Had the soda blasting, body shop removed all the tail lights, headlights side parking lights, doors including the windshield wiper door, and other items to paint it properly. Great paint job, But wondering if now it will hold up. After I drove it home  I noticed that the horn does not work, three of the tail lights don't work.  Some of the side lights don't work. Turn signals don't work. I checked all the fuses and they are fine.   One headlight only comes on on high beam. The gas gauge is pegged all the way past full. 

Wow...what a mess, eh?
I would have to start by un-plugging, and then reconnecting all of the lights, one at a time. They may not have gotten everything plugged back in properly. It's also possible they took some ground wires off, and didn't put them back on.
Try checking all of the connections at the lights first, and see how many you can get working just by plugging them in correctly....the fuel gauge, too.

They really could not have done anything to the fuel gauge. I unpluged the wires going to the sending unit under the gas tank and cleaned the connections  and it is still pegged out. The wires to the tail lights and side lights look okay, but tomorrow I will disconnect them and go by the 68 wiring diagram and see what happens. It has to be a ground  of some sorts for the horn to not be working too.

I did notice when I put a ground to the one of the fuel gauge connections the gauge returned to normal.

I have a 1968 and am looking forward to having mine soda blasted in the next 6 to 8 months, you are making me nervous.  Maybe I will just deliver the body only to the shop with nothing electrical exposed.

Having two Corvettes like yourself I have done my share of electrical fixes.  One tool that I found absolutely indispensable was a gadget called a "POWER PROBE".  The Power Probe gets power from your battery and then you go to offending light bulb, motor or switch and it lets you apply 12 volts or ground to the tip and you can tell what is missing.  The newest version has a volt ohm meter built into the probe itself.  If you short out something the built in breaker flips off and you simply reset it.  It has saved me hours on both my 68 and my 88 Vettes.  It is very helpful to see the voltage drop as you follow a particular circuit.  Loose and dirty connections are easily identified as with any good volt ohm meter.

I just updated to the newer version (Version 3)and it came with an "Open circuit" finder and a "Open Ground" finder and has a buzzer that helps you find the disconnected wire or open ground in less than five minutes.

Like others have mentioned to you the grounding system in our older cars can be a real nightmare since we don't have the metal body.  Before your done with all your work be sure to replace your ground straps and clean the body ground to get the best possible results from the wiring system.  I have spent many hours with Emory cloth cleaning the contacts and terminals.  Just be careful that you don't have any connections that are so bad and have sufficient current as to get hot enough to start a fire. It happens on Corvettes more often than we like to admit

I wish you were closer I let you borrow my Power Probe just to prove to you how valuable it can be.  If you want to find a good deal on one go to EBAY and type in Power probe 3 and you will see them ranging from $75 up to close to $250 for the master kit.  The master is the one to have if your finances allow.

By the way, how do you like the 1968 Corvette?  Not many people at the Corvette shows like them, they seem to be the "Rodney Dangerfield" of Corvettes.  Personally I love the fact that it is unique in so many ways.

I wish you the absolute best in solving the gremlins that are playing with you.  I have had my '68 for 19 1/2 years and still love cruising around in it.
Best regards,
CTMcCloskey

As much work as I have done and intend to do on my 68, I will look into the probe. I am not sure yet if soda blasting is the way to go. It is such a mess and really has to be cleaned very well after it has been done to get all the soda off. I just hope my body shop did a thorough cleaning of the top side because they didnt clean much underneath that the soda finds its way into. If you are able to secure the passenger compartment and the wheels and underbody, it probably is a good thing. Other wise I would not do it. However it is a much faster way to get the many years of paint off. 

I second the nomination of using a Power Probe. Neatest dang automotive electrical tester since the light bulb with soldered wires on it! Test leads are long enough to reach from one end of the car to the other, so you don't have to keep going back/forth.
A little pricey if you don't use them all the time, but well worth it.
Adams' Apple2010-10-29 10:04:08

I just ordered the power probe and the one for $134.99, not the master, but  one that I hope will help in getting things back to normal. Still with no horn, no brake lights, one headlight not working, fuel gauge pegged out past full. 

The fuel gauge pegged past fuel means it either has no ground, or the signal wire is not making good contact. Take the signal wire off the sender, and ground it to the frame. See if the gauge returns to normal(it should go to "Empty"). If it does, that tells you the signal wire is good from front to rear. That leaves either the ground wire for the sending unit, or the sending unit itself.

When I grounded the wire, at the tank the gauge went back to normal. I also took a test light (have not got the power probe yet.) and tested the fuel gauge at the dash on both connections and the gauge went to normal. So I think I have a bad ground somewhere. Since many of the parts were taken off during the paint job and many parts don't work, I just cannot believe it would be the sending unit itself.   Horn, stop lights and right head light on low beam will not work. I guess the stop light switch is burried somewhere up under the drivers side dash area. Have to stand on my head to get to that.