Corvette Lights

After polishing the headlight lenses on the corvette numerous times, I decided it was finally time to replace them. They were crazing and turning yellow internal to the plastic, so there was no way to to improve their clarity by polishing.

The process for changing the lenses is fairly straight forward. Once removed from the car the headlight assembly is put in an oven to soften the butyl so they can be taken apart. Once the lens is separated from the housing all of the butyl gets removed from the channel on the housing. This was painful and took about 45 minutes to an hour for each assembly.

Once that was complete I added new butyl to the channel, installed the separator to the new lens and squeezed the halves together. Once the old lens was removed it was even more obvious how bad it was. The headlamp on the stool has a new lens installed.

I replaced the lens on the passenger side first and reinstalled it. The pictures below shows how badly the lens on the drivers side was crazed which caused the light to just diffuse inside of the housing versus the passenger side.

While it was all apart I also changed the DRLs to LED switchbacks. Instead of an orange incandescent light they are white when the headlamps are on and orange when they are off.  They flash orange at all times for the turn signals. I also added new D1S HIDs for the low beams and 75 watt H7 high beams.

Vinyl On The Vette

Another project I wanted to do this week was covering the "Halo" on the corvette with black vinyl. I had debated on using Scotch 1080 for a carbon fiber look but went with gloss black to better blend in with the tinted windows.

The "Halo" is the blue band that runs over the top of the car between the roof panel and the rear hatch.

I ended up purchasing a section of Avery brand vinyl. When I unrolled it over the roof of the car I noticed the backing in the center of the roll had been creased. I thought it was ruined but later found out that it really has no effect on the usability of the vinyl.

Applying it to the halo was fairly straight forward, I had done a lot of reading prior to trying this. I have some limited experience with applying vinyl, but I have never done anything this large before. The most difficult part was preventing edge failure, or making sure the finished edge isn't under tension where the vinyl could pull up or pull away.

For my first time doing something this large, I'm very happy with how it came out. It really ties the roof to the hatch and gives the car a completely different look. Most people wont notice it because it looks right, its the things that look wrong that people notice. I don't make changes to my car for other people so it really doesn't matter anyway.

Sill Plates

The sill plates on my corvette are not actually plates but just decals. The one on the drivers side is showing 9 years of me not always completely lifting my foot over the sill while getting in and out of the car. It has actually started to wear through.

These OEM "decals" are stupid expensive and the aftermarket has stainless, polished aluminum and even carbon fiber replacements that make the OEM ones look like a bargain. After looking at pretty much everything available and debating options of making my own I came across the sill plates below that were a reasonable price and I actually like better than the ones that were on the car.

The removal and installation was fairly simple but a day after I got them on the car bubbles appeared in a few areas of the black part of the decal. After looking at them closer I realized these were separate decals that came stuck together. Carefully I was able to slide a razor between the decals and work the air bubbles out.

Steering Column

One of the few things I have never liked about the Corvette is the driving position. It seemed no matter how I adjusted the seat or the tilt column I could never find the right spot. Specifically I didn't like sitting so far away from the steering wheel, I have always liked it fairly close.

In most cars you can just move the seat closer and its problem solved. In the Corvette moving the seat closer puts my knees into the bolster and I am unable to use the clutch properly. This problem was very apparent when I went open tracking and felt like I was fighting the car instead of controlling the car. My arms extended straight to the wheel made it a very tiring experience along with making me drive much slower.

After that weekend I started researching options to move the steering wheel closer to the seat.

Option 1 was to buy a telescopic steering column ($350-$400).

Option 2 was to buy a custom made steering wheel with a deeper dish to the wheel ($1,500+).

Option 3 was to buy a quick release steering hub, after market steering wheel, 5 point harnesses to make up for no airbag and a track bar to mount them to ($2,000).

None of those options seemed reasonable at the time, so I did nothing.

A few weeks ago I was looking on Ebay for a trim piece and came across a column for $250.00, so I started searching to see if they had dropped in price. I ended up finding a column from a 2012 with 18k miles on it for $100.00 shipped. It was also a complete column with all the controls, clock spring and trim pieces installed.

After taking the disconnecting the battery the air bag and steering wheel took maybe 15 minutes to remove. Fairly simple stuff, I've had both off the car 3-4 times before. The column itself has one connector for all of the controls and one for the airbags. After disconnecting those, there was one cross bolt though the steering shaft and four bolts holding the column in place.

While the physical structure of the columns were completely different the mounting points and connectors were the same. The mounts are slotted so I was able to move the column towards the driver an additional 1/4" while installing it.

Once installed and after driving the telescopic motor fully extended the column moved the steering wheel 1.5" closer to the driver. Everything on the column worked properly except the telescopic motor, without memory seats in the car there is nothing to power or control the motor. I plan to rectify this with either a pair of relays or an H-Drive circuit, either way should be fairly easy to wire up.

In addition to replacing the column I took the drivers seat out while the steering wheel was removed. Its far from necessary but makes it that much easier to remove. This allowed me to easily access the drivers side seat belt. Over the last year or so it had become very slow to retract and many times would not retract without help. While I was looking for a replacement I came across a video on YouTube where the author claimed he had the fix for most all seat belts with this problem. He went on to explain that the oils from your skin and hands along from dirt the belt attracts would cause it to swell up and then become too large to retract properly. In the video he cleaned about 60% of a belt by soaking it in water mixed with detergent. I basically did the same thing but by removing it I was able to soak closer to 95% of the belt.

This picture shows the belt after soaking for about five hours. The water turned almost oily with a small amount of dirt in the bottom.

After reinstalling it along with the seat the belt retracted like it was a new assembly, I was actually quite suprised that it worked this well.

Vacation - Chicago

Last year I had the opportunity to take one of the "Architectural Tours" on a river boat while I was in Chicago on business. It was late fall and literally a week or so before they stopped running for the year. I thought Tania would enjoy it as much as I did so we decided to go to Chicago for the weekend.

I used some Marriott points and we stayed in a new Marriott on the south side of Chicago. Rooms facing the lake or the city were $40.00 a night more than the rooms facing south or west.

We spent the first evening there signing up and buying tickets for what we wanted to do on Sunday.

The Museum of Science and Industry was just a few miles south of our hotel. We signed up for the "Giant Dome Theater" and the U-505 exhibit in the morning with just under two hours to get to the dock for the "Architectural Tour".

The Giant Dome Theater was good but the U-505 was awesome. As you made your way to the exhibit there were long hallways that had everything from signboards to holograms that told the story of how the U-505 was captured. Just as you get to the point of capture, you turn a corner and this is your first view.

You could literally reach out and touch the sub from the mezzanine.

The lighting under the sub flickered to give the illusion of it being in water. Around the base of the sub there were multiple displays set up which contained artifacts from the sub. It was amazing the amount of items they still had that were in the sub as well as what they found years later when it was moved into the building.

The conning tower shows the damage from both small arms fire as well as a deck gun.

If you have ever been in a sub before, I would not recommend paying extra to tour the inside. Its a pain to schedule and not that much to see.

After you leave the display there are more signboards that explain how the sub was brought to Chicago, the time it spent on the lake and how it came about to be where it is currently housed.

We were able to leave the museum and make it to the dock with 30 minutes to spare. The Architectural Tour I would also highly recommend, even with doing it a year before, because I went on a different companies tour most of the information the guide narrated was new to me. The tour takes about 90 minutes to accomplish and it was a perfect day for it.

Because we went in the afternoon I didn't get any good pictures, they were all washed out by the sun. This is a picture from the last time I went.

The following day we had planned to drive though Rockford and follow the river down to St Louis. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and driving a scenic route 500+ miles in the rain didn't sound like a ton of fun so we headed home.

Indianapolis Cars and Coffee

Yesterday Tania and I went to Indianapolis Cars and Coffee. I was impressed by the amount of cars in attendance and how well it was run.

Their schedule is:
1st and 3rd Saturday's each month will be at Gator Motorsport.
2nd Saturday each month (except May will be Sunday) will be at the IMS Museum.

This is just the lot in front of Gator Motorsports there is an area just as large behind the business and a lot next to it that were full of cars.

 I don't normally get excited about cars from this era but the dual carb straight eight was way cool.

These were cars inside Gator Motorsports for sale. The blue and black car in the front is an Zenos E10S. Its a 1600lb car with a 2.0 liter turbocharged Ford that puts out 250hp, I think they start around 60k.

The blue car is a Lotus Evora, the black car is Lotus 2-Eleven track day car with similar specs to the Zenos

This beauty is a $186,000.00 2017 Lotus 3-Eleven. It has a supercharged 3.5 that puts out 460hp, a sequential six speed and does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds. I know they can make these street legal in Europe, I don't know if this one is. Its a lot of money to spend for a track day car but what a beast.

This is a 2005 Noble M12GTO-3R with around a 1,000 miles on it. They are a British made supercar with around 350hp and they weigh around 2,400lbs. Its a very cool car that needs someone to buy it and drive it. Really a 2005 with 1k miles wtf?

Vacation - Smoky Mountains

Last weekend we took another driving vacation, this time to the Smoky Mountains. We hung out around the house on Saturday, I got the car loaded and ready to go and Sunday morning we headed to our first stop the National Museum of the USAF.

I was there in June with a group from work and though we were there most of the day I only had time to look at two of the four hangars. One that I did get to spend time in was the Presidential Gallery, I enjoyed it very much and thought Tania might enjoy it as well.

I took a couple of shots of unique things, the first being on Harry Truman's Douglas VC-118. It was a vintage Boston pencil sharpener mounted near the navigators station.

The second was a Chance-Vought/LTV XC-142A one of five built in the early 60's to explore VSTOL aircraft, these aircraft were the predecessors to the Osprey. What really struck me as odd on this aircraft was the rotor on the tail, it just looked so out of place.

The third was the North American F-82G Twin Mustang used during the Korean war, it was originally developed as a long rage bomber escort and looks like two P-51 Mustangs connected at the wings. It was actually an all new design and credited for downing the first three Korean aircraft during the war.

There are literally hundreds of unique items and incredible aircraft to look at, a day is not enough. The museum is open seven days a week and costs nothing to enter, it is well worth the trip if you are anywhere near it. There is much more than aircraft to see.

We spent about seven hours at the museum and then headed to Knoxville for the night. The next morning we got up early, drove around for 40 minutes looking for a self serve car wash only to find one half a block from the hotel we stayed at. We had driven through some heavy rain right before we got to Knoxville and I wanted the car clean for our next stop, Deals Gap.

Deals Gap is a mountain pass on the North Carolina - Tennessee state line, it wasn't actually my destination the road was. To get to Deals Gap the road has 318 curves in the last 11 miles and is called "Tail of the Dragon". Its a mecca for gear heads and motorcycle riders, it was also a bucket list item for me.

The start of the dragon was just over twenty miles from where we were, we filled up with gas, took the top off the car and set out to enjoy the day. About 10 miles outside of Knoxville we came across a dirt track, it really caught my eye because I had never seen one with red mud.

The road had numerous scenic overviews along the way, this was Calderwood Dam viewed from Dragon Overlook.

Along the "Tail of the Dragon" there were numerous photographers that take pictures of the cars as they pass by then post them online for purchase. When I checked there were about 25 of us, the three below are the ones I purchased.

The road was fun to drive and a bit challenging as the sun would blind you then you would drop into dark shadows multiple times through a corner. The temptation to go fast is hindered by the traffic and the three different patrolmen on the side of the road over the 11 miles.

At Deals Gap there is a "motorcycle resort" its basically a small hotel and gas station that sells shirts and Dragons Tail memorabilia. In the parking lot was a tree called the "Tree of Shame" it was covered with motorcycle parts from bike wrecks along the road.

We bought a couple of shirts and talked to a few people before we headed back the way we came. There are many interesting roads in the area but our next stop was Gatlinburg and the only way we could see on the maps to "get there from here" was the way we came.

I was looking forward to the drive out but it was hindered by a long line of cars following a elderly gentleman on a bagger driving 15-20 miles an hour, completely ignoring the train of cars behind him. We even pulled over for a while to put some distance between us and caught up to the train again within five miles.

On the way out we stopped in Maryville and ate at an open air roadside place called the Dragon Pitt, they had good food.

 

The drive to Gatlinburg was all two lane backroads and we arrived mid afternoon. We drove through town and stopped in a self serve parking lot at the end of town. We had been in the car for about five minutes looking at pamphlets for what we wanted to do when the parking lot attendant informed us that we could not park there without paying. I told him what we were doing and that I would pay when I got out of the car. He then walked around the car took a picture of my plate, he informed me we were stealing and that he was calling the cops. I started the car to find another lot as he chased us shaking his phone at us while yelling the cops were going to get the Corvette. it was rather bizarre.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Gatlinburg, which is a complete and utter tourist trap. We did go to the aquarium which was actually pretty good. It has a rather long tunnel that runs through one of the tanks, the tunnel has a moving walkway that also rotates you as it moves.

We ate supper in Gatlinburg and then drove back to Pigeon Forge to spend the night. The following morning we got up and the Corvette wouldn't start, the battery was dead. I called AAA and while we were waiting I ordered a new battery. Less than two hours later and after a trip to the auto parts store we were driving through the Smokys on our way to Clingmans Dome, the highest mountain in the Smokys.

It was a beautiful drive which started just outside of Gatlinburg, the first of many stops we made gave this view of Gatlinburg.

The next turnout we stopped at had this river, one of probably hundreds in the park.

The next was another vantage point about seven miles from our destination. There was a large structure here which I didn't realize at the time was a marker for the Tennessee / North Carolina state line.

The seven mile drive from our last stop was as enjoyable to me as the drive to Deals Gap the day before.

Clingmans Dome has a long narrow parking lot that was mostly full by the time we got there. The lot is .5 miles from the outlook tower on top of the peak. The path leading to the tower is a 10-12% grade for almost the entire length. I took this picture from the parking lot and the outlook is located next to the tower in the center of the picture.

I took some pictures from the outlook but the view was very hazy and the pictures came out poor. We spent a couple of hours here then headed back to Pigeon Forge for lunch.

After lunch we decided to go to the Titanic Museum, I'm not really a big fan of the whole Titanic thing but once you see the outside of the place it kind of sells it. I totally spaced taking a picture of the outside, this is one I found on the net.

The tickets were a bit pricey and they didn't allow photos inside, they gave both of us boarding passes with actual passenger names on them and we were to determine if we lived or died. The tour itself was self guided with audio devices we carried. Around the museum there were signs with numbers on them that we keyed into the device and a recording would follow.

It was actually a very good attraction with an unbelievable amount of items both historically related to the Titanic as well as from it. Throughout the museum they had replicated various parts of the ship such as the wheelhouse and the grand staircase. The display they were most proud of was the violin belonging to the band leader. Apparently it had sold for well over a million dollars and was being relocated in the next few weeks.

After we left the museum we sat in the parking lot deciding if we wanted to do anything else or head home. We decided to head home and maybe make some stops on the way. We spent the night in Knoxville at the same hotel we had stayed at the first night. We ended up driving straight home the next day which was fairly uneventful but gave us a few days before we had to head back to work.