2005 Chevy Corvette build & upgrades & Nova parts donater thread

[bonecrrusher]

I've been on hear for a while now, and drooling over these muscle cars, so I pm'd Larry to see if my Vette build up thread would be appropriate and he said yeah... so here we are.

Also note - the OEM parts that I'm ripping off, I'll be saving for a 68-74 Nova build that I have going on in my head. Might as well save money right? The brakes, part of the exhaust, intake manifold will all find its way onto my project car that I'll be getting eventually.

I picked up the Car July 4th 2007 - down in Atlanta GA, and it was fun as hell celebrating the red white and blue holiday driving this car w/ the top out on the 3 hr drive home.

I picked up the car with 7,000 miles on it and have put almost 30k on it now. Its a Z51 equipped car with all options except OnStar and Nav. Its got a T56 and heads up display.

Heres some pics of the day I got it... bone stock!



Yes the dealer sticker is long gone!

About 2 months after I owned the car, I ordered a Vararam Intake, and a CAGS! delete... stupidest system ever put on a Stick shift car!


Fast foward to Spring of '08.. entered my first car show... yeah didnt win anything, oh well.



I joined a Charlotte Corvette club in 2008, I've gone to many car shows, cruised all around NC and SC, and raced on LMS, and enjoyed a few mountain runs.

Misc pics..



Lowes Motor Speedway - Dec 2008


100 mph+ ON LMS, it was a freaking blast, I definitely recommend it to anyone!

So my Runcraps where kinda worn in the back from all the driving around, and then I got a flat on I485 near Charlotte so I was lucky to drive on the flat runcrap and got home. This started a chain reaction.

Since I needed new rear tires, I got some BF Goordrich KDW2's, not only did they handle a hell of a lot better, they where a lot quieter!



New Rears....


Feb 2009...
There was a local car club going to a dyno shop, so I put it on the rollers and see what she put down.

Car put down 375 rwhp & 374 rwtq... Not bad for being on stock tune and just an intake!

Fast forward to Spring 2009....
I ran the mismatched tires for awhile, and was cleaning up my car when I noticed the fronts where corded!


So I ordered some wheels from a Vette vendor, ordered new front tires from Discount tire... and off to the tire shop I go!




I ordered some Repo ZR1 style wheels that fit flush with the fender... and they just happen to clear these....


So with 8 weeks before the 2009 Hot Rod Power Tour - which btw I registered at the last minute and still got decent rooms.... I ordered the C6 Z06 brakes... well West Coast Corvettes had them on backorder for 6 weeks... I literally bolted them on the Week before the Power Tour... I guess a 4k mile road trip is the proper way to bed in the pads..


& finished product...

[bonecrrusher]

Power Tour '09...
Entering WI

Madison

Seated Pads in Madison...

Highway between Somerset KY & Bristol

Bristol


Fast fwd to Summer 2009...
After going on the Power Tour, and hearing all these badass V8's I was ?ber jealous of the nasty exhaust systems that I heard, and too be honest GM really boned the exhaust system on the LS2. 2.5" exhaust? Come on now... I researched a lot of different exhausts for the Vettes, and the prices are sky high! $2000 for 6 feet of pipe (Corsa, Borla, etc) well I say F that! Someone at a car show said look into the LS7 exhaust... so after piecing together a full z06 exhaust kit off ebay, Corvetteforums, and other places... I finally had a complete setup.
LS7 kit...



If you look at the LS7 manifolds, they are brand new! Never fired, I found them for $100 shipped off ebay from a first gen Camaro LS7 swap! Also the setup gives about ~30 rwhp on the Dyno, and sounds badass. I ordered the Mild2Wild kit and I can open up the LS7 exhaust butterfly valves at any time... They drone on the highway like a B, so thank god I can quiet it down. Especially with my pending 5k mile trip for Power Tour '10! Oh forgot to add.. only paid $750 for Z06 exhaust from manifold to tips, and yes I installed them myself... I think the pics are on facebook, I'll add later!

& this is the car back in October on the top of Beech Mountain north of Banner Elk, NC... its 5000' up!


So thats all I've got done so far... Ive got the a lot more stuff to bolt on, but I'm in the middle of buying a house so parts are sitting in storage....

LS7 Crate engine delivery...

HAH, I wish... z06 rear fenders I got for CHEAP from ebay.

Frageeeelaayyyyyyyy.... Must be Italian or something...

Nah... Z06 front Carbon fiber fender...


I''ll be upgrading to a Full Z06 body kit... No I will not be adding the damn z06 badges, I hate the stock coupe look!

Z06 Competition Grey wheels - I have these shipping from Cleveland Pick A Part today!


Hopefully next year, want to get a Edelbrock E-force Supercharger for the LS3, I'll be upgrading to L92/LS3 heads with that swap!

[scogin918]

Nice progress. Keep up the good work.

[TA219]

Good work! I agree with the ZO6 upgrades, those cars look much more aggressive!

[CruizinKev]

nice project!

[bonecrrusher]

Thanks - I just bought a house on Wednesday, so the z06 projects will be put on hold for awhile, plus I dont want to send the car to paint jail until I'm done with the ECTA Maxton mile event in April, and the Hot Rod Power Tour in June!

BTW.. heres my idea for the nova... and yes it a bad chop! Like I said parts donater....

[Nessumsar]

Nice tasteful upgrades to the Vette. I have a buddy who is really into Vettes, I am amazed at how well they perform with such little upgrades.

And the Nova looks nice with those wheels. Have you thought about powder coating them black?

[1970 TT Rustang]

nice comeing along well

[MISLEAD NOTCH]

I love those Z06 wheels! Nice Vette buy the way

[bonecrrusher]

Something arrived from those guys in the big brown trucks today...

[bonecrrusher]

Lets see - no update for a few weeks... its been a very busy and crazy expensive month...

I packed/moved/unpacked - and finally got the Vette over to my new house. I found a 4 bedroom house here in Charlotte for very cheap, and couldnt pass up the deal. Plus I qualifed for the first home owner tax credit, so I'm expecting that in a few weeks.

Pic of the house


After I got moved in and mostly unpacked, I wanted to finish up a few projects on the Corvette. First was a set of 4LT package leather door handles that I bought off of CorvetteForum for real cheap.




Let me say this.... removing C6 Corvette door panels are a pain in the ass!

Second project was - well more creature comfort then anything - I'll be on the Hot Rod Power Tour this summer, and using my phone as a GPS well just sucks because its on the Sprint network, and driving through the midwest and south, I wont have full coverage - I guarantee it. So I installed a factory Navigation unit that I got out of a 2009 Z06.




The last thing that happened just this weekend - was that I got into an accident in my daily beater - I had a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. It had the supercharged L67 v6 in it - and well a guy blew a red light and hit the front of my car. He trashed my hood, and that was the nail in the coffin in that car. I've been wanting to get rid of it for a long time. So I got a new hood from a junkyard, and well color didnt match. I installed the hood at the yard, drove home and washed and waxed the car, then I went to the dealership and traded it in...

So I drove home in this...



Picked up an 08 G8 GT - has the L76 v8 w/ 6 speed automatic.

It has a CAI, SLP long tube headers, and full Corsa exhaust on it. I got a really good deal on it - and I have no complaints! I'm not planning on modifying the G8 anytime soon.

[jy211]

did you sell the repo zr1 wheels?

[bonecrrusher]

No I still have them - Im going to roll on those till I get the funds to complete z06 kit and wheels.

[jy211]

when you wanna sell them, let me know.

[94SNGLTURBO]

sounds like you have been having fun with this car/house.. all the new parts. the car looks great

[bonecrrusher]

New parts will be on hold until at least after the Power Tour, at least my projects are mostly done until then.

[z0sicks07]

cool project, some z51 badges would look cool on the fenders that way you don't have to worry about filling in the badge holes.

[bonecrrusher]

People will give me a ton of **** for those Z51 badges... so I'm going to pass on that....

Just went to a dyno day this morning:


Vette Dyno'd 370/370 hp/tq



G8 GT dyno'd 360/370 hp/tq



& My cars w/ a friends 170 mile Z06

[bonecrrusher]

Not a car update - but car storage update? Haha...

I've been in my house for 2 months now, and its about time I tackled my garage project.

The floor was nasty with oil stains, spilled paint, Spackle and gum! So I joined the garage-forums and looked through different products and options for taking care of the floor. I settled on Griots Garage Non Lifting industrial epoxy. It was in my price range and has great reviews. The Lowes/Home Depot stuff is just garbage IMHO.

It took about 4 hrs of cleaning/acid etching/washing off the floor and about 2 hrs per coat for 3 days to get this project done. I'll say it looks a hell of a lot better then before. I've got some gladiator shelving to put up, and of course the car posters and stuff.

Its not perfect, but not bad for for my first garage of my own. The Griots garage epoxy went down real easy with no big issues or complaints.

Before:



After:

[turbo kid]

So how do you like the G8?