Hi, Looking at our 61 Corvette door posts where they align with the windshield and notice that the bottom area of the post matches well with the windshield but the the tops of both post stick out and not follow the curvature of the windshield posts correctly. Went to a local show and several C-1 had similar issues. Is this normal? Cannot understand how to resolve this issue. thanks Don.
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Donald
This is pretty common on C1's. There is however a little adjustment that can be done. In the ST-12, pages 1-13 and 1-14 describes how to adjust door, window and door post.
Terry -
Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
O.K. Thanks . I will look that up. I could not see how to make any major adjustments without throwing off the bottom alignment or thought I had 2 bad door posts. She was beaten when new!! Also I have a situation where the chrome tips of the headlight bezels do not match up well with the top of the fender chrome and they stick up one worse than the other. I just got finished realigning the headlight buckets the proper way and fit the buckets and headlight bezels the best I could to fit the contour of the body and now the chrome tips are too high and miss the end of the chrome strip on top of the fenders on both sides. The chrome tips look to be peen'd over the headlight bezel so again I do not know if there is any alignment I can do short of removing material under the headlight bezel to lower them! On a good note this all started with installing the long ago removed 441,442 horns and their mounting brackets along with the harness clips and the grille braces also missing from her. I will say the restored horns sound wonderful compared to the NAPA replacements that were in there. Now I know what everybody means when they say the factory horns are the best!!Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
The headlight bucket chrome spear mis-alignment is pretty classic too. You can make it look somewhat better but without body work on the fenders there will always be some mis-alignment and that is factory-normal. Here is some info about the issue and ways to make it better.
Some t******* of the fender windsplits tab extension at the headlight ends helps as does raising the tip of the windsplits on very front of the fenders...the attachment discusses these techniques...Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Like Terry said, check your ST-12. The instructions are there to make yours right. If they don't fit the windshield flush, they need adjusted. It takes a little work but they will fit nicely. Just because others don't do it correctly doesn't mean you have to settle for a poor fit.Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
O.K. Great news again. It is an ongoing restoration and each little project helps. I am now understanding why these mis alignments I have are not just our car!! These things now bug me as I am trying hard to make her better and have several annoying thing that need to be addressed. When we drive her she rattles here and there and I try to address each one hoping to get to a point where we are making headway. As someone here on the site stated it is her nature to be this way! Still love the sounds of her running and all the quirks she has. When we put her to bed for the night in our garage after a evening drive she also has a certain scent when cooling down which I am enjoying too! O.K. Thanks again for all the help and input on this. I am sure I will be back with more questions soon as I resolve these issues. Rear springs are beat from all the hole shots she took at the dragstrip especially the right rear. Looked under and the rear springs were replaced (45yrs. ago non stock) so I will try and start to research on weather to purchase a replacement style ( some bitch they do not ride the same height ) spring set or look for the originals and get them rebuilt next year. DonComment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Everything is a compromise on these cars...if you adjust those door posts inward enough at the top so that they pound the windshield frame a good lick when closing the door then you'll stress the bottom outboard fiberglass at the bottom of the door post on the upper door (a real bad spot on these cars) then you'll get cracking at that spot. "Perfection is the enemy of good enough" is a good catch phrase for these old rides...
Excessive gas smell on these cars can be a bunch of things from leaky fuel filler neck to the seal around the gas tank cover.....if its really bad (you don't say for sure) you'll want to dig into that too...Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Hi, Yes I will keep the adjustments in mind when I try to make the fits better. She was so beaten at the hands of her 1st owner when dragged, then the second owner only had her 6 months frustrated with her poor condition (spoke with him on the phone a few years ago)and then resold her thru another roadracer/drag racer locally and she again suffered from the third owner who just ripped out whatever was not needed for dragging. I found was was left of her and literally brought her home in boxes of bits and pieces! I was lucky to get a photo of the Corvette from the third owner when he was in the process of getting her ready for dragging full time. Yes nothing fit well and now we have the time to try to make her more correct a little at a time . She was restored in the late 1970's as best we could (pre internet days)and now after 40 yrs. of sitting around she is being redone. She has only had about 800 miles put on her since we purchased her in the early 1970's. The smell I am referring to is a little gas from the gas cap debacle we are still trying to resolve. Do not know if we have the correct cap!! ThanksComment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Don, When doing the adjustments, remove the door weatherstrip and adjust the post so there's an even gap. The post should NOT touch the windshield at all. Once everything is adjusted, install new W/S. and you're set. If done correctly, the fit will be great with no stress anywhere. I've done several of these and never had an issue with the door cracking. In fact, I've never seen one that was cracked but I suppose it's possible if the post is severely out of adjustment. Here's a pic. of my 60 that I finished over 30 years ago. The post fits flush with the windshield, the door window fits the top correctly and no door cracks.
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Don -
Read the article linked below - it covers the C-1 "gas smell" causes and cures in some detail.
http://www.lbfun.com/warehouse/tech_...hnHinckley.pdfComment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Wow looks great. Our passenger door has already suffered form the alignment trouble and was repaired 40 yrs. ago. Starting to show again so thanks for that tip. Now explains the damage to that area!!Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Yes I investigated that issue but need to know what gas cap to use for our application. When we got the car in 1971 it had a Stant vented cap on her and the gas tank has a small vent and hose. We assume these are the original parts. When we replaced the gas tank sending unit we had the pipe style fitting that was for late 1960 units and early 61 units. The later sending units have the barb style fittings. Our car was built April 3 of 61 so do not know if it is considered a mid year or early year car! I placed a shim under the gasket and it helped a little but now have a Stant 10640 on her and that is much better on turns . My question is the gas cap we have is described in the Nolan Adams book page 336 referring to dealer spillage note. Is this one of those bad caps. If so what cap do we look for? The article states Pt. Number 3787292 should be the replacement piece.Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Donald
Here are some gas cap numbers that I got from an old post, NAPA-703-1205, Stant 10810, Standard CST-6810. When I put a new cap on my 62 it still leaked when full. I had to bend the tabs on the filler neck so the cap fit nice and tight. Hope this helps.Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Those are excellent caps.....I ran the NAPA cap number for many years with no issues. If your C1 has the rubber gas tank vent hose in the fuel filler cavity you do NOT need a vented cap....the rubber hose IS the vent. Also repro metal filler necks had seepage around the metal seam at one point. A fingertip full of JB Weld swiped around that seam will fix that. I assume you know about the rubber hose attaching the filler neck to the tank. If that is perished, yes, you'll get fumes. Try not to top off your tank; if you do then expect gas smell on hard right turns especially up hill...gas will run out that rubber vent tube into the filler cavity. The filler cavity should have a hole in the bottom that has a nipple on it for a drain hose for spillage to flow out....make sure that is in place. Make sure your gas tank cover is well sealed...some of that gray closed cell insulation foam with sticky adhesive on one side works great - no messy putty to deal with. Make sure the round holes through the body UNDER the gas tank are not glassed over. The article John developed above tells most of these tips...Comment
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Re: C-1 door post alignment with windshield
Thanks ,The gas tank is a non baffle type as we checked and it does have the little rubber hose (replaced it when we replaced the sending unit for the second time as the cheap Chinese float ruptured). We routed it the correct way. The filler neck is the original one and intact. Replaced all the rubber pieces. I assume we have a late 1960 tank system. Yes I try to not fill the tank and top it off to prevent the spillage issue. Still not sure if the cap we got with the car was a correct one. Do not know why it is stamped vented. If it is incorrect I will just chuck it or was it a transition cap they talk about? That is why I wanted to know what cap is correct for the car in case we show it. I will check on the tank cover issue as we only set it on top for now while trying to straighten out the issues there. That would be nice to complete that area for good! Can anyone ring in on the status of our car as a early 61 or mid year unit . According to the birthday book she was completed as the third car at the end of the day on April 3 1961 . I did manage to come across a sister car built 9 days before ours and delivered to Syracuse NY. I stumbled upon the owner at a local show. Has never been restored and it is owned by the original owners son.Very little has been done to it so I use it as an example when trying to figure things out! He too would like to know weather his car is a early or last year car. Our car was delivered to Valley Chevrolet Inc. in Scotia NY as per the original owners sister. I could not find a dealer code for them but we had a bigger dealer in Schenectady NY Mohawk Chevrolet. Could the Valley Chevy dealer have been too low a volume dealer to have a dealer code and the Corvette was run thru the Big dealership in Schenectady? ThanksComment
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