New Hover Conversion

"CaptDale - is secretly British" (captdale)
09/18/2019 at 00:51 • Filed to: wrenching, C4 Update, Corvette

Produced by Goldie Wilson for the C4 Corvette

Not only Deloreans

But the real update is I always forget how long wrenching at home takes. All that stuff I wanted to do and I only got the rear shocks on, the rear lowering bolts installed..... and nothing else. 7 different trips to stores and trying to figure out how to get the front mono leaf out took up most my day.

My first headache was getting 1 lower control arm off so I could pull the spring out through that side. Thankfully GM decided to assemble the sub frame out of the car so when they put it all together the bolt faces into an area without enough space to get it out. So I had to cut the bolt off. Which required a trip to the hardware store.

Of course after all that disassembly the leaf has too much curve in it to pull out with the limited ground clearance my jack and jack stands could provide. So here comes the being dumb. I tried to jack the car up more with a bottle jack so I could get a large piece of wood in between the floor jack and the lift point. well that all toppled over and the car slammed onto the jack stand. This people is why you always use jack stands. Fortunately both myself and the car are fine. No injuries to myself other than my pride and the car got a broken side sill and not the driver door has difficulty opening and shutting. The side sill I had another of and promptly replaced it. As for the door either it came out of adjustment from the fall or the car isn’t level now because I had to move a jack stand and it might be higher than before, but I am not sure. Really a problem for if it still is consistent once on the ground. Oh and in my frustration opening the door I accidentally broke the knob off the lock switch so another thing I have to buy.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

In other funness the bottom of the new rear shocks was not wide enough to fit. Strange considering these are specific to the C4 Corvette. A little digging shows that other people have called QA1 about it and they know. They tell the people to add shims. So instead of adding that in the instructions or putting shims in the already supplied hardware kits, just have upset customers. Sure guys *eyeroll*

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

In other news I don’t think I will be able to do the front lowering with the spring in the car. It is too difficult. Maybe I can go bug !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and get access to a lift so I can finish that.

So there you go. I was working on the car from 10am to 8pm.... I feel like I wasted the day yet I feel like I got beaten on all day. Ah the joys of wrenching.

DISCUSSION (14)

Decay buys too many beaters > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 02:53

Sounds like it t ook you through the wringer a bit! I’ve got a good friend who has been modifying a C4 for a couple years now, he has had a lot of similar experiences where aftermarket parts for it never quite work perfect right out of the box. I think he went through like 4 iterations of parts when he replaced his headlight flippy thing assemblies.

SpecsGTP > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 06:42

Screw you. I'm voting to re-elect mayor Red Thomas; progress is his middle name!

shop-teacher > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 07:19

That's one of those days that makes you wonder why we do this to ourselves.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 08:58

Wrenching at home an be rewarding but it also usually turns out like your experience above. I would be pissed about being told to use shims, especially if they couldn’t be bothered to tell you when they knew of the problem. I doubt you would have bought it if you knew it wasn’t direct fit. I would hope the C4 wouldn’t flex enough when jacked up to change the doors closing...none of my cars have ever done that.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Decay buys too many beaters
09/18/2019 at 10:27

That’s sounds about right thinking back to wrenching on my former C4. Precision machines these cars were not. That are actually a number of fairly mind boggling engineering workarounds on these cars to account for the wild variance in build quality from one car to the next going down the assembly line.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Decay buys too many beaters
09/18/2019 at 11:35

I really want to replace the flippy things with the fixed things but big $$ unless I make my own

CaptDale - is secretly British > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/18/2019 at 11:35

Dude, right?

CaptDale - is secretly British > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick)
09/18/2019 at 11:37

Actually I might have still bought them. They are one of the best shock options for the Jacking it up never had that issue. I think it falling hard onto jack-stands may have messed up the door pins or something

CaptDale - is secretly British > shop-teacher
09/18/2019 at 11:37

Masochism

CaptDale - is secretly British > SpecsGTP
09/18/2019 at 11:38

Kinja'd!!!

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 12:17

What always got me wasn’t just that the wide variance in build quality from one car to the next happened (say in the style of an Italian car or a classic British car) , but that they intentionally planned for it. I guess GM gets credit for knowing the mediocrity of their supply chain and manufacturing workforce, but then things also start to feel a lot like a Dilbert cartoon.

Decay buys too many beaters > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 12:41

noooooooooooo

oooooo

oooo

Flippy lights are peak automotive design.

CaptDale - is secretly British > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/18/2019 at 12:52

Yeah their manufacturing engineers must have a field day figuring out what mediocrity they have to work around.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > CaptDale - is secretly British
09/18/2019 at 13:48

I can imagine something along the lines of:

Manufacturing engineer: Yeah... I’m going to need the door ajar switches to have an adjustable plunger.

Chassis e lectrical engineer: how much adjustment do you need, wait... why does that need to be adjustable?

Manufacturing engineer: I have no exact idea of what the clearance between the inner door jamb and door is going to be on any particular car.

Chassis e lectrical engineer: Does 1/4" of adjustment do it?

Manufacturing engineer: Better make it 1/2"...