Body's back on....

[Subfixer]

After 18 months, a new frame back half, new rear spring, new suspension all around, new brakes and lines, rebuilt 327/365, power steering, new fuel tank and lines and a bunch of other stuff, the body went back on last night. Had help from 3 generations - my father in law, my wife, and my daughter. A real family event.

As proof to myself that all that measuring paid off during the frame repair, I was able to shim the body using the original number of shims at each mount and everything lined up perfectly. All door gaps are straight as an arrow. What a relief. :Twist

Now its down to putting all the little stuff back together. May actually fire it up by Sunday.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Congrats on the progress,

I commend you on taking on such a project as you did. Did you ever think in your life you would be saying I just put the body back on its frame?

I know I have been working on cars forever ,and you dont realize the magnatude of what taking a car off it frame actually is untill you pause for a while and say to your self

"am I nuts or what"

Again congratulations

 

[67HEAVEN]

Subfixer,

That's good news. It's a real feeling of accomplishement when the body is sitting back where it belongs.

It only gets better from here on.

 

[Z28Canuck]

Congratulations! It's a long road with a lot of planning to have it go on smooth like that but what a feeling of pride when it fits perfect! Glad to see it went so good for you. Fantastic how you all did it together, it will be a treasured memory.Time to have a few on the weekend to celebrate .

 

[Subfixer]

Sure is nice seeing the car in one piece again. Now I have double the garage space.
I think I was more afraid to take the body off than putting it back on. My biggest concern was the body mount shims which turned out to be no problem at all.

All in all, it was not a very hard job, just very time (and $$$) consuming since all the work was done by myself, except the help received yesterday from the family, and of course, all the help I've received on this forum.. Thanks guys.

 

[74bigblock]

Where's the pictures????

 

[Subfixer]

Pics in the next couple of days...... Concentrating more on wrenching than snapping pics at the moment, but I'll post some soon.

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

Well I'm glad to hear that you got that (Formally) RAT WAGON.... :L back together. I remember when you drove it down here for my trany install party.

We were taking bets on weather or not the trailing arm would fall off on the way back home..


We were relieved to hear you made it back home with the Vette in one piece.

Some day ..you'll have to tell the forum how bad a shape the vette was in when you drove down here... :L

 

[Subfixer]

I searched the achives on both forums and can't seem to find the story of my trip down there. Anyway, the right trailing arm bushing was so worn out, that on a trip to VNV's place from CT, the car would switch lanes by itself on sudden acceleration and deacceleration. Scary at best. That was in mid 2003.

In early 2004, I posted this thread:
"I finally took the 64 off the road to start doing what was going to be a front and rear suspension rebuild. After disassembling everything I could in the last 2 days, it became apparent that I need to do more. So far, I have removed the entire rear suspension and differential, and all of the front suspension.
After that was done, I started inspecting everything I could see. I need all new brake lines and fuel line (Bubba was here). Then I saw the "bad news". The left frame rail near the kickup is starting to rust through. So now the project is going to be a body-off so I can fix everything. looks like I won't be driving it in 2004.
Guess I have to start diving into the archives to see how to fix the frame most economically. This will not be an NCRS restoration, but i will get this car fixed, correctly, so it will last at least until I can't drive anymore.
I'll keep you all posted."

Then this:
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54269

Etc..... For the entire saga, Just search for posts by me..... More to come.

 

[studiog]

Congrats Subfixer! Major milestone getting the body back on. Nice to have help from the family also. Good luck with the rest of the project.