Steel Blue Beast Resurgence
 

This is the story of how and why I purchased the famed steel blue beast last in the fall of 2018. I know many members watched this car while it was built and exchanged a couple of hands over the years so I thought it would be cool to share my experience and work I have planned for the car.

I actually purchased my very first corvette, a torch red 1995 with the z07 option, for the fuel economy and resale value. Most people don’t realize that a sports car, specifically with a 6-speed manual, can get almost 30mpg from the factory. The fuel efficiency compared to the other vehicle I owned at the time was a great selling point but it was the car’s performance that has kept me coming back to the c4 over the years- I have owned 4 in total.

Since I owned a corvette, I felt as though I should race it. I have autocrossed and road raced in increasing competitive landscapes (mostly to see who is the fastest between my dad, my brother, and myself) while keeping the cars very street-able. I try to drive my vette every day during the spring, summer, and fall if the weather permits. Over the years, each of us have purchased more capable vehicles, constantly trying to get the most wins within a season between the three of us. The past couple of years my dad, who owns a 97 c5, has been beating my brother and myself more and more. So, it was time for a change.

I actually came very close to purchasing the steel blue beast several years ago (the second time it had been for sale on the forums) but things didn’t work out. So, when I happened to stumble upon for sale again last year, I didn’t want to have to pass on it again. I had a great purchasing experience with C4_Stick, who was very transparent about the condition of the car and allowed a friend to inspect and test drive it before I purchased it and had it shipped from California to Michigan.

The car is not in the same condition as it was when zelement built it. The car was never totally complete (not all gauges work, the car still needs a tune, etc) and some previously owners have taken some things off the car (missing the steel blue painted NOS bottle and some hook-ups in the engine bay and the swing-out bar for the roll cage on the driver’s side). Also, the paint is no longer show quality. It was honestly a little sad to witness but none of this prevented the excitement I have from owning this car. As I mentioned earlier, C4_Stickwas very transparent about the condition of the car and I really wanted to "restore" the car and finish it.

The worst part about purchasing the car in the fall of Michigan weather is that it almost immediately went into storage for the winter. So all this excitement from just purchasing a brand new car has been bottling up for several months. Fortunately, spring is officially here and the boxes of parts that have been piling up the past couple months can now actually make their way on the car. I plan on posting updates as things are fixed and new modifications are made to the car, which will include interior, chassis, instrument cluster, and cooling updates, over the next couple of months. All of this will eventually lead to a complete tune!

Here are a couple of pictures as the car came out of storage a few days ago:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...a7de267633.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...95ee7fe3ce.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...df1e102db0.jpg

Good looking c4!
Future plans?

Thanks! Planning on getting the car back to good working order to drive on nice weather days and occasionally take it to some autoX and HPDE events to hopefully outperform the rest of the family. A brief overview of what to come includes Corbeau seats and harness, RacePak dash, adjustable upper a-arms, dewitts radiator with oil cooler, and a tune. Hoping to have everything wrapped up in around 6 weeks to take advantage of the summer season!

Wow, very happy someone bought zelement's old car, and you sound like the right guy for that car. Please do keep us updated on the car:cool:

That's and ambitious and enthusiastic plan. Good luck going forward. I hope you spend less than you budgeted and finish ahead of schedule.
You may want to order that Dewitt's Radiator before the end of the month to take advantage of that 15% off sale.
Keep the updates coming.

Yes, it is quite ambitious- especially considering these things rarely go as planned. I have already found a couple of additional things that will need to be addressed with the car before it is ready for prime time but that is all part of it...

Thanks for the heads up with the radiator- I actually already have it in hand. :thumbs:

Very cool! Subscribed for future updates. You going to use this thread or create individual ones?

[QUOTE=supsvet;1599107010]This is the story of how and why I purchased the famed steel blue beast last in the fall of 2018. I know many members watched this car while it was built and exchanged a couple of hands over the years so I thought it would be cool to share my experience and work I have planned for the car.

I actually purchased my very first corvette, a torch red 1995 with the z07 option, for the fuel economy and resale value. Most people don’t realize that a sports car, specifically with a 6-speed manual, can get almost 30mpg from the factory. The fuel efficiency compared to the other vehicle I owned at the time was a great selling point but it was the car’s performance that has kept me coming back to the c4 over the years- I have owned 4 in total.

Since I owned a corvette, I felt as though I should race it. I have autocrossed and road raced in increasing competitive landscapes (mostly to see who is the fastest between my dad, my brother, and myself) while keeping the cars very street-able. I try to drive my vette every day during the spring, summer, and fall if the weather permits. Over the years, each of us have purchased more capable vehicles, constantly trying to get the most wins within a season between the three of us. The past couple of years my dad, who owns a 97 c5, has been beating my brother and myself more and more. So, it was time for a change.

I actually came very close to purchasing the steel blue beast several years ago (the second time it had been for sale on the forums) but things didn’t work out. So, when I happened to stumble upon for sale again last year, I didn’t want to have to pass on it again. I had a great purchasing experience with C4_Stick, who was very transparent about the condition of the car and allowed a friend to inspect and test drive it before I purchased it and had it shipped from California to Michigan.

The car is not in the same condition as it was when zelement built it. The car was never totally complete (not all gauges work, the car still needs a tune, etc) and some previously owners have taken some things off the car (missing the steel blue painted NOS bottle and some hook-ups in the engine bay and the swing-out bar for the roll cage on the driver’s side). Also, the paint is no longer show quality. It was honestly a little sad to witness but none of this prevented the excitement I have from owning this car. As I mentioned earlier, C4_Stickwas very transparent about the condition of the car and I really wanted to "restore" the car and finish it.

The worst part about purchasing the car in the fall of Michigan weather is that it almost immediately went into storage for the winter. So all this excitement from just purchasing a brand new car has been bottling up for several months. Fortunately, spring is officially here and the boxes of parts that have been piling up the past couple months can now actually make their way on the car. I plan on posting updates as things are fixed and new modifications are made to the car, which will include interior, chassis, instrument cluster, and cooling updates, over the next couple of months. All of this will eventually lead to a complete tune!

Here are a couple of pictures as the car came out of storage a few days ago:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...a7de267633.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...95ee7fe3ce.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...df1e102db0.jpg[/

QUOTE]

Very nice C4;)

Thanks! I plan on continuing to use this thread for future updates. There should be some more coming this weekend.

The first updates I have planned for the car focus on the interior- I was wanting to get the quick and easy stuff out of the way... I am pretty tall at 6’5” and sit way too high in the stock seats to be able to wear a helmet with the roof on. I was able to modify the sport seats on a previous C4 that I owned to fit well but these seats seemed much more challenging. So, I decided to order a set of Corbeau A4 seats, which would also allow me to run a 5 point harness. Honestly, the Corbeau seats took quite a bit of modification for me to sit at the proper height but modifying them was easy and they do “secure” me better than the stock seats. Complimenting the A4s is a 5 point camlock Corbeau harness and harness pads. The Corbeau seat brackets are not as easy to install as the stock brackets but I really like the look of the seats in the car. Quite a bit of time was also taken to really clean up the interior and make it look almost new again.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...9ef67d1dd3.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...e13d9c12a8.jpg

The car came with an aftermarket NRG steering wheel but the wheel offset placed it too close to the turn signal stalk. In fact, there were a couple times that I flipped the turn signal while turning the steering wheel. To remedy this, I purchased a NRG quick disconnect hub, which added the distance between the steering wheel and turn signal stalk I was looking for and also adds some convenience for entering and exiting the car. I still need to paint the center section of the steering so that it is black again but will wait til the weather is warmer so the paint adheres better.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...aac4867e9a.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...cdb4fa9696.jpg

Looking good! Like the A4's, it does compliment the rest of the interior.

Nice:thumbs:

My apologize for not posting a status update in awhile, I have been very busy working on the car! So far, my 6 week schedule is remaining in tact. Fingers crossed that everything continues to go smoothly. Two weeks ago now, I increased the ride height of the car. Admittedly, the car looks amazing at its current ride height but just isn’t practical with Michigan roads… So, I adjusted the coilovers so that it sits about an inch lower than stock (the car was dropped 2 inches). The picture gives an optical illusion that the front sits higher than the rear but the car does have a slight rake. New Moog ball upper ball joints were installed along with SPC adjustable upper A-arms. The car was taken to the shop for a 4 wheel alignment (2 degrees of camber in the front and 1 degree of camber in the rear) and now handles like a dream while still be very drive-able on the street.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...15ea74ec86.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...fb9fce78a9.jpg

Items remaining in order:
-Racepak dash
-New radiator w/ engine oil cooler
-Tune
-A really thorough cleaning of everything on the car.

Keep the updates coming along:cool:

So, it has been over a year since I posted the last update! Needless to say, getting the car prepped for the summer last year did not go as planned. After completing the posted updates, I got the exhaust re-routed under the rear differential to provide more ground clearance and installed the RacePak dash.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...813c4c68b7.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...e1050c1cb0.jpg


After those updates, I took the car to a tuner to sort out the ECM. The car needed a lot of work to get the tune right, which had seemingly been the biggest hurdle for the car since it was built. It consistently backfired and lost power at higher RPMs.

While at the tuner, it was discovered that the engine blowby was at the upper limit and creating small oil leaks at the head gaskets and front cover at high RPMs. Additionally, the Accel DFI ECM software was not consistently holding any of the new tunes and didn’t seem to have the capability to tune the car effectively. So, with that unfortunate news I decided to take the car to a performance shop to get the ECM and engine sorted out appropriately. As a result, the car spent about the last year having the following done:

-Removed Accel DFI electronics and installed new Holley EFI electronics.
-Installed new Holley dual sync distributor
-Programmed RacePak dash to interface with the new Holley electronics
-Removed meth system and installed new intercooler with custom intercooler piping and new blow-off valve
-Installed new DeWitts radiator with integrated engine oil cooler and custom overflow tank
-Installed power steering cooler
-Rearranged accessories on front of motor for better mounting, belt routing, and efficiency
-Installed new TrackSpec hood vents
-Customized side panels to allow for blower intake to come from outside air (behind the front tire) instead of the engine bay (also added metal shield between blower intake and engine bay)
-Installed new clutch slave cylinder
-Installed new turn signal switch to fix brake lights
-Eliminated slop in steering column
-Installed new metal brake booster and master cylinder
-Installed new PCV system and eliminated the oil catch cans
-Built new battery box and ran new battery cables to new electronics

The car has a street tune for now running on 4lbs of boost since the injectors are running at 78% duty cycle during hard pulls. The plan is to add bigger injectors and potentially a smaller blower pulley and then take the car to get a dyno tune early next year.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...f1b27e6215.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...f582703a20.jpg

Very nice! Good work. There are a few of the same parts on my car. The center hood vent is backwards.

Thanks! The center hood vent was intentionally rotated to function as more of an intake based on it's location within the engine bay. You are correct, though, that it is backwards compared to the original design intent.

Looks good - nice work so far.

Here's hoping you get it sorted out :thumbs:

Lots of good custom work there! On those valve covers did you weld in the bosses for the coil brackets or did they come that way? I have the same brackets but drilled holes in the covers for the mounting bolts. No oil leaks so far!

Thank you! The bosses for the coil brackets were welded to the valve covers. Glad your method is also working!