Project C4, 85 Corvette

[WRXtranceformed]

Dave said he stopped by and saw your car and he was really impressed. He said it's gonna be a beast!!

[Steve85]

Dave said he stopped by and saw your car and he was really impressed. He said it's gonna be a beast!!

Yeah I was glad he was able to stop by. He's pretty frustrated with his results...I feel bad for him. I absolutely love his model, six speed vert w/hardtop. So many people bought g-damn auto C4's a nice six speed is almost hard to come by.

[Steve85]

I did a little in car video test the other day and got it edited down.I got lucky and had a beautiful day off but there was more traffic than I expected for midday so I didn't stay in it very long. So, not that exciting as far as the driving,

I wish it mounted a little higher and I need to upload using a higher quality setting. I read on another forum about setting the focus to manual and infinite and it worked great. It would focus on the dash in previous attempts :roll:

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[D_Eclipse9916]

O.M.G......you better stop by JMU with it once we are back in session!

[PDenbigh]

Sweet! I V-8 sounds!

[HAULN-SS]

Sounds good, what mufflers did you use again? i forget

[WRXtranceformed]

Sounds healthy! Hope to get a ride someday~

[ScottyB]

that's a glorious sound. oh, i'd get into so much trouble with that kind of power.....

[Steve85]

Thanks guys...I absolutely love the sound too, most of all because it has no droning resonance so common with aftermarket systems on these cars.

To answer HAULN-SS, they are Corsa Performance, which is THE only muffler that is gauranteed not to resonate on these cars. They do not sell just mufflers though so I waited on a used system (resonator and mufflers) and recently sold the resonator.

Outside is a little raspier than I like but I usually drive the car from inside so I can live with it.

I hope to get down there early spring, there are a few profs I'd like to catch up with and stay for a Tues night hang-out.

[PDenbigh]

...but I usually drive the car from inside so I can live with it.

"Usually"? :lol:

[Goodspeed]

Just badass. I'm still in love with the steam roller CCW's, got any power estimates? Looking forward to seeing this beast again soon

[Steve85]

It looks like my first HPDE is around the corner so I will document the prep work here over the next few weeks leading up to Mar 8.

A little history tonight to start it off. The early C4 brakes are pretty much crap. Thankfully, a guy made some brackets to adapt C5 fronts to C4's. They are extremely nice pieces made of solid stainless steel. You can see them between the knuckle and caliper. I did this about 5-6 years ago and have since added steel braided lines.





Now to go along with this is the DRM (Doug Rippie Motorsports) bias spring which changes the front rear brake bias. The rear brakes actually do something now and front dive is minimized. It's a quick install by simply removing the front plug on the master cylinder a circlip, the old spring shoots across the room and you install the new one.



Brake work remaining is a slightly more aggressive pad and getting rid of the line lock which never worked well anyway. I think I will have a real nice street/ track setup that wil suit me well for some time

[HAULN-SS]

I've seen that kit before for MC's but you're the first person I've ever seen who had used it..looks good

[Steve85]

My first attempt at some bodywork.

I had to cut a hole in the hood because the intake with a drop filter base is still a couple inches too tall. I didn't really want to cut the hood but at least $2K for a sheetmetal intake was to steep. I plan on a lightweight fiberglass hood from VFN with a 3" cowl in the future but right now the $80 dollar solution is a hood scoop.
I outlined the area in blue tape and sanded down to the base SMC material.


I prepared the edges of the scoop so I could bring the adhesive up on the scoop to allow for smoothing of the joint.


I spread the SMC Panel Adhesive by Evercoat on the prepared surface. It's the gray matter between the black line (original hood color) and the tape.


Then set the scoop on, spread more adhesive over the joint area and finally getting some use out of my BLAW book.


So it was a good day. I got some things done recentyl like a new wiper motor and the passenger harness is mostly installed. I made some mounting tabs for the shoulder harness and need those welded in place.

Speaking of welding I finally got mine up and running and here are the results. I started on the left just dabbing it and tried to run a bead on the right.


I think I'll have my belt mounts done by a pro...

[ScottyB]

nice....i love seeing this car get closer to road time. your welds look good for the first 10 inches you ever did! practice practice....

[Steve85]

nice....i love seeing this car get closer to road time. your welds look good for the first 10 inches you ever did! practice practice....

Thanks, that makes two of us...

I got to fix something already with the welder. My kids broke their night-light cover and I welded a little tab back on. It's a Millermatic 140 Auto-set, quick intial setup and the auto-set by all accounts is quite accurate.

[Steve85]

Busy busy getting ready for first event.

Ordered Carbotech XP8's for the front
New (correct) battery and real hold down
Fabbed/installed permanent remote coil mount
Re-routed engine harness
Installed passenger harness.

Lots left to do...

[Mike]

why'd you go with 8s? i'm guessing your car's weight + power more than warrants 9s.

[Steve85]

why'd you go with 8s? i'm guessing your car's weight + power more than warrants 9s.

Being my first time out and on street tires we (talking with Carbotech) thought the 8 would work well. I saw a few guys over at corvetteforum that also started out on 8's and seemed to like them in terms of feel and longevity.

When I am comfortable using more of the engine's potential (a lot to learn between now and then) and on a stickier tire I definitely will have to step up.

Do you think it would be a good idea to bring a set of 10's with me to the track just in case? I honestly don't know what to expect in terms how hard I will be driving.

[Evan]

in 40-50 degree weather you will be more than fine on XP8. just make sure you bed them in well at least a day in advance.

btw there is a guy who runs most carguys events with a silly high hp C4 vette too