1055

Hello! and welcome to my **** show. Little back story on me.. I've been a mopar and import nut my whole life (odd combo, I know). I've also been a huge fan and subscriber to the rat rod mentality. And I dont mean the shock rods that have been surfacing lately, I mean the old school thought process of.. 'oh **** its broken, Let's fix it with whatever is laying around, but take it one step further' The kind of thinking that gave us some of the coolest hot rods.

That brings us to here.. kind of. I was a mechanic for 7 years before I got sick of my whole life hurting on a daily basis and decided to pursue other career choices. I tinkered and built my fair share of ridiculous cars. Everything from First gen supercharged MR2's to swapped impreza outback sports and my latest creation was a 2000 legacy GT with a turbo swapped motor that I ended up supercharging - mad max style.




anyways, on to the Vette..

Rewind to 1999. My mother in law bought this here 1985 L98/700R4 targa top vette as her daily driver.
Fast forward to 10/2013. Whilst driving her vette, she got yammed by some dumb teen girl who had gotten her license three days prior. needless to say, the car was "totaled" I inform MIL that im interested in the car for the drivetrain.. At the time I had a miata shell begging for a v8 powertrain.
fast forward even more until a week ago. Insurance company finally settles with MIL, tells her to just keep the car. MIL calls me and says hey you still want it? I say yeah sure why not. I sold the miata shell three weeks ago, but I can do something with the car. Its in my nature to do so.

So here we are. I have a smushed up vette that cost me Tolls and fuel to get and After pulling the body panels off, I'm left with the choice of either tube framing the front end, or just hot rodding the **** out of it. No hood, some older style grill (maybe 32 ford esque). big ol round headlights and some gnarly side pipes. maybe some small fenders over the wheels.. but thats it. Simple and practical. Function over form.

It really didnt suffer much in the accident. The frame is bent, but in front of the control arm mounting points. the car still tracks straight, alignment is even still straight.

So on to the important part.. Pictures.



It was filthy, It had been sitting outside at a body shop for the past 9 months in a sandy/dirt parking lot.


It cleaned up well though. Paint is fantastic where it isnt damaged.

Got the hood and bumper off to assess the damage.




So really the only mechanical component that needs replacing for it to run is a radiator. The end tank on the driverside split. You can see how the frame decided to make a 60* turn when the saab tried to hug it.


Now the annoying part when I ask noob questions. Here in CT, everything is exempt from emissions after 25 years. I want to get rid of as much of the **** in the engine bay as possible.

So far the list I've compiled contains:
charcoal canister
EGR system
Air pump
Air conditioning
Cruise control
Vacuum system for the headlights (I think? its a small circular reservoir with vacuum lines plumbed to the headlight motors)

I know the whole "remove garbage, gain power" thing is an urban legend on the L98, Im simply doing it because I plan on running the car as naked as possible from the firewall forward. As much crap as I can shave without affecting the drive ability of the car, I will. And I'm open to suggestions.

Anyways, that's my story thus far. Cool.

Have a rad day.

1055

A friend of mine sent me this earlier this morning, And it's become my inspiration, at least for today. modern car, old school feel. Simple.

corvetteronw

I'm going to take Thumper's advice on this one

1055

To each their own. I'm all for criticism, whether constructive or negative so please feel free to speak your mind.

Be advised: I'm going to do whatever I want regardless of what you say with the exception of the times where I ask for advice.

SnAkeDr

Good Luck!!

N227GB

Welcome to the world of Corvette ownership! Cool idea, post lots of pictures and I'd also enjoy the design and fabrication dialog.

If you're pulling the AC I hope you like having toasty feet.

ch@0s

You want my opinion, a C4 rat rod is a bad Idea. I would buy another body ,C4, S10..ETC and do a swap.

1055

Meh, I've owned one car with functional A/C in the past 4 years, and its my daily driver haha. I currently also have an 02 WRX, 97 miata and 03 Baja. Wife has a 74 super beetle as a toy car. If I were any further south, I'd probably complain. believe it or not, the miata with no carpet and no heat shield is a real foot toaster lol

I'm more of a windows down person.

1055

My problem is they've all been done. Over and over again. Look at how many cookie cutter C4's and s10's and c10's and blah blah blah blah blah have been done before.. When was the last time you saw a hot rodded c4?

To me, the challenge lies in executing a 'different' plan. they made 366,000 c4 vettes. Why would I want one thats just like the guy down the streets? for some people thats ok... not for me.

Tom400CFI

Can you reprogram ECM's? If so, you can remove all of the above...you'll need ot make timing adjustments to avoid detonation at cruising speeds where EGR and very advanced timing would work together.

Also, you could convert it to a Speed density system and eliminate the mass airflow sensor and run an open TB if you wanted...might be cool on a car like that.

ch@0s

I just think it would be ugly that picture you posted is hideous. Im not against different

My car

1055

I've seen a few "standalone" TPI set ups on third gen F body cars. I think I'll do some research into how they use speed density. Retarding timing wouldnt be all that difficult. There enough electronic control modification devices out there that anything is possible. Toyed with the idea of going full standalone (megasquirt, hydra, haltek) versus some "bandaids" like an rrfpr and msd retard box.

1055

of course its ugly, It's a miata!

sahhas

an interesting debate...i'd say go for it.
i have no suggestions as to what to do...but i guess make it your own...since you know what you're doing.

as someone stated there are 360,000 some C4s out there (or there were)...and obviously w/ the accident this one was basically deemed a parts car....if you are to give it life again and make it drivable...i think that is awesome...

good luck, keep us posted...

chatham

im still trying to figure out why you even posted.... you seem to know it all and what you want... so just do it. hell put a 79 bronco frame under it with a 12" lift... that's RAT...

1055

To document the progress of the build so I can share the disaster with others? Should I keep it all to myself? I'm sorry.. I'm new to this corvette thing. Is that how its done around here?

1055

Thank you! I have a good chunk of downtime at work.. no customers means free time for internet shenanigans.

sahhas

i guess the debate is what kind of mod can/will you do to a wrecked C4...
the thing is, even w/ these cars being 20+ yrs old, i haven't seen a lot of wrecked ones laying around or abandoned, etc....to me it always seems the super modded ones come from something like that b/c the car needed new life anyway...i guess your car qualifies as that....i guess in order is BIGGER engine and bigger tires!!!!! i'm not sure what i think of the exposed engine things of hot rods i've seen in CA.....guess you don't see them in the midwest much.
btw...2 months ago looking at these corvettes at this one specialty shop, this guy had this old 30s truck, rusted to pieces in places, but he put it together w/ a souped up small block engine and all these funny parts. my 10 yr old son saw it and thought it was "so cool"....it was his 1st real view of a hot rod!!!!!!

MavsAK

Please don't do this.
If you want Different then do something cool, like putting an LSX where that TPI used to be.

Or hell, just supe up the TPI and keep Long Tube Runners on it. Most guys that go crazy on the Gen 1 SBC put a miniram or something on it. LTR thumpers, are rare and distinctive in the modded C4 world.
Also EGR is good for power generation. It keeps the timing from retarding itself, particularly on crappy gasoline.

Or maybe, twin turbocharge it...something anything other than turning it into some god awful rat rod.

Hell put an Aerobody wide body kit on it.

Put a Northstar 4.6 in it.

Hell go to Ford and get the Coyote 5.0 and make her fit.
There's a ton of ways to separate your C4 from the "360,000 others" out there.

It's your car, I just think you'll have a great deal of time and money into this, for something that will never fit your vision I don't think.

I'll never understand the point of intentionally making your car look like a pile of scrap and throwing a ton of money and man hours into doing it. It seems alot like taking a supermodel, and hitting her in the face with a crowbar and stuffing big macs down her throat every few hours.

1055

I appreciate your concerns and gripes. The car was "totaled". meaning that to get it back to where it needs to be would be way more expensive than what Its worth. My options are tube front end (as I'd have to chop a good section of the frame) and If you've ever built a tube frame.. it gets spendy quickly if you do it right.


plus, Merica.