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This is a great time to do a fluff 'n buff on the passenger-side fender gill, as well:
Before; not awful, but much easier really going to town on this thing with polishing compound and cleaner wax with it in a horizontal position at a comfortable working height, rather than vertical down next to the ground
After, two hours later. Still has some factory orange peel, which can only be removed by color-sanding the panel, which will be a winter-time project. For now, looks much better than before, particularly the area of tumblehome. A cheap outdoor furniture cushion draped across the right front tire made a great workbench for this project.
Gave the windshield washer bottle filter a cleaning while I was in the neighborhood. Before...
...and after. Used a small, clean paint brush and a solution of hot water and car-wash soap.
The washer bottle was full, but I was disappointed to see all these floaters in there.
Don't tell Mrs. Joe, but I used one of our soup spoons to fish out the floaters; it was the perfect tool for the job.
Mrs. RPO Joe and I attended the first day of our town's annual two-day rod run yesterday. Bitter cold initially, with a stiff wind from the north and some spitting rain, but by and by the weather straightened out and sunshine and smiles (and hot rods!) ruled the day.
This may be my favorite photo I've taken of our car so far in the short time we've owned it. If I could have a do-over, I'd submit this photo, instead of the one I've already submitted, in the CF "2023 C4 of the Year - Unmodified" competition that's currently going on, as I think this photo shows off the quality of the paint and condition of the sawblades much better.
Our son, a retired US Army vet, is currently enjoying some R&R down in Argentina. On Saturday we arranged via text with him to do a slow drive-by in our Corvette in front of our town's live-cam, as we were leaving the Downtown Hutchinson Rod Run for a quick break. I told him to look for the green Corvette with the red and white "VOTE YES FOR BEER FREEDOM" sign!
We attended our first meeting of the local Corvette club tonight, hosted by the Chevrolet dealer here in town. Good times!
Fairly unusual to see another C4 in the wild around here, much less one in Polo Green. This is Randy & Susan's '95 Coupe:
I'm amazed the two pix above turned out as well as they did, as it was nearly dark when I took them.
It's been over 40 years since I attended my last Corvette club meeting. Mark Twain once said, "I could never belong to a club that would have me as a member." I sure hope these guys 'n gals know what they've gotten themselves into...
On another forum member's thread I offered up some tips for extracting the build sheet from the top of their C4's fuel tank. NOTE: Our Corvette is a '96, and I don't know how many years back in the C4 run my tips will be applicable. I thought I'd post up the tips here for anyone contemplating going in after their build sheet. It's certainly not rocket science, but I learned a few helpful tricks on the way through. At the completion of step 3, you'll be able to look through the inboard passenger-side taillight opening and see if your build sheet is there on top of the gas tank. Proceed accordingly.
Happy hunting!
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1 - Remove license plate.
2 - Undo bolts holding the right backup light assembly in place and move assembly out of the way to the left in the license plate opening.
3 - Reach up through license plate opening with a small ratchet (1/4 drive or 3/8 stubby) and 10-mm socket and remove the two bolts retaining the inboard passenger-side taillight housing, disconnect the wiring connector and remove the housing. You'll be removing these bolts blind, but it's not that difficult. CAREFUL: the plastic bosses on the back of the taillight housings WILL be brittle. Be as gentle and delicate as you can removing the bolts during this procedure.*
If your build sheet is staring back at you after the completion of step 3, congrats and proceed! If not, sorry, but at least you're not out much time or effort.
4 - If your build sheet is in there, reach through the opening you just created and remove the two bolts holding the outboard passenger-side taillight housing and remove housing, as above. Again, be gentle with the bolt bosses.
5 - Remove the nut retaining the bottom of the gas tank strap with a deep 15-mm socket. CAUTION: clean the strap bolt threads with a wire brush and lubricate the threads first, so you don't candy-cane the strap while removing the nut due to the decades of crud likely encasing the threads.
6 - Lift the gas tank strap up AND away from you (toward the front of the car), to release it from the entirety of the build sheet. In my case, the build sheet draped over the front of the gas tank somewhat (which I couldn't tell at first), so it's important to lift the strap up AND push it forward a bit, to fully release the build sheet.
7 - Carefully begin tugging on the build sheet (make sure your hands are clean and dry), changing tug points as necessary as you go. In my case the sheet came free from the tank fairly easily, but even so, it had molded itself to the contours of the tank over time and was a teeny little bit reluctant to let go. Be gentle and patient.
8 - When free, carefully work the build sheet down the back side of the gas tank and bring it out through the license plate opening. GENTLE!
With the taillight housings out you've got tremendous visual and physical accessibility to the top of your gas tank (not to mention also being able to reach up through the license plate opening with your left hand to assist while removing the sheet):
When you've got your build sheet safely out, sit it down on a clean, flat surface and begin gently brushing it off with a CLEAN paint brush. This will help remove the dust, and will also begin the process of removing the wrinkles (by pressing down firmly with the paint brush after the sheet is clean, using the brush almost like a squeegee). Take your time with the wrinkles - the paper has had decades to take a set, and isn't going to want to fully relax without some extended patient persuasion. Again, a clean paint brush makes a great tool for dusting and de-wrinkling.
After I got my sheet de-dusted, de-wrinkled and after I teased the torn spots back into place the best I could, I placed it on a flat, firm surface and stacked several coffee-table-sized books on it. Over a period of several days, this eliminated most of the remaining creases in the paper. I've yet to decide what to do with the build sheet now that I have it out, so for the time being it safely resides in a dedicated dresser drawer.
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*When I began to pull out my housings, I discovered that one of them was already loose in the taillight opening, as one of the bolt bosses had fragmented and basically mushroomed away from the bolt. This boss broke into several pieces during the process of removing the housing, but fortunately I was able to retrieve all of the pieces. I rebuilt the boss by using liquid superglue to carefully glue the pieces back into place, and then after the glue popped overnight, I reinforced the boss by "cocooning" it with a thin layer of Gorilla-brand construction adhesive:
The other three bosses were all cracked in multiple places, so I carefully drizzled superglue into the cracks, let it all pop overnight, then cocooned them in the construction adhesive, as well. Be careful not to get any adhesive on the boss flats (where they rest up against the bumper fascia in their respective mounting holes), or the housings won't sit flush when you go to install them. Also, take care to prevent any superglue from getting into the area of the threads.
While you have your taillight housings out, clean the threads on the four housing bolts with a wire brush, dab a little anti-seize on the threads, and carefully run the bolts into the four housing bosses. Be careful not to run the bolts too deep.
By doing the above, you're 1) chasing the threads in the bosses, 2) proving the overall integrity of the bosses, and 3) pre-lubing the threads in preparation for the actual install, thus decreasing the odds of a bolt fracturing a boss when you run them in for real - if you're going to have a problem with a boss failing, you want it to happen on your workbench, not when you're trying to finish buttoning-up your car.
Between repairing and reinforcing the bosses, and cleaning/lubing the bolt threads and chasing the boss threads before reinstallation, I feel like I ended up with a permanent repair, and as a bonus, avoided the expense of buying replacement (and non-original) housings.
Mrs. RPO Joe and I had a great time walking the docks* this afternoon and, among several other treasures, we came home with these two bad boys:
In Kansas you don't have to run a front tag, but at some point in the past someone apparently ran one on the front of Mrs. Joe's car, and as a result there are a couple of biggish screw holes in the plastic front fascia of her car that we've hidden for a while now with with a stainless steel license plate frame. We've been on the lookout for *just* the right tag for the front of her car (a Ford, lol!), and today we found it!
This was a real special find, IMO. The CKCA is the second-oldest Corvette club in the state, established in 1968, and according to the seller of this tag it is "circa 1970's." I'd agree, based on the overall appearance and patina, which, if true, likely makes this tag pretty rare. It's a particularly thick, heavy-gauge steel as these things go, and the graphic *almost* appears to have been applied in either porcelain or enamel. The significance of the star?
The motto, "Ad astra per aspera," means "to the stars through difficulties" and was adopted as part of the state's Great Seal. The motto refers to the difficulties Kansas went through (Bleeding Kansas) to become one of the stars on the U.S. flag.
To the stars!
One of our club's founding members is still active (at the ripe old young age of 80! ), and the next time I see Mr. Steve I'm going to ask him what he remembers about this CKCA tag. It's a special piece, and we're so glad to have added it to our collection.
Thanks Irvan! How's your new C4 coming along? Are you going to the "Corvette Car Club Cruise-In Challenge" at The Garage in Salina this Saturday? We're driving up Saturday morning with our club:
Here's a link to The Garage (Salina Educational Automotive Museum of America) - they're currently featuring "Corvette - Celebrating 70 years of America's Sports Car": https://seama.org/
The car is doing ok, more stuff on the way that will be here this week, it's not ready for a car show yet but getting closer. Lucky nothing major but lots of little things that drive me nuts.
Joe, I really enjoyed reading through your thread and I really love the attention to detail you put into your Corvette! All Corvettes should be so lucky to have an owner such as yourself! You seem to really love the car snd your opening post really made me smile. I'm at second base in life (but unfortunately battling the cusp of stage 5 kidney failure) and I can relate to a lot of things you said. I'll continue to enjoy reading your posts and look forward to more on your 96!
Have to agree with all the above, wish Joe had been previous owner of my car. Sorry to hear about your battle with kidney failure but hope fight going well.
The car is doing ok, more stuff on the way that will be here this week, it's not ready for a car show yet but getting closer. Lucky nothing major but lots of little things that drive me nuts.
I commend you on adopting/rescuing your car. I've enjoyed reading your updates and hope you continue. If somehow you do make it to Salina on Saturday, I hope you look us up.
09-27-2023, 10:19 PM
