Projects Mid Life Crisis 62 Vette

What set up did you use for the cruise control?

 

I thought the Beach Boys were all baritones with my crappy speaker with lots of sand on it.

 

It's an older Rostra 16-R that I've had in several cars over the years. Pretty easy to install it since I've done it so many times.

 

Squirrel using cruise control in a hot rod....didn't see that coming, who would've thought??

 

I end up driving on long trips, and old cars and hot rods usually put a strain on my gas pedal foot...so I like to add cruise control. I'm hoping to drive this car to Drag Week in September, that's 2000 miles each way. Maybe you can handle it, but I need some help.

I had cruise in Plan II when I drove it to Drag Week in 2021. It was nice.

 

Jus funnin with ya, it did make me wonder if Plan II had cruise, nothing wrong with cruise I use it all the time

 

I drove Plan II to drag week twice without it...that was enough for me!

 

My Fargo is getting cruise before our adventure this fall

 

Damn, no Plan II at drag week this year??

 

We'll see, it's the back up plan this time

 

I was gonna come to Indy, but I'll probably hold off, gotta get everything in line for Lloydfest lol

 

Huh?

 

Wait ...What? A couple of pages on reverbs, amps , speakers and cruise controls... And Jim is putting aftermarket four wheel discs on something. I believe an alien abduction has happened here.....

 

Oh, just wait till I run it at the drag strip, my perspective will flip again!

going to try to take it up to Tucson early September when the track opens up again after the rainy season ends.

In a positive note, I ordered some slicks today for it

 

You sourced another 3rd member then?

 

Not yet. I'm still thinking about it....

I did a little computer playing with an old drag race simulator program (it runs in DOS) and optimistically it suggests that 3.70 gears will be about right with the engine that I have set up now. The program predicts mid 12s, which sounds very unlikely to me, I'd be happy to get in the 14s with it.

The other issues is how fast it's allowed to go, and how fast it really will go. And all those NHRA rules. Looks like a convertible needs a roll bar to go faster than 13.50, and a drive shaft loop to go faster than 14.0.

 

When you did the screw in studs I wondered how far you’d go down that rabbit hole.

 

We used to grab the reverb units from junk GM cars when I was towing, I usually sold them quick, never set one up. It was a quick $5 or $10 bill in my pocket.

 

Did you need a GW basic disk to boot the computer? I still have one around from my early NC programming days in college around 1986.

 

I don't have any more computers that will actually read a floppy disk, unfortunately. But I do still have MS DOS 1.10 in the box with the original floppy disk from 1982....one day it'll be worth something.

Meanwhile, back to old Chevys....

 

I used to have the Mr gasket computer dyno, fun times. So will the Corvette spider gears hold up better in the Corvette with slicks better than the other 57 Chevy cars?

 

I doubt it. I probably ought to get a stronger 3rd member in there....

Those axles are rather skinny, as well.

 

While you are upgrading the rear differential it seems like a good time to add a blower.

 

I fiddled with the passenger side door, got the panel installed. Aside from being the wrong color, it looks nice, eh?

The driver side will take some more work, I have to round up some more screws, and fix the screw holes. I used some epoxy mixed with "microspheres" to make some filler to use on the pass side. It seems to work ok. I probably need to add some type of cloth or mat to the larger holes, the ones that are over 1/4" diameter, before trying to fill them.

Screw holes in fiberglass are the bane of Corvette interiors, apparently. Anther fix is to rivet a small metal plate over the hole.

 

The last one I did I was lucky enough to just use a paperclip looped through the hole.

 

I've read about the paperclip trick....I'll probably try it on the sill screw holes. The door panels are a mess, some of the holes are out to 3/8" or so. Most just need a dab of filler.

 

I used kitty hair on a few of mine.

 

I used the metal plates on my 60, years ago