Sorry if this question has been asked but I'm looking for help with replacing the body mounts on a '66 big block convertible. The car was restored (frame on) a few years ago but the mounts looked good so didn't mess with them. I've now realized that the body is low in the right front and left rear and if the hood gets dropped (which a mechanic recently did :-( ) instead of pushed down to latch it (which is what I do), it comes in contact with the radiator and puts a little crack in the hood. I need to raise the body up enough to shim those two corners, but I'll replace all the mounts when I do. Does anyone know where I can find step by step instructions on how to do this? Putting a jack under a fiberglass body is a bit unsettling to me. Thanks, Doug
C2 Body Mount Replacement
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Re: C2 Body Mount Replacement
Well, that's certainly not good news but, after giving it some thought, it makes sense. Any suggestions on how to best go about getting some spacing between the radiator and hood? Everything in the car was restored back to original condition with stock radiator, hood, etc. I'm a little stumped here. Thanks for the response, by the way. Doug- Top
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IMG_3232.jpgDoug - about 3 years ago, I bought a NOM 65 L78 Roadster. The cosmetics were very good but it needed a fair amount of mechanical work.
When I got it home, I noticed some paint cracks on the drivers front corner of the hood. Turns out that the good looking brass/copper radiator was not made right at the top hose bib. With the radiator installed as it should on the mounts, that bib sat up and made contact with the hood.
For a temporary fix, I cheated and added an additional hood hinge shim on that side but eventually got around to ordering a new DeWitts radiator which solved the problem.
By the way, is your 66 Bigblock an L36 or an L72?Mike T. - Prescott AZ.- Top
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Hi Mike, coincidently I was just talking to a friend and the topic of the radiator came up. When I restored the car, it had the original radiator in it so I had a local shop rebuild it and recore it with heavy duty finned tubes (like diesel trucks use) but keep the original appearance. I'm now wondering if that, in any way raised the height of the radiator. At any rate, I'm thinking that an easier fix to the problem might be to pull the radiator, take it back to the shop and see if the top tank can be removed, shortened about 1/4" and resoldered to the core. That would maintain the original appearance and I'm sure a quarter of an inch would be sufficient clearance to prevent the hood from hitting, even if some dumbass drops it. The car is an original L-72 white with red interior. According to what NCRS records I can find, GM never made more than about 50 in that color/engine configuration. We've owned it six years and, in that time, I've only seen one other one like it. It was judged 2nd Flight at Tahoe regionals in 2019 only because it wasn't an original side pipe car and I refused to take them off. We love it. Thanks for the response, Mike.- Top
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Hey Doug - Most times, when radiator shop recores a radiator, they typically don't mess with the hose bibs, other than to possibly resolder their connections to the end tanks. The tanks are sweated off, bibs and all, and then resoldered onto the new core. Having said that, these old cars can shift a bit over the years so maybe try the 'Play-Doh' measurement like you saw in my one pic to determine how much that top hose bib might have to be lowered. I could have done that on mine too but at the time,
DeWitts had sold his Radiator business and had a new stacked plate 65 L78/L-88 radiator to sell. Your radiator shop should have no problem lowering that bib.
Your White on Red L72 sounds very nice. Would love to see some pics. On that note...a lot of NCRS members are also members of the Corvette Forum as I am and there's this long running thread over there for owners of L72's to post up pics and tell us some of the background story on their L72's.
We've gotten about 50 owners to join us so far and that includes bone stock totally original L72's and some that got mods over the years but some very interesting reading on all of them. We even have owners posting from France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and the UK.
Do check out this thread and hope to read and see more about your L72.
C2 1966 L72 count - Page 13 - CorvetteForum - Chevrolet Corvette Forum DiscussionMike T. - Prescott AZ.- Top
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Hi Mike-Thanks so much for the input and so noted. When I get a few minutes, I'll see what I can muster up for some pics of our car. We bought it six years ago in Atlanta while on vacation and had it shipped home to Washington State. I knew it was an original L72 car, but it was really worn out so had to essentially replace just about everything. I made sure it went back to numbers matching so it received the treatment it deserved. I only later found out how few were made in this engine/color combination. I know where the car was sold new so I'm getting ready to embark on a final effort to locate the original buyer and see what else I can learn about the car, but I'll certainly post some pics of it on that other thread you mentioned. It's a head turner and we've certainly won a lot of awards with it. Getting back to the radiator issue....it's the upper right corner that's hitting the hood, so I think the only way I'll be able to correct it is by separating the tank from the core and (hopefully) shaving some metal off the bottom before it's reattached back to the core. I'm thinking this can be done without adversely affecting the appearance of the radiator, but we're done with judging anyway. We just want to enjoy the car by taking it to shows and short drives while we still can. The wife and I both are "getting up there" with the typical bad backs and all that so we know our years of getting to be the caretakers of this car are limited. Thanks, again. Doug- Top
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Doug - Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your L72, sounds like you've got it all sorted out.
Back to your radiator interference, since you mentioned the contact is on the right side, is it the passenger side upper bracket that's hitting?
Just took a look at the radiator setup on my 66 L72 and that passenger side upper bracket does stand up fairly tall. Is it the bracket that's making contact or the radiator cap? The lower core brackets are spot welded to the core support so no adjustment there, short of shifting the whole core support downward.
Mike TAttached FilesMike T. - Prescott AZ.- Top
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Hi Mike and thanks for your input....After looking at the pic you sent, I actually got off my duff and, rather than rely on memory (which, at the age of 74 is really a stupid thing to do) and went back out and looked at the problem. When I started this conversation, I had tunnel vision of jacking the body up to level it out and get the "clearance" I thought I needed to fix this issue but, as that turned out, thanks to input from responses I received, that really wasn't the answer. So, here's where the memory part comes in-even though I restored this car myself (with some help from friends), I was thinking there was a tank on top of this radiator typical of most cars, especially older ones. After seeing your picture, the little light bulb came on over my head and I realized that isn't the case and maybe I'd better take another look at what I'm talking about here. So, while trying to put my embarrassment aside, maybe it's time to start over. Here's the deal-the little three-armed star blemish I found on my hood last summer is 11" in from the passenger edge of the hood and 10" in from the front. Since the car is white, it's hard to photograph but I did manage to get a fairly good pic of it and now I can't figure out how to post or attach it (on top of other things, I'm pretty computer illiterate) so if someone can guide me a bit on how to do that, I'd be happy to try. It's fairly easy to tell from the side measurement about where it hit but not so much from the front one since the hood has to be up in order to see what needs to be seen. From the side, it appears as though it had to hit the top mounting strap near the radiator cap but how it could hit that and not the cap, which sits up higher, is beyond me. It's tough to figure out how much clearance there is in there, so I grabbed a clean shop rag, shaved some chalk onto it and laid it across this area of the radiator, since I see no evidence of contact under the hood. After I put the hood down, latched it and then raised it back up, I did see some of my chalk transfer to the underside so there obviously isn't much clearance there. Here's another thought-I had one guy look at this "blemish" that owns a body shop who said it was a separation in paint (the hood's been painted twice) so I guess there's even a slight possibility this may not have been caused by something hitting it from the underside. The body shop that painted it said it's classic and that it was caused from hitting something (maybe a case of shirking responsibility maybe?). If I can get that pic posted, maybe I can get some opinions from others out there familiar with paint issues, especially fiberglass covered paint issues? Like John Wayne once said, "life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid". So, here I sit. Thanks again to all for your help. Doug- Top
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Hey Doug - I know what you mean, I'm knocking on the door of '70' and thinking through car problems is taking longer than it did in the past.
I just went out and did your 11" and 10" measurements...on the pass side and came away with the same conclusion you just did, nothing seems to be raised enough in that area to cause hood damage. Maybe your Body Shop guy might be right, it just might be a paint issue, not a contact issue.
That slight spider cracking on my 65 L78's hood is still there but not as noticeable now that there's no contact being made because I changed out the radiator. Glad you found out there's nothing wrong under the hood and won't have to deal with body mount bushings.Mike T. - Prescott AZ.- Top
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Doug - This pic of the 'bump' on my 65 Maroon Roadster doesn't stand out very well but it's roughly a half inch in front of that arrow.
It helps if you squint both eyes and tilt your head a bit :-O.
I'd imagine, as you already pointed out, that taking a pic of a blemish on a White Midyear would be even more difficult.
IMG_3172.jpgMike T. - Prescott AZ.- Top
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Hi Doug- Great sounding car-Good luck with the hood issue- I am curious about what NCRS records you found to indicate that GM made a certain number of cars with a certain number of option combinations? That would be great info for everyone to have. Thanks E.J.Hi Mike, coincidently I was just talking to a friend and the topic of the radiator came up. When I restored the car, it had the original radiator in it so I had a local shop rebuild it and recore it with heavy duty finned tubes (like diesel trucks use) but keep the original appearance. I'm now wondering if that, in any way raised the height of the radiator. At any rate, I'm thinking that an easier fix to the problem might be to pull the radiator, take it back to the shop and see if the top tank can be removed, shortened about 1/4" and resoldered to the core. That would maintain the original appearance and I'm sure a quarter of an inch would be sufficient clearance to prevent the hood from hitting, even if some dumbass drops it. The car is an original L-72 white with red interior. According to what NCRS records I can find, GM never made more than about 50 in that color/engine configuration. We've owned it six years and, in that time, I've only seen one other one like it. It was judged 2nd Flight at Tahoe regionals in 2019 only because it wasn't an original side pipe car and I refused to take them off. We love it. Thanks for the response, Mike.- Top
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Hi EJ, I actually turned to a friend of mine who has been an NCRS judge for many years with that question-how many '66 L72 convertibles were built in Ermine white with red interior? I have Dobbins "Fact Book" on mid-year cars (great book, by the way), but I couldn't specifically find the answer to that question-just bits and pieces (how many were painted white, how many L72 cars were produced, etc.). That's when I asked my NCRS judge friend, knowing he had a lot more literature on hand pertaining to production numbers, etc. When he got back to me, he said he put that figure together based on bits and pieces of info he had & essentially doing the math. Doing what he's been doing for as long as he been doing it, I trust that he knows what he's talking about but one thing I am sure of is that in the six years we've owned this car, I've seen many hundreds of mid-year Corvettes, but I've only seen one like ours, so I know they're rare. I've actually had plans of contacting someone at the NCRS headquarters to inquire about this very issue as I'd love to get come kind of confirmation in writing to verify what my friend has told me (if it's even possible), but procrastination has gotten in the way. I think it's a great question and if there is a way to solidly verify how many cars were produced in certain colors and drivetrains combined, it would be an interesting (and perhaps valuable) piece of knowledge for all classic Corvette owners to know. If anyone has input on this issue, I'd love to hear about it as well. Doug- Top
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Hi Mike, I actually managed to get a pretty good close up of the "issue" that I think will show up but I can't find where I do the attachment so I can post it. You're obviously doing a great job of it-could you give me a little guidance on how you post your pics on this thread? You're right, I can't see the blemish in your hood. Looks like a beautiful car though. Doug- Top
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