As small and minute as the fresh air vents are on the Corvette, they play a big role in the judging process.  If you make the mistake of overlooking the Corvette fresh air vents in the restoration process, you could pay a hefty price later.  The fresh air vents come into play in the Performance Verification or PV.  If while on the drive portion of the test, the vents are closed but air is flowing in, you have a failure – you got 15 minute to fix it.  Good luck.  On top of a PV failure you’ll also figure out that the heater box blocks removal of the passenger side vent making this repair even more difficult.  Do yourself a favor, repair/rebuild them while it is easy.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Assembly

Here is the fresh air vent assembly as removed from the Corvette.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Unrestored

After removing the cable assembly you are left with the flapper ready for repair.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Rebuild Kit

Here is the rebuild kit, it includes a new foam seal and new rivets.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Rivet Removal

First we removed the old rivets by drilling them and knocking them out with a punch.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Disassembled

Here is the Corvette fresh air vent assembly disassembled into pieces.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Ready For Assembly

We blasted and painted the two metal parts and got our new foam seal ready.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Rivet Tool

We fabricated a little riveting tool out of a bolt to mushroom our rivets over.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Riveting

To rivet these back together, it is a two person job.  One person holds the two plate together and pushes the rivet through.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Riveting

The second person uses the rivet tool and a small hammer to mushroom the rivet.  These are small rivets so it takes very little force to peen them over.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door After Riveting

Here is the finished rivet, it looks just like the factory rivet.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Assembled

Here is the fully assemble door.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Assembled

The back side of the assembled door.

1963 Corvette Fresh Air Vent Door Installed

Here is the door installed in the car.  This is also an example of a situation that you come across when assembling these cars back to original.  If you reference the GM assembly manual, it will show this door going in backwards of the way it actually needs to go in.  Got to watch out for that.

This is also one of the items that needs to be knocked out before installing the heater box in the car.  If you put the heater box in first, you’ll find it very difficult to put this vent in afterward.