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Hello, newbie here. 64 years old and my first Vette. My son and I are going in together on this. He's a gearhead so he had done all the work on it so far. 1985 with 80k. Bought it locally from guy who had it about four years and drove it a couple times. Body, engine and tranny in good shape but most everything else needed fixed or replaced. See pic in my son's garage as we got it. Had what I hear are the salad shooters on it. Love the flames on the hood. Absolutely everything rubber (including tires) on it was dry rotted. Have put $5g into it already just in parts and having the dash cluster rebuilt. Looked at the forum here for stereo upgrades but seems extremely complicated with the bose system. Second pic shows car after much work has been done with new wheels which are C5 stock wheels I bought locally. I'm sure I'll have many questions about it in the future. Thank you
The bose system can be replaced, the speakers do have amplifiers behind them so you need to run new speaker wires direct to the speakers from another radio unit.
I have a double din pioneer unit in my 85, has gps, dvd, cd, hard drive to record your favorite music bluetooth and reverse camera.
It needed the single din facia modified, there used to be someone selling the vent facia panels for double din stereos.
Google double din to see what i mean.
Long tube headers will really awaken the c4 performance wise, apart from that leave it standard.
Don't forget to buy the 85 shop manual so you can do a lot of repairs yourself.
Look into crutchfield.com They have stuff that fits.
Much as I love the factory looking stuff its not really worth the cost of having them rebuilt...have 2 that failed quickly.
Thank you for the reply. Kinda figured on the re-wiring for the stereo. I thought that these cars had a 1.5 din. I saw some 90's GM 1.5 din units (non bose) on ebay. Someone also told me that the L98 aren't worth putting headers on. There just not that powerful to make a difference. And I will get that shop manual.
Thank you for the reply. Kinda figured on the re-wiring for the stereo. I thought that these cars had a 1.5 din. I saw some 90's GM 1.5 din units (non bose) on ebay. Someone also told me that the L98 aren't worth putting headers on. There just not that powerful to make a difference. And I will get that shop manual.
Obviously that "someone" didn't know what they were talking about...... so many armchair experts...
Headers (long tube) are the best bang for buck for seat in pants performance improvement throughout the rev range.
When my 85 was stock standard 20 years ago, i took it to the track and did a few runs where it did a 14.5 sec quarter mile.
The next week after fitting long tube headers the restrictive factory Y pipe join replaced with a better flowing one, got the quarter mile down to mid 13.6 sec quarters.
A few weeks after that an adjustable fuel pressure regulator a cold air filter, set the fuel pressure from 34 to 50-60 psi and got the quarter mile time down to a flat 13.0 sec.
Now that was getting close to C4 ZR1 times, not bad for an otherwise standard TPI engine auto and 3.07 diff ratio.
The headman HTC coated headers i have now were quite cheap some years ago, keeps the engine bay cool and look great.
The TPI engines "LOVE" long tube headers and really respond well to them.
Nice car Ridge, I own a 85 car as well. Mine has 113000 km (70000 miles) on the ticker. Lots of ways to increase the enjoyment, not like an original C4 needs much improving. I LS swapped my car with a LQ9 (6.0L caddy engine) and put lots of C6 goodies on mine.
welcome.....lots of good help here....get a 85 gm manual....you'll need it.......quite a few guys with 85's here.......get rid of the smog crap and headers, you'll be on your way.....
Thank you for the reply. Kinda figured on the re-wiring for the stereo. I thought that these cars had a 1.5 din. I saw some 90's GM 1.5 din units (non bose) on ebay. Someone also told me that the L98 aren't worth putting headers on. There just not that powerful to make a difference. And I will get that shop manual.
I've owned 6 C4's and my current 87' is my first L98 car and let me say this...sure the horse power is less but the torque is more, way more and i can actually feel the difference in casual in-town driving. I think my L98 car is more fun to drive as a result...call me crazy but I notice the torque!!!!
The bose system can be replaced, the speakers do have amplifiers behind them so you need to run new speaker wires direct to the speakers from another radio unit.
I have a double din pioneer unit in my 85, has gps, dvd, cd, hard drive to record your favorite music bluetooth and reverse camera.
It needed the single din facia modified, there used to be someone selling the vent facia panels for double din stereos.
Google double din to see what i mean.
We found a guy in Australia that sells an insert for DD but he is down because of the covid situation. Has no idea when or if ever he'll be able to make and sell them again. Saw another guy on forum that used a dremel to enlarge the panel. May I ask how you ran the speaker wires? We have the door panels off and tore out the old carpeting in the back and thought we could put the wiring in with all that not there. Also saw the door speaker enclosures are not deep enough to hold a normal speaker. Is there a retrofit that can be done? Thanks
1985 c4
