Over the years I have always wanted a Corvette. Drove a couple but never pulled the trigger. On Thanksgiving Day of last year I purchased a 2001 Corvette from T.M. Here on the forum. Picked it up the next day and took it home.

Here she is all cleaned up


I was aware of a few issues needing to be addressed before I could really begin to enjoy it. First it was lowered too much for my taste. The front bolts were removed and it scraped entering my driveway and the air dam on every little dip in the road. I had the bolts installed and the car raised about an inch. Had an alignment done along with replacing a worn tie rod.

The car had Borla stingers on it and with the headers a bit too loud for me and living on a military base. Got hassled entering the gate a few times and the drone was terrible. I swapped out the catback to an OBX setup and in improved but was still more than I wanted. Learning the hard way I purchased a mint Z06 Ti system and will install it next week when delivered.

I began a three week vacation right after New Years to fix a couple of things and also to begin installed some mods.

Now to correct two other issues. The first was one of my headlight gears was going bad and after reading here on the forum decided to replace both with brass gears. This forum helped me accomplish this swap.




Last issue was my SWPS was bad so after reading the process here I replaced it.



No more traction control codes and the light is now off so problem solved!

Now to the upgrades!!!

The previous owner gave me the parts needed to install the HUD system. I had to order a bezel though. Took me a few hours but it was pretty easy. There are some good right ups here on the forum.

I wanted to install silver gauge rings for my cluster. Used the provided double sided tape only to start over the next day with super glue due to the tape not holding. Lesson learned.

Before


After


I also installed blue LEDs in the cluster and blue superbright led strips under the dash. No picture right now but it looks great!

My targa headliner was sagging so I replaced it with new material and some 3M adhesive.



Stripped the interior to begin installing the sound deadener a d heat shield. I noticed a lot of heat coming from the tunnel and the material would help with my upcoming stereo system sounding better.





Passenger side


Drivers side


Behind seats


Rear cargo area

 

Now for the sound system. I decided to stay with a single din head unit and chose an Alpine CDE-HD137BT unit with Bluetooth.



Installed Alpine R series 6 1/2 components in the door. Purchased the adapter brackets to make it easier. Painted the grill side black so as to not be seen through the door grills.



Installing the speakers






Now for the rear speakers I installed Alpine R series coaxles.



Car had a 12" Eclipse Pro series sub so I decided to try it out.



Mounted a Rockford Fosgate P1000X5D 1000 Watt Class D 5 Channel Amplifier behind the passenger seat. The tested rating of my amp was 83 watts RMS for each channel @ 4 ohms and 230 watts RMS for the sub. It has built in crossovers and is a sweet amplifier.



The system rocks hard and clean! I'm impressed with my selection.

Installed a rear window screen and a partition. Turned out really good and looks clean.




Then I painted my console, radio bezel and door bezels silver to match the car.





Also added a padded console cover



Today I picked up the material to fix my seat cushions. The drivers side springs has cut the foam. I'll be doing this in the morning along with curing the seat rocking issue.




Yesterday my C6 Z06 shocks and Z51 swaybars arrived so next week I will install those. I also purchase Redline fluids for the axle, tranny and Mobile 1 for the engine.

Picked up a brass washer to try the detent mod to smooth out the shifting. I'll also install the Z06 catback at the same time.

Its been a pretty productive two weeks and I am happy with my work. I've caught myself admiring the car for hours in the evenings before calling it a night.

The previous owner had already done the following mods so I'm not concerned right now for modding the engine any more. Here is what was done:

Spec stage 2 clutch kit
mayhem 2 comp cam kit was installed. 235/245 duration. .630 lift on a 113 lsa
Lunati gold valve train, springs, seals, retainers
5 angle valve job
ARP head bolts
OBX stainless headers
ls2 timing chain
high pressure oil pump
ls7 lifters
hardened push rods
new rockers with trunion upgrade
New racetronic 42lb injectors
underdrive pulley
Short throw shifter
polished typhoon intake manifold
Aeromotive fuel rails and braided lines
MSD coil packs
Ls7 90mm throttle body
carbon fiber cold air intake
New water pump
160 degree thermostat
New starter
New battery
Xenon HID headlights
Blacked out Halo LED tail lights
New Z06 wheels
Slotted and cross drilled brake rotors with ceramic pads
Windows tinted

It made 405 RWHP after being tuned.

 

AWESOME INFOMERCIAL!!!!!

I throughly enjoyed the pics and step by step work up!

Congrats on the build!

 

That's awesome buddy, great job & the car is sharp!!!

 

That is absolutely awesome and your improvements are great too!

Any pics of the motor?

Curious on the Typhoon manifold!

Thanks,Matt

 

You have been very busy with the car. Looks great and nice job on all the work you've done.

 

Wow! You've really worked hard on your 2001 Vette. Look's awesome!

I've got a 2001 Quicksilver coupe as well.

Great Job!

 

Here you go. Once we move back to the mainland I might do a stroker kit and swap it out with a Fast intake. I'm still on the fence right now though. I've had much bigger HP cars before and don't wish to go down that road again. This makes 405 at the wheels and in a 3200 lb car it isn't a slouch for a driver.

My goal with this car is to keep the expenses down and just make the car more fun to drive comfortably. I got a great deal on it and even after these mods I'm still $3k under the KBB value.

 

Dam you been busy! Looks great.
Just curious, it looks like you have light oak seats, but black lower panels; which got swapped?

 

I really like seeing guys who love their car and put a lot of work into it.

What type of sound deadening did you use? Was it a kit or did you piece it together? I want to do a sound system overhaul later this year, and I think doing sound deadening would be a good idea.

Great job on everything. Great looking car.

 

My seats are black leather. Those pictures were showing what I was doing today.

I finished the seat repairs and man is it more comfortable. No longer do I sit on the springs and the rocking is fixed.

Test ride completed, stereo settings tweaked. I'm very happy.
I bought a precut kit from Dan at Exotic Vettes along with the partition. He's great to deal with. It helped reduce the noise but I'm still looking forward to the Z06 Ti exhaust to have no drone.

You could make a kit cheaper BUT I would rather spend the money to save hours of my time cutting and fitting it. His kit covered everything and I have two sheets to spare.

It greatly reduces the heat coming into the car and that was the bigger reason for doing this.

You are right, it is very satisfying doing the work yourself.

 

Seats were super easy. Followed the photos and saved some money making my own kit.





Installed



Targa top with partition

 

Here is a shot of the blue LEDs and super bright LED strips under the dash. Pretty sick!

 

That is really looking good

Hey can you give me a little more info on your partition?

I know you got a coupe as I do and I was thinking about something like that too!

Any more pics and info would be good!

Thanks,Matt

 

It's made of 1/4" abs. Carpeted and fits well. It really helps project the sound forward and isolates the rear items from rolling forward. Give Dan a call.

 

 

Looks really good!

Thanks,Matt

 

Of course you need one of these decals to complete the interior.

 

Cool stuff there

 

Next year when you take your next vacation come on down to Texas so I can put you to work ....lol