Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to all.

Complete roller, goal was Christmas, actually finished 12-31-10. Chassis is ready for body, body painted and complete. I think I'll do the exhaust before putting body back on.

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Goal now: Good Guys in March. (Scottsdale)

Steve

 

Beautiful work! Great combo of meticulous work and aftermarket parts. That's going to be a lot of fun to drive! Is the LS7 stock?

 

Les,

Yes bone stock. Turn Key claims 540 HP. My boat engine guy has dyno'd these before and says 500 + - 10 HP.

It's been fun to this point. I'm not a very patient guy, we'll see how the interior and wiring goes.

Steve

 

Hi Z,
Yes, very serious looking work!!!! I believe whatever patience you can muster now pays off in the finished car.
The large electrical connector on the ground in the first picture reminds me of the 'creatures' connectors in the movie AVATAR.
Will you be able to read it's mind and it yours?
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

 

That looks good. Very nice details. That is going to be a hoot to drive. Keep the pics coming for us.

 

I know we have talked about this before but unfortunatly that turbo 400 is a huge power hog. It will take about 20 to 25% of the power. Still looks killer though. Wish I had the coin to do one.

On a side note the LS7 in my brother in laws 67 resto mod makes 540 RWHP. Just a cam swap and cleaning up the heads and some minor computer tuning. I'll bet you could easily get 550 flywheel HP from the stock LS7 since you are running without cats. Just have a good tuner get you a tune on the computer and it will respond very well. It'll be plenty fast.

 

Gordon,
I know, like I said last time we spoke, I just got lazy.

Alan,
If I could hangout with that blue chick with the tail in Avatar, I'd stop this car nonsense for a while, she was HOT. (for some one with a tail)

 

Looks nice! I really like that gas tank on there. Should be an excellent handling and driving setup. Considering a stock z06 puts about 450 hp to the ground I figure you should see over in between that and 400 hp out of the car.

 

Looks great. look forward to seeing it finished

 

You wouldn't know it looking at these pictures.
I'm sure the rest of the car will be just as nice if not nicer than what we see here.
Now get busy and keep the pictures coming.

 

Hey Gang,

Been busy moving into new digs. Just got body on roller today, will post up some pics tonight.

Steve

 

Body mounted, ride height real low in the front. Challenge to get off hauler.







Now the work begins

Steve

 

Wow! This car is going to be sweet. Looking good.

 

I like the "Shark Bite" rear suspension...

... with the front coil-overs/tube arms, motor, fuel tank, and everything

but am disappointed with the stock trailing arms and especially those 'thin' homemade looking rear wheel well flares
...are those really the wheels you are going to use?

 

T Rush,
I looked around and didn't see a performance advantage with the aftermarket trailing arms. That said, I kinda wished I done it as well but you just gotta draw the line somewhere. Heck I had guys ask me why I didn't get a tubular chassis as well. Not building a "G" machine or a strip car.

As far as the wheels go......what? you don't like?

No really, they were on the car when we got it, the moon hubcaps are in a landfill somewhere. I am ordering custom offset wheels that follow the C6 Z06 theme. Could not order them till the body was on, (yesterday) to get the offset correct. Doing 19's rear and 18's front same as my Viper, that way I'm assured they will fit over the brakes.

The two things I may regret when done, trailing arms and the TH400. We'll see. Another thing that surprises me just a bit....guys that can't just keep quiet about something they don't approve of. Those homemade flares are not homemade. If you dont like them I am truly sorry. My wife wanted them left on and now I am glad we did as they look fine.

We can all decide when this car is the cover story of a well known industry magazine.

Cheers,

Steve

 

yeah, I know ... and its hard to tell if someone will appreciate any 'constructive' criticism or not(tho I guess I wasn't being the most helpful/tactful) or difference of option...tho hopefully you never get sick of everyone telling you how wonderful overall your work is(and it is!), personally I have a hard time totally respecting opinions like that, when I can see glaring faults in my own work(you did admit you have reservations about the trailing arms, and those aren't going to be the final wheels)

maybe I'm just being extra picky about the rear flares, as lately I've seen so many really really nice ones...my main complaint is that they seem 'thin', basically the fender lip edge doesn't match the front. besides looking alittle ruff and stuck on vs blending into the body better

and not that I think it needs wild 22" rims and a tube frame to be "maxed out" at all....I just think the car should be seen as a whole...and the rear TAs and flares just dont seem to 'jive' well with the level the rest of the car is being done as

maybe it wouldn't help much(mechanically/performance, or wheel/tire fitments) to have offset after-market rear t-arms, but it just seems strange to have the nice stuff up front, but then have the custom work in the back around such a mild stock part...maybe just move the e-brake cable mount and clean up the gobbly welds? ...I'm sure you don't want to repaint the car to 'improve' the flares, but I feel you have to be very careful messing with the lines of the C3, some stuff works(front fenders/spoiler/flaps look great), and other stuff just looks either 'taken too far' in the custom mod, or 'amateur attempt' at doing something that can work really well and look as if factory designed....form and function together, not just one or the other

 

I very much appreciate the constructive criticism. Thanks for your advise.

Edited after thinking long and hard....................

I wish to restate my response to your constructive criticism, I looked at your profile; you sir are a dreamer, I am a doer. Everything about your car is stated as, Planning on.....or thinking about.....or future......or considering......or "intended" use.....I see you have re-stacked your leaf and cut your front springs and replaced your shocks. Well Done!!

On the other hand.....I, completely disassembled a running car, given to my wife and I by her uncle (the original owner) right down to the frame, every nut...bolt...washer....vacuum hose and wire. Reassembled 100% on my own without ever having frame off'd a car before, researched, purchased and installed or modified every single component you see. I then photographed my progress and desired to give myself a "diary of progress" using this forum.

I chose not to grind some ugly factory welds, leave some thin, amateur attempted fender flares that were taken too far and trailing arms. And your constructive criticism is not that at all, it is nothing short of a jealous post by a small man.

Constructive criticism is from people like Alan71 or Gordonm or countless other gentlemen on this fine forum that see me going down a road they may have traveled and out of courtesy give me a heads up from their experience. I will ignore you from this point on and continue to post my progress on these pages. Now quit dreaming and go do something of merit on or to your car.

Steve

 

Just saving for posterity

 

oh...no, I haven't even done that!!!
...not to spam your thread...but this is my first Corvette...about all I've done to it in the month and a half I've had it is clean the garage so that I can start working on it this summer
...however this isn't my first car(was addicted to VW's for years, mainly anything from Karmann coachworks) and did many stock/retro/mods(limiting myself to only owning 7 at once)...as well as my trained field of artist/designer/sculptor(even professionally, which is pretty amazing that it can be paying work)

and seriously sorry if I came off inappropriately by stating the things I saw that didn't hit me right with your car...as I do really like it and admire the work you have done to it, and I could only hope that my hardware would ever be so fine

looking over your car, or anyone else's here, and personally I was focusing on my own, looking for ideas and problems that I see others involved with, and how gleaming that information might apply to what I should do...currently I'm now debating on the offset trailing arms vs stock ones, wheels and tires, as well as fender treatments(seriously those three things, like as in needing to order those this coming week)....when I saw how yours were done, I jumped before looking with my options

...again sorry I didn't think your car was perfect for me, but then its not my car

if you want to go any further with this, we can do it in PMs?...as I don't want to pollute your thread...and if you prefer, I will delete my posts

 

T,
No need to delete anything or even apologize. Your objections are noted. Passion on a project....passion for anything evokes emotion. Yes I am proud of my project, very proud. And like i said I just can't swallow your posts as constructive.

I know the car is not perfect, far from it in fact. It is what it is.

I have sufficiently thick skin for these forums. I race bicycles and have leaned grace in winning and humility in loosing. This is strictly for enjoyment and help when needed.

If I see your project on this forum, If I had nothing to add I would just move along. Internet forums are places of faceless names and no responsibility to go along with them. I know that and can accept that, I just bite back when required.

No harm no foul.

Steve