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My intro post got punted here, but doesn't have a title that tells you what I'm up to.
I'm rebuilding a 2004 Commemorative Edition Convertible that suffered a love tap to the left rear. I bought it at a Copart auction with a clean title and am working to get it back on the road. The shipper just dropped it off Thursday, and I've already started tearing into it. Here's some 'before' shots:
8(!) owners
Bald rear tires that are shredded
Missing sunvisors
Driver's seat looks like a rabid dingo ate it
Rear bumper cover destroyed
Left Quarter destroyed
The left 'ear' of the rear bumper crash bar is bent in and has crunched the tub in that corner
The quarter panel mounting tabs on the rocker were broken off in the impact.
Despite having the F55 option, the rears currently have Bilsteins and there is wiring zip tied and taped up by each of the rear upper control arms
The left sway bar endlink is bent
There's an Alpine double din in the radio slot
And a ghetto *** 'DUAL' brand sub in the well of the trunk next to the 12 disc changer (that sh*t sub has to go asap)
Check engine light and suspension lights are on (susp due to the magnetic ride shocks MIA?)
Battery has a 2012 date code and is shot
Also has an array of non-factory crap a$$ wiring to the terminals I'm going to remove.
The plan is to restore the car as best I can to her former glory to have a nice weekend driver and fun car. I have a TON of questions, and will keep this thread updated with progress.
Hey gang - lots to catch up on, here are updates from the past weekend through this morning...
Last weekend I removed the front seats and gutted much of the interior for a good cleaning. At least one previous owner was a smoker, and for sure drank/ate/Lord knows what else in the car because calling it 'nasty' is an insult to the word 'nasty'.... Here's the view after the seats, console, radio bezel and etc all came out:
I have one of those Bissel Little Green carpet cleaners and extractors which got up the vast majority of the stains:
The only 2 I couldn't get up are whatever the hell the pink stuff is, and one big rust spot by the wiring harness. The seat track was pretty heavily rusted in that area and the harness was caked with crud which I am pretty sure was a spill that was left on the carpet and no one attempted to clean it up. For now I left the carpet in, but will be looking for a replacement set. Since both stains are hidden by the seat I'm good with it for now. The passenger side was WAY worse, but I got the worst of it up also.
While I had the console out, I did some things:
Re-glued the plastic mounting hole bosses on the back of the console. A previous owner had tightened the 2 rear nuts so tight it had split the plastic slots/tabs the nut seats down against.
Reattached the console lock cylinder
Removed all the wiring for the aftermarket stereo/rear sub and the non matching black double din and tossed it all in the trash
Replaced the bezel around the ignition switch (mine was broken)
Re-soldered the HVAC resistors (someone had tried this before I noticed when I opened mine up - and had done a trash attempt at it with bad solder joints everywhere. It's back to working now, before I resoldered everything the whole display was blank)
Installed the factory correct Bose head unit - thankfully at least the owner who had installed the junk head unit in the car did use the correct wiring adapters, so the factory harness was intact
Replaced the poorly fitting double din bezel with a good used original and correct shale unit I found online
Cleaned out all the crud in and around the shifter/boot and e-brake boot.
Used a hair dryer and a trim tool to remove the window tint from the windshield and door windows - it was so dark you couldn't see in or out of the car, and driving at night was a no-go. This car will never go back to the ghetto.
With the interior in far more functional and decent shape, I dug into the 'fun' part - recovering the seats, installing new seat cushions and installing new sunvisors (mine were both missing when I got the car). All of these pieces I got from Top Flight as I believe they are the only licensed dealer selling the correct Commemorative Edition seat upholstery. I opted for full leather surfaces as opposed to the factory leather/vinyl. Using the video Lyle from C&S Corvettes posted on YouTube as a guide I found the job to not be too bad at all to do and MAN what a difference in the look.
Here's the old driver seat:
And the same seat recovered with new cushions and cleaned hardware sitting next to the old covers:
I've since worked on the cover some more to get the wrinkles out, and letting it sit in the sun a bit helped a ton.
With the hard stuff out of the way I installed new lift struts for the tonneau cover and the trunk, reinstalled the seats and now it looks like this inside with a little before/after for you:
Before:
After:
Passenger side before:
After:
And the new seats sitting in the sun this morning:
Things still to do:
New tires (coming in tomorrow - Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's - my neighbor has them on his '99 C5 and likes them so why not?)
Attempt to bring the paint back to life. It's badly scratched/faded in several places
Fix the HUD - it's not powering up at all, no amount of fiddling with the brightness slider or up/down has resulted in me seeing any sign of life- no motor noise, no light even looking in through the windshield from outside the car. Both fuses 19 and 25 I replaced, and everything else in the car works, just no HUD.
Flush the coolant - the car is consistently hitting 220-230 degrees. Granted it's hot right now here in TN, but that's warmer than I'd like to see. When I changed the oil I checked the air dam and checked for debris/trash/crap jammed in between the radiator and condenser and in front of the condenser. Both were pretty much junk free, so I don't know what's next. Both fans do run.
Check the power steering - it feels 'heavy' to me, but I don't know if this is normal for a C5 or if it's a sign of a problem
Replace the badly hazed/cracked front DRL/turn lights. I have a set on order that should be here this week.
Replace the shattered defrost grille in the dash (I have it, just waiting on some dark neutral trim paint for it)
Drive it more!
I'll leave the post for now with a couple of shots of the car as it sits now from earlier today:
And one from the left rear, which was a smashed mess 3 weeks ago....
The left 'ear' of the bumper face bar got bent in maybe 30 ish degrees, along with the muffler, which pushed into the bottom corner of the tub. It's split down the left side in a few places and I have some work to do once it when I finish pulling the bumper straight. I have a gallon of Evercoat SMC resin and plenty of glass mat so as soon as the bumper is out of the way I'll start to re-form it back into the proper position and see what goes.
I think I'm going to wait until the replacement quarter and rear bumper come in before I apply new resin and matting on the tub, to make sure everything lines up before I make the tub repair permanent and end up with a tub that won't let everything fit like it should.
It came from a Copart lot in Memphis, TN. How bad was yours when you got it?
The left 'ear' of the bumper face bar got bent in maybe 30 ish degrees, along with the muffler, which pushed into the bottom corner of the tub. It's split down the left side in a few places and I have some work to do once it when I finish pulling the bumper straight. I have a gallon of Evercoat SMC resin and plenty of glass mat so as soon as the bumper is out of the way I'll start to re-form it back into the proper position and see what goes.
I think I'm going to wait until the replacement quarter and rear bumper come in before I apply new resin and matting on the tub, to make sure everything lines up before I make the tub repair permanent and end up with a tub that won't let everything fit like it should.
It came from a Copart lot in Memphis, TN. How bad was yours when you got it?
Mine was from a Copart down in Georgia. I was lucky in that the frame on mine was completely untouched, just everything underneath it got smacked hard lol. I have a thread detailing the restoration: My C5 Restoration
Well I had planned to finish getting all the bent parts removed from the accident damage and going to work on straightening the rear face bar.
I got the absorber removed, unbolted the badly bent left muffer and cut the muffler inlet with a sawzall to make it easer to remove and took off the rear sway bar because the drivers side looks like it was slightly tweaked. What I’m left with is this:
My plan was to pull the car out or the garage and pull it back in nose first so I could have more room to work with the back of the car hanging out of the garage.
I put in the new battery I bought for the car, go to start it and…. I’ve misplaced the key.
I had it this morning. Put it in my pocket. And now it’s gone. The only place I went today was to Walmart for a sawzall blade. No one has turned in a key today, and the only other key I got with the car is a key with a tiny head on it that says GM but has no resistor on it. A valet key maybe? Anyway it locks the doors but won’t start the car….
i dont have the title from Copart yet so I guess until I get that I won’t be able to go to Chevy and get a key made. All I have for proof of ownership is my paid invoice and copy of the transport delivery.
This sucks.
more to come, Hoping the key turns up here at home or at Wally World.
Last edited by CJC5Vert; May 27, 2024 at 05:25 PM.
Reason: typo
Damn, you’ve jumped into the deep end! Sounds like you are quite capable, however, and have your priorities in the right order. As you work your way through, I know that cosmetics will be some of the last items on your list, but you have one of my favorite C5 color combos. After reading your goals, the ‘junk’ added to the car, and the number of owners, I am reminded of the children’s book, Black Beauty. It looks as if this soon to be restored, beautiful, and loved Corvette, has finally found a wonderful home. Welcome to the Forum, good luck with your project, and make this special car yours!
When I bought my Vette it had no keys, and the windows were rolled down. I called a locksmith, explained the situation and he went out, looked up the VIN of the car and cut a key with the correct resistor then and there. Wasn't cheap (like 200 bucks if i remember correctly) but would get you a working key if you can't find the original.
Dumb question, did you check between the seats of the car you drove to Walmart? I lost a key once in there, didn't find it for two years until I removed the seat for some maintenance.
When I bought my Vette it had no keys, and the windows were rolled down. I called a locksmith, explained the situation and he went out, looked up the VIN of the car and cut a key with the correct resistor then and there. Wasn't cheap (like 200 bucks if i remember correctly) but would get you a working key if you can't find the original.
Dumb question, did you check between the seats of the car you drove to Walmart? I lost a key once in there, didn't find it for two years until I removed the seat for some maintenance.
I did check the seats. Went back to Walmart twice to see if anyone turned in a key. Even got my metal detector out and checked the yard next to the driveway. No dice. So I gave up, went inside, showered off the dirt from the morning effort, and tossed my jeans into the wash.
Low and behold when I took those jeans out of the dryer, my Vette key was in the lint trap. Now I know full well I checked my pockets about 100 times hunting that key.
I didn't think senility set in while you're in your 50's.... but maybe it is?
The afternoon was lost, and a new work week begins but hope to get the bumper straight and tub patched up this week before my new quarter panel and bumper cover and absorber get in... and the new exhaust.... and now I'm thinking since the sway bar is bent I should order a Z06 one for it....
I did check the seats. Went back to Walmart twice to see if anyone turned in a key. Even got my metal detector out and checked the yard next to the driveway. No dice. So I gave up, went inside, showered off the dirt from the morning effort, and tossed my jeans into the wash.
Low and behold when I took those jeans out of the dryer, my Vette key was in the lint trap. Now I know full well I checked my pockets about 100 times hunting that key.
I didn't think senility set in while you're in your 50's.... but maybe it is?
The afternoon was lost, and a new work week begins but hope to get the bumper straight and tub patched up this week before my new quarter panel and bumper cover and absorber get in... and the new exhaust.... and now I'm thinking since the sway bar is bent I should order a Z06 one for it....
Best part about damage is that it's always a good excuse to upgrade! When I'm done working on my C5 it'll have a full Z06 suspension (minus some AFE shocks I got for a screaming deal). Glad you were able to find the key, when I first got mine the HUD bezel had disintegrated, I mistakenly put the key on the dash above the instrument cluster, bumped the key reaching into the car and knocked it into the hole where the HUD sits. That's when I learned these keys aren't magnetic!
first order of business was to straighten the rear face bar. I tried doing this during the week using tow straps and a come along attached to my truck. All I succeeded in doing was to drag my vette backwards out of the garage.
Determined to not let the car beat me this morning I had the bright idea of turning the car around and parking it so the front wheels were in the gutter and the back of the car was in my driveway to use the gutter as a chock of sorts. Success!
Next I fit the new rear bumper absorber pad into place to make sure everything lined up ok and it did:
Then it was time to address the mangled bits of the tub. First I moved the crunched parts back into shape, supported from inside the trunk with some bracing to hold it in place. Then I spent a lot of time going over the damaged bits with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper to clean them up. I also cleaned up the ugly hole in the back of the tub some booger eating moron cut into it to add a camera/license bracket.
after that it was SMC Evercoat resin and glass mat time. I hadn’t done this kind of work in 30 years and it shows. Once this cures I’ll probably add more. No idea what to do with the mangled muffler shield on the bottom of the tub. It’s all there but butt ugly.
In order to have some kind of exhaust since the left side was destroyed I ordered a cheap eBay set for now until I figure out what I want long term. I got the left side done but was running out of time and daylight so I’ll have to hit the right side this week.
I also changed all the plugs and wires today - the engineer who thought the last plug by the brake booster and windshield on the drivers side was 'serviceable' has a special place in hell waiting for him. Also changed out the air filter which was stiff from age and completely full, as were the udders. I swear I don’t know why some owners don’t take care of their stuff while they own it….
Sorry for the long post but that’s the update for today! I have a new quarter and bumper already painted and ready to install as soon as I’m satisfied with the tub work so it won’t be long until it looks like a proper C5! Then I get to disassemble the interior, replace the seat foam and leather, put the correct shale radio bezel and console trim on the car, put in the factory radio instead of the ancient alpine double din that’s very poorly installed. Also need to figure out if my HUD has the broken pin or is dead or both. I get nothing at all from it. I also need to resolder the hvac resistors as the display is too dark to see. Probably more to come after that!
Thanks for the update with pictures. My abilities are not even in the same cosmos as yours, so I will live this rebuild vicariously through your words and your pictures.
Another week of long hours after work in the garage has paid off. Here’s what you missed during the week:
right hand exhaust installed
new rear lighting harness installed
mounting tabs on left rocker repaired
another round of smc resin and fiberglass to finish the tub repair
mounted the new quarter panel
Attached the bumper cover
replaced the rear sway bar and endlinks
gave it a MUCH needed bath
topped off fluids and changed the oil
Left to do:
full interior overhaul. I have a new set of lemans commemorative seat leather and seat foam from TopFlight, new sun visors also from top flight and the correct shale color radio bezel and original radio
CJC5Vert's from the grave build thread
