New Grill

Before we went on vacation I found a grill at a garage sale. The story the owner gave me was the burners fell apart and he needed it for a family get together. He ordered new burners at $20.00 a pop, but they didn't come in on time so he bought a new grill. He had this for sale for $20.00 and inside it was a box with $80.00 worth of new burners.

When I got it home and started power washing the fire box, I noticed that the supports for the flame deflectors were rotted away. Further cleaning blasted holes through the fire box where the drip pan had been spot welded. I patched up some of the holes and fixed the supports with some scrap metal so we could use it.

I decided after I had it working that with a total investment of $20.00 and an hour of my time I could afford to spend a little money on it. The same grill at a home improvement center is $399.00. I went on their website and ordered a new fire box for $49.00, a temperature gauge for $8.00 and a universal ignition box for $15.00.

This weekend I had some time to tear it apart and replace the fire box, of course it is the item the grill is built around.

Overall I am happy with how it came out, it works well and for less than $90.00 invested.

Flower Bed Part 1 Complete

The flower bed project turned into a much bigger project than I thought it would. I think we used right at 300 blocks and are just finished with the front yard. The last time I posted on it we had not yet started to make the inward curve back to the house, no matter how we placed the blocks I didn't like how they looked without being cut.

I mistakenly thought this wouldn't be that big of a deal and while it wasn't horrible to cut them there was much more cutting than I had imagined. The end result is very good though, we have had at least two couples walking through the neighborhood ask if we were professionals or if we did this for a living. We the speed we accomplished the front yard its a good thing I don't do it for a living.

The first two pictures are some cell phone shots I took two weeks ago after it had rained, the wall is soaked so its much darker than it would normally be.

We still need to bring in some soil to build up the flower bed and then start on the short wall going down the side of the house.

Cracked Wheel

After finding the left front wheel was cracked I started exploring my options. It appears that the powder coated five spoke wheels I traded for were factory rears and replica fronts. I don't know if that contributed to the wheel cracking as it has no apparent damage around the crack.

From all the research I did while even the best wheels can fail, you still get what you pay for. The problem with the corvette is its extreme rear offset limits off the shelf wheels available. Anything custom made puts you into the 3k range for starters.

The compromise I found was TSW wheels, I had a set on my rebuilt Golf and really liked them. TSW is the parent of Cray Wheels who make corvette specific fitment wheels. I really didn't care much for any of the Cray wheels and wanted to try and get into a forged type wheel. A few months ago TSW released the Panorama wheel which is corvette fitment and rotary forged for around $250.00 a wheel.

I ordered them through Discount Tire. I have always had great service through them on all our cars. I was due for new tires on the corvette anyway so it made sense to get both the wheels and tires through them. They will price match most anything you can find on the internet anyway.

The wheels are fairly close in style to the factory five spokes I had on the car before. The Panoramas are exactly what I wanted in a simple, clean, open looking wheel.

My original plan was to use the factory diameter wheels, the Panorama's do not come in exact offsets  to match factory wheels. My plan was changed for me when I found that no matter who I tried to purchase them through I could only find one front 18" in the correct offset. The proposed availability was a minimum three months possibly up to five. Discount Tire offered to up size to 19" and 20" both wheels and tires for the same price they had quoted on the 18/19" combo.

I really wasn't too keen on doing the 19/20" combo, the available offsets are right on the edge as it is and the 19/20 combo offers no performance increase only a greater expense in tires. Discount tire promised the combo would fit properly and the tires would not rub, they are both 1" diameter larger and .5" wider.

I am very happy with both the fitment and the look.