Ownership Verified: Miami Weiß - My 1989 Chevrolet Corvette C4

If you eventually get new ones, plastidip them first :nod:

That is a very good idea. I was thinking about how to protect them, thanks!
 
Yeah, it is, but ... I've put some more magnets underneath the cover!

Curious.... Could make a copy of your front plate and make it a sticker from vinyl wrap material? Or does that fall under "don't duplicate your license plate" laws?
 
Sticker plates exist, but are very complicated to get allowed iirc. I've only ever seen them on Ferraris and the like.
 
Yeah, a sticker plate would be cool but that's so tough to get. And since I have the possibility to actually mount the plate with screws on my car, that's a massive nope from the town I live in.
 
Thinking of putting the trusty Kienzle in the 'vette sooner or later, but so far I‘ll be sticking with the original radio. Would this change be rad or un-rad?

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Sadly, the original radio makes some high-pitched noises (not the alternator) that won‘t go away. Also, the antenna is broken (did I ever mention this?) but I got the original replacement part for it from the previous owner. It's quite a pita to change it, but I'll do it soon. I doubt the noise will go away with the new antenna; I don't think that's the culprit.

Going with a single din-slot radio means buying something like this, which would probably end up looking like this but hopefully a little less bling and fitting more snugly into the dashboard. I think the Kienzle will visually fit into the interior of the car.
 
Personally, I'd look into options to either fix and keep the original radio or get another original radio.

I just feel that the Kienzle feels too modern or too European for Corvette's interior. Also, I love when cars are all-original, down to the radio. Besides, I wouldn't care too much about a radio in a car with a 5.7 L V8.

However, I get that the connectivity options the Kienzle has make life much simpler. I guess it all goes down to how much music you'd listen in your car and how you'd listen to it.
 
That‘s an interesting idea. Will look into it.
 
And now for the somewhat big one:
While taking the wheels off, there was one lug nut that was really tight - turns out, it has been mounted in a kinda crooked way. Ouch. At least I broke it off myself instead of just weakening the bolt and loosing it somewhere on a road, imagine that ...

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Now this meant somehow finding another one - which means hopping in the Astra wagon of his brother and trying to source some on a saturday noon before the shops close. Sadly we were unable to locate any, which means Beni and his brother got really creative and took of a somewhat fitting wheel stud off a Volvo V40 and made it fit for the C4 - MacGyver would be proud. Now, this doesn't mean I want to drive around like this forever, but it's still working! I am in the process of sourcing at least one, if not two new wheel lugs - because as you can see at this picture down below, there's been another one that has been changed once. A massive thanks again to Beni and his brother for this awesome work - it was mostly me watching and failing because I am just not that handy and they knew how to get the job done efficiently.

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Only took me almost a month, but I managed to source and put in a "new" wheel stud that someone from the german Corvette forum send to me from a parted out car.

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The wheel stud that looks new isn't actually new - that must have been changed in the US, and it's not a Corvette part, but it sits tight and fits the job. The old wheel stud from the Volvo V40 went out and in came the "new" original GM one. And yes, I know, that ABS cable is not in the best condition - I'd like to change them all around, as they seem to open themselves up as the rubber protection hardens and falls apart.

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What's quite annoying - I haven't fully managed to secure the lug nut, as it appears to be turning with the wrench... it might fit, but to me this seems like the wheel stud is quite worn and won't properly hold itself tight in the wheel bearing. Ah well, it works, the car drives.... I'll see how fucked this is the next time I take the wheels off. Either I will be able to get them off or not ... time will tell.

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What was really annoying was sourcing the wheel stud - you'd think some US car shops do have these in stock, even over here, as it seems like a part that's used in pretty much any GM US car. And that's quite true; infact these wheel studs were even used in some Saabs. I tried calling quite a lot of shops but none had them in stock. Most shops just referred to them not having parts for the C4 Corvette, and would not be willing to search by size and thread alone - WTF? I hate it when people purely go by the car model or chassis number.

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I mean, come on, they are metric (M12x1.5x54) and very, very likely put into some light european lorries aswell, I bet...

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Another thing that really annoyed me where the wipers. While visually they looked good, they were probably 10-15 years ald and dried out from the californian sun. They were only effective during rain because the windscreen is coated in some anti-rain-stuff.

I managed to source new one from some german dude specialising in C4 parts, and luckily these were some centimeters longer as the old ones, covering more of the windscreen, but aren't going over the edges. Who knew it would be so tricky to find fitting wiper blades as I couldn't find any in smaller automotive stores and hardware stores here. Huh?

But the most important thing: The way they are clipped onto the car is SO MUCH more secure than the old ones (upper picture). After managing to get out of that rain storm when coming home from Beni, these actually fell off the car a couple of times once I enabled them in some lighter rain where the windscreen wasn't as slick as it was during the thunderstorm... wtf. I never had that happen to me ever. Luckily they didn't fell somewhere where I couldn't find them.

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It's the small things in life (twss).
 
Rockauto.com is your friend.

I get most of my Equus parts from there!

You are correct, I should pay more attention to their site. :) It might look like it's still 2002 but they seem very reliable, no? I have ordered some stuff from corvettemods.com and both packages seem to be lost, and I did not get any reply yet. God damn it.

On another note - when I first picked up the car, the right side of the instrument cluster was rather dim. Common occurance on these. And going by the german Corvette forum, there's even a guy right here in Germany who's specialized in repairing C4 instrument cluster. Talking about niches ...

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69

Anyway, the drive with Beni seems to have fixed that. Beni has a way of repairing things by giving it the good ol' italian tune up. :D

But since yesterday, I've noticed right at the startup that they've become dim on the right side again, unfortunately. I think even dimmer than it used to be. Rather bad to see when driving, but personally I think the speedo is more important than the rev gauge.

There are a couple of people putting LEDs in there, and I am looking into that, too. But that's quite dangerous in the way that they obviously don't quite draw the same amount of juice normal bulbs do. Also, some aren't dimmeable, and I haven't yet quite found the right ones to order.
It's not like the dimming function is working right now - besides the wheel stud, that's actually the other thing that broke during the roadtrip and has stayed put ever since. :( Not sure how to repair it, I might contact that forums guy for that. What's really weird about this is the fact that once I start up the car in the garage the lights are always dim, and whenever I am in dark circumstances it seems to get dimmer aswell, but once I am in the sun, the dash appears to light up more. Again, I swear I am not making this up, but I also don't think the car has a sensor anywhere that adjusts this. I think it might just be a really stupid coincidence.

Theoretically, I could actually change the colours by getting some different LCD modules in non-stock colours. A cool thought...

Some more to note:

- The clutch and differential seems to get better and better the more I drive. I swear it's not just me getting used to it. Setting off from a dig, even when the outside and drivetrain temperature is really hot, isn't quite such a problem anymore as it was during the small roadtrip. I really don't know why, as it was really tough back those couple of weeks. Differential fluid should still be changed though. The car seem to respond really well to being driven. Well, who would have thought, I think that's actually what these tin cans are for.

- City mileage is fucking appauling with this SBC. So far it's not even 250 kms in city driving. :( kill me pls
But what am I expecting. :D This car isn't made for going to the shops, it's made to cruise around the country side, and I'll do just that in the next couple of days.

- The squeel of the A.I.R. pump mentioned a couple of sites back in the thread seems to get a liiittle louder from time to time, but the disc isn't wobbling more than usual, and I think it's the bearing of the small wheel that's fucked. I need to delete this emissions stuff next year.

- I just came home from the shops, when suddenly the right pop up light stayed open once I closed them - oops! God damn it. Never had that happen with any of the MX-5's. Turning the lights on and off for a couple of times fixed this after like two minutes... weird. But I think if one stays up, the lights to actually get out, saving my battery in the process.

So long, folks.
 
What Rock Auto lacks in website design, they make up in accurate parts and swift shipping. @Dr_Grip can also vouch for them.
 
As can I. it has proven instrumental in keeping all the ruddy shit I own :D
 
Great write up!

Rock auto can deliver inside a week comfortably to Germany and you can also have them pre pay the taxes etc. I have never had any issues so far, once shipping to Germany and once to Slovenia ?
 
I’m guessing you can’t just remove the air pump and get a shorter serpentine belt? That’s the solution people do here which has no effect on performance or fuel mileage as it dumps air in the cats because the solution to pollution is dilution!
 
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