louis_white
Well-known user
I had a feeling it was going to be a tuff one
I’m thinking of leaving it until summer and trying the big bag technique.
The Las Vegas Baked C4 build.
- Thread starter louis_white
- Start date
I’m thinking of leaving it until summer and trying the big bag technique.
louis_white
Well-known user
I’m not sure actually, they’ve never looked the right size tyre to me, looked stretched
What’s the big bag ?? Just put new tyres on mine 255-50-16I’m not sure actually, they’ve never looked the right size tyre to me, looked stretched
Are they the right wheels ? There the same as I have on my 85
JonnyC4
CCCUK Member
They are not the correct ones and they have to look like these:
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louis_white
Well-known user
Been busy the last week with a few projects on the car. Been doing more work on the dash but I won’t bore anyone with that until complete and I can show before and after pictures.
I’ve also been attending to a lot of body work filling and sanding again I’ll upload pictures when complete.
However one project I started today which has a before, during and after pictures are the wheels, well wheel only done one so far but the process will be the same for all three so for now here is the wheel progress.
Although not the era correct wheels for my car and I do plan to get the correct 1990 wheels eventually. I thought I’d brush up the ones I have as they were looking a little shabby with a bad case of lacquer peel.
first agood clean with Megiar’s wheel cleaner. This stuff is amazing, highly recommend.
Then I applied some paint stripper, unfortunately not so good at all, as you can see in the picture below it barley touched it....
So as usual when we starting these jobs they become bigger than we expected
I had to sand the lacquer due to
The paint stripper not working!
Wet sanding my way from 400 grit all the way up to 3000 grit, a long process and in all honesty I didn’t do as good of a job as I hoped. The tedious sanding got the better of me and I think I rushed coats. After a good polish with Autoglym’s metal polish (again great stuff) the end result was satisfactory for an afternoon and evenings grind!
End result...
Before and After, not perfect and still
Some sanding swirls, but at least the lacquer peel has gone. Tomorrow I’ll do the other 3 and touch up the corvette logo’s on centre caps.
I’ve also been attending to a lot of body work filling and sanding again I’ll upload pictures when complete.
However one project I started today which has a before, during and after pictures are the wheels, well wheel only done one so far but the process will be the same for all three so for now here is the wheel progress.
Although not the era correct wheels for my car and I do plan to get the correct 1990 wheels eventually. I thought I’d brush up the ones I have as they were looking a little shabby with a bad case of lacquer peel.
first agood clean with Megiar’s wheel cleaner. This stuff is amazing, highly recommend.
Then I applied some paint stripper, unfortunately not so good at all, as you can see in the picture below it barley touched it....
So as usual when we starting these jobs they become bigger than we expected
I had to sand the lacquer due to
The paint stripper not working!
Wet sanding my way from 400 grit all the way up to 3000 grit, a long process and in all honesty I didn’t do as good of a job as I hoped. The tedious sanding got the better of me and I think I rushed coats. After a good polish with Autoglym’s metal polish (again great stuff) the end result was satisfactory for an afternoon and evenings grind!
End result...
Before and After, not perfect and still
Some sanding swirls, but at least the lacquer peel has gone. Tomorrow I’ll do the other 3 and touch up the corvette logo’s on centre caps.
Attachments
louis_white
Well-known user
Gutted, saw loads of YouTube videos where it stripped it straight off with ease, they were youtubers in the US though. The stuff I got did absolutely nothing
must be as you say, environmental diluting.
louis_white
Well-known user
Small update and small ascetic difference but a big bloody job to get the part of to repair.
Instrument cluster lens was very smoky from sun damage, I could barley see the dials.
So stripped it down removing foot well dropping steering wheel etc to finally be able to remove the instrument cluster, removed the lens made my way going over it with different grades of sand paper then finally buffed up with some polish and I can now finally see through it.
Instrument cluster lens was very smoky from sun damage, I could barley see the dials.
So stripped it down removing foot well dropping steering wheel etc to finally be able to remove the instrument cluster, removed the lens made my way going over it with different grades of sand paper then finally buffed up with some polish and I can now finally see through it.
Attachments
louis_white
Well-known user
Thanks mate, took a few attempts to get rid of the yellowing but it got there. I later found out you can buy new ones
oh well least it’s still original 
louis_white
Well-known user
Not much of an update but just thought this was a cool find and worth posting.
Working on these old cars can be sole destroying at times and today was one of them days for me.
One of them days you spend several minuets with your face in your hand feeling your finances trickling further into the car than you originally wanted and the small goals you set your self drifting further and further away.
Then boom the car gives you a little love back, an easy fix, a sense of achievement, or in today’s case for me a little bit of history and potentially something a little rare and special that reminds you one of the reasons why you got in to this in the first place, for a piece of that American history!
so check this fossil out
Thought I’d check out my spare and give it a clean. Only turns out it’s the original factory spare with factory Jack. I don’t think this thing has ever been used! Cleaned the wheel but the Jack was already spotless!
Working on these old cars can be sole destroying at times and today was one of them days for me.
One of them days you spend several minuets with your face in your hand feeling your finances trickling further into the car than you originally wanted and the small goals you set your self drifting further and further away.
Then boom the car gives you a little love back, an easy fix, a sense of achievement, or in today’s case for me a little bit of history and potentially something a little rare and special that reminds you one of the reasons why you got in to this in the first place, for a piece of that American history!
so check this fossil out
Thought I’d check out my spare and give it a clean. Only turns out it’s the original factory spare with factory Jack. I don’t think this thing has ever been used! Cleaned the wheel but the Jack was already spotless!
louis_white
Well-known user
Perks of a nation lock down is time to get a few bits done on the car.
The battery terminal bolts finally arrived today but late evening, so tomorrow the old girl will get some power in her and I can finally see what other skeletons await me!
today I thought I would attended to the cowl drains and gave it all a good clean out. Then removed and painted wiper arms and mesh grills. Give that whole area a refresh!
really pleased with the outcome.
How it was looking. As you can see it was in a bad state, full of that Las Vegas sand.
All completely blocked!!!
Well I wasn’t expecting it to come up that clean Bonus!
Nick of paint for these bits....
few hours later, fitted them. Looking fresh!!!
A little side by side comparison....
The battery terminal bolts finally arrived today but late evening, so tomorrow the old girl will get some power in her and I can finally see what other skeletons await me!
today I thought I would attended to the cowl drains and gave it all a good clean out. Then removed and painted wiper arms and mesh grills. Give that whole area a refresh!
really pleased with the outcome.
How it was looking. As you can see it was in a bad state, full of that Las Vegas sand.
All completely blocked!!!
Well I wasn’t expecting it to come up that clean Bonus!
Nick of paint for these bits....
few hours later, fitted them. Looking fresh!!!
A little side by side comparison....
louis_white
Well-known user
Hi all, firstly it’s been some time since I’ve posted on here so I have loads of exciting stuff to update you all on.
The car is still not running, if you all remember I was sold this car as having a spark issue! Well it turned out it wasn’t a spark issue to why the car wouldn’t start and in fact I had been sold a car that needed a lot of work to get running a whole engine rebuild from the bottom up! Among all the other skeletons the car had, I think it’s fair to say this c4 was really ready for that scrap yard
but not on my watch!
Yes I’m throwing money away in most peoples eye and yes it would be cheaper to cut my losses and buy another C4 but I didn’t buy a project car to get back on the road as soon as I could, I bought one to learn how to work on cars and I think it’s safe to say this car is definitely teaching me a lot
In the past few months I’ve either fixed or replaced most parts on the car, barley any of the electrics work now they all do bar the radio. The interior was in dire straits but now it almost looks like new again.
All the lights work and many more bits so the car is comming on nicely.
be prepared for the bombardment of post on my project build vegas C4!
The car is still not running, if you all remember I was sold this car as having a spark issue! Well it turned out it wasn’t a spark issue to why the car wouldn’t start and in fact I had been sold a car that needed a lot of work to get running a whole engine rebuild from the bottom up! Among all the other skeletons the car had, I think it’s fair to say this c4 was really ready for that scrap yard
but not on my watch! Yes I’m throwing money away in most peoples eye and yes it would be cheaper to cut my losses and buy another C4 but I didn’t buy a project car to get back on the road as soon as I could, I bought one to learn how to work on cars and I think it’s safe to say this car is definitely teaching me a lot
In the past few months I’ve either fixed or replaced most parts on the car, barley any of the electrics work now they all do bar the radio. The interior was in dire straits but now it almost looks like new again.
All the lights work and many more bits so the car is comming on nicely.
be prepared for the bombardment of post on my project build vegas C4!
louis_white
Well-known user
In the process of removing my valve covers to paint ‘which by the way was a right ball ache of a job’ I discovered the real reason to why the car wouldn’t start!
ready for the shock…….
This was what I saw when I finally removed the valve covers.
As you can imagine my sheer terror of a reality check of how big a project I had gotten my self into for my fist time! Clearly not just a spark issue as advertised
I’ve got to admit I spent the next 24/48 hours feeling sick and stressing my next move!
I then remembered I bought this car to learn and to go on a journey of knowledge, I told my self I wasn’t unlucky but lucky to go down a path that was going to teach me more about these cars then I ever imagined!
I change my mind set to having this car ready for summer 2021 and set my hart on taking my time and tearing the engine down and building my knowledge the best I can.
so firstly I got to stripping the top end. I soon discovered under all the old oil, rust and crud I had several bent and broken push rods, this was clearly signs of skeletons lurking deeper down the rabbit whole!
Removing the cylinder heads a picture was starting to come together on what exactly had happened to this car. Well I’ll let the pictures do the talking….
As you can imagine the constant surprise and bad news was quite a heavy blow so I decided to take some time looking at what parts of the top end could be salvaged and took on my original project of cleaning up and painting the valve covers and a few other bits.
ready for the shock…….
This was what I saw when I finally removed the valve covers.
As you can imagine my sheer terror of a reality check of how big a project I had gotten my self into for my fist time! Clearly not just a spark issue as advertised
I’ve got to admit I spent the next 24/48 hours feeling sick and stressing my next move!
I then remembered I bought this car to learn and to go on a journey of knowledge, I told my self I wasn’t unlucky but lucky to go down a path that was going to teach me more about these cars then I ever imagined!
I change my mind set to having this car ready for summer 2021 and set my hart on taking my time and tearing the engine down and building my knowledge the best I can.
so firstly I got to stripping the top end. I soon discovered under all the old oil, rust and crud I had several bent and broken push rods, this was clearly signs of skeletons lurking deeper down the rabbit whole!
Removing the cylinder heads a picture was starting to come together on what exactly had happened to this car. Well I’ll let the pictures do the talking….
As you can imagine the constant surprise and bad news was quite a heavy blow so I decided to take some time looking at what parts of the top end could be salvaged and took on my original project of cleaning up and painting the valve covers and a few other bits.
louis_white
Well-known user
With my nice new shiny valve covers, new badges and pcv valves. I was inspired to see what other parts I could give a new lease of life! So I sent the heads off to be skimmed, cleaned and pressure tested.
I Started to strip down clean and paint the fuel rail, manifold, runners, plenum, lower manifold and throttle body.
I Started to strip down clean and paint the fuel rail, manifold, runners, plenum, lower manifold and throttle body.
louis_white
Well-known user
Thanks buddy, she’s not drivable but she’s come along way since when I got her in January. Wait until you see the interior post
