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70 With Keisler 5 Speed, Camaro Seat Belts, TTII's and New Leathers

Eddie 70

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 28, 2002
Messages
383
Location
Kingston, Tn
Corvette
1970 Convertible LS6 and an 02 EB Z06
I have recieved quite a few requests about different aspects of my car and appreciate all the kind comments. So I thought I would start this thread and see if I could help out with any questions about the mods I have made to my car. This is my first project vehicle and I have done most all of the work myself on my car. I have been through it from bumper to bumper. About the only things I can think of that I did not do myself was rebuild the rear diff and trailing arms. My rear diff is leaking from both sides with only about 4K miles on it. Should have tried it too.
The Kiesler 5 speed tranny was a direct bolt in for me. My car started off as a 4 speed. The tranny crossmember is welded in on factory manual cars. I did not cut my crossmember. Cruising RPM's with 3:36 rear gears and 255/60/15 tires is about 2000 RPM at 80 MPH. The tranny has totally made the car a great cruiser. The tranny comes up through the floor in the factory opening. No cutting required anywhere. I opted to use the black chrome shifter ball with my install. As you can see it looks very much like it did when it left the factory with the exception of the shift pattern. It now sports the 5 speed pattern.
gauge_console__small_.jpg

These are the leather seat covers I installed in my den while watching football, racing and whatever else. This was the first time I had ever tried anything like this. I think they came out pretty good. I replaced the foam and leathers.
new_drivers_seat__small_.jpg

When I put the new seats in the car, I had to do something with the seat belts. The factory lap belts just didn't cut it. I may as well not have worn anything. I found out through the internet that the rear seatbelts out of late model camaro's would fit. So I got on Ebay and picked me up a set for around $40 shipped to my door. I still have the front set out in the garage taking up space. My seats do not have the pass through feature, but the belts drop right across your shoulder in a nice natural fashion and make the car "Feel" more safe than just the lap belts. The only mod needed was to be made to the retractor itself. It has a locating pin on the bottom that needed to be bent out of the way. After doing this the retractor and seat belt anchors just bolt right in the same locations as the factory seat belts.
passenger_side_with_camaro_seat_belts__small_.jpg

The wheels on my vette are American Racings Torque Thrust II's. I bought them off of a forum member used and they needed quite a bit of elbow grease to get them to look as good as I wanted them to look. They are 15X8 and I am not quite sure of the backspacing but I believe the previous owner said they were backspaced at 4.5 inches. Since installing these wheels, my tires do rub a little bit when turning. With the stock ralley wheels I had no rubbing with the same tires. I guess the back spacing must be greater with the TTII's. I still like the wheels and think they look pretty good.
15x8ttii__small_.jpg

This is the rocker molding that came on the car 35 years ago. It had plenty of dings and scratches in it. I got my air die grinder and some of those 3M scotch brite pads that are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I took all of the scratches and dings out of the aluminum. I also made sure I roughed the entire surface the same amount the entire length of the rocker molding. After roughing, I hand sanded the molding with finer grades of sandpaper up until around 1500 grit. I kept the moulding wet the entire sanding process. After the sanding I followed up with Mothers and the shine came out nice not at all like the factory look.
polished_rocker_molding__small_.jpg


If you have any question or would like to see a better pic just ask and I can run out and take some more shots. Thanks for looking.
 
Eddie,

You car looks great! Thanks for posting pics.

I am sure that we all would love to see more pics and reports on people projects as they progress.

You did a great job on the seats and the belts are a super idea.

What impressed me the most is the patience and workmanship you put into those rocker mouldings! Wow, they look fantastic

Enjoy that car....it looks rerrific!

Regards,
Brian
 
Great job! I especially like the way the rocker molding came out.
 
Eddie 70 said:
If you have any question or would like to see a better pic just ask.........
Yes, Eddie 70, I'm really impressed with your results on the rocker panels. Now, that's got me wondering about the stainless window trim on my car and what the results would be using your method.

1. Could you estimate the time you spent on each rocker panel?

2. Are C3 rocker panels aluminum?

3. Do you have a before/after photo?

4. Although you gave a good description, could you offer any more detail on the step-by-step instructions you took? (type of sandpaper -- dry? wet/dry?; kept area wet with -- water? something else?)

Good job!
 
Car looks great. Unbelievable job on the seats for a 1st timer.

Did you have any problems with the new wheels hitting the calipers? My coupe came with the seat pass throughs for the shoulder harnesses but the whole set up is outdated, uncomfortable and overall sucks. It seemed reasonable to assume a modern belt would work. By late model Camaro do you mean the final model?
 
Excellent work! You've come a long way from the white with red hood days. Thanks for sharing your work. :beer
 
Thumper said:
Excellent work! You've come a long way from the white with red hood days. Thanks for sharing your work. :beer

Thumper, you remember that car? Wow!!! Yeah it has came a long ways since then. Actually it has came further than that. Check this out. A perfectly fine car that has been so far apart, it is a miracle I was able to get it back together and running.

70.jpg
 
lnirenberg said:
Car looks great. Unbelievable job on the seats for a 1st timer.

Did you have any problems with the new wheels hitting the calipers? My coupe came with the seat pass throughs for the shoulder harnesses but the whole set up is outdated, uncomfortable and overall sucks. It seemed reasonable to assume a modern belt would work. By late model Camaro do you mean the final model?

Inirenberg, the wheels clear the calipers with no problems. The Torque Thrust II's are concave on the back side of the spokes and clear with no problems. I have put about 500 miles on them since they were mounted with no problems.
As for the seat belts, they are from an '01 model, so yeah the final body style would be the ones to get. From what I now understand, the firebirds have black seat belts. The ones I got are a charcoal color but still look fine.
 
67HEAVEN said:
Yes, Eddie 70, I'm really impressed with your results on the rocker panels. Now, that's got me wondering about the stainless window trim on my car and what the results would be using your method.

1. Could you estimate the time you spent on each rocker panel?

2. Are C3 rocker panels aluminum?

3. Do you have a before/after photo?

4. Although you gave a good description, could you offer any more detail on the step-by-step instructions you took? (type of sandpaper -- dry? wet/dry?; kept area wet with -- water? something else?)

Good job!


Corvette rocker panels are aluminum and can be polished. Just take a little time and energy. After I took all of the scratches out with the 3M grinder pads I wet sanded the rocker panels with 3M Wet/Dry sand paper and kept the rocker panels wet using the garden hose with the water turned down way low. The pics were hard to take but I do have a few shot of some side by side comparisons and one that shows a before and after on one panel. Check the links out below. I am going to leave these as links to save the dial up guys some grief. They are 640X480 so they should load pretty quickly.
http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c4/eddie_96//side_by_side__small_.jpg
http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c4/eddie_96//side_by_side_2__small_.jpg
The one below shows the best comparison as a before and after.
before_and_after__small_.jpg

http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c4/eddie_96//after_polishing__small_.jpg
 
I talked with the previous owner of the wheels and they are 3.75 inch backspace. I am not sure of the offset. Anyone else with TTII's know what the correct backspace is?
 

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