Good morning everyone and first of all I wanted to apologize for my English if I make any mistakes.
I don't know if there is already a discussion about what I'm asking, but honestly searching the forum I didn't find it. Anyway I have this type of problem, I'm restoring a 1978 Corvette C3 which unfortunately is completely rusted and I therefore had to completely disassemble it. At the moment I'm a bit stuck because I found the internal windshield reinforcement supports completely destroyed (one even non-existent). I wanted to replace them by buying new ones, but I didn't find anything online. Currently the only solution I'm adopting is to scan the part with a professional laser that we have at work and reconstruct the part via 3D printing or milling from solid, but it is a very long process as the part is not linear but has many curves on multiple axes and obtaining all the surfaces requires a lot of time. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you very much for your availability, I'll attach some photos to help you understand what I'm talking about. Have a good day.
Good morning - you are taking on quite a project...!!! I am by no means an expert but it would seem to me that your best bet would be to find a donor car that you can salvage parts from. I hate to see any car cut up for parts, especially Corvettes, but with the lack of replacement parts on the market it usually is the only option.
On the other hand, if you are able to recreate the parts there is always the option to start up a business to fill the need for those parts.
Best of luck...!!!
Hello, I agree a whole lot with Norsky. A Parts car is best. I did that with the windshield top frame on a 75'. Very time consuming, but also Very rewarding. Came out well. There are many places you can get parts. Back yards are one area. Put out a plea for one. Time and Patience can accomplish much.
Thanks for the reply everyone, actually I was also thinking of going with a donor car, but unfortunately here in Italy it is not so easy to find "throwaway" corvettes, they are quite rare cars, most likely mine could have been considering the state in which they were It's there. Thanks for the help anyway.
There is a Corvette salvage yard in Pennsylvania called Contemporary Corvettes. You might check with them.
1973 L-82 4 spd
Thanks a lot.
Might try Bairs.
http://www.bairscorvette.com/c3bodymountbirdcagemetal.html
Honestly, if it were me, I'd try and find another Vette to restore.
hello and thank you very much for your suggestion, honestly it's an idea that had crossed my mind out of despondency. When I bought the car from the outside everything seemed ok, the old owner or the one before him saw fit to paint the whole thing the underside of the car with anti-noise paint which covered all the major defects it had. Then when I had the car in my hands and started to do some tidying up work I noticed the big problems with the birdcage, in particular all 2 rocker channels were completely rusty, as were the floor bottoms and the rear bulkheads. In short, let's say that there is a lot of work to do. Unfortunately I don't have all this money to throw away the car I bought and start another project. I will calmly try to fix it little by little (by now I have become fond of the project). The car is currently completely dismantled, but I hope to finish everything in 2-3 years. Thanks for the message.
hello and thank you very much for your suggestion, honestly it's an idea that had crossed my mind out of despondency. When I bought the car from the outside everything seemed ok, the old owner or the one before him saw fit to paint the whole thing the underside of the car with anti-noise paint which covered all the major defects it had. Then when I had the car in my hands and started to do some tidying up work I noticed the big problems with the birdcage, in particular all 2 rocker channels were completely rusty, as were the floor bottoms and the rear bulkheads. In short, let's say that there is a lot of work to do. Unfortunately I don't have all this money to throw away the car I bought and start another project. I will calmly try to fix it little by little (by now I have become fond of the project). The car is currently completely dismantled, but I hope to finish everything in 2-3 years. Thanks for the message.
Did you click on the link I posted. That may be your best parts source.