Bumper Fix Posted

Just finished posting about the bumper and spoiler/air dam that I installed.  It's definitely a two man job if you want everything on straight and even.  Upgrading the air dam should help with the cooling issues.

Check out the front bumper & spoiler page for more details.

Seat Belts Upgrade Posted

One of the first projects I did to the car because it was simple, straight-forward, and cheap was to upgrade the seat belts.  Not really an essential upgrade, but something that would get me familiar with things in the car and get my feet wet.  I can post more pictures of this if you like, but for now there's just a couple.

Check out the seat belts page for more information.

Old Rebuild Pictures

As part of a Christmas present, my aunt gave me some of the pictures from when the vette was rebuilt back in the 80's.  It was soon after they had bought the car that it was redone.  The funny thing is that one of the pictures actually has me in it!  So apparently this is not the first time I've seen the car stripped out...  My aunt says I pointed at the car and said "broken" when I saw it.  I was like 1.5 - 2 years old at the time.

This picture actually had the date written on it, 11-04-1985. I wish the engine looked like that now!

Yep... That's me.  We think it was taken about the same time as the Polaroid of the engine.

This was after the car was all finished in 1986 (probably summer looking at the trees).

Looking at this pictures, I hope I can do as good of a job getting this thing back into shape.  So far things have been going well.  The car has wire wheels in the pictures...  It has aluminum ones on now that aren't as shiny as the wire ones.  My aunt still has the wire ones in the boxes, but I think I like the ones it has on now better.  They weigh less than the alloys on my WRX!  It's really quite surprising when you're looking at the size of the whole wheel.

Classes are over!

Time to get back to work on this thing...

Two whole days without work or the wife around.  Should be able to get a long done.  Whatever doesn't get done this week is good for next during my company's shutdown.  Hopefully I'll get pages of previous projects posted too.

Carpet Update

Well Zip exchanged the carpet at no expense to me...  The new set showed up today.  Exact right color!

Work is stalled for now...

So I'm currently taking two graduate courses and we're getting to the end of the semester.  Have to finish up projects and homework and do exams...  So, even though I have a bunch of parts for the car, I don't get to work on it.  Once the semester is over, I plan on updating the blog with projects I've already done.

On a side note, the carpet for the 1975 Corvette with Dark Blue interior is not called "Dark Blue" when buying from Zip Corvette (they order from Auto Custom Carpets, the same as Eckler's) even though that's the only blue they offer.  It's a completely different color blue!  According to Eckler's the carpet color is called "Medium Blue"...  If ordering from Corvette America, it is called dark blue, but they don't go through the same company.  Going through the ACC, Inc. website it says the color should be "812 ROYAL BLUE".

ACC "812 ROYAL BLUE"

Old carpet on bottom, carpet ordered from Zip on top

Posts need pictures, so here's Charlie, my "helper".  He likes to hang out with me while I'm working in the garage...

Will need to paint...

So due to the front end damage from the cabinets, a shelf falling on the hood, and just aging fiberglass, the car will need to be painted.  That means I will lose the silver/white pinstripe that runs along the sides.  However, I've always liked cars with racing stripes...

I know it's a convertible so it's not exactly a racer, but I think it adds character to the car.  Now I did find some stripes I like on some forums.
Finished paint job - Corvette Forum
stripe on the hood - Corvette Forum

With the help of Photoshop, I've take the damage out of the car and tried out the stripe pattern I like the best.  I'm just not sure about color...  See what you think and vote!  I'm actually leaning toward silver and then putting the pinstripe back on the sides.

Got Pictures!

Well, I'd take pictures a while ago, but I'd made the mistake of using Zumodrive.  If you're not familiar with the site, it's a cloud storage site.  It came pre-installed on my laptop, so I was using it for a few months.  The site and apps are so buggy that I couldn't get my pictures back!  I recommend DropBox to anyone wanting cloud storage.  The apps are much better and it's reliable.

Anyway, I have my pictures back!  So now I can get to updating this!

Here's what the car looked like when I got it...  Except the cup holders... That was the first thing I added.  You simply put the thing on with two screws on the sides of the arm rest/parking brake console.

So you can see the body is in decent shape.  The interior is a bit lacking (really don't like the wood trim).  The top is in bad need of replacement.  If you look at the nose, you'll see where I ran it into the cabinets in the garage.  The brakes went to the floor and I couldn't stop!!  So guess what the first real project will be?!

Introduction

I recently acquired a 1975 Chevrolet Corvette convertible.  The car has been in my family for years, but lack of maintenance and usage over the past decade has left the car in bad shape.  The body of the car is in decent shape, only some minor fiberglass damage and cracking paint.  The interior is faded and worn out. The engine, while it was rebuilt in the late 1980's, could use a bit of work.  And lastly the soft top is basically pointless because the weatherstripping has degraded so much there are gaps around the windows.

Examining the car, it's obvious modifications have been done.  The most obvious being that it has large, chrome side pipes (so the catalytic converter is already gone).  Looking at the engine, it appears that the intake manifold was changed to an Edelbrock Performer and the electrical is now a HEI system from Moroso.  Beyond the engine, I know the bumpers are Eckler's fiberglass bumpers (not the original urethane), and the wheels are 15" ARE alloy rims.  The last things that I know of on the car that are non-stock, are a pin stripe along the sides and the tail lights.  The ones on the car are bubble lights.  The originals were flat with chrome rings in the middle.

My goal with this car is to fix up the car so that it looks good and performs well.  It doesn't have to be the biggest muscle car in the world, but some power is always fun to have.  I don't want to spend an arm and a leg for the upgrades/repairs so in general, I will be performing all the work on the car.

The first thing you should know is that I have never really worked on a car before.  I did speakers in my old Mitsubishi Eclipse, put a sub in my WRX, and I have changed the oil in two cars before.  Everything that I will be doing to the car I will be learning through the internet, the Haynes repair guide, and talking with people who know about automotive work.  People that are willing to make the effort, should be able to do everything that I will be posting about.

The second thing you should know is that I'm not into restoration.  Having a car that's completely like the original in 1975 is fine...  But given what's already been done to the car, I'd rather give the car more modern amenities.  That being said, I do like the "retro" look of this car...  I will be striving to keep the car looking like original (interior included), unless that no longer becomes possible.

I hope you find my posts enjoyable and possibly even useful!