Red Vette Updates
UPDATE: May 30, 2004
The weather was too good to pass on. We spent
most of the weekend getting the new hood to fit the black vette properly. Once
that was done we went for a nice 40 minute cruise with both vettes. They both
run amazing! The only issue with the red vette is the rear view mirror kept
pointing lower and lower everytime we hit a bump. A quick adjustment was all
that was needed to fix it. If the weather is nice Wednesday then we're going to
go to the Orange Julep classic car show!
UPDATE: May 28, 2004
We're absolutely amazed at the amount of hits
this website is getting! This is definitely thanks to the awesome Corvette forum
(http://www.corvetteforum.com).
The Corvette forum is a site with a wealth of information and home to some of
the most experienced Corvette do-it-yourselfers on the planet. If you're having
a problem or have a question about Corvettes, it's almost guaranteed someone has
been through it before and posted their experience on the forums. Besides the
wealth of information, you'll find the most beautiful collection of Corvettes on
the planet. Seriously, our vettes would still be on jack stands if it weren't
for the help we got from the forums. We took the red vette for a short 1 hour
highway/traffic trip and it ran great! The weather is supposed to be great this
weekend so we were hoping to hit some shows with both vettes but the black vette
will be out of commission for a bit longer. It's back from the body shop but
they did a poor job. Check out the Black Vette News for all of the details.
UPDATE: May 24, 2004
It's been a long time since we updated this
website! We decided to change the look completely before updating the content.
The red vette is virtually complete. Everything inside the car works (except the
battery gauge), the new Rochester carburetor looks and runs great etc. The car
drives so unbelievably well (especially with no power steering or brakes). We
did have a little scare last week when the pins that hold the brake pads on the
rear-passenger brake broke off. We heard a scraping noise that progressively got
worse until at one point we had no brakes! Luckily we were turning into a Tim
Horton's right at that moment to see what was going on! The car was put on a
flat bed and taken to our mechanic. It now has new pins and brake pads. On a
better note, the Mille Miglia red stops everyone in their tracks! It really is a
beautiful color for a vette. We went straight to the Orange Julep for the first
official night we took the red vette out. It won best in show that night! You
can see pictures in the Local Car Shows section! We've added lots of new
pictures along with the website update. Enjoy!
UPDATE:
May 28, 2003
Sorry for the lack of updates
(again).
Check out the Latest Pictures section to see the Vette virtually complete! The
interior has been installed and looks awesome! The Mille Miglia red paint job
caught all of us of guard. We didn't expect a red vette to look so beautiful!
All of the bumpers and some trim were re-chromed by Auto Chrome. They look
better than new. There's still some small things left to do like adjusting the
hood (with shims), adjusting the window motors and door panels, interior
courtesy light issues and so on. We changed the thermostat to a 160 degree one
since it had a 195 degree thermostat. We're still waiting for the chrome luggage
rack to come in (which should be very soon).
UPDATE:
December 24, 2002
Sorry for the lack of updates. Lots of projects (including
working on the Vette of course) have kept us really busy. Since the last update
we got a lot of things done. We brought the Vette to a relative of ours to
install a new set of bushings. We decided to go with rubber bushings (as opposed
to the polyurethane bushings on the black Vette) as we want to keep this one as
close to original as possible. He also installed 4 shocks (Monroe Sensatrac),
new tires (BFG Radial T/A's 255) and fixed the tiny leak between the exhaust and
the manifold caused by a missing gasket. The car now sounds as quite as any new
car. The carb may need a rebuild eventually but for now it seems to work fine.
We brought the car to get painted at the same place we got the black Vette done.
This guy works great. The car will be repainted back to the original Mille
Miglia Red. The hood, t-tops and some trim pieces are already painted and at
home now as he doesn't want anyone visiting his shop to scratch them. They still
require buffing and such but that will be done once they are placed back on the
car. The paintshop guy says he's amazed how well the car starts and runs
especially since it has not gone through a total restoration like the
other Vette. Thus far, the only things we need for the paintshop guy are new
hinges for the hood and the front spoiler. We also ordered a set of speakers as
the old ones sound too muffled. We decided that after the holidays, we will have
the bumpers re-chromed as they won't look nice next to the new paintjob. This is
a tad expensive but MUCH cheaper than replacing them. Other than that, we've
been counting the days left till the car will be ready to return home.
UPDATE:
August
31, 2002
We progressed really well the last few days (and especially
today)! The seats look amazing with their new red vinyl covers! The seats frame
were in excellent shape, we just cleaned them and painted them black. The
interior panels were all dyed red and they're looking amazing also. Once we get
the film developed we'll post pictures. Today, we worked on some electrical
stuff. Although the wipers worked when we bought the car, the wiper door was
missing. When we removed the interior the wipers stopped working! We
followed the wiring diagram one wire at a time and attached/reattached wires in
the hopes of getting the wipers to work again. In the end we got it working (if
you're having trouble with the wipers, check if your grounding
properly!!!)...and that's with the wiper door we bought! The system works great
now! It's cool watching the wiper door open, then the wipers going on. Once we
got that working we decided to attack the heater. It didn't work when we bought
the car. Not even 20 minutes later we got it working! The grounding problem we
had with the wiper door also caused the heater to stop working! Oh yeah, there's
only one tiny problem left with the wipers...and that's the fact that they spray
washer fluid non-stop when they're on. We're going to try to solve that problem
tomorrow. In the end, we're relieved that everything is working really well on
this car so far. The engine is still running smooth, and it'll only get better
once we use the carb cleaning kit we picked up. It's definitely a lot more fun,
faster and cheaper doing the work ourselves. If things seem daunting at first,
just go through it slowly. We're not mechanics by any stretch of the
imagination, but we're getting LOTS of things done one at a time.
UPDATE:
August
2
3, 2002
Check out the "Cool Stuff" link to see some surprises we got
while working on the Vette. We'll be adding pics of the original stickers found
on the underside of the rear-storage compartment doors! We're really hoping the
build-sheet is still on the gas tank, but we won't be tackling that for a little
while. We've let the engine run a bit longer today and it really runs smooth.
The driver's side exhaust is a tad loose where it connects to the manifold so
there's a small leak causing the engine to be a bit louder than it should be.
Once that's fixed we're going to get a Rochester carb kit and clean it out.
We're really happy (and relieved) that the engine is in much better shape than
we thought it was!
UPDATE:
August
22, 2002
While waiting for the interior dye to come in we had a mechanic
look at the engine. A couple of Espresso's later the car was idling like it did
when it first came off the assembly line! By adjusting the timing, changing the
spark plugs and doing a valve adjustment the engine came to life! The Rochester
carb needs a good cleaning but the engine itself is in great shape! We were a
bit worried about the engine when we first got the car but not any more! We're
going to get the car on a lift and see how the undercarriage is then plan our
attack from there. The seats were sent out to have the red vinyl seat covers
installed. The new carpets arrived and look great. We removed the dash pad
successfully (i.e. it didn't crack) but the pad with the tachometer and speed-o
is a bit tougher. Anyway, a lot of work is going on but we're especially happy
about the engine. No backfiring, no smoke...just that good ol'Chevy rumble!
UPDATE:
August 8, 2002
Here's the first installment in the news section! We've already
stripped the interior of all the blue panels (except for the dash pad and
console) and we removed the carpet and seats. The seat frames are in excellent
shape! All of the panels are 31 years old and in great shape except for the door
panels. It's unfortunate because the original door panels are so much better
than the reproduction ones. There's real stitching along the seams and it just
feels that much higher quality. Luckily all the panels we removed are in good
shape since, after a quick calculation, it would cost about $4000 US for new
ones! On a sad note, one of the bolts holding the passenger seat was a bit tough
to remove, so when we forced it out by pulling on the seat we accidentally
cracked the windshield! Even after the frame-off restoration of the big block
vette we're still learning things (the hard way)! We already placed an order for
numerous parts (interior kit (carpets, seat covers, door panels), GM interior
red dye, a windshield, a wiper door, the grill in front of the wiper door, the
chrome trim along the passenger side of the windshield, 2 little chrome
"winglets" that go on each side of the windshield etc.). We'll be pretty busy
for the rest of this summer but we're already enjoying this restoration since
all of the learning and frustrations were taken on this vette's bigger brother!