....: Modifying headlight assemblies

06 January 2015

Modifying headlight assemblies

The holidays are done and my wife and I got back from our Christmas cruise to the Bahamas so it was time to do a little work on the Vette while the temps in my unheated garage allowed it. My short term goal for this winter is to get the Vette mobile by installing the radiator. First, since it's much easier with the radiator out of the car, I need to re-install the head light assemblies. One of my sub-system mod plans was to convert the factory pneumatic headlight assembly with an electric motor conversion kit. An after market vendor, McSpeed, used to sell a kit that requires the use of '93-'97 Firebird headlight motors, control module and an '84-'87 Vette headlight switch. The kit consists of two of the brackets and the bolts/spacers pictured below. The little L-shaped bracket in the right of the top pic is a stop for the headlight arm. McSpeed went out of business several years ago. However, I bought a kit before they did and I believe, if the chatter on the Corvette Forum is an indicator, it was the last yet to be installed kit until the other day.

One bracket and down position stop - two each required.

Hardware included in the kit. These do one side. Some shimming and/or grinding of the spacers was necessary to align the motors and actuator arms.

Much easier to work on the brackets with the assemblies out of the car. The large round objects are the factory pneumatic actuators and the tubing is what operates the vacuum system. All that is now replaced by...

the Firebird electric motors, the control module and a few feet of 16 gauge wire.

Mock up mounting. Note the shim washer on the top bolt and the lower spacer was ground about a 1/16". I removed, painted black, then reinstalled the bracket.

The pics below are of the final install of the motors. The arms are in place and I replaced the bushings for the three clevis pins in each side (white plastic objects in the pics), essentially rebuilding each assembly.

Motor mounted with arm.

Note the L-shaped bracket functions as the down position stop on the top of the arm.

It's 24 degrees in the garage today and will be that way for a few days. The final install of the headlight assemblies on to the car will have to wait.

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1973 Corvette Project

This blog will chronicle the tale of my '73 Vette project car. I've been a Corvette hobbyist since my first vette, a 1973 silver with black leather interior, L-48, 4 spd coupe. It was my first, and only new, Corvette. Subsequently, I owned a total of seven Corvettes; a '77 coupe, '68 roadster, '80 L48 4spd, '73 coupe, '94 coupe and this '73 project.

It's obvious that the '73 is a favorite of mine. I found this one in an AutoTrader in October of '06. After talking and negotiating via email, I decided to buy it. It was an original BB, 4 spd car with 52,184 miles on the O'meter.

Now this is all according to the guy I bought it from. History of the car:

The seller's uncle bought it from the original owner when it was six months old. He pulled the BB and hot rodded it with a SBC for years, garbaged out the interior by cutting holes in the door panels and rear compartment doors and back of the compartment for speakers. I shouldn't bad mouth him, though. I cut a hole in the passenger side dash panel of my first '73 to mount an eight track (yes, I'm that old!!) player so it would look factory.

Then he passed away and the seller's older brother had it for years until my seller got it. He pulled the SBC but never told me what he did with it. He installed the following: new 4-core radiator, new shocks, new calipers and rotors, new rubber bushings in the suspension (missed the trailing arm mounting and control arm bushings, though), all new heavy duty u-joints, new windshield, and pulled the gas tank and had it cleaned and sealed. It had the CenterLine wheels you see in one of the pictures and the aftermarket hood scoop.

It was located in East Mesa, AZ in a desert suburb of Phoenix and I towed to my house in Flagstaff, a distance of about 160 miles from a elevation of around 1,000' to 7,200'. The trusty old Dakota made it.

The first thing I did was buy a set of '72 stock ralleys, rings, and center caps from a guy on the corvette forum and mounted 234/15 BFG Radial TAs on them. I will eventually put a set of 17x8 Vintage Wheel copies of ARE TorqueThroust Originals on it. I found a stock '75 hood to replace the existing hood w/scoop. When they put the scoop on, they cut a hole in the stock hood for the air cleaner, making it impractical to glass back to original.

Then I towed it on a U-Haul trailer 2,500 miles to CT it with the poor old 2000 Dakota that had 184,000 miles on it.

My plans: My original intent was to put an old school SBC in it. Then I thought about a GMPP Ramjet 350. I just sold a '94 Vette with an LT1 in it that I was going to upgrade to a LT4. I have the LT4 heads, hot cam kit w/1.6 rr, and an LT4 intake that I had the top ribs polished and cleared. So I planned to build an LT4 to drop into the '73. Meanwhile, I'd been watching EBay for LT and LS motors. I've also been following a thread on the corvette forum on LS-C3 conversions.

Well, I bid on on EBay for a LS2 w/5,800 miles on it that was still in the '07 vette, won, started a dialog with the owner, Ray, and started doing more research. Ray just installed a custom built LS7 last week in his '07 and pulled my motor last week and crated it for shipping. I used some FF miles I had to fly to Seattle to see the LS2 and rode in Ray's car. I'm sure Ray will post some info and pics of his new motor and ride.

Ray has been a great guy and a source of a ton of advice on the LS2. I talked to Dan at Vetteworks, the folks at SpeedHound and SuperPowers, Josh, from the corvette forum. Josh and I have pm'd and spoken on the phone about my conversion and he has really been an absolute wealth of information.

I'd like to thank Josh and all the other gear heads who pioneered the LS-C3 conversion and who are making this project a lot less a blind drive like I thought it would be.

I'll install a T56 6 spd, upgrade the suspension and steering, redo the interior (I bought a set of '04 ZO6 black leather searts for it, too), do some minor glass work and try to paint it myself.

Okay, from here on my updates will be on posts. Jump in with comments and suggestions. Any one in the SW CT area who has some knowledge, wrenching skill, cold beer, or the need to supervise, give me a shout - an extra wrench and a torso that can bench press a t56 6 spd are always welcome.