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Backstory
I still remember it clear as day. My dad and I were driving to the Flea Market in Kennesaw from our apartment in Smyrna. Passing the UHAUL I noticed that there was a car show across the street; my dad saw it too. Upon returning, he turned into the parking lot and that’s where I saw her for the first time: a red C5 Corvette. In fact, the entire lot was full of them. I immediately told myself that one day I’m going to own that car. I was about 13 at the time. Fast forward another 13 years and I’ve been married to my wife for about 6 years and we have a son that’s 4 months old. I wanted to make sure that he always remembers this car being part of his life. My wife was the one that found her. I went to the dealership and fell in love. A few hours later, she was mine.
I snapped a few pictures and sent it to my wife. She was as excited, I think, as I was. She knew what this C5 meant to me and how long I’ve talked about owning one. She might have just wanted for it to end already, or for it to begin. Looking at the photo, I can still picture myself sitting there. People have advised me to test drive it before I make a drastic decision. For me there was no need. I knew that I was going to own that car and I had a gut feeling that everything would be perfect. In hindsight, I believe I test drove it just to make sure that the engine wouldn’t fall out. I remember just admiring everything about the car when I drove it the first time. I knew it had some quirks but just like all other cars, I was going to make this one unique and completely to my liking.
After the car was in my possession, I drove it home and did what all other Corvette owners do: parked it inside the garage. I remember feeling nervous like I just did something illegal. I think the combination of anxiety, adrenaline and the realization that I just bought my dream car at 26 was overwhelming. My wife and son came out and took photos alongside it. Yes, son, you have a photo of you with the car since you were 4 months old.
And finally, here I am taking it for a quick spin the first time since it’s been home. I don’t know if anyone else felt it their first time, but I had to keep telling myself to calm down and drive cautiously.
Looking back on it now I really liked the stock wheels. They fit the car nicely and were clean. But they’re gone and in place are the XO Verona 19x9/20x10.5 staggered wheels. I do have a set of XIX X15s in 19” staggered setup that I’m going to test fit and possibly use.
I hate convertibles but love T-tops. That’s the one thing that I always wanted in a car. For some reason, in my head anyways, you just look like you’re less of a mid-life-crisis driver when you’re rocking the T-tops.
I ended up removing the side-molding. The car just looks cleaner. However, the passenger side was repainted and someone did not take the time to remove the side molding before. It’s a drastic difference underneath. The final portion of this build will be to repaint the entire car.
The next picture is how I remember seeing that red Corvette 13 years prior to buying this one. It had the roof off and when I looked into it all I noticed were the Corvette seats and 6 speed manual transmission. The interior will be redone completely. I don’t understand GM sometimes. How does it make sense to put truck parts into a sports car (they seemed to finally understand this question now and their answer was the C7)? The steering wheel has got to go as well as that radio. The A/C controls will be relocated to the glovebox and an aftermarket double-din player installed. If you’ve ever driven a Corvette with a short shifter and one without, you’ll realize that a short shifter install has to become a priority upgrade. The center console lid is broken so that will have to be replaced as well. After driving it for some time, the seats could use more support: Corbeau seats will be installed.
There are even a couple of videos of my first drive after bringing it home.
When I was 15 I got my first car: a green 1997 Camaro RS. I loved that car and really need to buy another one soon (after the garage lift hopefully). Since I couldn’t drive it by myself I remember cleaning it with such detail that the car looked like it came out of the factory. I was excited to get to work cleaning my Corvette too. My wife took this photo of me applying wax to it: she posted it online titled “Completely Obsessed.” And I was completely obsessed. I’ve been obsessed with this car for 13 years already. In the background, you can see my GSD: he’s always been a car dog.
DISCLAIMER: Just a quick note, I'm a software developer, and a car enthusiast. Everything I've done so far was with the help of the service manuals, YouTube videos, and forums like the Corvette Forum. I've never done anything this extensive and going into it actually kinda terrifies me, but we'll see how it goes. Just wanted to throw that in there since I may say some stuff that's just flat out wrong.
Intro Continuation
It didn’t take long before the upgrades started. I wanted it to sound just a little bit louder so I opted for the dual intake. I may or may not change this later. If Vararam sells the Snake Charmer for the C5, I’ll probably get that one. Alright, I just looked it up. Vararam sells the VR-B2 intake for the C5 and it looks really well designed. It’s officially been added to the part list.
My son always did love playing in the Corvette.
And yes, he does have a Corvette of his own.
After I bought my wife an X5, I was stuck driving the automatic 550i. Whereas before I drove 30 to 50 miles per day just for fun, I found myself not enjoying driving whatsoever. Whenever my wife would ask me to go for a drive, I would pass on the opportunity. She finally said it one day, “Just go and get yourself whatever you want; you clearly hate that car.” It didn’t take much convincing. I thought it was the automatic transmission that was killing my soul so I started looking at M5’s (I know BMW). I would repair it constantly for that M5 sound, but for some reason I wasn’t 100% sold on it. I was about to go and see one of them when I got a text-message from my wife. It was a 2007 Corvette in Lemans Blue. It was lowered, had 19/20 staggered Cray wheels, a Hurst short shifter and a double-din player. The price was cheaper than the M5 I wanted to go look at. I immediately turned around and went to the dealership. Long story short, I got a 2007 Corvette as well, but that’s a story of its own. Now, I got two. It’s only been a few months.
I took the photo below since I wanted to capture my feeling of opening up the garage door. It definitely puts a smile on your face when you see two Vettes sitting in the garage. Sometimes I laugh thinking that I must be crazy but I then I realize that this is me; there’s no reason to hide. I love Corvette’s and this garage describes me perfectly.
I desperately wanted to start working on the 2003 Corvette but I decided to wait. Some of the happiest moments of my childhood were going with my dad to his work and cleaning his toolboxes and seeing all of the different cars that were there. Being that my life revolved around cars I wanted this to be a special time when my son and I can go to the garage together and work on the car.
So, I waited until December 24th, 2016 to begin. Harrison just turned 3 and was (and still is) completely addicted to cars. I love walking into the house and he’s casting “Supercars Accelerating” onto the television from his phone (yes, he has a phone). I can see how much he enjoys walking into the garage with me and taking apart the car with me. Of course, he can’t do much, but I make sure that his hands are on the tools and he’s getting exposed to it all. I truly hope that one day this becomes part of his earliest memories.
It’s almost time for the teardown moment. I’m still going through all of the photos and videos and trying to find meaningful pictures of it all.
Looking at the floor underneath the C6 there are oil spots everywhere. No that’s not from the Corvette, but instead from that 550i that used to leak from every single gasket before I spent $5,000 in repairing it. But I don’t want to think about that car anymore. The floors were a disgrace for the two Corvette’s to be sitting on. I got that resolved too. Since I’m trying to keep this as chronological as possible, I’m going to wait to show you the floors and garage transformation. That has to be one of my favorite upgrades I’ve done to the house so far. We’re still in 2014 so just be patient.
Before the teardown, my son would regularly play inside the C5. It’s almost as if half of my genes were apart of him. Who knew he would like to play in the trunk of his dad’s Corvette just like I liked playing in the trunk of my dad’s Stojadin? I knew, that’s who. I sent the photo to my parents just to get them emotional, hahaha.
October 29th, 2015: two days before my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, the XO 19/20 staggered wheels came in. I felt like the only place to put them was on the kitchen counter. The chrome wheels were for my 2002 GMC Sonoma (eventually it will be bagged and might be sitting on those 22’s). I kept seeing these XO wheels on the C7 Corvette but nobody had them on the C5.
After the install, I can say that they truly look made for the car. The photo was taken immediately after placing wheels on so the suspension didn’t have enough time to settle. A couple of drives later, the gap narrowed.
At his point, it desperately needs to be lowered. But all in due time. I put the wheels on October 31st, 2015: Halloween. It’s not that I didn’t try; it’s the fact that the bolts are completely rusted and almost fused to the leaf-springs. Oh well, the C5 will be converted to independent suspension anyways. Bye-bye leaf springs.
I took these photos in front of my parent’s house on purpose. I think my constant talk about Corvette’s rubbed off on him and he started mentioning that he wanted to buy one too. Being the good son that I am, I offered to show him how great a Corvette would look parked in front of his house.
But she had to return home and I needed to get some photos of her in my driveway too.
It looks so much cleaner without the side molding. The C5+ Corvettes and a few other vehicles have that timeless good look. Take a look at a 1990 NSX and you can picture that same model being built in 2017; the same goes for the Corvette. I can see it looking great 20+ years from now.
Yeah, my son got a Corvette bed too. Good God, we’re completely obsessed. After two years of sleeping in the bed with his mom and us trying every trick in the book to get him to sleep on his own, he went to his new Corvette bed; on December 27th, 2015, he slept in the bed by himself. There was no begging, trying, tricking him, nothing, he just came into the room, got his blanket, said “night-night,” crawled into his new bed and went to sleep. He’s slept in that same Corvette bed ever since; as a matter of fact, he’s asleep in the Vette-bed right now.
I bought two kicker subs and a 1000-watt mono-amp for the 2008 Accord that I used to drive. I salvaged the speakers and mono-amp and decided to install it in the C5. There was a company that built the box to be inserted and look like it’s part of the factory trunk space, so I bought the box from them. I’m still not done with it yet as of this writing. I’m planning on finishing it next month alongside most of the interior (July 2017).
The exhaust came in and was installed April 2nd, 2016. I opted to go with the Flowmaster straight-pipes. The reason for this is because I’m planning on upgrading the cam and a few other engine components. I believe it’s going to sound even more ridiculous then. The C6 has a different Borla exhaust with an actual muffler.
And now onto one of my all-time favorite photos ever. I’m sitting in the C6 and my son in the C5 and we’re just looking at each other.
I think the next photos are relevant because the floors were put in and the Corvettes rest on them. I found a really good deal on Amazon. Took a couple of days to do but on August 18th, 2016, I was done with the install.
And yes, I’m very meticulous. I’m very proud of these corners that I was able to cut out around the stairs. I mean, to the millimeter.
The garage is complete. Added the Husky cabinets and filled them with my tools. Getting ready for that time when I start working on the cars with Harrison.
When I was younger I found out that my dad was throwing away all of the emblems that he had to replace. I told him to keep them for me from then on, and he did. I made decorations out of them. You would think something like this would be easy to do, and it is, but it’s extremely time consuming. I believe that each board took me anywhere between 3 and 6 hours to do, and currently there are 7 in the garage. I have the emblems necessary and I need to finish the last one soon.
As you can see, so much better than the BMW oil-dripped disgrace that used to be called the garage floor. The last thing that I need to finish are the stair themselves. One of these days.
Took me a while to finish the other five boards, but here they are as well. Installed and ready to go finally on September 21st, 2016.
Let the modifications begin
We finally get to the moment of truth. It’s almost 9:00 pm on December 24th, 2016. I go into the garage and place it on jack-stands. It’s time to begin.
And off come the wheels.
What better thing to do on Christmas evening than work on your car with your son. That’s exactly what we were doing at 7:00 pm December 25th, 2016.
It’s about to get real. After a few bolts were removed, at 8:30pm the rear end was off completely.
He had to work on his too. On December 29th, 2016, the front end came off. That was an accomplishment. I knew that there was no turning back now. I underestimated my school over the next semester so there was not much progress over the next few months. But summer was just around the corner.
I was trying to get myself pumped up over the next couple of months to restart working on it, so I would go in and clean the gunk that was underneath the fenders: it had to be done anyways.
6/24/2017
So I finally started working on the Corvette. After procrastinating and cleaning the garage, I started to work on the rear. Took out the rear sockets and the largest one happened to be a 32mm. I figured that would be sufficiently large enough to remove the rear axle nut: it wasn’t. I went across the street to my dad’s house and he didn’t have anything as large either. It was time for a trip to Advance Auto Parts. After almost leaving the store thinking they didn’t have it, the 33mm and larger sockets have been separated into their axle section. The total socket cost was $15.89 ($14.99 + $.90 tax). I jumped on it again and decided to see the power of my electric impact wrench I bought from Harbor Freight tools. A lot more powerful than I expected. It instantly loosened it.
Since they’re one time use nuts, I placed the order through Amazon for two new ones.
For the next part, make sure your e-brake is down. I started removing the rear caliper and again a nice problem. It needs a 16mm wrench and 15mm socket. I didn’t have the 16mm because all of my wrench sets conveniently skip the 16mm. Are you kidding me? Well I had to use the universal wrench.
After removing the rear caliper, the next is the caliper holder. It used a 21mm socket. Needed to use a torque wrench to have additional grip to get them lose…and yes, they were really tight.
I heard something being dragged across the garage floor. Harrison brought out his chair, grabbed the wrench and started working on the front rotor. He sat there banging away for quite some time.
There were two holders on the wheel bolts. I removed those with some needle nose plyers and unscrewed them once they were loosened. The rotor slid right off.
I proceeded to remove the brake line from the caliper and of course dropped the caliper. Brake fluid everywhere. I’m glad for these plastic floors. After a few minutes, the floors look like new. I ziplocked the brake line and tucked it away; I’m probably going to replace it.
I disconnected the brake sensor and tucked it back.
I removed the lower shock bolt and placed a jack underneath the lower control arm to be able to remove it without any issue. To remove the bolt, it requires two 24mm sockets: one on each end. I also needed an impact wrench (again electric) to loosen it.
Next were two 13mm bolts up top. Once they were out, I was able to remove the shock from the assembly.
I removed the tie-rod end. I used an Allen wrench size 6 and a ¾ inch wrench.
There’s a spring behind the wheel bearing. It’s held with two bolts. I removed the top but held off on removing the bottom. It’s actually perfectly okay to remove both right now and tuck away the spring.
6/25/2017
Next was removing the upper control arm ball join bolt. This one was difficult since you have to use an Allen wrench again and an 18mm wrench. The Allen wrench was a 3/16 size. It felt snug but I was worried that it would slip at any moment. I had to PB Blast it because it just wouldn't loosen easily. After letting it sit for a few hours I went back to it and after getting the Allen wrench jammed in this crevice (check picture) it finally started to move. It finally came off. If you’re going to remove the entire suspension, remove the lower control arm first. It’ll be easier.
6/26/2017
The stainless-steel braided brake lines came in. Wow they look and feel great. I can’t wait to install them.
6/28/2017
The stainless-steel rotors and brake-pads came in. They’re going to look great peeking through the wheels. I decided to test fit one. The entire suspension will have to be painted to match the look of the rotors.
It’s about 7:45pm and Harrison doesn’t want to go to sleep. After Amira said “ok Harrison, sleepy time,” he turned to me and said, “Dad, garage.” Who can resist that? We’re in the garage now; I was going to work on it anyway.
The top two bolts of the upper control arm came out pretty easily: you will need a torque wrench or something similar in size to get them loose. The socket is 18mm. After a few minutes, the upper control arm was out.
Now it was time to remove that spring from behind the wheel bearing. Since the top bolt was already removed, I just needed to remove the bottom bolt.
I was able to wiggle out the axle and move it to the side so that I can get to the lower control arm bolt. I used the electric impact wrench and a 22mm socket on a ball joint to get the correct angle. It came out like a charm. Then I needed to beat it with a hammer a few times (no more than 5) and the joint separated. I took the wheel bearing out.
Finally, I rested the lower control arm on the jack. Now that I have a pretty good view of everything, I can see that removing the leaf-spring should be a no-brainer.
Harrison was there, of course, the entire time. He’s exhausted but fights it. He was supervising from the chair.
6/30/2017
The center console came in. It looks great. The swap was easy. I just needed to remove the latch from the old one and position it on the new one. The latch is held by two screws. I proceeded to attach the new lid cover to the hinge by screwing the 4 screws into it through the hinge openings. It took about 10 minutes to install.
I’m thinking about wrapping the rest of the center console in leather now too. Later that night, I went ahead and purchased the seats from Corbeau. I ended up getting 2 of the Sportline Evolution X with Black Vinyl/Carbon and Red Stitch seats with the necessary mounting brackets. I also upgraded the brackets to have the double locking sliders. I think the only thing left to do will be upgrading the radio and the interior part list is done.
Great story! Thank you for taking the time to share. Your garage came out amazing, I can't wait to see what you do with your car. I'm sure that you have a picture in your head where you want to go, I was exactly the same way with mine. I completed the first round, but like any car junky I have some changes in the works... Mine is currently on jack stands in the garage too waiting for me to complete some things. It's been so hot here that I haven't really been able to work on it though. Please keep sharing your progress, good luck!!!
7/2/2017
I went to Advance Auto Parts and purchased all the paint for the suspension and brake job. I purchased 1 can of primer, 2 cans of Total Prep, 1 gallon of Lacquer Thinner, 3 cans of epoxy suspension paint and 2 cans of silver high heat paint. I took the upper control arm, caliper and hub bearing outside to clean and paint. After about 10 minutes I had to rush back inside because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes and flies.
I needed to get the wire brush attachment for my Dremel tool anyway since trying to remove 14 years of debris with a steel brush was proving to be a challenge. Later that night I was looking up the attachments and talking to my wife about the overall cost of the project. She was asking me questions about the engine modifications and I was trying to explain everything that’s going to be going into it. She stated that “I just need to purchase everything since it’ll drive me to finish it sooner than later.” After looking at parts that I’ve already previously picked out I placed the order for most of the parts. This was a huge purchase!
The items purchased were:
• Eckler's Premier Quality Products 25-102805 K&N Hose Cover Kit, Universal, Stainless Steel, With Red Clamps 7492 Corvette
• ACDelco 252-846 Professional Water Pump
• ACDelco 15-11057 GM Original Equipment Engine Coolant Thermostat Water Inlet Assembly
• 2 of ACDelco 12589226 GM Original Equipment Cylinder Head Gasket
• 2 of Fel-Pro ES 72173 Cylinder Head Bolt Set
• Continental Elite 4060802 Poly-V / Serpentine Belt
• ACDelco 38196 Professional Automatic Belt Tensioner and Pulley Assembly
• Gates 38194 Belt Tensioner Assembly
• Vararam 97-00 Corvette C5 VR-B2 Ram-air Intake w/ Powerduct
• NEW OEM GM A/C Air Conditioning Belt 1997-2004 Chevrolet C5 Corvette 19172680
• Camshaft: Street Heat Stage 3 "POLLUTER V2"
• Valve Spring Type: Tick/PAC #TP660DVSK (for stock rocker arms)
• Pushrod Length: 7.400" Pushrod Set
• Timing Chain Upgrade: #HME-G68V-2 Katech C5-R Chain
• Oil Pump Upgrade: #32586665 Ported & Blueprinted
• Replacement Gaskets: GM Camswap Gasket & Bolt Kit
The tools that I purchased today were:
• Dremel 532-02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/8"
• Dremel 689-01 11-Piece Rotary Tool Carving and Engraving Kit
• Dremel 530-02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 3/4"
• Dremel 531-02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/2"
• Pushrod Length Checker
• COMP Cams LS Valve Spring Compressor
Like I said, almost everything that I’ve wanted to do to this car. The only other items that I wanted to upgrade were the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rail and injectors. I’ll get around to it eventually but right now I’m sort of overwhelmed and that anxiety has kicked in. I’ll be back to normal after a few days of letting this settle in: way too much money has been spent this weekend.
7/3/2017
Short shifter came in! And that’s where my excitement seized. Underneath the box was a message from USPS stating that there was another item that they couldn’t leave in front of the door since the sender placed a “Signature Required” option with the shipment. I went inside the house and look for it on eBay: it was my Momo steering wheel. Amira went to pick up Harrison from school earlier that day and missed the package delivery by 5 minutes. Now I have to wait until the 5th of July to pick it up, well for Amira to pick it up.
Later that night, the water pump came in. I couldn’t believe how massive that piece was. It comes with the entire assembly.
Great story! Thank you for taking the time to share. Your garage came out amazing, I can't wait to see what you do with your car. I'm sure that you have a picture in your head where you want to go, I was exactly the same way with mine. I completed the first round, but like any car junky I have some changes in the works... Mine is currently on jack stands in the garage too waiting for me to complete some things. It's been so hot here that I haven't really been able to work on it though. Please keep sharing your progress, good luck!!!
I finally figure out a way to beat the heat...I bought a standing AC system for the garage! hahaha Spoiler alert, I already finished the suspension and interior and am about to finish the engine soon. I'm going through all of my photos and writing this up. I'll be posting throughout the following weeks...there's a lot
I finally figure out a way to beat the heat...I bought a standing AC system for the garage! hahaha Spoiler alert, I already finished the suspension and interior and am about to finish the engine soon. I'm going through all of my photos and writing this up. I'll be posting throughout the following weeks...there's a lot
Thank you for sharing this with us.You my friend have an amazing family.
Amazing story. Glad you were able to see your dream car come into your life so early in life. Now that you're getting your son involved it makes it even more special. Thanks for taking the time to post your car and sons life lessons for us to enjoy. Keep up the great work.
Dino, I join with the others in saying thank you for the interesting story line to accompany the photos and how tos for some of the work you have done. It's so great to see you including your son in all this. Undoubtedly, he'll follow in your footsteps with both an appreciation of cars and a love of Corvettes! Great wife to keep you moving forward, too! Looking forward to more postings.
09-06-2018, 09:15 AM
Dino's C5 Project
