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According to the build sheet glued to the
gas tank, this Stingray was delivered to a dealership in Jacksonville,
FL
in 1976. I bought the car in December 2004 and have been
working on its restoration ever since. I've been able to do
almost all the work myself, and it's been a great learning
experience. These pictures show some
of views along the way. It's an ongoing process and will probably
continue through most of 2006.
 This is
the car on the day I bought it, sitting out
behind an auto repair business. Notice that the front grills are
missing and the headlight doors seem to be sitting very low. This
meant that the metal holding up the headlights had rusted away, though
I didn't know this at the time. The car had recently been painted
blue (it was originally
white). For all its flaws, it was mine, and I had always wanted a
70's Corvette!
 The interior was going to need a lot
of work. There
were no seats in the car when I brought it home. Also, the door
panels, center
console and part of the dash were missing. The telescope
mechanism on the steering column
didn't lock and almost nothing electrical on the car functioned.
Notice the masking tape hanging from the steering column and holding
the red wires. These were connected to a push-button wired
directly to the starter! You had to turn the key to the "run"
position, then hold in the starter button. It took a bunch of
starting fluid, but the motor ran.
 The motor
compartment was also not a
pretty
sight. Notice the very small radiator (not
correct for the car) and the
red wire running across the top of the motor. This was hooked to
a
cheap electric fan since the original had been removed. It turned
out that the starting problems came from someone's forgetting to put on
the ground strap when changing distributor caps. Fixing this,
along with a tune-up, did wonders for the motor. No more starting
fluid required. Re-installing the valve covers with correctly
placed gaskets fixed the problem of oil leaking onto the headers and
causing continuous smoke.
 The cooling system
was the first
major project I tackled. The idea was to get this part correct, then put the car on the road to find the
conditions of the steering, suspension, transmission, etc.
Because of their long, sloping noses, Corvettes are prone to
overheating, so getting the cooling system right was a priority. This
required a reconditioned radiator support, a new radiator, hoses,
a fan and a shroud. The chrome covers shined up nicely with some
elbow
grease. At this point, I discovered that the rubber hoses from
the gas tank were bad, so I had to drop the tank and replace
these. This wouldn't be the end of the fuel system issues,
however.
 The electrical system was a mess, so I installed a new
dash wiring harness and replaced a bunch of corroded sockets for the
exterior lights. I also
put in the front grills and turn signal lights. The car came
without trim rings or center caps, so these were added. At this
point, it was summer and all the safety items had been fixed, so I
could at least drive the car a bit. Each trip was
slightly longer than the last, as I discovered that the car wouldn't
leave me stranded. A few times I even drove it to campus on
weekends. A milestone!
 The headlights were the next problem
to be tackled.
These complex, vacuum operated mechanisms are often a headache.
Mine
were a mess of corrosion and rust, meaning that almost everything had
to be replaced. None of the hinge points moved, which made things
even more difficult. The biggest problem was removing the
mechanisms from the car. Many of the bolts were too rusted to
remove with a wrench, so the metal bar that runs along the top of the
body just in front of the hood had to be cut into sections and the
headlights lifted through the body holes while still attached to the
cut-up header bar. It was a very tight fit, but eventually
everything came out. After a complete rebuild, and installation,
it's very satisfying to see them go up and down
correctly!
My wife kept noticing a gas
smell in the garage after I would come back from drives around
town. Eventually, I
discovered that the steel fuel lines running underneath the car had
rusted out. This meant removing, reconditioning and
replacing everything from the gas tank up to the fuel pump. The
piece on the left is the gas tank shield that covers the tank.
Obviously a bit worse for wear. The good news that only
the section in front was actually bad. I fabbed up a
replacement piece (my first sheet metal work) that was welded in
place. After a good
cleaning and painting and it's ready to go back on. After
painting the frame and bottom, it was time to install new fuel
lines. Rather than use the stock steel lines, braided lines with
AN fittings were used from the tank to the fuel pump and from the tank
to the charcoal canister. No more gas smell in the garage!
 While the fuel lines were out, I
decided to replace the floor pans. Over the
years, the leaking T-top panels had allowed water to pool on the floor, and the floor pans rusted completely through in
several places. A previous owner tried to solve the problem by
laying fiberglass across the whole floor. While these patches
allowed the car to be driven, the floor was very uneven and all the
mounting points for the seats and seatbelts were missing, which made it
impossible to mount them correctly. The right solution was to
completely remove the wreckage of the old floor pans and weld in brand
new ones. A cut-off wheel on my angle grinder made the basic
cuts, but the remaining fiberglass patches had to be  yanked up with pliers and brute force. A very
tiring and dirty job. Once it was finished, though, the extent of
rust damage to the floor was clear. All the corroded metal was
cut away and the new floor pans were fit, then MIG-welded in.
This was my chance to learn welding, and Santa brought me a small
welder which worked beautifully. Finally, the floor was fixed
correctly and the seats and seat belts could be mounted as Chevrolet
had originally designed!
A few other minor, but annoying issues were also fixed around this
time. Someone decided that it was too difficult to remove the
door locks correctly, so they simply ripped them out of the fiberglass
panels. This meant that you unlocked the car by sticking your
finger through the hole and pushing down the lock rod.
Convenient, but not too secure! The damage was repaired by
fabricating and bonding thin metal plates on the insides of both door
panels to hold the lock mechanisms, then filling the gaps with body
putty. The factory alarm system was also fixed. It's pretty
much useless, but that was the state of the art in 1976! I also
installed the correct air intake system and valve covers. The car
originally came with chrome shielding around the distributor and plug
wires, but these had been lost sometime along the way. A very
generous fellow Corvette owner gave me a complete set and these pretty
much completed the engine compartment work, bringing it very close to
its condition when it left the St. Louis factory over 30 years ago.
Many interior components also needed serious restoration. Every
gear in the speedometer was stripped and the gauge face was badly
rusted. A complete rebuild solved both problems (the only job I
didn't do myself). The tachometer circuit board was fried by
running the car without the coil ground strap. Fortunately, a new
board was all that was needed. The faces of the other gauges were
badly rusted; a fellow Corvette owner wanted aftermarket gauges in his
car and generously donated his old, fully functional set. The
metal parts of the dash were stripped, polished and re-painted.
Finally, a pair of replacement seats were purchased. All of these
pieces now adorn our guest bedroom, waiting to be re-installed in the
car.
The next phase was to deal with the leaking automatic transmission and
rear suspension. The transmission problems were typical on cars
of this age and required only some new seals. On the other hand, ominous noises from the rear end suggested bad universal
joints and rear wheel bearings. This meant removing the entire
rear suspension for a rebuild.  Corvettes
have six u-joints, and at least half of mine were bad. Both rear
bearings were also junk. Several tools had to be fabricated
before this job could be tackled, and it was a real learning
experience. I also replaced the emergency brakes since a previous
owner decided they were too much trouble and removed all the pieces and
tossed them in the trash! When everything was painted and put
back together, it worked perfectly. Nearly all the underside was
painted black with a few silver parts for contrast. Just for fun,
though, I decided to paint both half-shafts bright red to add a bit of
color.
 Toward the end of 2006, two events slowed work on the
rebuilding project. The first was the birth of our first son,
Christopher Jon, on Halloween. He is growing every day and will
soon take his first steps. Even at two months, he was already
helping supervise Dad's work in the garage. The other addition
was an 89 Corvette convertible, bought just before Christmas. The
89 is known as a C4 style Corvette and has many "modern car" features
like fuel injection and rack-and-pinion steering. Unlike the 76,
the convertible has needed very little work and has been an incredibly
fun car to drive. The only problem is that I have to share the
convertible - my wife also enjoys driving it!
The next major projects for the 76 are rebuilding the steering and
front suspension and welding in a new windshield frame to replace the
sections damaged by the leaking T-tops. Once these tasks are
completed, the major mechanical work will be finished, and it will be
time to finish the interior structure and reinstall the dash, seats,
carpets, etc. to bring the car back to life.
Many,
many Thanks. There is no way I could tackle a project like
this on my own. I had very little experience working on cars
before I got this one, so almost everything is new to me. Many
people have generously offered advice, suggestions and help and I am
incredibly grateful to Todd, Joe, Fred, Jim and many others. I've
also met a bunch of other great people (both online and in person) via
the Corvette Forum.
It's a amazing group of people who have expertise and experience on
every conceivable problem that can arise on these great cars.
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Stewart Research Group
