irfangnosis

I bought my C6 in November of 2017 for pretty cheap due to higher millage and overall condition. I was pretty sure it had a new front bumper cover. As it turned out a host of small items needed to be fixed because of the poor repair work from the shop the previous owner chose. They installed new horns and put one of them upside down so it filled with dirt and water until it shorted out. This caused the charging issue it had. I drove last year without using the horn to avoid blowing the fuse.

Near the end of the season last year the fog light started falling out. Over the course of driving it last year I scraped up the nose pretty good and I wanted to take care of that. I grazed over a curb last week and the plastic behind the bumper pulled out.

After taking it all apart I found the improperly installed horn, and that the fog light fell out was because the pins that locate the top of the housing were broken off.

I bought a new horn and installed it in the correct orientation. I took the fog light housing apart and put some bolts in the lens to replicate the missing pins. I did this by drilling and tapping holes in the lens, screwing a 8-32 bolt in and finally gluing it for extra strength. The aluminum skids under the bumper was pretty scraped up on the passenger side. I screwed 1” wide strips of ¼ thick HDPE plastic to the skids to give them a little wear resistance.

Some of the plastic pieces were cracked, and I plastic welded them together before bolting everything together. I ran the DA sander over all the bad scrapes on the underside of the bumper. The Plasticote spray bomb from the auto parts store was a perfect match. While on the hoist I did my beginning of the season oil change. I adjusted the preload on the springs to hopefully raise the car a little to avoid scraping the front so much. (this made a huge difference in my C5) I found it funny that my car has only two grease fittings and they are on the REAR suspension. I am happy with my repairs and while it took some time I only spent $25 to get it back into shape.

SixAddict

Nice restoration work you did there. Looks like the previous owner was off roading or ran off the road....lol.
I like the covers you made for the radiator support. I've already bumped on mine a few times, but so far so good. It's definitely a weak point with these cars for sure.

irfangnosis

I am afraid the most of the scrapes are ME.... I live on a dirt road and I have a goat path for a driveway, but most of them are parking bumpers. I need to be more careful.

BadAV

A Vette is pretty short. There's really no reason or need to try to pull so close to a parking curb. The car will still be in the parking space even if you park a foot away from the curb. Should be plenty of leeway to never hit the curb.

captain vette

Well done congrats

1bdvet

Nice job!

mike_engr

Two grease fittings in rear indicate Z51/GS/etc performance suspension package..... In addition to greasing two here this week I also turned some spring bolts to try to raise a 2010 GS I just got. Does anyone know the approx rise we get for each turn?

jrose7004

Nice work!

irfangnosis

I knew it had the Z51 suspension from the glove box sticker. I had no idea that was part of that package. I was fun to roll out my pneumatic grease gun with my lifetime supply of grease for two fittings.
Are the rear brake vents standard on all C6's or is that also a package thing?



I didn't measure the wheel lip before I did the springs, so I cant comment on how much it lifted. you could do the math/trigonometry by measuring the lower pivot point to the pad area of the spring bolt and then the lower pivot to the center of the tread area. my rough guess is it is effectively 3:1, I.E. screwing the bolt out 1/4" would add about 3/4" height.
The dramatic difference on my C5 was that I was replacing a cracked and worn out 140K mile standard spring with a low mileage Z06 spring I had picked up cheap.

I can still add about 3/16" on my front bolts, and I will do that the next time it is on the lift. After driving it around today, I rubbed the plastic air dam in my goat path driveway and a few parking areas.

FatsWaller

Very nice work indeed. I have to caution you about the 'skid plates'. As pointed out, those are the lower part of the rad support, and it will break if you hit it hard enough. There are a number of posts about it. It's not a cheap fix. The plastic strips are a nice idea and look good, but they may make the situation worse by removing 1/4 " of ground clearance. Keep away from curbs - back in where possible.

Bruze

Dirt road here too and a mud driveway, although it's drying out now.

irfangnosis

I made this little gem today. I hope it will kill the CAGS. for $0.64 plus my time I am not out much if it doesn't work.

wayback

Is that plasti dip on the hood?

Nice work on the repairs. As others have said be careful with the radar supports.

Rear brake vents are standard on all C6s.

irfangnosis

No not plasti dip. I don't ever see myself plasti dipping anything. what you are seeing is a reflection of the shop ceiling which is foil covered Styrofoam. it is actually very bumpy. the photo does look like orange peal on steroids though...

As to the aluminum rad support, if I ever break it I will re weld it. I don't really want to repair it though.

And thanks for info on the brake ducts. I bought some used ones for my C5 but I have to get the rocker vents. I got them for cheap a while back, I have not found the rocker vents for less than $65 each though. I will do that whenever I get around to painting the C5.

irfangnosis

I installed my home made CAGS fuse. works like a charm....