I retired and bought myself a car.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

Does the truck have a build thread?  I have a few OBS questions too.

Dang Antnee yu beat me to it.....yea I want to see it too...

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

Does the truck have a build thread?  I have a few OBS questions too.

I don't. It's just a 97 model W/T spec truck. I swapped the front end to 88-89 trim. Lowered it front and rear with Belltech springs and shocks. Early model rally wheels. Everything else is just maintenance and upkeep. I bought it from the original owner and it is a low mile truck with a clean past.

I've built a pile of OBS trucks though so I can try and help whatever you need.

Congratulations on your retirement. Always enjoy your vehicle rehab stories. 
 

I'm always curious about retirement since I hope to pull the ripcord in 8-9 years. What will you do to keep busy?

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

Okay I will ask in the OBS truck thread.  Let's not derail this one!  I owned a 91 ZR-1 for about 3 years.  It was fast but it was a C4 Vette.  I want to be a Corvette guy, but I'm pretty happy with my F body and Subaru right now.

OHSCrifle said:

Congratulations on your retirement. Always enjoy your vehicle rehab stories. 
 

I'm always curious about retirement since I hope to pull the ripcord in 8-9 years. What will you do to keep busy?

Short answer. I went right back to work.

Long answer. I was a fireman/paramedic for 21 years. Me and my crew had a string of unfortunate calls and my head got messed up. I wanted out of the fire service before I became divorced or an alcoholic. So I retired from my city but left all of my retirement sitting there earning interest. I got a job working for a local big truck dealership. I deliver parts for the parts department. It's kind of like being an Autozone delivery driver except it pays a proper living wage and it's very much a long term sustainable career. So I'm doing this until I get ready to really retire. At that point I will begin drawing my two retirments (fire department and post office). 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

^Smart man.

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

I violated the car first thing this morning. The car has a factory block heater. Weird. Car was bought new in Washington state. I'm sure we could have a lively discussion about how rare block heaters are (there's an RPO code for them after all). But I didn't care for 8 feet of lamp cord being ziptied up in the engine compartment.

Snip !

And flung it in the trash. I did leave the heater element in the block for now. But no more annoying cord cluttering up the engine compartment. 

I lowered the value of the car already.

I would swap the wheels side to side so they looked more natural to me but the tires are directional and I don't care near enough to pay for the tire shop labor.  ZR1 or GrandSport wheels are in this car's future. 

 

Do not swap them side to side. They're actually directional like that on purpose. The vanes help move air out from the brakes. Same as the Sawblades and the original directional wheels on the 84-87.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

That's a proper bit of information right there.

Congrats on retirement. My dad retired and bought and C4 and loves every minute!

I'm beyond excited to see what you do with this car.  Love the yellow!

My $3500 corvette is also a 90, and spent a ton of time (but not much money) getting it running right.  FSM's are a good investment for the weird 80's electrics.  Like you, I went through all of the deferred maintenance, and fixed what's broke.  I enjoy owning it.

In reply to Just some guy :

Truth is I spent 2x on mine what you did on yours. The market is a mess right now so I had to do what I had to do. 

I did order a set of factory service manuals this morning. I like to do that with all my stuff anyway. I've got some ground to cover getting this thing up to snuff. 

You're not a proper Corvette guy until you point out that yours is 1 of 500 in that yellow, but a true 1 of 1 in that yellow WITH the a52-4 floor mats AND dealer installed locking gas cap.

On a serious note, that's a fantastic color.  For under $10k that's a lot of car.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

I'd been watching the market for quite a long time before I pulled the trigger.  I like the 1990 because I prefer the sharp lines of the older body, with the updated interior of the late.  I also like the looks of the L98.

Originally (and still) I wanted an early C3, but they are out of my financial reach, but any Corvette is cool (to me), and I figured it would eventually become loved.  I didn't really expect to like it, but I do!

I'm fixing what's broken, doing my best with the lousy paint and somewhat ratty interior, and maybe someday values will reach a point where it is worth restoring.  But probably not by me.

I added a set of later C4 sport seats in place of the original sport seats that were very rough.  Great bolt-in upgrade that suits my fat ass.

I've collected a cache of parts to have a busy weekend working on the car. Besides the stuff to refresh the ignition system, I'll be changing the intake gaskets and a couple of cooling system doo-dads. 
 

I also got the parts to rebuild the power headlights. New gears and bushings. My headlights are wonky. It's apparently a typical C4 situation. 
 

Also pictured is a smog pump eliminator kit. 

How much more power can you expect from de-smogging it? 

Does it have a K&N air filter or an equivalent?

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

How much more power can you expect from de-smogging it? 

No power increase expected. The current smog pump is very noisy and rough to turn. It's coming apart internally. Plus I will enjoy a much less complex engine bay. It's also precursor to full length headers in the future. 

759NRNG said:

Does it have a K&N air filter or an equivalent?

No. The big white box on the right side of the picture is a new AC Delco factory filter. I'm not much of a K&N guy anymore. 

I remember back in the 90s going to a friend's house and watching his neighbor work on his early C4. Thinking back, the engine was extreme low, then not a problem for me but I suspect its a back buster to work on that intake manifold, no?

Awhile back I built some of those cribbings to elevate cars to a better height. I'm sure I'll be using them. 

Did you get the updated brass gears for the headlights? Much more durable than the the original plastic.

I got aluminum gears, new pellets, gaskets, and bushings for the linkage. 

Still have the grand sport replicas off my 91 sitting here doing nothing. I love c4's and endorse whatever you do to it

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

759NRNG said:

Does it have a K&N air filter or an equivalent?

No. The big white box on the right side of the picture is a new AC Delco factory filter. I'm not much of a K&N guy anymore. 

Because.....am I missing something? Oh and hey I'm gonna send you a PM

Patrick said:

Still have the grand sport replicas off my 91 sitting here doing nothing. I love c4's and endorse whatever you do to it

I'm kind of firming up on the idea that this car will get Grand Sport replica wheels. I even started an account at the place that makes them (OE Wheels) and built a shopping cart and banged around with looking at shipping and availabilty. All in hope that they will throw me a bone with some sort of dicount code. Otherwise I will likely wait till cyber sales after Thanksgiving.