Daily Slideshow: 2005 Corvette gets the GS treatment

Origins

"My parents had an '81 T-top, black-on-black Vette," Dustin Mileham told Vette Magazine back in 2013. "I can remember my dad and I cruising in that, and I had such a good feeling riding around with him," Dustin recounts. It's a familiar story, and probably one that strikes a chord in more than a few of us. Dustin made a pact with himself that he'd be cruising in his own black-on-black Corvette by his 30th birthday. In another familiar story, his life didn't play out on the timeline he set out as a kid, but that's not always a bad thing, since, in Dustin's case, he spent the intervening years starting a shop with his brother. 

>>Join the conversation about the 2005 Corvette build right here in Corvette Forum.

Acquisition

In their Reno, Nevada shop, Street to Sand Off-Road and Performance, Dustin takes on the street and strip portion of the business, while his brother is the go-to guy for off-road projects. Street to Sand takes on a steady diet of Corvettes, which was about to come in especially handy as Dustin finally found that 'Vette he's promised himself, in the shape of a 2005 convertible his friend sold him for a song. After six short months, he scrapped the plan to keep the C6 stock and started to plot the next steps. Step one was widening. Well, actually it was a quick respray that turned into a Grand Sport-style widebody conversion, using as many factory pieces as possible. "The panels were factory fenders, so they went on very easy. The hood was another story," admits Toby Goodman from Liberty Collision, whom Dustin had enlisted to help with the conversion. According to Toby, the aftermarket hood needed a little extra attention to get the fit and finish where he wanted it, but finding the just the right Z06 and GS parts was no picnic either. 

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Crunching the Numbers

"It's like putting a puzzle together, getting all the pieces to fit," Dustin says. "But it's confusing how GM does its parts numbers. I had the dealer fax me diagrams, and even the parts-counter guys were confused." To speed the process up, Dustin occasionally ordered several parts at once and sent back the ones that didn't fit. He says the inner fender wells were the hardest to figure out. But once Toby found a set with the correct combination of width and mounting holes all was right with the world. The effect is more cohesive than it would have been using cobbled-on over-fender flares, and the side benefit is that the original body pieces could be retained or sold off. 

>>Join the conversation about the 2005 Corvette build right here in Corvette Forum.

Add-ons, Part 1

With the new skin and perfect pitch-black paint, smoked-out lights and a carbon fiber ZR-1 wing were natural additions to the 'Vette, but new rubber was still needed to fill the wider wheel wells. Dustin went with Toyo tires on Dub wheels (19"x10" front and 2"x13" rear) with forged centers. The larger wheels made upgrading the brakes a given, so on went a set of larger Z06 brakes with cross-drilled rotors. Street to Sand has its own chassis dyno, and tackles every kind of tuning job—from programming PCMs for Reno's high altitude, to building 1,000 hp engines for competition—so breathing more pep into the C6 was the next order of business.

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Add-ons, Part 2

Dustin wanted something a little more practical than a thousand-horse racer, so he turned to some of his bolt-on favorites to up the fun factor. The C6 got a set of CNC-ported Patriot Stage 3 heads, along with a Stage 4 Trick Flow cam—a combo Dustin figures is good for 70-ish extra HP. Next, he bolted on a set of Dynatech long-tube headers, mated to a 2012 ZR1 dual-mode exhaust, which together add another 40 hp. Dustin dyno-ed the set-up at 430 hp to the rear wheels, and when he added a Nitrous Express system that figure shot up to 570 hp. To help launch his newly-buff black beauty Dustin fitted a 3,500 rpm stall speed Yank torque converter, and to keep it planted in the corners he lowered the car by a little over an inch with an Eibach kit and added a stiffer Z06 leaf spring along with Eibach sway bars. With everything mechanical where he wanted it, Dustin had one more area left to address.

>>Join the conversation about the 2005 Corvette build right here in Corvette Forum.

Inside

"Being in a convertible, the all-tan interior was an eyesore," Dustin said. He started from square one, yanking much of the original interior and sending it out to be hydro-dipped, a process that applies a graphic—a Hoggskinz carbon fiber design in this case—to selected parts. The seats were redone using 2012 Corvette foam and covers, the tan carpet was replaced with black and sound shield added underneath, and just a touch of tan was added—the stitching holding the new black leather accents in place.

>>Join the conversation about the 2005 Corvette build right here in Corvette Forum.

Time Machine

Though he didn't meet his original black-'Vette-by-30 goal, Dustin made it worth his wait with a car that's better in every way than he had hoped. He notes that he saved money by doing the body swap compared to purchasing a GS or Z06 from the get-go, though he said it took him an extra week to figure out what was what and order the right parts. Plus, he figures there are another 56 hours in the paint alone—but in the end, he's more than pleased with the result. "From start to finish, I have about six months into the build, and I am very happy with the car now," Dustin beams. "I basically have a 600hp Grand Sport for half the price of a new one." We hope he's still in the car biz 30 years from now so he can help the next generation achieve their dreams of a black 'Vette.

>>Join the conversation about the 2005 Corvette build right here in Corvette Forum.

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