1999PewterCorvette

Okay guys, I have a 1978 pace car and the rear emblem has seen better days. I read through about 45 posts on emblem removal for this year (yes, I used the search function). Okay , first it says to remove the 3 bolts behind the license plate cover to loosen the rear valence. I did not have any bolts back there-- should I??? Its not super loose but when I push it back, I can see a big plate that everyone says you remove to get to the speed nuts. First I dont see any bolts to loosen the plate (supposedly theres 3) and second, there is no way someone can fit there arm up there to do this. I have no idea how people would be able to do this. the rear does not push out far enough and where the hell are the bolts?? I can drop the spare tire and can see the plate and touch the plate that way, but that doesnt help any. Any thoughts or very detailed directions??

dgood

I am in the process of getting my 79 painted and we pulled all the emblems. I was not worried about scraching so I just put a big puddy/scrapper knife under the letters and gently pried it up. working from side to side and a little bit at a time. Once we got it off, we did see the speed nuts fall off and they were all rusted out. we pulled the bumper later and saw that it would have been easier to remove the nuts like that. bear in mind that to remove the bumper, we had to cut all the bumper retainer off because they were rusted. not sure how to do it without messing the bumper up though. I plan on re-using my emblem so I did not want to brake it.

Easy Mike

Pewter: do you have the 78 assembly instruction manual (AIM)? The AIM shows how the rear letter kit was installed on the assembly line. The diagram could help in trying to replace your kit.

FWIW: the rear letter kit was installed on the assembly line before body drop and while access to the baskside of the bumper cover was easy.

1999PewterCorvette

No I do not have the AIM.
I do know that it is bolted on, because I tried to make it come off.

dgood

1999 sorry I can't help you but I don't know how to get it off with out pulling the bumper cover. Is pulling the bumper cover an option for you or are the bolts too rusted? I talked to an autobody guy yesterday and he said that some times people just brake them off. when they install the new ones, they just use an adhesive or double sided tape instead of the speed nuts. Let me know what you figure out.

Binnie77

First you have to remove the aluminum shield blocking access to the three speed nuts that retain the emblem. The shield is held in with 4 bolts. The two on the front are easy to get at and are self taping. The other two (one on each end) are held on with nuts. In order to get access to these you have to remove the license plate and the bolts behind it that hold the bumper cover. Once you have those bolts out you can pull the cover back far enough and you will have access to the bolts. Use a 7/16th socket and a couple of long extensions to get at the head of the bolts. Once you have those out pull the aluminum shield out of the way and now you have access to the emblem speed nuts.