1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

[Danny H.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

CONGRATS Danny. You are full speed ahead.

The GIANTS should make you happy also.

Now back to 64 Corvettes. I see disc brakes on the chassis. Excellent upgrade. My 64 race B/P Corvette had 67 J-56 duel pin calipers. I don't think you are in the mood to change them back to drums are you?

I also noted some body repair on one of your photos of the right inner fender where it bonds up to the top surround panel. The top surround area was thick with repair. The easiest time to repair that is now when the body is off the frame. You might get "inside" the fender tire cavity and photo each wheelwell, with the bonding strips from the firewall to the headlight area. Body people here on the forum can then help you with discussion on repairs for these areas.

Tell the wife to not get discouraged. The finished product will be well worth the effort. And when complete and done by "you", the personel satisfaction is priceless.

the disc brakes will stay, I only did the front, what a difference it made. Good eyes about the repair, the car was in the some kind of accident by front passenger side, the guy did a short cut by just replacing the front portion, starting from the center of the front wheel on both sides. What bother me the most is the poor job on the inner fenders, besides the thickness to the top panel, it was very obvious like they just put bondo like over the cut lines. I will start another thread to seek help on how to repair it.

This car has many strange repairs, sometimes I think it was a stolen car... door panels was painted black (white under it), then just couple days ago, I took the black sunvisors off, I thought it was painted too since the black has some shiny spots, so I sprayed some paint remover on it, but nothing came off. Then I noticed some white color inside the opening areas, so I started to rip it open, and there is.. the original white sunvisor, no wonder they never able to stay up when the top is down.

The funny one is the center armrest, the guy used a black cover w/ form over a black armrest, black over black? what is the point in that??


Thanks,
Danny

[Timothy B.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny, No matter what it takes, KEEP THE WIFE HAPPY...

It's a long project and the last thing you need is unhappy spouse, lifes to short..

[Bryan M.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny,
Good luck with your project. I'm still debating if it's worth changing my 65 327/350hp coupe with factory air back to its original Nassau Blue with Blue/White interior. It currently has 11 year old Glen Green paint with a new Saddle interior.
The motor/chassis work is pretty much done. Right now, it's a nice driver.

Bryan

[Richard M.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny, No matter what it takes, KEEP THE WIFE HAPPY...

It's a long project and the last thing you need is unhappy spouse, lifes to short..

Danny, Tim's absolutely correct! I love Corvettes, my wife loves Jaguars! Her engine broke(the cars' engine you guys.....) in 1997, one thing led to another. It took me 4 years to do a "body-off". Check out the smile on her(wife's...) after I got it running again.

Rich

[James G.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

the disc brakes will stay, I only did the front, what a difference it made. Good eyes about the repair, the car was in the some kind of accident by front passenger side, the guy did a short cut by just replacing the front portion, starting from the center of the front wheel on both sides. What bother me the most is the poor job on the inner fenders, besides the thickness to the top panel, it was very obvious like they just put bondo like over the cut lines. I will start another thread to seek help on how to repair it.

This car has many strange repairs, sometimes I think it was a stolen car... door panels was painted black (white under it), then just couple days ago, I took the black sunvisors off, I thought it was painted too since the black has some shiny spots, so I sprayed some paint remover on it, but nothing came off. Then I noticed some white color inside the opening areas, so I started to rip it open, and there is.. the original white sunvisor, no wonder they never able to stay up when the top is down.

The funny one is the center armrest, the guy used a black cover w/ form over a black armrest, black over black? what is the point in that??

Thanks,
Danny

They call that a "spindle clip", that is a 1/2 front end glued onto a crashed front of a car. Using original, or aftermarket pieces, body shops of the day re-glued everything together. The outside looked decent after the repair, but the inner fenders often were left as you see today. In time, the outside repairs shrank, and became visible thru the paint.

The center console cushion was aftermarket. Corvette never offered one, that's why it is black.

SAVE those white visiors. Easy to restore back to "new" white by spraying white interior dye, and use a hardware repair kit for the flopping visor problem.

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE for original parts, so reuse where possible. Many Chineese replacements are not close to original

[Danny H.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

They call that a "spindle clip", that is a 1/2 front end glued onto a crashed front of a car. Using original, or aftermarket pieces, body shops of the day re-glued everything together. The outside looked decent after the repair, but the inner fenders often were left as you see today. In time, the outside repairs shrank, and became visible thru the paint.

The center console cushion was aftermarket. Corvette never offered one, that's why it is black.

SAVE those white visiors. Easy to restore back to "new" white by spraying white interior dye, and use a hardware repair kit for the flopping visor problem.

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE for original parts, so reuse where possible. Many Chineese replacements are not close to original

James,

I am confused, I thought the center console armrest was offered, see attached pic of a 64 pic w/ the same 2-tone trim like mine. Hopefully by the time I am done, my interior will look just like that except I want to go w/ red armrests on door panels as Noland indicated and not JG.

as for the front end repair, are you suggesting to buy repo/original inner fenders to replace AND buy the replacement the outside panels too? So there is no point trying to save this "spindle clip" by trying to fix it?

-Danny

[Dino L.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny,

The 1964 had a center console that sat atop the driveshaft tunnel between the seats. The picture you show does not tell me it is an original one, however I can tell you the metal frame pictured is. They aften were ametuer recovered, and that vinyl could be a recover? I cannot comment on the foam other than it looks to new to me. The metal piece is a keeper though! A good upholestery shop will do you proud, make sure your seat vinyl and armrest are the same grain vinyl.

Regarding the interior photo shot.....there are three things that I am sure could be correct, but in the photo they are not standing out and I thought I would mention them...the arm rest cover plastic bases should be chrome plated. The carpeting should be multipieces not the later C2 molded type....with binding showing. The seatbelts should not attach to a clip on the console as pictured...I think a 65/66 has those clips dcrewed into the console....of course they can be just neatly placed for the photo!

All three mentioned could be wrong since my eye's suck anymore

Dino

[Michael F.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

first time posting and new to the club. What a great site, I was able to learn so much about my vette in the past few weeks.

I bought my 64 conv. about 15 years ago, the only thing I knew from previous owner was it has a 350 w/ powerglide and not original. Honest speaking, I didn't even know what that means then, I got it because of the look and a childhood dream (that's another story for another thread).

I am happy w/ the vette as is for the past 15 years, didn't do anything to it, just replaced few screws here and there and changed oil maybe 3 times.

So why am i posting now? Well, I was told by couple vette "experts" (couple guys from work and an owner of the local parts store specialize in old vettes) that my 64 vette is rare, it should have a 327/365 4-speed w/ AC. I acutally found the clutch padel still in the car, hidden under the carpet. My dash does have the AC knobs but there is nothing under the hood or vents under the dash either. Also, my tach redline starts at 6500 and my alternator/battary is on the driver side.

I guess my first question is should I restore it? I have actually found a 1964 327/365 block, 461 heads and a 4-speed M20 close ratio trans about 2 month or so prior to my VIN's DOB. All for around $4K, then I will probable spend another $4K to rebuild and install. Is it worth it?

The 2nd question is should I restamp the VIN #s? they all have the right (or reasonable) date code w/ the right GM part #s already.

Finally, I also heard to restore the AC will be very expensive and difficult, is it true? know any good place in the Bay area that have the right parts and can do it right?

I plan to keep the car for long time, got married in it about 10 years ago and more likely will pass it down to one of my 3 little boys. So any advice you can share will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Danny

IMHO
I would learn to change my oil more than once every 5 years before I went into the big leagues of restoration.

[William D.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Hi Danny,

Found these 64 A/C parts listed for sale on Corvette Forum. Thought you might be interested "http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-and-c2-parts/2714035-fs-64-factory-a-c-parts.html. I don't know the seller or the parts.

Keep up the great work on your car.

Bill

[Danny H.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

IMHO
I would learn to change my oil more than once every 5 years before I went into the big leagues of restoration.

Can't agree w/ you more, I mainly foucs on taking things apart and will hire professionals to do the rebuild and most of body works. so far so good, able to disconnect the whole car w/ couple buddies and lift the body off w/ my softball team.

[Danny H.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Hi Danny,

Found these 64 A/C parts listed for sale on Corvette Forum. Thought you might be interested "http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-and-c2-parts/2714035-fs-64-factory-a-c-parts.html. I don't know the seller or the parts.

Keep up the great work on your car.

Bill

Thanks Bill, saw the parts too and got the pics from the seller already. I am still debating if I should buy it or not, since it doesn't have the most important part of all, the outer box. I assume people who sell that box will likely to have the related parts as well, so I might end up w more parts than needed.

-Danny

[Daniel K.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny,



https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...81563&uid=9322

[Gerald C.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

Danny,

I've been acquiring the coreect parts for my 1963 for about three years and I'm ready to put them on the car. Each correct part you buy, just think of it as an investment, as it was previously noted---they are getting tougher to find.

Your return on investment will be better than putting the money in the bank. I should know, I'm a banker!

Good luck.

Do you need hubcaps for your 64?

Jerry

[Clark K.]

Re: 1964 w/ 327/365 AC, worth to restore?

I didn't think AC was available in solid lifter engines in 63 or 64? I don't believe I have ever seen one.

They do exist but are very rare, about which another post attests. I own a '65 Rally Red/red vinyl Coupe with the L76 (365hp) engine and factory air. To give an example of how rare these cars are, my car was once judged by NCRS judges who had never seen this engine with A/C combination and deducted for my (correct) 7-bladed fan.

Fortunately for me, though, no previous owner has ruined it by changing the wonderful Muncie close ratio 4-speed for a Powerglide -OR- removed the A/C system. There is no doubt that you will incur some serious expense in restoring your car. But, I hope you do it because, historically, the '63-'67 Sting Rays were the most powerful cars in the world with factory A/C. And, good conditon, rare cars are always worth more.

You may be interested in knowing that in the January 2010 issue of Corvette Magazine (ppgs. 83-87), there was an article about restoring the A/C in a '64 Sting Ray convertible. Carr's Corvettes & Customs in Plano, Texas was the featured shop for this article. You may wish to contact them for an estimate.
-Clark

[Danny H.]

Re: 1964 327/365 AC

Hi all,

I started this thread about a year ago, thought I post couple pics to show the status of my restoration. I am just about ready to put the body back in few weeks. Still not sure if I will repaint the body now, or just wait till later, much later...

I decided to go w/ a "very detail driver" restoration, a phrase I saw in one of the posts, w/ 4-wheel disc brakes from C3 and F41 rear/front springs and sway bar setup. Powder coated the frame/bumper brackets. Then the rest is pretty much following the NCRS JG. I still have the original drums/springs just in case.

I was fortunate to know a local vette expert, Dave Herlinger in San Jose area, who gave me a lot of good advices and did my rearend/a-arms/disc brakes and probably that 4-speed Muncie I got from eBay too, but I am going to take a risk and put it in first.

As for the engine, I went w/ a 9.5 CR & solid lifter, was rebuilt by a friend's friend for a discount since I gave him that 350/powerglide that was in my vette. At first I was very concern about the quality, but once it was on an engine stand, it sounded pretty good, temp was around 170 and oil pressure about 40 after break-in the cam, hope it'll run as good as it sounded come next spring.

I did find that a/c evaportor box under the hood, but it is from a '66, so I am still debating if I should install it as is or reconfig it to be 64 correct. any suggestion? Also is it hard to install that box w/ the engine in?

Thanks,
Danny