JayTee72

The new ones imo are getting too small. They've lost their identitiy. Love my C5.

sjhanc

grampi50, Thanx for your kind comments.
The paint has thousands of insect impacts with love bugs on the front half. Each insect splashes its eggs and the eggs are carried all over the car, even landing on the back. If they are not cleaned off immediately, they degrade into a corrosive mixture of acidic and dirt mess that eventually gets through the topcoat and damages the base coat. Waxing over this makes the defects more visible so the first step is to strip off all of the wax using a wax cleaner and a tooth brush. If it only goes into the topcoat, cleaning the residue and wax build up out with a cleaner polish and applying thinned clear paint with a foam brush will make it almost invisible unless you get your eyes up close in bright sun light. The clear repair can be wet sanded with a 2500 grit block, then polished with Meguiar's scratch remover until you get the desired shine. Further polishing and waxing will flatten the clear touched-up spots and they become almost invisible.

The deep penetration usually carries dirt in with it, in this case it is necessary to dig the dirt out and apply the base coat, then let that cure for a few weeks, then block sand it level with the surrounding paint. On larger repaired areas masking and applying clear top coat may be necessary. This leaves a lump of clear on the defect. I let the repair cure for a month, then block sand and apply the Meguiar's product to make an ALMOST invisible repair.

Two areas of paint were so bad that I had to sand through to the primer, fill and mask and do the base coat/clearcoat application, let that cure for a month, then polish to blend the spots into the original paint. I have been working on it for a year to get what you see in the picture and still have areas to fix. The top of the rear bumper cap and the rear fenders had golf bag scratches through to the fiberglass and urethane bumper. A lot of work, but my labor is cheaper to me than having it stripped and repainted. My 67 vert had been stripped and repainted twice, once for the front head light section knocked off in an accident, and the second time to repair the chevy dealer's crappy paint job that only lasted 1 1/2 years. The second paint job came out beautiful, but the painter had to strip it and repair bad body work done at the chevy body shop. The parts that were glued on cracked at the panel joints.

Except for the hood, which had so much insect damage (and bird dropping damage that ate into the fiberglass) that it needed stripping and repainting, most of what you see is the original factory paint on the C 5 with hundreds of individual spot repairs using Duplicolor touch up paint products. I was afraid that I would have color mis-matches but I have to commend Duplicolor for accurate color matches. Once I had finished most of the paint work, I block wet-sanded the entire car (except the hood) with 2500 grit paper, then used the Meguiar's (X 2.0 ?) polish to get the mirror finish and reduce the swirl marks in the original paint.

People who see it for the first time can't believe most of the paint is twenty years old. The hood was bought from someone who had taken delivery of a new 2000, drove it 15 miles to his home and removed the hood to replace it with an aftermarket hood. His original hood had been leaning against a wall in his garage until I bought it. When the hood arrived and I saw that it was flawless I knew I had a lot of polishing to do.

Principal Lewis

I am a non-97-00 C5 owner. With that said, I researched the C5 for a couple of years before I purchased. I was dead set on a very clean, one owner, sliver/black, 98 coupe, MN6 with 17,000 original miles. I had test drove the car as was about to purchase when the deal on the 03 MY Z fell in my lap. I love the Z and replaced the valve springs as PM. I would like to have the targa roof. The only thing that I did not care for on the 98 was the lack of the HUD. I would not hesitate to buy any year C5, to me it really comes down to condition, service history and price. The youngest C5 is 13/14 years old, and with any 13+ y/o car you are going to have some parts fail.

obnoxus

I have had a 1997 for the last 5 years and I absolutely hate it from a maintenance perspective,,,, I have had to change the oil 5 times !!!!

The way I look at it. As old as they are now any gremlins will either be fixed which makes it a good purchase, or quite apparent in which case you wouldn't purchase anyway.

I couldn't pass mine up for the condition. I know people talk about how clean there cars are, but I seriously think the previous owner put 75,000 miles on it on jack stands in his garage LOL.

I take that back, I did have to fix the seat rock issue,,,,,add another $ 10

grampi50

Thanks for the chuckle!

VETTEC599

Extremely happy with our '99 FRC - TR
Would not hesitate to buy again if we were to lose our present '99 Would replace with another FRC
Owned our '99 for last 10 years - no major problems - minor upgrades - stored in winter - otherwise driven anywhere with no hesitation to do so

Mitch45

Posted a reply 2 years ago .Was happy with my 98 then and still happy with it . Somewhere a round 92000 miles and everything still works . Have done some minor repairs . Next project this winter will be harmonic balancer as a preventive measure .

CactusCat

I found out (via another thread with some links) that my 98 coupe was the 83rd 1998 Corvette manufactured (on the very first day of production for the 98 model). That means I have an early 98 with the EBCM in the rear and that also means I do NOT have Active Handling. And you know what? I've seen where AH has caused some problems for folks and I don't think I miss it one bit. With that being said, my 98 is heavily modded, close to 700rwhp, and it's a car I'll never sell. No problems with it other than regular C5 items (HVAC display, floppy mirror, etc). Fixed all of them myself to better than new. It was and still is my dream car.

mstromquist

I've had my '98 since 2007. I didn't do ANY research on it when I found it. I wasn't in the market for another Corvette (let alone a C5) as I had bought a '95 a few months prior. I knew nothing about the C5 but a friend of mine told me that if I drove one I'd want one. He was 100% right. When I saw the one I have in an ad on the internet in Omaha, it just spoke to me. And as they say, the rest is history. And so was the C4. Mine only had 2 options from the factory also. A CD player head unit and a power passenger seat. After I had it for a while and seeing what most of the problems were/are, I've come to the realization that less is sometimes more on these cars. So I'm pretty happy that mine didn't come with all the options it could have had. Most of my problems I've had with the car are also self induced from "trying" new things. It's been runnning like a top pretty much since I bought it. It wouldn't bother me to purchase another '00 or older car as long as its been cared for. This one is also the first C5 I had been in or drove so it was all new to me. I pretty much bought this thing sight unseen except for pictures, had never been in or drove one before and I knew nothing about the C5's at all. In fact I pretty much didn't like the BIG BUTT they have. But now that I've had it for 10 years, I'd never part with it unless it was absolutely necessary. A couple of the parts that aren't available anymore really doesn't bother me either. If they go out, they go out and I will do my best at fixing them.

Fcar 98

Happy Happy Happy. 1998,47000 miles,original owner. Runs and looks better than the day i bought it.

VetteDrmr

You can see my sig for stats, but short version: bought in '02, autocross/DEs for 8 years, EBCM failed, replaced with used unit, no problems since.

Engine's getting worn and leaking oil (slowly cleaning those up), one clutch replacement, pads, rotors, windshield (who'd think that'd be a wear item?), radiator, but that's a decent list of the unusual things.

She's got a new baby sister now to keep her company. Her half-sister ('99 Miata with LS1/T56) will probably fly away next spring (hey, how many cars can you drive regularly?).

Have a good one,
Mike

Kylar

New member here with a White 99 Coupe with 114k miles. No issues beside routine maintenance, except the oil pressure sensor which i havent got around to changing. Still runs strong and doesnt consume oil.

mre1974

I LOVE my '99 Hardtop. Have had it for 6+ years now and put on over 100k miles since purchasing it. I've had a few little issues here and there but nothing I could not resolve with help from members on this forum. In all honesty my FRC is more reliable, less expensive to maintain, and more fun to drive than my 2k1 VW GTI with it's VR6 (non-turbo) engine that cost less than half the price of a Vette new at the time. I would absolutely buy this Vette all over again and do the same mods I have done so far...and more. It honestly is the best car I have ever owned and I say that with it just rolling over 188k miles today on the 90 mile commute into work.

jackjohnson_218

I hate my 98. I hate how it keeps stopping me from trading it in for something newer. It's got a bizarre grip on me.

LeaderP

I bought my 99 magnetic red coupe this February with 34,000 miles and have fixed a few minor things myself (missing air dam, rocking seat, and missing rubber isolator under the radiator) and had the air conditioning compressor replaced at the local stealer in Troy, MI. Asked the stealer to install the missing rubber isolator and they told me I had to replace the radiator to the tune of $840. They said the rubber isolator was an integral part of the radiator which was a big fat lie. I bought the isolator from GM parts direct the next day for under $7 and it took me about 15 minutes to install it. Needless to say, they won't get my business again.


The air pump worked but the relay that opens the integral check valve in the pump was bad so I got the P0410 code. Car doesn't have fog lights so I switched the relay for the fog lights with the air solenoid and no more codes.


The car runs like a dream and needed new tires too (bought it with 14 year old run flat tires that only had 8,000 miles from the second owner). I knew that when I bought it but also suspected the AC didn't work so I'm not at all unhappy with my purchase.


I plan to own and pass it on to one of my sons or my grandson when he turns 16.

'Shifter

I was originally shopping for an 03-04 Z06, but came across my 2k FRC, haven't looked back yet!

t1fudd

My wife bought my Black 2000 FRC as my birthday present last year 66K, looks and runs great!

rwilkins

'99 FRC for 11 years now. Excellent Corvette!

rwilkins

Is this your first Corvette?

MightyMike

ssThat's a good woman you got there!

Love my 2k FRC