Time to get the rockers prepped. Here I’ve sanded them down and scraped away any old paint.
Two coats of primer, two coats of Reflex Silver and two coats of clear. I’m using Dupli-Color paint. Came out nice. I’ll be applying a 3/8″ pin stripe after they have been installed, to cover the screws.
Time to install the steering wheel.
Of course nothing is easy or simple it seems. I put the horn parts in place, but the horn didn’t want to blow. I went back and checked the fuse and the horn relay and all is good. There is some surface rusting on the spring and attaching parts so I sanded and sand blasted the parts. Should be good for another 40 years!
All looks good but the horn still didn’t want to work properly..
In the end it came down to how the spring was installed on this insulating plate further in the steering column. The image is upside down. The small spring end coil needs to be fed under the large tab – in the top of this photo. That holds the spring against the two brass horn contacts in the lower assembly. Once that was done the horn was consistent.
All that is left of the painting is the two trim pieces for the rear window. It will be the same process as for the rockers. I may use a 1/4″ black pin stripe for accent after the paint is dry.
Thinking about removing the engine from the Chevy – this is a screen shot from one of the many U – tubes online that cover engine and trans removal. You can opt to remove the engine alone or with the trans. I’ve pretty well decided to remove the engine only. The trans is working OK and I plan to use it with the donor 305 I’ll be picking up in the spring.
Another screen shot. The engine needs to be removed from the side. Unfortunately my ‘cherry picker’ doesn’t have swivel casters on the ends of the long arms under the car. I’ll have to make that modification before trying to pull the engine. With that done it shouldn’t be too hard to extract the old 350 and install the donor 305. Just thinking ahead and what needs to be done beforehand.
Next: waiting for parts from Corvette Depot and other stuff.