97 Corvette Daily Driver

Finished painting everything.

Adjusted the parking brake, installed the pads, rotors, lines, and threw on some new hardware and bled the system.

Rears

Went and bedded the pads in. Stops well and pedal feels good, also very quiet so far which was about the only complaint I heard about the stoptech street pads. Also it doesnt pulsate like crazy anymore so thats a plus.

Here it is behind the wheel.

Went ahead and put some new tires on the vette in Z06 sizes to get rid of the ugly ass stretch and get the junk falkens off. Also put some black lugs on because the chrome ones were all different.

Went from 245/45/17 & 275/40/18 to 265/40/17 & 295/35/18 in Bridgestone RE760s. I really loved these tires on the Z28 and so far Im really diggin them on the vette. They ride very well, perform well in wet and dry and helped fuel economy.

AHHHHH WIDE...

About the fuel economy, I tested highway mileage on the falkens on my normal commute to work, on ramp to exit ramp, and got 36 mpg and change, did it again on the 760s, weather is different and I know there are a ton of variables but Im gonna chalk some of it up to the tires, considering they improved my fuel economy on my Z28 when I upgraded from E36 M3ty tires also. That is strictly hwy with cruise set at 75 mph, Im averaging a little over 26 when you include the in town driving. It goes down considerably when Im foolin around.

Also tweaked the exhaust so its not stupid crooked like it was, Its still not perfect, but better.

Also decided to do a little maintenance. Was reading about all the vette owners talking about how you have to change clutch fluid every oil change or weekend or hour or whatever. I subscribe to change fluids, except oil, once a year, and the only time Ive ever change clutch fluid is when replacing parts, but I figured I changed everything else and LS1s do tend to have clutch hydraulic issues so what could it hurt. I picked up some synthetic Dot 4 and a 2 cycle oil mixing syringe.

I did the ranger method, which is drain the reservoir, wipe it out, refill, pump pedal slowly 30 times, repeat until clean.

HOLY HELL, that E36 M3 was dirty. I did it about 4 times and its way better but still not perfect so Ill do it a few more times in the next week between drives.

Remember this is brake fluid not gear oil.

Also got me some plugs and wires. Went with MSD wires and got a free set of NGK TR55s with the purchase.

The MSDs have this really cool tool that stretches little numbered rings onto the wires, I was so entertained by it. I numbered 1,3 & 2. I was just going to number the first cylinder on each bank because I work on all makes everyday and always forget which is bank one on the LS1, but 1 is behind the alternator so I did 3 also.

I was able to do it in about an hour and a half. I love the LS1, not because of power or economy, just because its SOOOO much easier to work on than the LT1 I cut my teeth on, and this LS1 still has all the emissions junk on it, once I pull the air pump and rest of the emissions stuff it will be even easier. I did it on the ground and only had to remove the alternator and 2 bolts for an air pipe. The Lt1 had to be in the air and pretty much everything had to come off the front.

1 side done.

Other side done and FRCs back on.

Old parts. The wires were trash, two I broke because I yanked, the others just came apart with barely any pressure, 2 came out in 1 piece. Plugs had about .070 gap, I think the Delcos come with a .040 or 050 gap. Havent driven it but I did start it up and warm it up, it has a noticeably smoother idle, it used to have an intermittent miss at idle, you could hear and feel it but it wasnt sever enough to throw a CEL, it seems to be gone now.

Im seriously considering plastidipping the rear tomorrow depending on weather. Saw a silver one with it done on the way to work and it looked GOOD.

Pic for reference.

That plasti dip does look good, makes it's butt look smaller.

I think the plasti dip would look great. Didn't the wheels start out as black? The smoked tail lights need to go, but that's like, my opinion, man.

Great work otherwise. Have enjoyed this thread!

Wheels have always been gunmetal. Going to change them to C5 Deep Dish wheels but I cant decide between black or gunmetal.

Pics

Gunmetal w/ rivets

Black w/o rivets

I also do not like the black outs, Ive left them on because the car has the very ugly euro lights.

Like Dis

Ive bid on 2 or 3 sets of OE rear lights but they keep going higher than I want to spend. Good news is I can probably make 150 or 200 of the euro ones once I pull them off, they are a really popular upgrade for some reason.

If your car were any color, I'd say the Magnesium wheels. I love those wheels.

Im also a big fan of the mag wheels. I wanted to run them but couldnt find any set for a reasonable price, I found a bunch of them when I was looking for my Z28, now everyone I find thinks they are gold and wants an arm and a leg.

every freaking time.

every freaking time this thread pops up I end up on craigslist hoping to find my own vette...

I decided to bite the bullet today.

For you guys telling me to just get a lower profile jack I took a picture of the front ground clearance. I have less than 2 inches of ground clearance in front. If I stick my foot under the tire spats the top of my foot touches them and its lower in the middle. I have no problem lifting a stock height C5, mine is lowered and rubs on everything.

Anyways lets get on with it.

Lifted it and started masking it.

Too lazy to get paper or plastic made for preping so I tore some hefty bags and plastic shopping bags. Also note the use of electrical tape for the edge, its more flexible than masking tape and I was too lazy to go get some pinstriping.

DONE

It came out pretty good I have one jagged edge and a few spots were it bled under the tape. Ill wait for it to cure and cut the jagged edge off and tear off all the little stragglers that got under the tape. Overall Im happy, Its still drying so its a little dark, I suspect it will fade a little lighter.

I love this stuff, it's so easy to spray. I couldnt find my simple green so the extent of my prep was wiping a dirty bumper down with glass cleaner. This is my internal dialogue while spraying pasti dip. "LALALALALA.....E36 M3. I got a run/blob. Oh well better spray more on that spot. LALALALALAl" Then it dries and levels and you cant see it.

Awesome. This is a great example of all the details that make the difference and stand out.

I laughed reading about the gaskets on the water pump - I just replaced the water pump on my 99 GMC Sierra 4.8 with about 262K on it - was not happy to see there was not rubber gaskets with the new pump - but gaskets were very thick paper.

C5s are a piece of cake to lower on the factory spring bolts. If the ride height is just too low you can raise it back up a little.

Front is currently lowered and scrapes on everything. Will not raise it back up. I plan on lowering the rear, it currently sits ass up.

AWW YEEEEEEES!!!

I've enjoyed this thread, I always like seeing a new lease of life breathed into an unloved car. You seem to have the same mentality as me when buying a new car.

I love the c5s aswell. My step dad used to have one until about 12-18 months ago, one of the z06 anniversary models. Awesome car, I'm from the uk so had never really driven anything manual with a decent v8, or anything with a v8 other than trucks or SUVs! He would let me run around in it for the few weeks I was there visiting every year. His wasn't exactly pampered but just never got driven, first time I drove it it was about 5 years old with 3k on the clock! and he sold it with 20 something. I've always wanted one since, but I'm sort of surprised to see how many issues they can have and the generally iffy build quality, and how expensive some of the parts have been. I assumed most parts for them would've been dirt cheap! Awesome amount of performance for the money though! I'm known for driving my pepped up little track cars like I've stolen them, but driving the 'vette the same way was hard work, scary and very very quickly puts you in jail time territory haha!

Great work so far man!

You are in the UK, of course parts are going to be expensive there. (low quantity etc.)

parts are moderately cheap here. Not porsche prices but not chevy truck prices.

Well to be fair mine was a huge piece of E36 M3. There is a common problems thread on corvette forums and most of the guys havent seen all the issues I have or it has been over the course of ten years. About the only consumable expenses are tires.

The only other stuff expensive is labor (sometimes like a clutch) and vette body/interior parts. I would not hesitate to buy a clean one, seems like most of the well cared for ones, have one or two or none of the problems I had.

I wouldnt hesitate to buy a clean one, one of the good things about the vette is you can pretty much always get parts since so many people hang on to them and take good care of them, and there is a pretty big salvage network for expensive stuff.

only random parts go out,

rear window clips for a c3.

or say the bcm for a pre 00 c5... (or is it the airbag control module)

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

I was referring to some of the prices mentioned in this thread. I'd assumed because of the relatively high numbers they were sold in, that new after market or OEM parts would be fairly cheap, and the second hand stuff would be cheap due to the fact I presume quite a lot get totaled and stripped for parts. All just assumptions.

I can imagine GM being pretty good at cross decking parts from model to model, is there much interchangeability with running gear on these? Engine ancils as stuff?

The build quality of a lot of American stuff really doesn't seem all that great, I remember the windows failing on my step dads a couple of times, and like I said, it was hardly ever used. Stuff like interior trim felt crap too. Which is why there's a solid market for it I guess. I get the impression the engines are bulletproof though!?

I'm not trying to diss GM or American made stuff before anyone cocks their virtual rifle and tells me to STFU! I'm a big fan of a lot of GM stuff and have owned fords all my life.

Stumc wrote: In reply to Mad_Ratel: I was referring to some of the prices mentioned in this thread. I'd assumed because of the relatively high numbers they were sold in, that new after market or OEM parts would be fairly cheap, and the second hand stuff would be cheap due to the fact I presume quite a lot get totaled and stripped for parts. All just assumptions. I can imagine GM being pretty good at cross decking parts from model to model, is there much interchangeability with running gear on these? Engine ancils as stuff? The build quality of a lot of American stuff really doesn't seem all that great, I remember the windows failing on my step dads a couple of times, and like I said, it was hardly ever used. Stuff like interior trim felt crap too. Which is why there's a solid market for it I guess. I get the impression the engines are bulletproof though!? I'm not trying to diss GM or American made stuff before anyone cocks their virtual rifle and tells me to STFU! I'm a big fan of a lot of GM stuff and have owned fords all my life.

the block and main engine is easily changed between trucks and cars. however, the accessory package of the vette is usually unique to fit in a smaller area. Vette's are more common than say a viper but they do not sell half as many as the mustang. THis is why prices are higher. 248,715 total c5's produced. 160,975 2005 mustangs sold. (just one year vs 8). ~930 thousand s197 mustangs sold. (up to 2014 from 2005).
215,123 total c6's produced...

just a matter of a HUGE difference in total production.

No one could blame you for thinking the c5 interior was horrid. It was. better than the c4 but by such a teeny amount that it's hard to count it as an improvement. YOu can blame the unions for having them by the balls and forcing them to use only certain UAW approved vendors etc. That grip loosened for the c6 which is why the vette has more bespoke buttons etc and has a bit better interior. (still not that great but better.) c7 is MUCH MUCH nicer....

THen again if you compare the c5 to a mustang of the same time or any other car, it's interior was just as good or bad as the others... (until you start looking at german...) Heck the japanese just do a better job of hiding how cheap their interiors are.

Well I was gonna try and get a bunch done today, but the Xbox One was callin my name, then when I decided to get up and be productive, I ate some tacos, well "some" is an understatement, something like "way more than healthy" is probably more fitting, and it put me down, I was in a Tacoma (Taco-Coma), I make myself chuckle, and when I awoke from hibernation it was already getting late so I didnt get much done.

I did vacuum and throw my new mats in. The make the interior look SOOOO much better.

It was too dark to take good interior shots, Ill get some in a day or two.

Earlier in the thread I was complaining about the HVAC not blowing hard, so I stuck a new blower in and it still wasnt good. Well I was fighting two problems. The reason I thought it didnt blow hard after the blower was it was only blowing hard out defrost. A/C actuators are mostly vacuum and when I did the intake I left a tiny air hose off the back of the intake, which explains the lean code I got a couple times.

Fixed that and it started blowing very well, except not on the driver side. Awesome. Pulled the HVAC codes and had one for the left electric actuator. Ordered a new one. If you need one of these get it from amazon. Parts houses and rock auto all wanted 80-100 bucks for a dorman part, order the exact same dorman part from amazon for like 42 bucks.

I didnt have to pull the dash, can get to it from under the driver side. It was a whore and a half. With a neck injury working under the dash is very hard for me, but I got it in, and it works as it should, blows hard and very warm or cold, havent had a/c this good in a fun car ever.

Disassembled old one expecting a broken gear, but surprisingly they were all okay, so not sure what was going on there.

Was also going to install these. 194 LED bulbs for the license plate lights, but they didnt fit, they are too tall. Since they were only a few bucks I didnt care too much but sent the seller an email to let them know they dont fit C5s and they offered a refund, I was quite surprised. Ill just get some shorter ones and throw them in.

I also have some weather stripping that needs to go one where the targa meets the roof, a new tpms sensor, a new driver side window switch since I broke mine, and a new front turn signal harness (id rather spend 30 bucks for a whole new harness than spending a bunch of time in tight areas trying to diagnos the issue with the PO and my horrible wiring repairs haha.

Having to fight the urge to order headers, or a new intake. Lost a couple auctions for OE style tail lights, May throw some HIDs in the fogs and Im really tossing around buying the ACA style headlights and sticking some HIDs in them, the factory lighting is horrible.

I'm a fan of these lights:

Not me. I like the pop ups. I think those lights at the angle look like an ugly girl giving you bedroom eyes, haha.

Put a new TPMS sensor in the RR. It works, it was a third of what the schrader and OE ones cost, got it from Titan TPMS. Some people say they wont arm. Mine armed on the first try and worked right away. I would not hesitate to buy another from them.

OE style ones start around 100 and the Schrader (actual OE) was like 120. Bought this for 39 shipped. If these are discontinued, I will probably pony up a couple hundred bucks and switch to the 2000 and later sensors/module/key fob, since replacements are in the 40 range.

Also ordered some OE solid red tail lights. While looking through the classified section I found some euro tail lights for sale for around 300, I'm pumped, finally something the PO might pay off.

FWIW, I ordered those exact same LEDs. Some trimming of the plastic base with an Xacto and they fit perfectly. Just hit the end of the housing, but look great. Had to do the same on the F-250.

They're also GREAT in the trunk/footwells.

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

To me a 1/4 million is still quite a lot haha!

I always wondered why some GM models in the uk had such better build quality than the us, the union thing makes sense of that now.