Out of the bath

The intake manifold is largely free of rust and looks great. What is left is mostly the remnants of the engine paint and the rust that it is covering up. A quick once-over with a Dremel tool and this should look brand new.

This weekend, this will be cleaned up and rust proofed.

Rust

The intake manifold is correct by date and casting, but it's really rusty. Since this cannot be sandblasted, it's spending a few days in a tank of acid to remove the rust without risking putting sand into a freshly rebuilt engine.

Overnight, it already looks better with about a third of the rust gone.

A few days from now, this should look as good as new.

Best effort

Since the original tank sticker is long gone, this is the closest that we're going to get to getting this back to original condition.

Funny thing is, once the body is back down onto the frame this is impossible to see.

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.