Suspension Clean Up

In preparation for building the GTM, I scour GTM build blogs and logs. (This is one of the reasons I am writing this blog, to help illustrate the path toward a successful GTM build.) Anyway, one thing I liked was the idea of cleaning up the suspension control arms. Fparts degreased the suspension before they shipped. I know the parts came from a minimum of 2 cars (yellow and grey). Based on different coloration between the from and rear suspension members, I think they may have come from different vehicles as well.

 One thing I learned from other build logs is the idea of repainting the suspension pieces to give them a "new" and "uniform" look. I took a quick trip down to Loews and picked up a couple cans Rustoleum metallic paint, set up a paint booth in the corner of the garage and masked off the rubber gaskets. This went pretty quick.

The other improvement is the replacement of the rotors, brake lines, and calipers with the Z06 Big Brake Upgrade. That's a late fall, early winter project.

Donor Parts Kit (Cataloged)

The donor parts kit was the most practical approach for this phase of the build. I do not have space for a donor C5, plus storage for GTM components. I had already decided that I was going with a bigger engine than the LS1, and I plan to purchase the big brake upgrade kit. Those decisions make a donor C5 impractical.  Photos are here.

I purchased the kit on Ebay from Fparts. Fparts is a salvage yard located in Bristol, PA. They specialize in Firebird, Camero and Corvette salvage. According to their banner, they put together more than 25 of these kits in 2008.

The first thing you need to understand is the kit is not sitting around on some skid, waiting for you to put your money down. These parts are still installed on existing vehicles. They even apologized that it took them a week to get things together. It would probably take me a month.

The second thing is this is going to come via freight. The shipping company provided a tracking number, and I was able to follow my skid from Pennsylvania to Minneapolis. The day before it was due into the Minneapolis terminal, I called and set up a delivery time. I did have to pay extra for a lift gate truck. If you have the means to pick it up yourself, you can save $50.

The third thing is the parts are used. However, you have to understand the Corvette mindset. Since I have a C5 and belong to Myrtle Beach Corvette Club, I get it. Most of these cars are driven on sunny days by older people. When I'm in South Carolina, my C5 is my daily driver except when it rains or I'm on my way to gun range. I'm hard pressed to put more than 3000 or 4000 miles per year on the car.

 Factory Five provides a GTM parts list. They even have a page with pictures of the parts. I make no claims that I know what everything looks like, and they look different sitting in your hand than they do attached to a vehicle.

Fparts uses this same list and provides everything except radiator, alternator, brake pads and brake lines. They print this stuff in red. Parts arrive on a pallet, steel banded and bubbled wrapped or bagged where appropriate. This means items like the steering column are bubble wrapped. Items like the O2 sensors are in bags labeled as such. Items like the fuel tanks, suspension are just sitting there, but these are pretty obvious. The suspension came in four pieces: left, right, front, rear. I don't have to think about putting all those parts together.

So you have the part numbers, description, photos (in some cases) and a list. What could go wrong? I broke things into the following groups:

• Suspension
• Fuel Tanks,
• Steering Column
• Transmission harness
• Engine harness
• Cooling system (e.g. hard pipes, condenser, fans)
• Doors (e.g. window motors, side view mirrors, handles, seat belts)
• Small items (e.g. sensors, bolts, tensioner, pulley, ignition)
• Electronics

I still ended up with a couple of things not on the list, and a couple of mystery pieces. I texted photos to my buddy Brian, who has forgotten more than I'll ever know about cars. He'll either have a good laugh or wish me luck.

I use the same list that Factory Five provides, and Fparts uses to define the donor parts kit. I cataloged everything so I know where I put all these parts. I intend to matched these parts up with the build task list that I developed. I also plan to integrate the Factory Five Parts into the task list. This is my method of knowing where to go find something, when it is time to put it into the build. There are a lot of smart people out there, so you probably have a better way to do this.

Donor Parts Kit Arrives!

This is really quite painless.

Fparts shipped the kit via ABF. I told them I needed a lift gate service as the destination was a residential garage. No problem. The ABF folks were very professional and we arranged a four hour window for delivery. Everything was packed on a single skid. We slid everything into the back of the garage, signed the paper work and got to work.

To give you an idea of how much space you'll need, here is a quick photo of the skid, the gun safe and the hound. There is more than enough room left to park the Boxster in front of the skid.

I didn't have a lot of time last night to work on this, but I'll go into detail in next post. I will say this. Fparts did a super job. Most parts are bubble wrapped, many are labeled and the skid is wrapped in plastic plus 3 steel bands.