Disassembly Begins

January 19, 2021. Dan Martin has begun to disassemble the car. Our plan was to rebuild/refresh all the original mechanical components after sitting for 48 years.

Almost as soon as he started, he called with some interesting news. "I don't think we should do a body-off on this car," he said. I was a bit surprised. I knew this would save some money on the restorations costs, but I wanted to do things the right way. In the end, I had to trust Dan's judgment. He knows these cars and the restoration process inside and out and I knew he would not make a recommendation like this without reason. When I went by the shop I learned exactly why Dan had suggested leaving the body on.

One of the first things he did was remove the rusted-through aftermarket side pipes. Not surprisingly, they were stuffed with mouse nests after years of sitting in one place. Thankfully, it did not appear that mice had chewed into any of the wiring harness or the interior of the car.

When the side pipes came off, Dan was happy to discover all the markings on the frame that were made during assembly on the line. Green grease pencil was used to make notations on the frame and to indicate numbers of shims at each body mount. Assemblers also used white spray paint and a stencil to mark the frame with the part number and date. Those marks were still intact and clearly visible.

It is upside down because the frame was turned upside down at this point on the assembly line, while the suspension parts were installed. The frame is dated June 8, 1970, which corresponds with the assembly for my car, which has a birthdate of July 14, 1970.

The radiator has been removed and will be sent off for refurbishment. As with all of the parts on the car, the hope is that minimal work will be required. The radiator will only be re-cored if necessary.

You can see in the picture above the recessed light buckets and the dual horns that sit in front of the radiator that has been removed. Painted in "Chevrolet Orange" is the aftermarket Edelbrock intake manifold that was installed in 1972. During the engine rebuild the original intake manifold will be reinstalled. The valve covers will be cleaned, and re-chromed if necessary. Originals of these, with the soldered spark plug wire holders, are very hard to come by! You can't see below the valve covers but the exhaust manifolds were removed from the side of the block, along with the aftermarket exhaust side pipes. The right one was a real beast to remove. Dan had already located date correct exhaust manifolds to replace the ones that we are missing, and they came in today. He has also located a date correct Rochester carburetor to replace the Holley carb that was on the car. So far, only the exhaust manifolds, the carburetor, and the chrome ignition shielding are absent from the car. Everything else is checking out as original.

The tubes running across the bottom of the picture are vacuum hoses. Early C-3 corvettes used a vacuum system (negative pressure) to open and close the headlights and the windshield wiper doors, The vacuum system is one of the most difficult systems to get working on these cars after a long sit, and many owners remove it in favor of an electric motor system. Lucky for us, right here in New Braunfels we have a National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) officer who rebuilds vacuum systems. The pumps are already off the car and all the hoses will be replaced. Pictures will be taken of the exact places where the electrical tape was used to group the hoses together so that the reinstallation will match what came from the factory.

There's so much on the car we want to preserve. For example. On the aft retaining bracket of the brake master cylinder, you can see a small white tag with the red letters "YA." That's a required tag for NCRS judging, and the YA indicates a manual brake car.

The car still has the original battery which will be an asset come judging time.

Something I'm most excited about is the tank sticker. It is a piece of paper attached to the top of the gas tank that lists all the original hardware that came on the car. We removed the rubber boot at the gas cap and looked inside with a flashlight. The tank sticker is still there! You can see the brown brittle paper on the top of the tank. When we drop the tank for refurbishment we will be able to remove and preserve the tank sticker.

Next week Dan plans to pull the engine and transmission. Can't wait to see that happen.

Stay tuned!