Another day another bodge

So I arrived at work yesterday and couldn't open the door...no stress, I just rolled down the window, opened it from the outside and I was redneck good. Turns out the link for the latch has metal fatigue something fierce. 7-10 days before a replacement arrives so I straightened it out and welded a bit more metal onto the rod temporarily....not pretty but works now.

It now has a heater that works

So the new radiator is in now, Made in Mexico. Workmanship on it is horrible. Instead radius-ed fittings, the maker cut and welded tubing at right-angles. The overflow outlet is set too low on the neck to properly fit the hose and  on top of that, it is in a different position, necessitating a longer overflow hose.  Paint is of exceedingly poor quality and wipes off on your hands.  It was packaged poorly and arrived with bent fittings. I will be surprised if the thing lasts 6 months.

I just don't trust the new one. Hopefully, it will last long enough for me to have the old radiator re-cored.


The heater core has been replaced, and the the fan blower now works correctly.

Here is the old heater core...a small leak in the corner and seriously crimped fittings. A previous owner had simply looped the heater hoses, bypassing the core. After spending the day replacing it, I can, almost, understand why. This thing was a bear to get out as bent up as it was.

New core....no copper here. Aluminum cores seem to be all you can get now. Not complaining as they seem to transfer heat a heck of a lot better than the old style.

The blower fan...where to begin? The blower would try (sort of) to work on the low settings but not on high. and wouldn't actually move any air.If you set it to high, it would only blow when the ignition was off...scratched my head on this one a bit. 

Ends up that, First, the motor blower resistors where ganged off the ignition ballast resistor, so in the lower positions the blower was getting a whopping 2 volts max. And Second, the relay (below) was miss-wired. The black wire which was supposed to be ground was actually wired to a switched hot. When the ignition was on, the blower switch lead and the "ground" both had power and the relay would not engage. When the ignition was off, there was just enough differential across the relay to trigger it, and the fan would turn on....Wired the ground to ground, and viola!, the thing started working....I have heat! 

Score!!

A Special thanks to my wonderful brother in law and sister. thanks to them, I now have a copy of the '74 'Vette assembly instructions!!!!

Vette is back on the road

Not painted yet, but I was able to repair the old radiator. I will leave the solder joints bare until I know, for sure, that the sucker is not leaking.

Missing something?

The new radiator is no longer in the vehicle, sucker sprung a serious leak .The shop will have a replacement on Wednesday...bummed out until I get the new one installed.

Per Yuris' Request here is what is under the hood....

Boba Vette-Initial State

Initial State as I picked it up the other day...paint is shot, lots of little issues, needs new bumpers but a ton of potential....

1974 Corvette Stingray, 327 bored to (I think) 392. Turbo 400, 850 CFM double pumper carb.