Im excited to buy an LT4 as my daily driver, and Ill put some fantastic winter tires on it so snow isn't my worry. Im afraid the salt will screw the vehicle up in a few years. I have heard that even with the fibreglass under-body rust will quickly develop in places you cant reach and polish/sand down.

Has anyone daily driven a C4 for multiple winters? Crazy rust?

Thank you

 

Troll?

 

You for real Hoss? Why would rust "develop in places you cant reach" any more on a C4 than it would on any other vehicle on the road? Do you think millions of people park their vehicles when winter comes and fkn snowshoe to wherever they have to go?

 

Not at all

 

Iirc the frame is galvanized. Takes a long time to mess it up. Watch the fuel and brake lines at the hard bends. Otherwise drive it.

 

Just trying to get a grip on what kind of impact rust has on the underbody. First time learning about these cars as Im looking to buy one and a friend of mine said "well if they have no issues with rust and are so great why does no one here (Canada) have them?"

Its not difficult to import one so I didnt know the answer as to why there arent many of them up in Canada.

 

Your friend is correct

No one in Canada owns a Corvette

Or a handgun

And even a 24 hour clock

Such a shame

 

Having driven a 1983 Camaro as a winter rat for 3 years I can tell you that if you get snow deeper than 3-4" you might want to reconsider. And since salt is corrosive and the Covette's electrical systems aren't known for their being absolutely reliable, again, you might want to reconsider.

 

Because they're not ideal in snow and you have 8 month winters...

Mostly kidding. The reason people don't do what you're saying (aside from the snow issues) is that because they're typically fun toys and not super practical for most people, they get protective over them and want to keep them in great shape. They decide they'd rather tear up a car they don't care about, even if it costs more.

 

The biggest problem of driving Corvette will be when a snow event happens with more then about 4 inches. Because the car is so low to ground the deeper it gets the higher chance of actually losing traction. During snow events I love watching the front wheel drive compact cars getting stuck while my rear wheel drive RAM is unstoppable with just a little weight in the bed..

 

With snow >3 inches ill find another way to get to work, otherwise Im more concerned with the long term reliability. I havent heard about winter driving affecting the electrical systems, doesnt sound good. Our Toronto winters are only 4 months long where there is actually salt on the ground and that's what Ive been worried most recently.

 

The steel parts are galvanized. Other metallic parts are aluminum. The rest is fiberglass. Fiberglass doesn't rust, whether it's exposed or hidden. The Corvette is probably one of the BEST winter cars, from a corrosion perspective compared to any other car of the era.

Traction and required driving techniques are the biggest barrier.



.

 

Thanks to everyone!

 

I drove an '88 and a '94 all year in Illinois. Even in the snow. With good tires, they were actually pretty stable cars to drive in the winter if you do not try to overdrive them. Some people don't realize that you can't accelerate, brake, corner like dry roads when it is snow and ice out.

I only got caught in a snowstorm once where it was pretty deep. It was deep enough that I could hear the snow dragging across the bottom of the car, but I kept it moving and made it through fine. The biggest problem I had was when a truck ahead of me dropped a big chunk of ice and there was no where to go around it due to traffic. I hit it and it broke the lower air dam. Fortunately it was a pretty cheap and easy repair.

I made sure to wash it at least every week including spraying off the underside. I had corrosion in some places like the screws and nuts for mounting lights, horns. exhaust, etc, but nothing major.

That being said, I like my current cars and have not driven them through the salt. I want to keep them nice.

 

How were you able to wash the underside adequetly? Simply on a lift or some ramps with a power washer?

 

I drove my '87 year round...it did get a little dicey in the snow because the rear end is so light, so expect a lot of really slow starts and lots of fish-tailing. If the roads are flat you should be ok (provided the snow isn't too deep), but I promise you, inclines will provide more than an adequate challenge for you.

To keep salt off, I used a power washer on the underside. In addition, I also kept all of the steel lines (and some other areas) hosed down with this stuff:



In fact, I use that on ALL of my cars including my 30 year old Buick daily driver and have never had an issue with corrosion setting in. That stuff works GREAT!

I will add, I don't drive my '86 in the snow. I don't need that kind of nail biting excitement and spine tingling adventure in my life anymore.

 

I don't know that it was adequate, but I just used a coin op car wash to put a lot of water underneath. I tried to rinse off as much as I could. Was it enough? I don't know. I am sure it helped, but it is not enough to protect everything.

However, in the winter, it was the only way I had to at least try to keep the car nice.

Good luck.

 

What are that are wide enough for Corvette rims ? Having grown up in Ohio and driven all kinds of vehicles over the last 47 yrs (read that 47 winters) I wouldn't drive a Corvette in the winter. Too light for the width of the tires. Too low as folks above have said. A bit much power for wide rear wheels, which will spin from lack of traction.

One year I tried to drive a 5.0 Mustang in the winter. Didn't work, parked it, drove a beater. Another winter I had a 80 Z28 with wide tires. 32 mph on the x-way, hit a slight decline, car crept to 35 ish and immediately turned sidewise.

Come around a corner, hit some glaze ice (some folks call it black ice) and you are going to go on a very scary ride. The tires are just too wide. There is not adequate ground pressure on them to punch down through.

I have found most people will do what they want (of course I did when I was young and lacked experience) but a couple winters taught me real quick.

Additionally fender benders in a steel car are relatively easy to fix. Cracked broken fiberglass, not so. Knock in a rear quarter on a steel car, pound it out, pull it out, either get a new one, a repro one or go cut a panel off a junk yard car and weld it on, not so easy on a C4 Corvette. How about a front fender, which is actually part of the hood.

Its not that dry cold winter days that are the problem. Its the snow days.

 

Any brand name 100% "SNOW" tire (not an "M&S" tire).

Something is amiss there^^. I drove Trans Ams around for years, in New England winters. I'll be honest....I didn't even put winter tires on the things. My wife and I drove a Cadillac CTS-V for year, here in Park City and Telluride. That car was shod with Hankook Ice Claw (?) tires and later, Nokian Hakkipalitta (sp?) tires. In all examples, I've driven TA's and the Caddy in snow deep enough that the front of the car was plowing snow. No issues.



It's the mind-set and/or equipment that's the problem, not the snow. If you have decent (real snow) tires, and the right attitude, it's totally doable. If your Mustangs and Camaros were spinning out of control at low speeds on snowy roads....you had the wrong tires, regardless of width.








No problem there^.
Additional data point: IDK if he still lives here or not, but for a few years, back in the '00's, Cheech Marin lived here in PC. He daily drove a black Lamborghini Diablo, year round....I'd see it all them time. Dry, snow, whatever. PC gets ~350"/year of snow and those cars have wide tires.

 

I see. I was wondering how you washed it because the hoses and power-washer at home are all frozen or will freeze up if Id try.

Looks l'll be getting a car-wash membership.