DZRick

Love it, the car and the road trip!

That's a factory L88 hood too, isn't it?

Other than local trips I've only driven mine to the museum back in 2002. I need to take another trip soon.

TERRY CLARK

Dustup7T2

Thanks Guys. I hope I'm not too narcissistic but I can't help myself: love all C3 cars and really fond of chrome-bumpered ones.


Toyo Proxes: 245/45x18 and 285/40x18 on Coys grey-centered C5 models. I know fronts are 4" bs and forget what rears are: think 4.5 or 5 (5 sounds right for 9.5 wide) and I'll confirm. Getting old tends to cause brain-farts more often. Studied hard in CF for sizing before committing and it paid off well. Thanks!


Thanks Gary. I saw the opportunity and glad you enjoy it as much as I do. It means something more than the obvious.


Rolled. The car had 104 plus when I bought it in Jan 2005. It was 19140 the day I took it out for its shakedown run last May (on only the garage setup for A/F mixture, timing, wheel alignment, and fluid checks). The power of CF interpretation: it can be done.


Thanks SuprJames. Of OEM-style, I noticed lots of red, black, silver; thought I'd do something different. It's the only yellow in the entire car (besides wire).


I had passed a long UP freight and it was coming. Left Vette idling when I jumped out. More worried about blocking an 18-wheeler that I beat to crossing by about 3-4 mins. Wahoo!
(I've got same crossing with images of my '72 Z-28 and my truck from different years. LOL)


Hi RebelRob, At normal cruise, I managed an avg of 19mpg and a best of 21mpg if I drove like there was a fresh egg under the go-pedal. Blew me away; was going to be thrilled if it got 15mpg highway. Not bad for guess work, I suppose.


Wow, that may just work. I've been considering an update and that one may be it! Thanks!


When I bought the car, I received a bundle of 1990's maintenance records. There was a shop receipt showing that hood is aftermarket but no reference from whom the supplier is/was?

Thanks for all the kind words fellas (and ladies, if I missed one). I do have some more pics you guys may enjoy since the chapters of the build process.

As soon as I can shuffle work so no one can complain that I'm communicating with my favorite forum teammates, I'll start lining them up.

I'm getting better at working from home now. I hadn't considered all the potential benefits until I pulled the trigger and got set up.

This is going to be fun again.

mikejpss

Roma

Great Pics and Great Corvette

PHPD7102

I love the wheels. I am sure you have probably mentioned them in some other thread but what wheels are they? What sizes and did you do any suspension mods so they would fit?

Very cool car overall btw!

Dustup7T2

Thank you. Yup, look at post #23 above for info.

Found what I was looking for. Coys Wheels, grey center, model C-5
and the rears have a 5.5 inch backspace. See last line in the small white square tag:





I mounted most suspension pieces from the VB&P website, front and rear plus it has Steeroids r&p too. The offset TA's I have don't really influence clearance issues like I anticipated. I believe I could have used OEM arms and they would only need the emergency cable routing tab moved to top to avoid contact.





No mods were done to frame or body: no drilling extra holes, no welding, and no cutting. Close in some places and I drive around all potholes possible.

A little grinding on drivers-side trailing flange of main crossmember to clearance the setscrews of u-joint knuckle connecting rack to lower steering column shaft but that was it.

Arcticshark

Great pics, great car! It's nice to see someone out enjoying his vette the way it was mean't to be enjoyed.

Rebelrob

[QUOTE=Dustup7T2;1576739104]Thank you. Yup, look at post #23 above for info.

Found what I was looking for. Coys Wheels, grey center, model C-5
and the rears have a 5.5 inch backspace. See last line in the small white square tag:






Ed, your rear spring and rim are way close. I realize its on jack stands in the pic. I have the 5.0 BS , and mine are tad less than half inch. I even had to file the end of the spring a bit on side for clearance. I need to get a VBP after market shorter spring. No rubbing so far and I never had to move the E brake cable/mount. Looks like you had your original tires/rims on in that one pic of the whole rear.
Nice and clean under there.

dbeall1968

That is a great pictorial, and I love the Coys! Good choice. It looks like your Corvette is being used the way it should be; driving, having fun, and inspiring both young and old(er) to love and cherish these beauties!

DO2G

Looks Great

Eddie 70

Great story and even better pictures. Thanks for sharing.

kdf1986

Thats a great looking car, and a great pictorial road trip. Thanks for sharing.

kdf

Dustup7T2

Sharp eye on wheel-to-spring proximity, Rob. That pic is an older shot with a set of 17x8's, 4" bs, with a 245/45 tire I ran before.

If it wasn't so damn cold outside, I'd take a better picture as the car sits because it's not that close. I'll do that later but for now, I found this one taken only a few weeks ago.

It's a lousy shot but the only one I can quickly lay hands on; check it out:



IIRC, this is a 330# std length spring from VB&P. I didn't have to trim anything as that was a concern before coughing up a CC number so they would ship it.

Even though it's on jackstands, here's another with the 18's:



If the sun shines this weekend, I'll pull the cover off and get better data that we can dialogue with.

Now where'd I leave that straightedge?

Dustup7T2

Everyone, Thank you for the kind words. The car images well but frankly, the paint and body really make it a 20-footer; maybe a 10-footer on a cloudy day.

What I'm most delighted in is replacing almost all the worn mechanicals with new pieces. I did freshen up the interior but there's still work to be done (are they ever really finished?).

Unlike our young friend Jeremy (Stinger12) who is practicing his talents for all of us to see, there was no work done to the body or paint on mine. I wish I could have but I focused my budget on stuff I could tackle on my own.

With over 100K miles on the clock and marginal care, the suspension and drive train were in serious need of attention. Braking was atrocious and the rear axle had more noises than a haunted house.

Of course, cleaning that mess was a dirty job since I didn't pull the body off. All salvageable parts were cataloged and put away for future restoration.

I replaced motor, clutch, trans, rear housing with rebuilt posi and new gears, new hats-rotors-pads, bearings, lines, rebuilt hydroboost (from Durangoboy), new r&p, all that VB&P stuff, wheels-tires, coated sidepipes, front sway bar, Dewitts radiator with single fan, new vacuum lines, restored gauge cluster, rebuilt heater box, add MP-3 post radio, shielded cabin w/Hushmat, rehab'd cabin and under hood wiring harnesses, steering column, yada-yada-yada. Things that many of us try to do.

Mater of fact, Eddie70 you will like this and please pass along: Your friend's car, TNBusa, was my inspiration for the wheel-tire size package on his car. I was so taken with his ride that I wanted to recreate what I could. Didn't go BB but the way that car sat on those 18" wheels captured my mind. Please tell them "Thanks" next time you see him and his bride.

Getting a little ahead of myself but suffice to say, I took mine off the blocks after 38 months of the car taking up shop space and went back in time, when I was a younger man and life seemed more simple. It probably wasn't but what the hell.

I've been having a ball.

jimo

Great pics and a great looking vette!!!

Did you encounter any problems along the way?

Dustup7T2

Hi jimo.

Overall, the car performed very well throughout the ride. I did encounter a minor issue after the daytime drive across the Southwest desert heat.

Seems the plastic shields that protect the headlights in the down position had softened; I believe from ambient temp & radiating road surface. When I pulled the headlight switch to bring them up late that afternoon, the headlight lock indicator on dash cluster didn't turn off in the usual time.

Pulled over to see why and saw the bucket was stuck partway. Reached up under the radiator inlet hole and felt the edge of the shield had caught on the edge of the bucket, stalling lift.

I cleared it and bucket popped right up and locked fine. When I stopped for the day, I readjusted the shield. Afterwards, I monitored action whenever switch pulled but that was the end of it.

Ambient summer temps in NM are not as brutal as other regions farther west (Ariz, eastern CA and certainly, not regions in your country) but they were hovering around 100 F that day.

Parts of my brain remained on escalated alert monitoring all sub-systems but that turned out to be it. There's never any guarantee a road trip is free of problems but the car continues to build confidence every time I take it out.

Dustup7T2

I mentioned earlier that I had stopped my other vehicles at this same crossing before. It is a RR mainline near the physical middle of New Mexico therefore a constant array of long freight trains run over it daily. It really is out in the boonies.

I took the first picture of my Camaro in Oct. 1994 and then the pickup sometime in the fall of 2003 (the C3 was Aug, last year). Note the updates the RR crews have done to the tracks!

It's always a timing thing between trains and road traffic. My "spidey-senses" are always very acute, every time I pull this stunt and now, it's just something I do to give folks something to snicker about. At least until I run out of vehicles or ...

(disclaimer: do not try this at home!)





Remember: Only YOU can prevent ... oh, wait. Wrong warning.

Daytona69

Great pics They remind me of the cross country trip I took from Pittsburgh to Southern CA in my '69 when I bought it.

jimo

Hi Dustup 7T2,

sounds like it was virtually a trouble free trip!!! I always worry when going on a drive, let alone a long one like you!!

Jim