$$$frumnuttin'

All the EBCM talk lately has me thinking what else is next...a few come to mind but I will start with this...



Not only the little red gear indicator, but I predict the entire assembly is at risk... hope I am wrong but those individual pieces are rare as hens teeth....

MSG C5

Interior door panels. A few black ones left, however any mod red, gray, oak or shale are no longer available.

Vetteman Jack

Knee bolsters

1FUNC5

Any shale interior parts.... Especially visors!

damilleniumboy

Rocker pannels

Silverbullet00

Why not band together and buy the Corvette Line and all rights from ObamaMotors and build/part our cars ourselves?


Really not kidding all that much.

WetteVette

If the demand is great enough, the supply will be met.

jimb100

Have you ever considered what goes into building a mass produced automobile?

jdot

I suspect he has or he wouldn't have suggested it. Have you ever considered what goes into trying to replace a part that's no longer manufactured?

fendermender

Good subject but I'm not sure what can be done.

I was talking to my brother tonight. He had a 99 Olds that he has been keeping like some sort of collector car. I mean this thing looked brand new and not many miles. I'm guessing around 60thou. So over the summer he got the ABS light deal and a check engine. Car has some sort of stability control much like active handling. Well the EBCM ended up the problem, the dealer quoted $1800 for a new one and no it couldn't be rebuilt. Sound familiar?? So after 2 used ones that were also bad he finally came up with a good one for a few hundred. Tech told him there were also some history codes with the tranny. He traded it in on some new Mazda or something. Said he wanted rid of it while no lights were on.

I think the electronics are going to be the biggest issue. When the demand is great enough, things like door panels and trim will get reproduced. But I don't think anyone will ever figure out how to repo some of these black boxes from the 90s.

I'm beginning to wonder if buying one of these was such a smart move??

$$$frumnuttin'

Well said....we are headed to a rock and a hard place...I never saw it coming, but for complex components like electrical, computers, etc there isn't enough profit potential in them to tool up for production on these cars. Once the existing stock is gone, that's it. Anything unique to the 97 model is in jeopardy...mine is a 97 and I am stockpiling parts, but that can only go so far. The best one can do is store it in the winter here in the snowbelt...by keeping salt dust and winter road grime off the undercarriage and engine compartment I may be able to last another 10 years...who knows. The car is too nice to sell or trade in after all the modding over the years...

$$$frumnuttin'

Simple components, yes, it may work, but so much of these cars is beyond the aftermarket capabilities. In that shifter example I started with, it contains dozens of components that no one aftermarket manufacturer could do on his own. The little red gear indicator is a plastic piece that breaks after x number of miles or shifts. I am on my 3rd one in 56000 miles. The piece cannot be purchased alone..it is part of the entire shifter mechanism which must be bought as a whole to fix that one little problem. And the ones that are available new are over $200 easily, but how long have they been sitting on the shelf? I doubt any supplier is building new ones, so once the used ones are used up it's going to be an expensive problem. And, so far, no vendor has tooled up to make that little bugger as far as I know.

VETJAZZ

Until then, whatever I need next!

Bullet Proof

I recieved a corvette parts mag the other day and I noticed alot of door switches and electronic parts available that Ive never seen before in the parts mags....these cars are getting older...Im sure c3 parts werent available until there was a demand for them.

SoDiezl350

Fortunately all the cars that crash due to non functional EBCMs will help maintain a high supply of available used parts. Sounds like a self correcting problem.

Dave68

I remember many years ago when I was trying to find headlight grill covers for my 68. One guy had the side I needed, used and from some Corvette junkyard in Pennsylvania. He wanted $100 for it. I waited a few years and lo and behold, Zip and other vette parts catalogs had both sides for far less. The same thing happened with my tach drive cable - very scarce for a time but someone reproduced them, eventually.

dougbfresh

The electronic controls (especially on the early cars) were not even made by GM-I believe the were Bosch units. You can barely get parts for TV's today, much less 10+ year old car electronics. The C5 bodies/chassis will long out live their electonic systems-they should make nice flower planters in the near future.

$$$frumnuttin'

You understand the issue completely....like I said above, the simple parts will always be manufactured by someone...not so for the complex stuff.

fendermender

Although the electronics will certainly be an issue. I believe those that want to continue use of the car will find a way. I for one could live without the ebcm if it came to that. AFAIK the engine module and many of the others are repairable. If a fix for the early ebcm is never found, perhaps someone will come up with a way to eliminate the warning lights. They have found a way to fool the computer on the F45 shocks and eliminate the skip shift so perhaps it's possible. I'd be happy to eliminate the TPMS also. Never had a problem checking my tires. Maybe just make a nice blanking plate for the DIC and let it talk to itself.

In any case, I don't plan on making mine into a planter.

dougbfresh

Now that GM has gone thru bankruptcy, many of the things they used to have to do no longer apply (like having parts for 10 years). In the grand scheme of things, there are not enough cars out there to make it worth while to startup parts production for things like the EBCM. Guess you could always rip everything out and use a generic engine control computer and get rid of all the electronics except the engine control. The other thing that will be hard to get one day is BCM's and having the ability to reprogram to the car.

This is where the C3 and earlier cars shine-getting parts. Since most of the systems where mechanical, making them (or something similar) is much easier for the aftermarket.

Who would have thought getting door panels would be an issue-try finding them for C5's (especially in colors).