another project compleated

[Vroom_vroom]

well thought id throw this on up there as its a semi cool story and its consumed my life 

this car is a 1963 corvette fuelie that has not moved in the last 50 years. the guy (extended family ) parked it in '71 when he couldn't get $1200 bucks for it. best part is i had been at his house bs-ing with the guy a decade ago for thanksgiving and he told me to go look around the basement. low and behold in the basement (old farm house with a dirt floor basement garage) was this old vette. i remember thinking oh cool but its just a vette and moving on. little did i know.................

fast forward to last fall when he passed i was talking to my father in law about about the story and a little to my surprise he said can we get it. a cross country pandemic trip later we had it, a few favors and it was moved to a friends till we could get it out of bfe ohio and out to vegas. turns out he bought it new so its a one owner fuelie with both tops and 50k miles.

so for the last 9 months this car has consumed my life. its not so much a restore as getting it back on the road and frame off later. frame is rusty but solid, i have rebuilt the trans, top end of the motor, rear end, entire brake system, exhaust, rebuilt fuelie, wheel bearings you name it. The paint is meh and has a lot of issues but polished up half nice. now im waiting on a radiator that fedex has lost twice and it will be ready to fire! then i can get my bird back!!! ( been at the in laws since this arrived.) so between work, having our first little one and this car man its been a crazy year!

i will say this car has brought a lot of first for me lol, a pressure plate rusted to the input shaft so bad i had to cut the bell housing, so much debris in the valves the motor you couldn't bar it over and more specialty tools than i ever wanted to make. but it was a cool journey. still need to cut the springs and ext. 

we surprised him on Christmas with it, i  have been doing over time on this to try to make it happen and not letting him know i have made this much progress.

[5th T/A]

Wow,

Super cool story and great car. You have made great progress. Looks to be cleaning up really well.

[kentucky yeti]

Thanks for sharing your story.  That is so cool!

[Jack]

Very cool, that's one of the most desirable cars, congrats.

[76455sd]

Very nice.  Hope you get to drive it soon.

[roadking77]

Im not a big 'vette guy but that thing is WOW! I like the older ones just because they are old cars with a bit of style.  Car guy lottery!!

[Vroom_vroom]

Put a few miles on it before we gave it to him, not a bad driving car, the manual drum brakes are sketchy but we tried to leave it as stock as we could for the most part. A booster is in the future I’d say to make it a good drive but you have to cut part of the hood support 

This was cool though, had an audience when we got it fired up for the first time
https://youtu.be/BlN5poiHUSg

[hakitup]

Very cool, thanks for sharing

Tom H

[rkellerjr]

Nice!

[gm muscle]

Great story! My stepdad had a 63 with mechanical fuel injection too. He said they were a pain in the butt to tune and many just opted to use a carburetor. It would have been nice if he'd kept it...his first wife wanted the garage space and then he sold it in the late 80's to buy a Lincoln Town car.    Anyway the car looks great.

[firebirdparts]

Wow!

[roadking77]

I have heard that the early fuel injection systems were not that reliable/good. Now they are classics and worth their weight in gold. I have also read that the tri powers were also just so so and that the 4 vent. system that replaced them is just as good, reliable and powerful. Ive never driven one so I cant say for sure, just what I have read. Of course same deal with the chevy fuelies, very desirable now.

[Dreamn2]

Awesome!

[langss]

Awesome!

The main problem from my experience was the Fuel Injection Pump was driven off the Distributor with a 'Tiny Little Cable"...(same size as the Speedometer Cable), and it needed regular Lubrication...or it was prone to twisting and ultimately failing at the worst possible time....Not a set it and forget it situation. That and the fuel filter needed to be changed regularly....any dirt that managed to find its way to the pump, and as the saying goes...."Poop Roll's Down Hill" enough crud buildup over time, a never lubed cable, and a twisted cable is just down the road. So most owners eventually swapped on a Carburetor and called it a day. Changing the cable on the car only took a couple of minutes(it was Keyed)so not rocket science to change, but most people wouldn't carry a spare....I think the problem was they were kind of "Pricey"for the era, and most dealers did not stock them.

[Vroom_vroom]

Awesome!

The main problem from my experience was the Fuel Injection Pump was driven off the Distributor with a 'Tiny Little Cable"...(same size as the Speedometer Cable), and it needed regular Lubrication...or it was prone to twisting and ultimately failing at the worst possible time....Not a set it and forget it situation. That and the fuel filter needed to be changed regularly....any dirt that managed to find its way to the pump, and as the saying goes...."Poop Roll's Down Hill" enough crud buildup over time, a never lubed cable, and a twisted cable is just down the road. So most owners eventually swapped on a Carburetor and called it a day. Changing the cable on the car only took a couple of minutes(it was Keyed)so not rocket science to change, but most people wouldn't carry a spare....I think the problem was they were kind of "Pricey"for the era, and most dealers did not stock them.

the guy that rebuilt ours was one of the most knowledgeable people i have ever come across, even more so one of the coolest people! he took the trade from his father in law but he was telling us way back when his fil remembered the dealer taking a pick up truck load of them to the dump lol. a lot of dealers didnt really understand how to work on them, some came off from the factory and the rest where futzed with by the owners. its no surprise they lacked maintenance.  was rather cool, the original owner had the foresight to buy a second one and toss it in the trunk for us along with the Chevrolet shop manual.

its still crazy what the norm was back then, hell even the shop manual gives you instructions on how to build some of the specialty tools. also has given me a new respect for my 2nd gen.

[NOT A TA]

Awesome car! Great story. The brakes should work well if set up properly using good shoes. I'd try that before modifying with a booster. We used to use the Raybestos semi-metallic shoes sold as "heavy duty".  Today I'd call Porterfield and have them make me some shoes. 4 wheel drums can work very well as long as you don't try to make repeated hard stops from high speed or go through very deep puddles.

[Vroom_vroom]

I have heard that the early fuel injection systems were not that reliable/good. Now they are classics and worth their weight in gold. I have also read that the tri powers were also just so so and that the 4 vent. system that replaced them is just as good, reliable and powerful. Ive never driven one so I cant say for sure, just what I have read. Of course same deal with the chevy fuelies, very desirable now.

but have you ever come across a Pontiac fuelie? got to see one in person when we took ours in and man its a contraption! looks like a giant turkey pan. id hate to see the value on them knowing what the chebbys are.

[langss]

Awesome!

The main problem from my experience was the Fuel Injection Pump was driven off the Distributor with a 'Tiny Little Cable"...(same size as the Speedometer Cable), and it needed regular Lubrication...or it was prone to twisting and ultimately failing at the worst possible time....Not a set it and forget it situation. That and the fuel filter needed to be changed regularly....any dirt that managed to find its way to the pump, and as the saying goes...."Poop Roll's Down Hill" enough crud buildup over time, a never lubed cable, and a twisted cable is just down the road. So most owners eventually swapped on a Carburetor and called it a day. Changing the cable on the car only took a couple of minutes(it was Keyed)so not rocket science to change, but most people wouldn't carry a spare....I think the problem was they were kind of "Pricey"for the era, and most dealers did not stock them.

the guy that rebuilt ours was one of the most knowledgeable people i have ever come across, even more so one of the coolest people! he took the trade from his father in law but he was telling us way back when his fil remembered the dealer taking a pick up truck load of them to the dump lol. a lot of dealers didnt really understand how to work on them, some came off from the factory and the rest where futzed with by the owners. its no surprise they lacked maintenance.  was rather cool, the original owner had the foresight to buy a second one and toss it in the trunk for us along with the Chevrolet shop manual.

its still crazy what the norm was back then, hell even the shop manual gives you instructions on how to build some of the specialty tools. also has given me a new respect for my 2nd gen.

Its funny that you said that, because that among others was exactly the way I learned what I did....I started off with a unit from a 58-59 Corvette, and over time I collected so much of the stuff, that my Father thought I was stripping cars. During that period there were a lot of Chevrolet Dealers where I lived, and I just made the rounds picking up everything they tossed out. Blocks were supposed to be Sledgehammered....That was how I got my first 327, and later a 409....A kid with more time than money and a thirst for knowledge. My cars may not have been much to look at, but they made me a lot of folding money when I didn't have a job.

[roadking77]

Never one in person but yeah, the Bonneville Fuelies are def. high dollar cars.