Smashed Corvette Z06 Gets Fresh Pair of Wheelhouse Panels
Finishing what someone else started, YouTubers replace wheelhouse panels of smashed Corvette Z06 with a new pair.
Replacing the wheelhouse panels of a Corvette today isn’t as simple as undoing a few bolts, pulling the broken piece out, then slapping a new one on. As it so happens, the panels are glued on at the factory before the engine’s many accessories are attached to the panels. Sounds like something to leave to the professionals, right? In most cases, yes.
But, if you’re the YouTubers behind goonzquad, replacing the panels is only a but a mere challenge to take on. In the latest installment of rebuilding their smashed 2017 Corvette Z06, the lads get ready to finish what the insurance company started, only to replace what the insurers ruined.
“$1,300 later,” the duo are ready to go to work on their latest challenge. They first tackle the left side, removing “everything that’s gonna be in the way,” from the computer mounted on the outside, to the wheels themselves, which haven’t been touched since leaving the factory. The lads stop to admire the Z06’s carbon ceramic brakes before evaluating how much more work they’ll need to do.
After easily removing the first bit of the left panel, it was time to break out the “fine tool” and a few other prying tools to clear the rest of the driver’s side. The lads explain that they have to be “real careful” in removing the last bits, as they are attached to a fiberglass tray they do not want to replace. The operation is a success, which they easily repeat on the right panel without having to chop the old panel into pieces.
Though there was some concern that removing and reapplying the epoxy would be the more difficult of the wheelhouse panel replacement, the lads proclaim such things aren’t hard anymore, only challenges. After a stop for panel bond, a special tool, and some tacos, they removed nearly all of the old panel bond, leaving a few pieces behind to guide each panel’s placement and depth of attachment.
A day after the new left panel was attached, the lads finish the work by attaching the right panel. “It was a lot of work to get to this point,” they state, but it’s all worth it to bring the Z06 back to the way it was before, if not better.
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