Tag Archives: corvette

Corvette Z06 Ron Fellows Interior Upgrade

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In 2007 Chevrolet introduced a special edition Ron Fellows Corvette with a black and red interior. Every since I saw a picture (here: Ron Fellows interior) I wanted that color scheme! The red and black interior colors weren’t offered on my black Z06 so I knew it would have to be a custom job. All red interiors were common enough on the C6 cars so I knew at some point I could get the red panels I needed. I created a saved eBay search (“red corvette door”) and waited. A year passed and a set of red interior trim panels popped up but the set was missing one tiny piece (mentioned below). So I waited another year and a complete set finally became available and I jumped on it.

The set I got was from a standard model C6 that didn’t have some of the features I needed so I had to take everything apart (my door & the new-used door) to mix and match components. I ended up with a giant pile of spare parts. I should just chuck them, but for some reason I have them in a box. If anyone wants this pile here let me know- I’ll send it to you for free (you pay shipping).

I started with a black ebony door and I worked in red cobalt pieces from the new model. I changed it a little from the Ron Fellows model because I wanted additional black accents. I also added a brushed metal kick plate on the base of the door. Overall I really like how the doors turned out. And I’ll just take a sec here to apologize for these pictures- most all the photography I do on my blogs in with my iPhone. When it’s not an iPhone you’ll know ;).

I pulled out all the under panel trim from the interior and replaced it with the new red parts. The only real issue I had was the tiny red piece you see in the picture below (piece in the center – and this was the same trim piece that was missing from the first lot of red trim that I passed up). I thought that the piece was being held in by rivets, but after drilling them out I realized that they must be something else. In the end I simply had to pry them out using brute force. I have no idea why they would have used these fasteners- total overkill. When I put in the new trim piece I simply used screws.

I have a red center console but I haven’t decided yet if I’ll put in in. At some point I have to take my receiver out to troubleshoot a ground loop so I might do it then. However, for the time being I’m pretty satisfied. This is the result so far (yes, this is my car):

Posted by Cam Hughes, Feb 17, 2012

End of an Era

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All good things must come to an end (or as Jenna from this season of the Bachelor says, “All good things end badly”). Don’t worry- this post is not about me! Jim finally sold his Corvette (hereafter referred to as “the ’06 Vette). Truthfully I have very mixed feelings about the sale.  Before Jim, I owned the ’06 Vette and we had a ton of great times (cruises, upgrades, races and quiet evenings at home). As much as I loved the ’06 Vette I was dead set on getting a real z06. And I did- no regrets on that end – and Jim inherited the ’06 Vette. And for a time, life was good.

Well, good and bad. I’ll speak candidly here (hopefully no one gets any hurt feelings). On the one had I was very happy that the ’06 Vette stayed in the family, so to speak. But Jim was never really a car guy and the amount of maintenance and care required for a modified car exceeded his comfort threshold (and probably would have exceeded the threshold of most people). I often found myself stepping in to help take care of the ’06 Vette which took time away from my Z06. Then again, it was awesome to go on cruises and have my buddy in a matching Vette. At the same time though the fact that he had a matching Vette made me feel that somehow  a portion of my identity had been diminished. Suffice it to say, I’m happy to see the ’06 Vette go to a new home. And yet, at the same time, I feel like a part of me is gone and my happiness is tempered by some sadness.  I’m sure Jim feels the same way.

The last time I saw the ’06 Vette was from my office window. The new owner flew in and picked it up. He seemed like the kind of guy who would really appreciate the car and be able to take care of it. A car like this in the wrong hands could be disastrous! I wish him and the ’06 Vette the very best. She will be missed…sometimes.

Posted by Cam, January 6th, 2012

Winter Thunderland

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This winter has been so mild over here it’s a little unsettling. Still, it’s fun to have some extra driving time.

But nothing ever comes easy or without consequence…

Last week I decided to run some errands in the Vette. I hopped in, hit the ignition button and heard the dreaded clicking. This was super annoying because I’d just charged the battery a week earlier (the drain was way too quick). I tried to jump the car- twice. No luck. Time for a new battery (after only a year and half?). Getting the right battery for the Z06 (locally) isn’t simple. In fact I’ve been using an AutoZone battery that was almost a match. This time I switched over to an O’Riley battery that was a closer match to the factory battery (one day I might break down and get the right one…). Anyway, the switch went pretty painlessly and I was back in action pretty quick. I couldn’t believe how much better the car ran with a properly working battery. Come to think of it, the more I drive my car the better it seems to run (I know, “duh”).

And sometimes I think the universe is out to  get my Corvette.  Lately I’ve been doing some body repairs that I don’t think I should be dealing with. I was cleaning rocks out of my body panels (a consequence of Utah roads, I guess) and I noticed that part of fiberglass body underneath the car was cracked (around a bolt). After careful consideration I have two theories: 1) Someone (not me!) tried to jack the car up in the wrong location and broke part of the body. I don’t know who would have done this or when it could have occurred (especially since I do most of my own work). 2) The time I rolled over the exhaust tip and heard what sounded like an explosion may have caused this damage (I looked around under the car right after it happened but didn’t notice anything). Anyway-  I had to remove the cracked portion of the body and I used a large metal washer in it’s place. It’s effective and no one will ever see it… but geez! That probably added an ounce or two of weight!

And then the other day I noticed that my chin splitter (under spoiler) was hanging off the car a bit. I jacked it up and discovered that the bolt that holds the tip of the spolier on had been ripped out from the body (literally took a piece of the body out with the clip).  I’ve bumped the nose of my car before and I know when I do it. Ripping this bolt out would have take force that I think I would have noticed. Again, a washer to the rescue (I use them to fix everything, but it’ another ounce). I remounted the spolier and it’s nice and secure. Although it’s pretty scuffed up- probably the result of the car being lowered.  And while I was under the car I also noticed that I was missing about four hex screws (the ones in the background of the center image below) in various locations. No idea where they went, but I put in replacements (you can get them at any Lowe’s) and felt much better.

Speaking of stuff I need to get in the coming months- I need a  transmission overhaul. The synchros in my transmission are having some issues. I’m a little surprised I’m having this problem given the infrequency of abuse my car sees (and the fact that it only has about 15,000 miles on it). Once the trans warms up there are really no driveability issues at all, but when it’s cold it can be sticky and occasionally grinds when shifting. I have some fun money so it’s very possible that I might simply pull the trans and put in something a bit tougher. No idea what kind yet, but it needs to handle the power of my new  built 427 engine (one day 😉 !).

I’ve got some other fun winter projects coming up though . I have some incoming interior trim in red because I want my car to look like the pic below (although I’ll have my red shifter- after all that trouble I can’t give it up).

Anyway, now that work has let up a bit I hope I’ll have more time to blog.  In addition to the pain and suffering I suppose there is also a ton of fun car stuff going on this winter. Pain and pleasure thy name is Corvette.

Posted by Cam, January 1, 2012

My Little Corvette Buddy

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My youngest son recently came into a bit of money ($13).  While shopping at Costco with his mom he came across a display of different cars. My wife said that without any hesitation he picked out this blue Corvette and said that’s what he wanted to spend his money on. He played with the car non-stop for two days and even took it to bed with him (this is what the boys in our family do- when we like something we take it to bed).  He kept saying the cutest things like “We have Corvettes, right Dad?” and “Our Corvettes go fast!” I think this little guy is going to be my car buddy when he gets a bit older.

The car models from Costco are each $12 and for the price they are actually pretty awesome The Corvette my son bought has an incredibly detailed interior and engine bay. I’m almost tempted to get one myself! Anyway, just wanted to share this little moment of joy.

Posted by Cam, November 12, 2011

A Bright Idea (How to Change Your Accent LED)

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I saw this mod mentioned on CorvetteForum.com and it looked like a fun project. I actually had no idea there was an accent LED!  The light is located on the clip that holds in the passenger sun visor (it’s a super dim orange bulb). Taking off the visor clip is cake. Just use a Torx 15 on the screw and carefully pull out the harness.

Now the fun part: Pick out your new accent LED. You’ll need a 5mm sized LED. You can find these at Radio Shack or online from websites like SuperBrightLEDs.com. LED color choices are plentiful and the accent light can be as dim or as bright a you want. Light output is measured in mcd’s (millacandelas). The more mcd’s your LED has the brighter it will be. For reference I used a red 3000mcd LED from Radio Shack. The bulb simply pops right of the plastic harness. Just cut the contacts on your new LED and pop it right in.

The voltage going into the accent LED (from the car) is about 7.6 volts. Depending on what LED you pick you may need to replace the resistor. You can find online calculators (such as www.led.linear1.org/1led.wiz) to help you figure out which resistor to buy. If you decide to use a new resistor simply snip out the old one and solder the new one in its place. I used a 220 Ohm resistor with my LED. One you make the mods just put your LED harness back in and try it out. If it’s too dim or too bright you can try different bulbs until you find just what you’re looking for.

And here is the finished result. My goal was to produce a good amount of red light to illuminate my center console. Overall I’m really pleased. I just put in some Autometer ES series gauges and this is a great way to balance the the red interior lightning. Even though the light is fairly bright it’s not distracting at all. Other people have done blue but I haven’t seen any other pics of red yet. This is the cheapest ($3), fastest (10 min) and proportionally satisfying (9/10) mod yet!

This might be my last post for a bit- we just had a beautiful baby girl and the holidays are coming (I’m in retail and this means way more work). Time will probably be in short supply for the next few months.

Posted by Cam, October 20, 2011

This project was originally suggested by DSteck over at CorvetteForums.com. He posted a great tutorial about how to swap your C6 Corvette accent LED. I used a couple of his pictures here in my blog post (with his permission). The source post has some interesting info that’s not included here so it’s worth a look.

Autometer ES Gauges (How to Install C6 Corvette Gauges)

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Once you start down the road of car customization there is no end. There’s always one more accessory, another change, and a quick tweak that turns into a major project. “I’m going to replace my gauge pod… and my gauges… and I guess my whole A-pillar trim and hell, I may as well pull the steeling column panels out and rewire everything since it wasn’t quite right before.” So that’s what I did.

I decided I was sick of the incandescent edge lit Autometer Z-series gauges in my car (and even more sick of the fact that they are wired in such a way that they are always lit).  I really liked the look of the red LED backlit Autometer ES series gauges and so I picked up the fuel pressure and boost models. I think the lettering font on the ES gauges looks much better too and I like the fact that the letters are white when they aren’t lit. The ES gauges also go really well with my Innovate AF gauge.

A Few Installation Notes

My gauge pod was in bad shape from being pulled off several times (warping,  misaligned panel fasteners, extra holes) so I decided to get a new one.  I recommend Speedhut for gauge pods for the C6 Corvettes (both 2 and 3 gauge). They pods are inexpensive, good quality and Speedhut offered fast free shipping. No issues. The extra lights and switch on my pod are for the methanol kit, btw.

If you’re putting in your gauges from scratch then there’s a great document from A&A Corvette Performance: C6 boost and fuel gauge installation  on the A-pillar (as a side note: I got my last clutch from A&A Corvette and they were great). I didn’t have to run the wiring for the fuel pressure or boost gauges this time (I used the old wiring harness & tubing), but I did end up taking off the paneling below the steering wheel to tweak the wiring and I have a few things to add to the A&A instructions.

When you pull off the paneling it’s important to note that the bottom panel (below the steeling wheel) actually has a bracket that the dash panel clips into. You need to pull the dash panel out a bit to remove the lower one (left picture). Then just for reference this is what you should see minus the red & purple wires on mine (right picture).

I don’t see a need to remove the ignition button as mentioned in the A&A doc. But you will need to remove the small microphone (left picture).  There’s no harness for this part and the best way I could think to remove it was to use a Torx 10, a socket wrench and and hex head adapter. This will give you the angle you need to unscrews the microphone (you could just prop the panel up on something and not actually take it off but it is more convenient if you remove it).

The dimmer harness is easily accessible from under the dash (it’s right behind the dimmer switch). I don’t think it’s even necessary to pull the harness out. I spliced into the wire and used a T crimp clamp to run power to my gauges (just the power for the backlighting). It is really nice to have the lightning in the gauges functioning with the headlights in the car (I also wired in my wideband gauge to that it dims at night).

Like I said, I didn’t do any of the hard stuff this time around, but I wanted to add a couple of suggestions and pictures from the work that I did do. So there you have it- my pod and gauge swap. And it’s just like the saying goes, “Gauges make the man.” Or something like that.

Posted by Cam Hughes, October 17, 2011

Sticker & Emblem Insanity Post Update

Hoosiers Daddy!

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On September 30th I’m going up to Rocky Mountain Raceway for the last of the midnight drags. If the stars align I’m going to run an 11 second quarter mile (11.9 seconds or less). I’ve got everything I need and I’m 99% sure I can do it…

My biggest problem has been traction. Specifically that I don’t have any. Last year I picked sway bars over slicks… but this year I went with the slicks. I got set of Hoosier R6 drag radials and put them on my stock rims (which I was clever enough to keep).

The Hoosiers are a huge improvement! They are really sticky and grab way better than my Michelin PS2 street tires. I still spin pretty bad in 1st gear but when they hook there’s no spinning in any other gears. I got the Hoosiers from my local Discount Tire- they are super friendly guys and have great service (they matched an online price for me).

For the front I picked up a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports. These are pretty light tires at about 25 lbs each. Every little bit helps…

The more rotating mass you can get rid of the better you’ll do. I chopped about 16lbs off the clutch/flywheel, another 12 pounds each for the rear wheels (stock rims w/ Hoosiers) and then 7 pounds each on the front wheels (stock rims w/ Michelins). 54 lbs of rotating mass. Gone.

And now I have some traction. Come on stars… align.

Posted by Cam, September 25, 2011

B&M Sport Shifter (How to Change Your Shifter)

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I decided upgrade my shifter, shift boot and shift knob.  For the shifter I decided to go with a B&M 45044 precision sport shifter. The shift boot & knob are OEM two tone cobalt red & ebony.

First things first. If you decide to swap out your stock shifter here are the tools you’ll need:  3/8 &  7/16 hex head socket bits & T-25 torx bit. You’ll also need drivers for the hex and Torx bits as well as a pair of pliers. Optional but also recommend: some high density flame retardant foam and pair of scissors.

Shift knobs come and go. The stock shift knob has a great feel, but I felt like the throw was too long and didn’t particularly care for the color on the gear pictograph. I swapped to a ball knob last year -which has the effect of lowering the shift knob thus reducing the throw- and I liked that okay, but when I saw the red & black boot and shift knob I knew it was time to swap again. One one little issue: the new knob was for a 2008+ Vette and I have a 2007.

I have actually had a B&M short shifter for a year or so, I just never bothered to put it in since it wasn’t compatible with my ball knob. I had originally considered the B&M shifter and a Hurst shifter, but chose the B&M model because it seemed to have a better design (more closely resembling the stock Z06 shifter).

In any event, I was determined to get the OEM 2008 red & black knob onto my B&M shifter… B&M makes a 2008+ shifter model but no one was able to tell me if the shifter itself was compatible with my 2007 Vette (the transmission was changed on the 2008 Vette so it’s possible the shifters would be incompatible). I did the only thing I could think of- I bought the 2008 B&M shifter and swapped the shafts. Now I have a B&M shifter that I know will fit a 2007 Corvette and will take a 2008 shift knob (visually there did appear to be a slight difference between the two shifters).

Swapping out the shift boot is cake. It’s easiest if you remove the Corvette center console (which you have to do anyway to swap shifters). The leather boot is attached to a plastic ring with tabs. From underneath you just pop out the tabs from the console. Then pop in your new shift boot. Oh two tone shift boot, how did I live without you?

Swapping out shifters is also pretty painless. Once the console if off it should only take about 10 minutes. Just pull off the yellow rubber cover and unscrew the four bolts (3/8) and move aside the black rubber seal (your car isn’t going to have the wires coming out from the transmission- these are for my wideband). Next remove the 4 screws that hold down the stock shifter (3/8).

The stock shifter just pulls right out (put the car in neutral while you make the swap). You need to take the black plastic cap off the stock shifter (pliers) and then pop it on the B&M. Next bolt down (7/16) the B&M where the old shifter was (I left the stock gasket) and put your black seal back on. There are a number of other steps you might need to take if you’re working with a C5 Vette but they are documented in the instructions. Shift through your gears to make sure things are working okay. Since the B&M doesn’t seal quite as well as the stock shifter I used foam to make a sound dampener.

Make sure everything is nice and tight, shifts well and is put back together correctly. Then you can reassemble your console and admire your work [One side note that I didn’t document with any pics- the shifter screw included with the B&M kit is a T-25 and the head was so large I had to grind it down a ton get it to fit over the boot collar]. Personally I love how the new shift boot & knob match the seats and door handle wraps.

B&M 45044 precision sport shifter (Corvette) Review

Now that I’ve used the shifter for a few days I have to say that I’m pretty impressed. The shifts with the B&M are short and crisp. The shifter centers tightly making it much easier to get into third gear, as well. It takes a little more effort to move through the gears but the shorter throw makes up for this hands down. In fact, there’s almost something appealing about the extra force that’s required (especially when using an OEM shift knob). There’s no extra noise from the B&M and vibrations are about on par with my old stock shifter (in other words, very minimal). The stock Z06 shifter is very easy to move, but it always felt spongy and it was too easy to miss-shift. The B&M has and does everything I felt was missing and really makes the car more fun to drive. I would recommend the 45044 to anyone who’s considering it.

Posted by Cam, September 24, 2011