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Incorporate a DRL and turn/parking- It's actually a Delorean rear light that I got the idea from-
That does look cool. Great idea.
Originally Posted by doorgunner
Now THAT would have been a Real headache. You are better off with what you have now
Yeah, I guess all the brackets with the older year would have been a mess. What I did works for now but the problem is the lights aim down and out a bit. I am trying to get a really bright driving light from this spot that doubles as a turn signal. It may be just me but I find that the new cars with bright driving lights get your attention when they catch you from behind. It would be nice if folks move to the right when the vette catches them .
Since you are here on the west coast, you may want to consider Corvette Pacifica
The best way is to call them.
They will tell you if they have it in stock or not and if you call early enough
in the day it will be delivered the next day.
Glenn, thanks for the tip. These guys are fantastic and are now my go-to parts suppliers. When I rebuilt the steering column, I thought it would be cool to keep the old keys but that turned out to be a stupid call. Sometimes the old ignition lock cylinder would hang up so I needed a new one fast to keep the project moving. I ordered the part Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving and it showed up Saturday morning. I didn't expect that over a holiday weekend. All the parts from them have been top quality.
Originally Posted by OldCarBum
That shouldn't be too difficult in bumper to bumper traffic on the 405 or the 5 Interstates!
Yeah, that plus I never drive anywhere because..............people............. .so I stay in the garage with the dog and happily wrench on cars that don't go anywhere
Times have changed.
I remember growing up in Corona, we could ride our motorcycles through the hills, orange groves and dairy farms to Riverside and almost all the way to Newport Beach.
Now it’s nothing but homes, concrete and congested highways.
I left SoCal 20 years ago for fresh air, tress and less people.
Never looked back.
So I have been driving a little between our rain storms and I must admit this car does bring a grin to my face. The fact is that I have been working on this thing for close to 5 years without knowing at all what Vette drove like. For me it was all about bringing a car out of a barn back to life so I didn't really know what I was getting into for the driving part. I am no pro driver or anything, once went to an autocross and made to look like a fool. My experiances are mostly with old Brit cars that barely went straight down the road. I like old Ford trucks too so my expectations are low. My first impressions are the power and torque make this car. Handling there is much to improve. It reminds me of my buddies old Chevelle but even lighter in the front. I made some improvement with putting in as much caster as I could. I am at 3 degrees and out of spacers to move. Now I really wish I had put in the slotted and off-set upper A arms to get more. You guys tell me but I think with maybe 8-10 degrees of castor the front would feel much more planted at highway speeds. Maybe the problem is with the rear spring? At first I tried the composite one but did not like the long bolts so I went with a used 9 leaf that may be soft. I have a 7 leaf that I will test next but I am not sure that will have any highway speed straight line effect. But all this is just dial-in stuff. I have a lot of other things to do first, so I thought I would share my list. And Doorgunner, if you are reading this, as a side note in the picture is my new heater fan switch. I know you are working in the same area as this and might like to know that I highly recommend you replace yours now unless you want to be like me and get everything all pretty and put together to find out that the switch is intermittent and now you have to take everything apart with all those breakable tabs in the console and you are swearing about a lousy $24 part that you have no idea why you didn't replace the stupid thing.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
Originally Posted by Vibguy
So I have been driving a little between our rain storms and I must admit this car does bring a grin to my face. The fact is that I have been working on this thing for close to 5 years without knowing at all what Vette drove like. For me it was all about bringing a car out of a barn back to life so I didn't really know what I was getting into for the driving part. I am no pro driver or anything, once went to an autocross and made to look like a fool. My experiances are mostly with old Brit cars that barely went straight down the road. I like old Ford trucks too so my expectations are low. My first impressions are the power and torque make the car. Handling there is much to improve. It reminds me of my buddies old Chevelle but even lighter in the front. I made some improvement with putting in as much caster as I could. I am at 3 degrees and out of spacers to move. Now I really wish I had put in the slotted and off-set upper A arms to get more. You guys tell me but I think with maybe 8-10 degrees of castor the front would feel much more planted at highway speeds. Maybe the problem is with the rear spring? At first I tried the composite one but did not like the long bolts so I went with a used 9 leaf that may be soft. I have a 7 leaf that I will test next but I am not sure that will have any highway speed straight line effect. But all this is just dial-in stuff. I have a lot of other things to do first, so I thought I would share my list. And Doorgunner, if you are reading this, as a side note in the picture is my new heater fan switch. I know you are working in the same area as this and might like to know that I highly recommend you replace yours now unless you want to be like me and get everything all pretty and put together to find out that the switch is intermittent and now you have to take everything apart with all those breakable tabs in the console and you are swearing about a lousy $24 part that you have no idea why you didn't replace the stupid thing.
I had a touring package from ecklers on mine that felt great, and smooth. It handled well on winding country roads. My buddy john got me to switch to a VBP setup with a tunable suspension. It came with the the offset front A arms for added castor. It handled great on a road course I raced on. My cooling at the time was my only issue, that and a lack of trust in my tires which was unfounded. I was just scared I would sail off the course but by the time I was confident to really lay on it in the back stretch the day was over. Still fun though.. Then when I went to a big block I just tightened up the front and she sits fine.
My point is I had a great tim with newer tech than the old metal springs, and my stuff is old school now. Dont bother fussing with the single steel springs. Go to coil overs on all 4 corners with a good soreader bar up front. You cna get a good set of QA1s without breaking the bank. Do a search on some of the less exoensive setups. Some here have just swapped them in using the stock front A arms trailing arms. Its something worth investigating
I had a touring package from ecklers on mine that felt great, and smooth. It handled well on winding country roads. My buddy john got me to switch to a VBP setup with a tunable suspension. It came with the the offset front A arms for added castor. It handled great on a road course I raced on. My cooling at the time was my only issue, that and a lack of trust in my tires which was unfounded. I was just scared I would sail off the course but by the time I was confident to really lay on it in the back stretch the day was over. Still fun though.. Then when I went to a big block I just tightened up the front and she sits fine.
My point is I had a great tim with newer tech than the old metal springs, and my stuff is old school now. Dont bother fussing with the single steel springs. Go to coil overs on all 4 corners with a good soreader bar up front. You cna get a good set of QA1s without breaking the bank. Do a search on some of the less exoensive setups. Some here have just swapped them in using the stock front A arms trailing arms. Its something worth investigating
My buddy at work explained to me that the car is set up originally to run on bias ply tires and the car could not take the alignment specs for modern tires which I put on the car. I rebuilt the stock suspension to spec, but the car rode and drove like a 50 year old car still. Fun, but drive C6 or newer one and feel the difference. I wanted to change as my car has been modded out already and is far from original or stock. I went the expensive route as I did not have the time to all the research in. Just wanted a kit that bolted in or had few minor mods to make work. Went with the Van Steele coilover kit all around. Pricey? A bit, but I installed it in less than two hours in the front. The back took a bit longer as I had to replace my trailing arms as I sheared off a spindle one day. The end result, it rides like a C7 now. Suspension adjustments can be done on the side of the road by adjusting a **** on the shocks. I highly recommend the Van Steele set up.
Dont bother fussing with the single steel springs. Go to coil overs on all 4 corners with a good soreader bar up front.
Originally Posted by Lobzila
Went with the Van Steele coilover kit all around.
Thanks guys, I will probably go this way for phase II, after I get most of the other stuff done. It is always the hindsight case where it sure would have been easier to do it right the first time. I am not trying to build a racer but a nice cruiser, one the family can drive to get the feel of a 1971 Vette. The problem is that it feels so light in the front at highway speeds. But maybe that is the way they were back in the day. Like I said, I never had or driven a Vette before this. I think my plan of attack is first get a professional alignment. I have a tool that I use on my other cars that seems to result in OK handling with them so maybe it is me, maybe it is the car. My gut feeling is it just needs more caster. Do you guys know how much caster you put in with the coil overs?
Thanks guys, I will probably go this way for phase II, after I get most of the other stuff done. It is always the hindsight case where it sure would have been easier to do it right the first time. I am not trying to build a racer but a nice cruiser, one the family can drive to get the feel of a 1971 Vette. The problem is that it feels so light in the front at highway speeds. But maybe that is the way they were back in the day. Like I said, I never had or driven a Vette before this. I think my plan of attack is first get a professional alignment. I have a tool that I use on my other cars that seems to result in OK handling with them so maybe it is me, maybe it is the car. My gut feeling is it just needs more caster. Do you guys know how much caster you put in with the coil overs?
Rookie simplified observation here: You probably know that "Today's cars" are designed to "Feel Heavy" at highway speeds, and made to feel light in city traffic/parking situations. "More" caster makes the car feel heavier at speed and "more" power steering makes it fee lighter in city driving.
I accept my '68 project for what it is (probably because I drove my non-power '69 Camaro for 20 years).
Any time I drove someone else's car, their car felt VERY heavy to me...a feeling I didn't like.
I rebuilt my '68 Vette suspension without doing upgrades (I did cheat and install SensaTrac shocks for long roadtrips to soften the 8 hour drive)
Still, I understand why members want to upgrade the suspension on their C3 cars for better handling.
One other thing....Horsepower has alot to do with how a car handles (I'm happy with 300 h.p.)
The phrase I use is..."Make sure it's pointed straight before you stomp the gas pedal !"
Doorgunners quote ."Make sure it's pointed straight before you stomp the gas pedal !"
Goes hand in hand with an old chinese proverb, "Go fast car need stop fast brakes"
But I think you got that covered already.
Cheers from Oceanside.
"More" caster makes the car feel heavier at speed and "more" power steering makes it fee lighter in city driving.
"
So now I am being caster aware and like the idea of playing with it, but I am at my limit with spacers so this may wait for another day. Just to get more data I looked at the manuals for the cars in the stable. It goes like this...
62 TR4 - 3 degrees
79 MGB - 7 degrees
75 308GT4 - 4 degrees
71 C3 stock from manual - 2.25 degrees
71 C3 recommendation for Borgeson - 3 degrees (where I am maxed out now)
The 308 has the heaviest feel but not as much caster as the MGB. Oh well. And by the way the Brit manuals have it as castor and the others as caster. ha ha.
I accept my '68 project for what it is (probably because I drove my non-power '69 Camaro for 20 years).
Any time I drove someone else's car, their car felt VERY heavy to me...a feeling I didn't like.
OK, well now I get it. I have been driving around trying to put miles on the engine (so I can change out the break-in oil and breathe easy that maybe this thing will not blow up), and now I kind of understand the car much more. It just drives easy. What a cruiser. The light feeling in the front is OK because it is stable up to highway speeds and probably beyond. I have been keeping it below 80 for now. Adding caster would be a fools errand in my opinion. This car is a cruiser, period. I can see it has potential for a track car, but if I was doing that the first thing I would do is ditch the power steering and go with a big steering wheel. Then the coil overs, etc. Also I would have to put a 4 speed in it and now it makes sense to start with another car. So a Gen I 350 with stock suspension, a TH400 and power steering is what it is and what it drives like. I wouldn't mind getting another C3 drivers opinion to see if I am right, but I am not disappointed with how it came out. I am just surprised.
The motor feels good, I had to pull back the timing a little (a few pings to let me know I am at the edge). The speedo is off more than I thought with the bigger wheels in the back. Sure the motor turns 2500-3000 on the highway but is nothing compared to the 4000 in the Dino. The Vette is a small block but in my world if feels like a monster big block compared to the TR4. It is all what you are used to. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy getting to know this car.
Originally Posted by Richard454
Car looks great!!!
That sure looks like a short list...congrats
I use legal sized pads!!!
Ha ha. My lists just go from page to page. Sometimes they just written on the desk. I am getting there though...
A buddy stopped by to work on his BMW. His BBS wheels were off, so I tried a test fit to see what they looked like. They didn't fit (no surprise) but I kind of like the look. In researching a little bit, it looks like there is no easy option to get a wheel like this on a C3 unless someone knows a lookalike wheel that will fit.
I Borrowed these aftermarket 18" wheels off my 69 Chevelle and liked the look and fit. The rear wheels were 9 or 10" wide with 275/45/18 tires.Relatively cheap from Summit
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
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