Projects '62 Corvette gets '63 Latham Supercharger

Howdy ya all
First off, I was born in '69, so honestly I'm posting in hopes of getting some nuggets of wealth/interest/suggestions from one and two generations before me. Basically...assist me with keeping this as much of an honest build as possible. Maybe you have parts or know of someone that would have parts for sale to keep it on track. Especially the engine compartment.
Secondly, some of the little things I complete may be of interest to someone else one day as so many of the posts I've read over the years have been to me.
My intentions for this car is to create a driver as if it was 1963 with a couple not too obvious upgrades.

I'm not technically "restoring" the car, I am truly just functionally rebuilding the car but will have a Concours quality paint job after mechanicals are dialed in...cause that's what I do!

 

First was the rear end in general. Both axle seals were leaking.
I didn't have a axle puller slide hammer so the brake drum inversion was my method. Naturally this will only help a few out there but it's so simple it seems worth mentioning.
Basically remove the brake drum, flip it inside out, slip over the wheel studs, thread three lug nuts on a few threads and use it like a slide hammer. Typically 3-4 slides will pop it loose.

 

Whilst getting dirty with this part of the project I discovered a pot of gold! A fellow HAMB'r purchased a Latham Axial Supercharger brand new in 1963 for his 1962 Chevrolet SS. Nice story made short, I'm the proud second owner of said Latham!!!
And this is where I'd really really like previous generations to chime in and help me keep my engine compartment as purist as possible...please.

 

Springs were old and shot, good for making knives or something. I decided to go with some new mono leaf springs based on friends cars and lots of reading. Just back to stock ride height. Will they stay, I'm not sure, my mind keeps wandering to 2-2.5 inches more height for a 8-8.5 inch rear wheel premise. That old school kind of look. For now they're staying.

 

Next big thing is wanting to change from no posi to posi without having to change my center section. Thankfully Tom Parsons has an incredible step by step layout for this task.
I'll try to illustrate through photos but the fundamental is removing 1.5 inches from the top of the internal strengthening gusset within the housing. It has to be removed all the way to the edge of the housing.
I simply used a grinder with a thin cutoff wheel and finished up with a die grinder just as Tom explains. Cleaned up some casting burrs and then sandblasted the entire housing. I did not paint the inside due to mine not having any paint originally.
And I know I'll get chided for this but I did not paint the exterior either, nor the springs, radius rods, spring mounts, stabilizer bar...anything. I touched it all, cleaned it all up but this is where I'm a bit different with a functional driver.
You can see by the first photo there's no big P, indicating posi.

 

There was some rear end noise and I don't know how much this race had to do with it but maybe?
A new 3.73 Eaton Posi unit was ordered and the rest was simply gutted and cleaned up.

 

@jimdillon take a look at this

 

That blower is to die for. Just perfect.

 

In the theme of keeping it period correct...ditch that aircleaner setup. This would have had four bonnet style aircleaners that clamp over the carb tops..plus I dont think that existing air cleaner setup would clear your hood. Might clear the hood in an Impala...but not in a Corvette..

 

I'll second the blower being badass...I had one a while back. It is a super high quality piece. Did you get the crank pulley? Mine was huge...that blower originally was made to spin really fast, like near 10k rpm if I remember correctly. If you read period writeups about that blower...they said it worked great...but starting the car was a chore..

 

https://barnfinds.com/legendary-c1-1957-corvette-latham-supercharged/






https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=131976













Note the teardrop style hood bulge

 

I love that supercharger!

 

Here is another early Corvette with a Latham Supercharger

http://www.superchevy.com/features/1312-1957-chevrolet-corvette-go-archives/

 

Love it so far! Why not paint the axle? I'm curious...

 

Very interesting project to say the least. I have run across an article on the black/silver car with the Latham and of course it goes without saying that it is cool. I cannot see exactly what modifications they made to the hood to make it fit. I see they put a subtle bulge as things are a bit tight under these old Vette hoods. Hard to see exactly what they did by the pictures though. I cannot remember if the 57 Vettes have a center brace like the 62 Vettes do, which would be right in the way of where the supercharger sits. I have a guy in my car club that recently put a dual quad 409 in his 57 and he had more room than I thought. He did not have to make any changes to the hood. It seems there is little room in the 62-maybe less than the 57-I cannot say for sure. You may have to engineer your own bulge (or hood scoop etc) if need be but may have to custom make a new center brace that would look correct. Of course having impact restorations website as pointed out in the article would be invaluable in sorting out your supercharger, IMO.

As to the rear differential issues I made the same modifications to the case on my black 62 and installed an Eaton posi. The only other change I would make is to order some Moser axles. They are pretty inexpensive and 56 year old axles are not the best if you are going to put them threw any type of punishment. I drag race mine a bit and have come out at 3000 without any issues on a sticky track. I do not want to come out any higher as the next thing to break is probably the driveshaft yokes-especially on a sticky track. If I was serious I would have a stronger driveshaft made but then again I figure it is not all bad to have some weak point (and I have a couple of spare driveshafts).

Will be following your progress which I hope you document on here. Not sure how I can help but will do so if I can.

 

Yes this air cleaner setup will go. I don't have the original bonnet style but I do have 1 and maybe 2 of the old Purolator Brass spark arrestor thin rectangular units from over the years. They actually fit perfectly and blend cleanly with the carb patina. I'd love to find to more and try them!

 

Yes to the crank pulley, even have the original dual point Mallory distributor.

 

Thanks for all of that! The closeups are great to see! The budged hood is great IMO, the original instructions state some trimming to the hood brace on a '62, so we'll see. I'll do whatever is needed.

 

That's a nice read, thanks

 

It's just me. It's simply not a necessary element to rebuilding something until all the running gear is restored to show quality. This is a driver for now. If it goes show someday, then proper paint will come.

 

Wow, your car great! I'd like to know more of yours. Such as the front end height, did you go with a 2 or 2.5 inch block or?
The hood scenario will be fun when I get there, I'd actually love a bulge if needed. I'm thinking just some minor grinding on the support bar but we'll see?

Thanks for the tip regarding axles, I looked on their website a few weeks back and didn't see them listed and haven't tried again. I remember street and pro axles I believe, do you remember which ones you chose?
I agree regarding the driveshaft, I'm planning to ease into this driving experience and see what's needed over time based on what I feel like in this car. One never knows until you sit with it for awhile.

 

I've put the new seals on the old seemingly straight axles, so I'll go with it for now but will make a note of the ones you put it...if you know?

 

One of the items I could use help sorting is if someone has a cool old clean fuel pressure gauge. I'm thinking of using a modern isolator and hiding it or dulling it down so it doesn't look out of place.
But what I'd love to know is if there are some vintage ones out there that would look perfect next to my old Holley pressure regulator?
Thoughts?

 

Again I don't want to bore ya all but for some this could be useful one day.
The old axle seals are pretty easy to remove IF one has all the proper tools. I didn't this time. The lock ring for the axle seal is simple with a good chisel and hammer. Wack it a few times and it will break loose. Seals are really easy with a press however I don't have a large press and my throat was to narrow by 1/4 or 3/8". So I went to the local recycle place and picked up what I thought could work, something tall enough and stout enough to gain some height.
One item I felt silly about was not realizing the axle retainer bolts were like wheel studs, serrated at the end and basically press in and out. So the one photo shows the end of my wire brush handle which acted as an easy solid spacer to tap out the original retainer bolts.

 

Another item I didn't have was one of those great old yoke retainer tools(perhaps I'll find one one day?), so I found some universal ones and ordered two. Welded them together in hopes of having a strong enough unit. I'll know soon!

 

You might find some time and look through this thread https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/latham-superchargers-registry-info-pictures.315062/

A whole bunch of Latham info

 

Purely for assistance again, the photo shows the correct part numbers for this stock '62 rear axle. And honestly this has been a huge frustration!!! Ordered a great looking complete axle rebuild kit from CC and it arrives with Japan and China bearings in it. So I returned it and suggested that they post where items are made because most guy restoring an American classic car would like American made products to rebuild it. No response and refund still pending.
Then I ordered a complete kit from a known brand that actually has USA as part of their name? Again, this is my folly but I was pretty aggravated when this one showed up with similar items enclosed and then a disclosure on the outside of the box..."Assembled in USA." I'm not gonna rant but damn it!
Available in a few hours locally and finally gave up, you can see the brand and they're all labeled Spain and Mexico.
I ordered a SK 21104 pinon depth shim kit as well.

 

Thanks, that's a lot of great info to sort through!

 

I am at a family gathering so I will be brief. When I get back to my computer at home I will load a couple of pics on the blocks I used on the stance. I will also see what specifics I have on the Moser axles. They are better than old stock axles but not sure how much they will stand. Looking forward to your build.

 

I looked thru my stuff and found the shipping information when I bought the Moser axles. I had called and spoke to Matt at Moser and we discussed axles and he told me the only axles really available to me where what some call hobby axles. I have my order form with all of the measurements if you need them and I am enclosing a copy of my packing slip. I cut off the upper portion as they have my name wrong anyways (Jim Diller). If I remember from my conversation with Matt, is that with 17 splines we are limited as to what we could do with a real serious upgrade. When I got the axles I was as impressed as one could be with 17 spline axles and they were a perfect fit. Of course even these axles have a point where they narrow but they have to be better than the old stock axles. I would use them again in a stocker type car. If I wanted to run a bit more power as you may be doing I may try a Pontiac or Ford 9-just my .02 cents.

It makes me wonder as an aside how the old Henry axles with similar number of splines were so good and strong yet today we cannot make a comparable axle. I have well worn old Henry axles (both Pontiac and Dana 60 with many runs on big power cars) that survived. The Henry axles (Dana 60) have over 200 runs with a BBC 60 Corvette with a Doug Nash 5 speed-yet no twist or breaks. Just a curious aside.


Also guys that want to go with an upstance with these old Vettes either go with a straight axle or spacers between the frame and forward suspension cradle (and the same thickness of spacer under the radiator support for the steering setup). Back in the day we used 4" I beam (some call H beam). I do not like the 4" upstance as much as a 3" so I went with the 3" stance up front and had Eaton spring re-arch my rear leaf springs (which can be a hit or miss).

On my avatar car a friend gave me his heavy duty front coil springs he had on his 62 as it rode too high and so with those I added a 2" spacer. The first spacer I installed was a pain to install since the spacer required longer bolts that had to be fed through and they were an absolute pain. I changed the spacer to a 2" spacer that you could use bolts from below and above that were not so long. A much easier way for sure. I have a friend in my car club that just bought a 61 done back in the day and it had 2-1" spacers made of solid aluminum. The original owner had other sets he wanted $50 for which I told him he could keep since I know they are pain to install anyways.

You will note I have 3 of the aluminum 2* shims for enough positive caster. They originally came with 1 shim but when you go up in stance they do not like one shim-especially if you are going to run it at over let's say 75mph. I believe the original shims which you can find on ebay are closer to 2* moreso than the reproduction shims. This past winter I removed the 6 shims in the avatar car and sanded them down to what I believe is more of a 2* shim. Can explain it to you better if you decide to go that route. I point this out since I added three shims, they also raise the height. The shims are 1/4" at the rear edge and should be around 1/16" at the leading edge-the end result though if if you add two more shims you are raising the car arguably another 1/2".

In my black car I installed the 2" raising block setup but since the springs were not as stout as the red car, I did not like the stance so I took a 4" I-beam and cut it down to 3" and rewelded it and like the stance-just a personal thing I guess. Let me know if you intend to go this way and I could take some better pictures. Looking forward to your build and progress. Let me know if I can help in any way-always rewarding to see another modified 62 out there.