Guesstimating the headlight clearence with a roll of duct tape

We fabricated an aluminum piece to hold the leading edge of the headlight covers

We also fabricated an aluminum side marker. We'll put reflective tape on it.

We started with a cardboard pattern of the tray

Once fitted under the bodywork, we fabricated them out of aluminum

The actual headlights are supported by a steel stalk bolted to the radiator shroud frame

The headlights needed to be trimmed so the bodywork would clear them. The bottom set in this pic haven't been trimmed yet.

All four lights have been trimmed in this picture

Next the headlights were mounted in positio

The aluminum should help reflect the light

Wiring was sorted and weather-pak connectors were installed

The wiring will need to be disconnected to remove the front clip

Testing the lights

The lights with the bodywork fitted

A close-up of the mounted headlights with the plastic covers

A front view of the car with the headlights

We checked the brightness of the lights in the dark and were quite impressed

We adjusted the lights to get some idea of their illumination range

They were so bright that it hurt to look at them!

Our next project was to fabricate a support for the lexan windshield

An interior view of the windshield support

We made a 2 piece support so we can run a short windshield if we decide to take the top off

We also installed QA1 adjustable shocks

First, the black paint was sprayed

Then we put the body back on to tape for the red paint

We started masking the paint line for the 2nd color

Masking the hood

The front bodywork

The front bodywork back on the car

The red sure brightens up the hood!

The side vents are in...liking it!

The tail lights are in & the Corvette lettering is on the rear

The reflective tape on the side markers works well

The rear window is in the hardtop

we used some aluminum strips to secure the rear window

The rear deck looks pretty

The underside of the rear deck

Sue made a storage case for the rear deck and extra lexan windows

It buckles up nice and tidy

We loaded the car up and took it to get the initial rear alignment

We used the vintage meatball decal with our Olds number 96

The graphics are starting to look good

Sue refurbished a used flag emblem for our gas cap

The stainless steel trim on the windshield looks great!

There are more photos of the finished car on the "photo" page (link at top of this page)

We decided to reloate and raise the brake master reservoirs

It was too difficult to refill the reservoirs with the windshield in place

It will be easy to reach in the side window to refill them now