Small stuff is big stuff

By some miracle, the original timing cover, tab and bolts are still with the car, but the cover and tab are beat. The top of the cover is nearly rusted through and the bottom is dented from pulling the engine in and out of this car.

Instead of trying to restore the timing tab, a NOS one was found and purchased since the original is damaged. A reproduction timing cover is available and it's a very faithful copy.

I see folks using the word 'restoration' to describe a car or truck that has been painted and fixed, but to this guy a restoration is putting the car back to its original condition.

The original cover bears a mysterious stamping of '-35' just above the oil seal for the harmonic balancer. Not sure what it means.

This car was among the first to receive this new design for a timing cover. The previous design bears a date stamping of month and year here, but none of that really matters because the water pump and harmonic balancer will cover this spot up.

Despite this, this stamp was recreated onto the new part to make it as much like the original as possible.

Turned out really well.

The wheel question

This looks amazing, doesn't it?

The steering wheel is the original and it's not in great shape. It cleaned up well, but the silver trim that circles the wheel is loose and the black vinyl is sticky after sitting in a box all these years.

There is a reproduction that is available, and that might be the best option as the vinyl continues to degrade.

Final step

The steering column was painted Dark Saddle Tan to match the interior. General Motors didn't bother to mask anything and this was painted in the same manner.

The horn button was painted as well. This will be bonded back together with the other associated parts once it cures.

When this car was purchased, there was the quiet wish that the interior had been black or — even better — red, but this color is really nice and makes the car fairly rare, given the paint color.

Tank sticker

There is a man in South Carolina who will recreate a Corvette tank sticker for any car that had such a thing.

These pieces of paper were crudely glued to the fuel tank of cars and served as a checklist for assembly crews for the car's options and destination.

The one on this car had rotted completely off and not one letter or digit was legible when the tank was pulled from the car. We had to go by the options present on the car and those that have been added in order to recreate this document.

This car came from the factory with a white vinyl convertible top, standard brakes, black wall tires and probably had wheel covers. Those four options were added or changed to suit the current owner and the new tank sticker will reflect those changes.

There are folks who will prepare a new tank sticker to look as if it is authentic and they charge a pretty penny to do so. I am happy with a new one since the rest of the car has been restored.

Once it comes in, it will be glued to the fuel tank.

Head shop

The heads were dropped off for machining at a local shop that specializes in cylinder head repair, so while we wait, the steering column was assembled to this point.

Once the horn contact spring comes in, this will be fully assembled and prepared for paint.

Bored

The cylinder bores are 4.030, so they've been bored to .030 over already.

Given the small amount of scoring in cylinder No. 5, this block will have to be bored to .060 over to get it ready to rebuild.

It's what was expected and a scenario that is better than what could have been given that this engine was sitting for decades.

It's difficult to tell if the block was indeed decked at some point too, or if this counter-exchange block simply came unstamped because the stamp pad is blank. One would assume that this is something that the machine shop will have to determine by measuring.

There is so much to learn.

A visit to the machinist will determine if the rotating assembly needs to be removed before dropping it off or if they will want it together to do measurements.

For now, the heads are off of the block. They will be taken to a local shop for work. We'll pick the owner's brain for the next move.

They are filthy and look like this engine was running richer than Oprah, but they should be fine.

Little bit farther

Assembly on the steering column went as far as it could with the parts that came in. Unfortunately, the NOS turn signal switch that was purchased will not work despite being the correct part number. Not really sure what happened on that, but thankfully the original one is fine. Having the new switch did allow the springs to be assembled correctly, so it wasn't a complete waste.

More parts are due in on Monday.