Guys,
Thanks for the complements.
Well, I got the battery in and it fit fine, not much wiggle room there because the old battery had this compressed foam "blanket" thing around it that I chose to reinstall. Before I took off the side panel I took two sets of business cards and wedged them into the gap between the panel and the doors at both the top and the bottom of the panel gap. That way I would know the proper spacing when I resinstalled the panel. It seems to have worked out OK - the gap is a little wider than I'd like and it might be a little uneven between the top and bottom though. No interference when opening the door, though. Calling it good enough as I realize that I could probably spend hours trying to get it to look just right.
Yeah, this is my first corvette. A couple of years ago I saw an older C4 in a parking lot with the roof off one day and started talking to the owner. Loved how low it sat. Then I made the mistake of going onto Leno's Garage and watching the video on his C5 z06 with the LS7 that he dropped in there. I was hooked after that.
I looked at C6s, C5s, and C4s. Love the engines in the newer cars, but kept coming back because of the C4 styling. Also, I like the direct linkage of the tranny and how little of a blindspot these cars have, especially compared to my 94 Mustang convertible.
A little bit more about the car: it's a '96 LT4, black with grey interior, 73K miles. Car is all stock, except for some aftermarket "mudflaps" (don't know what else to call them) that I don't know if I would have bought myself, but I'll probably end up keeping on the car. I think there were 4 previous owners, which was a negative for me, but the last owner had receipts for the replacement of the radiator, opti, a rear hub, and water pump, and that pushed my over the edge to purchase.
Originally, I planned to get a car and immediately get H/C/I package on it, but then I drove a '95 and I thought it felt pretty healthy already. With just a bit more (LT4), maybe I would just call it good enough. I know those are famous last words, but for now it's remaining virtually stock.
I say virtually because one thing that I really want to do is liven the exhaust up a bit. Thinking about taking the resonator off and replacing it with an x-pipe. Here's someone who did that with his '95:
I don't know if that would cause problems or not, since my car already has a factory h-pipe.
No one believes that.
The disease has now taken hold !!!!!
