Winter Plans

I couldn't drive the Corvette any more so it was time to concentrate on projects I would do during the winter. All the major jobs were now done but there were a lot of smaller things and cleanup left to do. I went though my work list and it looked like this:

1. Sealing the windscreen.
2. Stopping a small leak from the thermostat housing. The intake manifold had corroded a bit and needen planing.
3. Changing the valve covers.
4. Cleaning the carburetor. It was not atomizing the fuel properly but hopefully would get better with a rebuild kit.
5. Changing the broken fuel gauge.
6. Fixing the passanger side window motor.
7. Buying the missing interior pieces.
8. Fixing and cleaning the spare tire cover.
9. Changing the steering wheel.

 That should keep me busy during the following months...

Lowering the Corvette

The front of my car had been too high as long as I had had it. The stance was plain wrong. Now it was time to correct at least part of that. I thought about buying lowering springs but decided to try the free option first: cutting the current ones shorter.

I began by measuring the current height of the fender in each corner. The results were:

- Front left: 74,5cm (29,3 inches)

- Front right: 74,5cm (29,3 inches)

- Rear left: 71,5cm (28,1 inches)

- Rear right: 73cm (28,7 inches)

It was surprising to see that the passanger side was higher in the rear when compared to the driver side. This would only get worse with the driver. I would have to tweak the suspension in the rear too.

Then it was time to go to work. I jacked the car up, removed the wheel and unbolted the brake caliper. I didn't want to disconnect the brake hose so I used some zip ties to hang the caliper from the fender. Next I removed the sway bar bolt so the lower control arm could swing down freely. Then came the ball joints. I jacked the lower arm to take the pressure off the upper joint. Now I could loosen the bolt but didn't remove it yet. Lowering the jack caused pressure on the joint and, after spraying it with some WD-40, it snapped out by itself.

The lower joint proved to be much more difficult. After fiddling with it for a while, I realised that perhaps I could get the spring out without removing it at all. So again I used zip ties to hold the spindle in place and just lowered the control arm carefully. The final piece holding the spring was the shock absorber. Once more I jacked the arm, removed the shock and was ready to get the spring out.

The spring was still a bit too long to get out easily. I used a spring compressor and finally got it out.

I cut the spring with an angle grinder and then it was time to put it back in the car...

Assembly was much easier than the disassembly. The spring was easy to place back and then I just jacked the lower arm up again. I did it carefully so I got the spindle to the upper ball joint. After adding the nut, there was no fear of the spring shooting out. Replacing the rest of the parts went quickly and the first side was done.

The driver side was done the same way. Only problem was that this time the upper ball joint was badly stuck. It just would not loosen with a hammer so I soaked it with WD-40 and left it for a night. In the next day it had popped out by itself. Strong stuff...

When both sides were back together, I took the Corvette for a short trip around the block so the parts could find their places again. It was quite slippery as the streets had frost on them. I survived and measured the front again. The result was 70cm (27,6 inches) so cutting a single coil dropped the front 4,5cm (1,8 inches). The difference was easily noticeable even behind the steering wheel and from the outside the car looked much more balanced.

Dear lord that's a bad quality photo...

After taking the test drive, it was time to park the car for the winter. I reported it out of traffic and started planning for the fixes I'd be doing during the long winter months...