ochsnal

Looking to buy 2003 red Anniversary edition with man. trans. Any advice or things to look for or consider. Really like the looks of the car with the all shale interior and convertible top.

JR-01

I think the AE Convertible is one of the the best looking C5s. I had to settle for an '01 Magnetic red vert with light oak top. Similar.

biggrizzly

I own one myself and I love it. One thing to consider if it has any broken interior components is that it is difficult to source parts in the shale or neutral colors. I had to replace a vent grill in the dash pad and some of the small inserts at the interior door handles and they are only available in black. Therefore I had to buy the correct paint to match and paint these items. Additionally there are many great aftermarket goodies that are only found in black. With this said, I still love the Shale interior color and will live with the lack of color keyed items. Front and rear trunk and facia emblems are pricey as are the 50th emblems on the side if any of these are faded or missing.
Magnetic Ride Control was an included option on the 50th Edition and if the shocks go south they can be expensive to replace unless you do other options to repair. Mine has about 90,000 miles on it and the Magnetic Ride Control still works perfectly.
All in all, it is exactly like other '03 C5s and C5s in general. I hope you go for it and enjoy it.

Vetteman Jack

Love the looks of the '03 AE cars. Good luck with your search and as 8VETTE7 mentions, read those stickies in his links.

jrprich

Don't use the SEM colors, they DO NOT even get close to the factory colors in the 50th Anniv.

A great interior paint match is from ColorBond

On an Anniversary interior the darker is GM Medium Dark Neutral # 153
and the lighter is GM Shale # 156.
I recently tried several such sprays and found ColorBond to be by far the best at matching the OEM colors. Clean the item well, wipe them down with Denatured alcohol after cleaning. DO NOT use rubbing or isopropyl alcohol as it contains oils that will harm the paint sticking. You will also need to purchase and use a spray Adhesion Promoter on the areas to be sprayed after the alcohol wipe down has dried. I suggest using one made by the same company as the paint. Once you have applied several light coats and have the coverage you want you also need to follow up with a spray Cleat Coat. Again it is best to use a CC made by the same company and to follow the recommended dry times between coats on all three steps.

Perfect match in my 50th Aniv.

FX VETTE

Make sure the Shock Stuffers have been removed.

jrprich

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drove mine home from SoCal to Oregon wondering why it kept bottoming out...........the first two owners had the 03 for 13 years and never checked.

FX VETTE

Ditto! And if it wasn't for jrprich, mine would probably still be in there.

ochsnal

Thanks for all the great advice! Am reading up on a lot of posts for as much information as possible. I understand about interior colored parts on select models as I have a 03 Ford Thunderbird Pacific Coast edition witch was a 1000 limited production model with light ash interior. I'm going
to keep reading and thanks!

Rabbitman

Yes it's amazing how many members never knew those things were still on their cars from new until reading about it on here

ljorges

Does anyone have a picture of the shock stuffer in place.

I'm getting my wheels balanced and I'm curious if they were removed.

I've seen a picture of the shock stuffer but never in place.

Les

jrprich

Here you go;

REAR Shock



Jim

FX VETTE

That long yellow tab connects to a 1 1/2 inch of white plastic that is hidden in the boot.

ljorges

So the boot lifts up enough to allow removal?

Les

FX VETTE

So you have to jack up each corner to get the weight off, then push the boot up like an accordion and pull on the yellow tab at the same time.

FX VETTE

Then the stuffer will come out.

jrprich

Yup, what he said

jrprich

Just based on the stories on CF it was a very wide spread problem.
I bet there are still a bunch of C5s still driving around with the damn stuffers still in place

JR-01

Probably the reason why some cars have so few miles on them. The owners didn't like driving them.

krej

I've had my AE manual vert for a year and a half now and still smile every time I crank it up. Had to replace a headlight gear ($45 and 1 1/2 hours of easy work) and a battery. I drive it nearly every day and it has been everything I hoped it would be. It took some looking and patience to find the right one, but I was set on that particular color combination and had to have a vert and manual tranny.