The £7700 Corvette C6
Discussion
Fishy Dave said:
SunsetZed said:
Looks good, how did you hear about the event in Yate, that's my neck of the woods but I had no idea it was on or I would have attended. Is it an annual thing?
Thanks, I only saw it thanks to Felix mentioning it on Facebook. Have a search on FB for 'Yate American Car and Truck Meet'. The next one is tomorrow, at 19:00. 
It's been a fairly quiet couple of months for Clive, mostly because he's been a reliable commuting tool and that doesn't make for exciting reading.
After the whole exhaust system took a hammering during the Sahara trip, I've had various attempts at straightening things out and making dented pipes round again. The drivers side header continued to blow, despite a new gasket. On removal it was clear why, it had twisted along its length and slightly bent at both ends, to the point where it had bent a header bolt.
I took it to a proper, old-school engineering firm in Box, Wiltshire https://www.ahdodd.co.uk/
A brilliant place, with all sorts of old machines and new tech too, I took some photos, but frustratingly I can't find them. They said to leave it with them and a few days later I had a call to say it was ready to collect and try. They'd had to linish it by hand for hours, to get the mating surface of the header flat again. When it came to payment, the owner had looked me up and was happy to receive two signed Clive books dedicated to his grandson, perfect!
One bonus to a layer of metal being removed was that it gave extra clearance to the steering shaft. A big downside being that it moved the collector within a couple of mm of the bell housing.
I repaired the exhaust wrap. In use the header has been fine, no knocking or rubbing, but it will transfer some heat to the clutch housing. Still, it's great to have the roar of the long tube headers and X pipe back again.
Not pictured, but I spent some time heating and bending the back box mounts, as the tips have always been slightly wonky. It used to both a mate more than it did me, but glad to have sorted it.
The next job was to once again fix a persistent power steering leak. It was dripping from two places, the high pressure line that bolts into the pump and a weep from the small length of moulded hose from the reservoir. It's not much fun as jobs go, but I'd replaced this hose some years ago, so knew a couple of shortcuts. Rather than use a GM rubber hose a short length of Samco was utilised. Leaks are fixed now.
This is the old reservoir hose.
One embarrassing mistake I made, was routing the main drive belt the wrong side of the new PAS high pressure line. I only realised right at the end of a long day. So, dismantle it all again, or cut the belt. I chose the latter, knowing I had a new belt in stock.
I attended the Yate American car meet again, this time with little Austin. He enjoyed it, but it was way past his bedtime, after a short stop for photos in Castle Combe village (back when we still had a summer).
Felix's C6 convertible.
(not a rhd conversion)
Part 2 of the article Felix and I wrote for the Corvette Club magazine received multiple pages, including the front cover.
There are more pages than this, but I'll spare you them, as it's written and pictured within this thread, a few pages back.
In other news I've been racing and fixing my S2000 (with two PH friends), with, well, let's say varying success, plus racing a friends Z4 (with no success).
Spin as a result of pad knock-back (not me driving at the time btw)
Next up for the Corvette is the Pistonheads 25 year meet, please do come over and say hello. Clive will be on display in the Readers Cars area. The week after I'll be attending the US show and race meeting at Oulton Park. Hope to see you there, cheers, Dave.
After the whole exhaust system took a hammering during the Sahara trip, I've had various attempts at straightening things out and making dented pipes round again. The drivers side header continued to blow, despite a new gasket. On removal it was clear why, it had twisted along its length and slightly bent at both ends, to the point where it had bent a header bolt.
I took it to a proper, old-school engineering firm in Box, Wiltshire https://www.ahdodd.co.uk/
A brilliant place, with all sorts of old machines and new tech too, I took some photos, but frustratingly I can't find them. They said to leave it with them and a few days later I had a call to say it was ready to collect and try. They'd had to linish it by hand for hours, to get the mating surface of the header flat again. When it came to payment, the owner had looked me up and was happy to receive two signed Clive books dedicated to his grandson, perfect!
One bonus to a layer of metal being removed was that it gave extra clearance to the steering shaft. A big downside being that it moved the collector within a couple of mm of the bell housing.
I repaired the exhaust wrap. In use the header has been fine, no knocking or rubbing, but it will transfer some heat to the clutch housing. Still, it's great to have the roar of the long tube headers and X pipe back again.
Not pictured, but I spent some time heating and bending the back box mounts, as the tips have always been slightly wonky. It used to both a mate more than it did me, but glad to have sorted it.
The next job was to once again fix a persistent power steering leak. It was dripping from two places, the high pressure line that bolts into the pump and a weep from the small length of moulded hose from the reservoir. It's not much fun as jobs go, but I'd replaced this hose some years ago, so knew a couple of shortcuts. Rather than use a GM rubber hose a short length of Samco was utilised. Leaks are fixed now.
This is the old reservoir hose.
One embarrassing mistake I made, was routing the main drive belt the wrong side of the new PAS high pressure line. I only realised right at the end of a long day. So, dismantle it all again, or cut the belt. I chose the latter, knowing I had a new belt in stock.
I attended the Yate American car meet again, this time with little Austin. He enjoyed it, but it was way past his bedtime, after a short stop for photos in Castle Combe village (back when we still had a summer).
Felix's C6 convertible.
(not a rhd conversion)
Part 2 of the article Felix and I wrote for the Corvette Club magazine received multiple pages, including the front cover.
There are more pages than this, but I'll spare you them, as it's written and pictured within this thread, a few pages back.
In other news I've been racing and fixing my S2000 (with two PH friends), with, well, let's say varying success, plus racing a friends Z4 (with no success).
Spin as a result of pad knock-back (not me driving at the time btw)
Next up for the Corvette is the Pistonheads 25 year meet, please do come over and say hello. Clive will be on display in the Readers Cars area. The week after I'll be attending the US show and race meeting at Oulton Park. Hope to see you there, cheers, Dave.
Edited by Fishy Dave on Monday 31st July 11:55
All set for the 25th do tomorrow. A last minute decision to repaint the 'Cadillac' Brembo calipers. The lapping at the Pomeroy Trophy in Feb. had discoloured them.
The first attempt at a respray (yesterday), using high temp. caliper paint was a disaster, requiring rubbing back and starting again today. Normal aerosol paint was much better, but a lack of time meant they only pass muster from a metre away.
Before
Rubbed back
Rubbish 1st attempt, paint too thick and contaminants.
As they are tonight, before fitting. I'm worried the paint underneath a coating of laquer will still be too soft. I'll know tomorrow after the drive.
Other than giving Clive a quick, cold water rinse the only other PH25 prep was changing the corner pieces of the front airdam. Track use has once again worn them down somewhat.
See you tomorrow.
The first attempt at a respray (yesterday), using high temp. caliper paint was a disaster, requiring rubbing back and starting again today. Normal aerosol paint was much better, but a lack of time meant they only pass muster from a metre away.
Before
Rubbed back
Rubbish 1st attempt, paint too thick and contaminants.
As they are tonight, before fitting. I'm worried the paint underneath a coating of laquer will still be too soft. I'll know tomorrow after the drive.
Other than giving Clive a quick, cold water rinse the only other PH25 prep was changing the corner pieces of the front airdam. Track use has once again worn them down somewhat.
See you tomorrow.
Shnozz said:
It's not Jeremy parked next to you in that Lambo is it?
I'm not sure, we said a quick hello, but no more. Great sounding Lambo when it left.I enjoyed the show, a fitting celebration, well done to everyone involved for organising and running the event.
Thanks to everyone who came over to say hi, especially if you bought a Clive book too! Some random pics.
Yes it was.
LewG said:
Good to meet you yesterday David and have a look round Clive, it truly is a great story with this car! My mate Tyler and I felt a bit like the hours were passing slowly all day and then 3pm came and we couldn't stop talking to people 
hope your long jaunt afterwards went well
Yes, great to chat, I love the Ferret. It was the chatting to the 'readers cars' mini-celebs that were the highlight of the meet honestly. hope your long jaunt afterwards went well 
I got back about midnight, but a late-night run on the Fosseway is never a chore. Fishy Dave said:
jeremyc said:
All good here thanks. 
I wish I'd chatted to you on the day, other than a quick hello just after we'd parked up first thing I didn't ask you anything about your lovely Lambo. Sorry about that. So many cars to look at, so little time to chat to everyone ...Been reading through the thread, fantastic read and well detailed. I'm looking at getting a C6 myself fairly soon, just wanted to ask a few questions.
What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
MNP-14A said:
Been reading through the thread, fantastic read and well detailed. I'm looking at getting a C6 myself fairly soon, just wanted to ask a few questions.
What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
I can comment from a C5 perspective, for parts there are a few suppliers UK based that hold service stuff in stock so very easy to get hold of the specific GM reccoemnded stuff. What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
For fuel just stick the V-Power/BP Ultimate in no issues (think it's slightly higher than US "Premium" but has different octane scales so I forget). I've always run mine on V-Power, as it's NA I don't think you'll be seeing any advantage in HP unless you specifically mapped it and even then we're talking single digits maybe without accompanying mods.
HTH
C5_Steve said:
MNP-14A said:
Been reading through the thread, fantastic read and well detailed. I'm looking at getting a C6 myself fairly soon, just wanted to ask a few questions.
What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
I can comment from a C5 perspective, for parts there are a few suppliers UK based that hold service stuff in stock so very easy to get hold of the specific GM reccoemnded stuff. What do you do regarding service parts? Easy to come ahold of here?
And is the car ok to just run on our 99 octane fuel or do I need to change anything on the car? And have you noticed a difference in performance on our better fuel?
Cheers.
For fuel just stick the V-Power/BP Ultimate in no issues (think it's slightly higher than US "Premium" but has different octane scales so I forget). I've always run mine on V-Power, as it's NA I don't think you'll be seeing any advantage in HP unless you specifically mapped it and even then we're talking single digits maybe without accompanying mods.
HTH
And that's good to know, I know it won't make a huge power offence, just wanted to know if it runs good. So that's another question ticked, cheers mate.
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