Little victories

A lot of what is being restored are bolts at this point and there are a lot of them. Thankfully, a great majority of the original bolts are present, though previous owners did lose a few here and there.

The crossmember that supports and isolates the differential was fitted with new bushings, massive ones that are amazingly available in the aftermarket.

The company that manufactures these sells to many vendors, so it was not a surprise to find these for $160 for a set from one of the Corvette vendors and $72 for a set through eBay.

As the song goes, "My mama told me, you better shop around."

They pressed into place with some creative jiggering of the shop press and were installed onto the frame with a set of restored original grade-8 bolts.

Next was the transmission mount and its mostly original bolts. The engine has been out of this car so these were predictably jumbled up and switched out with oddball bolts here and there.

Best guess is that two of the four were original, but it wasn't hard to find two appropriate bolts in my stash of Corvette bolts.

There was even an attempt at making a few runs in the paint while restoring this part, something that was honestly painful to do, but it adds to the originality of the car since sandblasting this part revealed a very thick and runny layer of black paint.