Larry M

Dear Mother,

Our journey from the South is complete, I am glad to report back:

Wow!!!

What a freaking day!!!

While I was disappointed in Kerbeck on Thursday, I have to say Dave and Sam are pretty awesome. It's a big dealership with a lot of employees, I guess not all of them understand the Corvette buying experience (or at least what I expected), but Sam and Dave are cool dudes and made it right I won't go into it too much, but Thursday (Sam and Dave are off) I felt like I was buying a used Chevy Cruze, Friday I felt like I was buying a Z06

Enough of my blabber, onto to the pics
First off, thank you Mr. Zac Lamb


As you all know, yesterday had a forecast which looked pretty ugly, I was nearly set on getting a hotel for the night. As reports from Steve came in of moderate weather conditions, I started feeling a bit more optimistic

I got to the dealership and it was still sunny in Atlantic City. Sam greeted me and took me right to my car in the detailing garage. As the door swings open my heart skips a beat, wow what a beautiful ride (sorry, not show you pics just yet). I took the next 5-10 minutes inspecting the car for defects with my new flashlight. Aside from a ton of swirl marks and orange peel, the car is perfect.

Onto the paperwork, I'm usually a pretty calm and collected person, all ducks in a row, everything planned out...Well, I forgot to get a bank check, I forgot to tell them I was financing the car, I forgot my brain. By now it began to snow, WTF, it was just sunny a few minutes ago. I pull up the Chase App on my phone and APPARENTLY banks aren't popular in Atlantic City, the nearest branch was 24 miles away

We were able to take care of everything fortunately
After signing my name several times, the car was officially mine. Fun little fact, my credit score was 862, I didn't even know it could get that high.

Snow is starting to come down pretty hard now, though at this point all reports from the North are coming in positive. Time to get to work! Huh??? Work?






In case you're wondering, that is three rolls of tape I did have another roll with me, but I think I got most of what I needed done. The funniest part was when I was taping the driver's door, I forgot the part about me needing to get into the car

Sam did a great job of walking me through the car, showed me a lot of cool features, what a cool car

On the way out, I got to meet Jay Ferraro of General Motors who just happened to pop in. What a cool guy, tons of energy, he got a real kick out of my limited edition Estoril Blue Z06

Snow began to calm down dramatically by now, time to get going! Put the car in reverse, look through the back window...lol, I can't see anything, the rear glass is so small. As I'm backing out, ackerman affect is in full affect, wife asks me what is wrong with the car and of course I go into the whole cold tire & huge tire thing.

Pop the memory card into the car and hit record on the PDR, time to go!


Yay, first toll!


Snow is starting to get a little heavy now, but road conditions are fine


Yay! Garden State Parkway!


Of course they're doing a ton of construction work. Roads are horrible and the huge cold tires are tracking like crazy to the uneven pavement. I'm super nervous at this point, driving about 35-40 mph


PDR video is hilarious at this point, every single car is blowing by me


Trees looking pretty


About an hour in at this point, roads are really clean!


Ehhh, 15 minutes later, WTF is this all about!!!


Luckily the above cleared out pretty quickly. The PDR cut out at about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Not sure why though, but as I got closer to home, the skies welcomed me with dry pavement and clean white clouds



We made it home, I was very cautious of the ride home, nothing above 2,500 rpms. I basically paddled between 6,7, and 8th gear…but when I was in town on an open side street I decided to blip the throttle to about 2,500 rpms and the *** end kicked out…oh boy, this thing is going to be a beast!

Here she is, Home Sweet Home!





Time to take all that tape off…That was a pretty long ordeal! Not a bad idea to start decanting that 95 Insignia




It’s getting pretty damn cold at this point, but I have to wash her right? Time to break out the foam gun!



It was so damn cold the water was turning to ice on the car. After washing her down, I rinsed and drove straight into the garage, I couldn’t even dry outside as it just kept turning into ice. Plus I couldn’t feel my hands anymore.

So, here are some clean car photos
Most are from early morning at Kerbeck

First photo, the first time a new Z06 owner sees their car











Time to relax, what a great day


Going back to bed now

1rawTA

Really lucked out with this snow situation! just some wet/salty roads, could have been way worse. Now we have to keep our fingers crossed about Tuesday or our cars are going to be stuck in the garage until april!!!!

Every day i pop open the garage and take a look at mine for a sec then get in my truck and head to work. Im sure you will be doing the same
Good luck!!!

Larry M

Lol, I only lost $15 gambling. I'm not much of a gambler, but had fun

Deal! I'll be polishing today through Monday then she is off to Xpel for a full body wrap!

lol, I actually started on Z06Vette.com where I was a member in 2001. I came over to the CorvetteForum in 2005. Needless to say, I've wanted one for a very long time. Spent a good amount of time on LS1Tech.com with my Trans Am

Ha! NJ is slightly different than Hawaii!

Larry M

Last night I sat in front of the car for about 20 minutes talking with my wife.

Woke up at 4:45 this morning and walked down and open the garage door...Stunning car.

I have to get her to Eurotech by Monday so they can wrap her. If I miss that day, she may be buried for quite a while!

I plan on making a trip on March 25th to Warwick to pick up my buddy's Mustang. That may be the next time I drive her for more than 5 miles

Z06NJ

Welcome home!!! Thank you for keeping us updated. I really enjoyed reading your trip back home (you forgot to sign it this time with "your Son, " lol)

Hopefully you dried the water from the brake calipers because I hear you're supposed to drive it around the block at least once before parking it. Man, I bet the neighbors were thinking what is this dude doing washing the car?!?! Haha.

See you at the 1st car meet in April. May 21 Bar A meet up if you wanna go.

Larry M

count me in

just woke up, going to the gym then time to detail the car for the next few days

Mordeth

Awesome Larry!!! So glad you got her home safe and sound. What a beauty!!! The best color too!

Good luck on the polishing. When are you going to do the Caravvagio bits?

vet4me45

Worst part of the wait for me was when my car arrived in the rail yard 20 miles from my dealership and stayed there a week before it was transported to the dealer. I even drove down to the yard to see if I could get a glimpse of it and I was escorted off the site! These people have no compassion.

Larry M

I'm torn on what to do with the Caravaggio parts, I think it is better that I have them wrapped before I put them on. Should be a little easier for the installer.

I did pop on the door sills as well as the jacking pucks and floor mats

Didn't leave for the gym yet...maybe I will soon...but probably not


lol, that is a hilarious story

rbartick

Holy blue tape. Wow, talk about going overboard. . Good luck with it, I agree with your comments on the salespeople. Sam and Dave are both great.

tnvette7

Well Larry, glad you got her home safely. WOW, sure was a lot of blue tape. Curious why you didn't tape the obvious places for road sling, i.e. behind each wheel???? Thought that would be the first place for tape....

Larry M

Dropping the car off today for XPel, probably won't be started for a few days as I'm getting it there early before the huge snow storm hits us tomorrow.

Over the past few days, I polished about 70% of the car, removed the side skirts and front splitter, and removed the Spats.

I sent my first set of Spats back to APR as the CF was distorted pretty badly, waiting for my new set. Getting the old Spats off is pretty easy, there is a retaining clip towards the rear of the vehicle, three torx screws toward the front of the vehicle and 1 bolt under the vehicle and lastly two strips of double sided tape at the top of the wheel arch (push out first, there are two alignment pins up there)

The skirts and splitter were a pain initially, but it was because I didn't use the right sized drill to break the head off the rivet. Once I got the 7/16 bit, they were popping off in seconds.

I decided I'm not going to put the Caravaggio parts on first, I'll let the XPel guys wrap the parts and I'll put them on when I get the car. Install is super simple

Now that I've spent a few days in the garage with the car, I'm truly in awe at its beauty. The car is freaking amazing, I'm so happy it's hard to explain but I think you all know what I mean. Next phase will be to actually drive it in some warm weather lol

Only complaint I have with the car is the paint, the white is probably the nicest white on the street, so pure but so menacing, but that orange peel is horrendous. From a few feet, it's fine but when you start getting close under bright lights it is very very bad. I'm hoping once I back her out of the garage, it isn't as visible in the natural sunlight. As crazy as it is to say, I think my Trans Am has less orange peel. Hopefully the new paint plant fixes this, it's the only flaw I can see right now

Mordeth

Seems to be coming along Larry! Thanks for the update. Now you will be without her for a few days. Considering the storm coming our way, is maybe a good thing anyhow. I think you did the right thing leaving the Caravaggio parts off for the XPel treatment.

I require more pics of the progress once you get her back home!! I am living vicariously through you while mine sleeps.

Larry M

Few photos before leaving for the XPel installer

fly a Z06

Congrats Larry. It's very sharp looking in white, especially with the red stripe wheels.

Joel

Larry M

Nice TA you got there

Amazing how many people here had/have a TA and now a Z06

Just moved mine back in the garage from my neighbor's garage.
22" of snow on the way, my wife is disappointed her new Q60S will be out in the snow

blackbirdws6

Looks great Larry. My Z will be buried in the garage hoping this storm is lighter than anticipated.

Larry M

Just got a call from Dave Schonrock of Vivid Racing, turns out I won't be getting APR side spats. I sent the first set back because they had a long strip of distorted carbon fiber (surprised it left the factory like that) and the directions of the CF weave was pretty non uniform...but Dave came through and found Anderson Composites as an alternate option.

A little more expensive than APR, but Dave was able to get close enough for me to move forward. I don't know much about Anderson Composites, but quick searches look positive

Few pics, hopefully they come in looking as good
(side note, they did a better job with the blue painters tape than I did)