Nice Ride

It hurts me to see those nice Corvettes being driven in the snow and salt. Mine only comes out for dry clean roads and sunshine. Great thing about good old USA. You pay for it, do what you want with it.

Mr. Hyde

My 2008 Z06 had a problem with surface rust on the brake caliper bplts. They are that very cheap GM chrome.
Not a big deal, as I said just surface rust, and it rains once in a while here in Seattle.
The new owners of the car live in Pa. where I doubt it will see many winter roads.

Gearhead Jim

The Corvette body is rustproof, other parts...

We drove our C5 through five Chicago winters and it looked like any other C5 of similar age/miles; even when up on a rack.

The aluminum frame on a Z06 won't actually rust, but it will corrode. Ask anyone who owns an old airplane.
Depending on how GM protected things, there can be more serious problems where steel parts attach to the aluminum frame. Or not.

The magnesium cradle is even more prone to corrosion, but again it depends on how well it was protected as the car was built.

P0234

I was researching the chemicals used on roadways a little while ago. I came across an article that was talking about aluminium light pole failures because of the new non salt de-icing chemicals. So just because you don't have steel, you aren't exactly safe.

Look under the car, hell, look everywhere. There are so many clean corvettes that there is no reason to buy a nasty one.

Vette5.5

If you look under a ZO6, the aluminum frame has a black coating on it. No way of knowing by looking, if the frame's aluminum or not. Really doubt the car you're looking at has ever been driven in the snow. The Montana dealer I got my car from, told me an inch or two of snow in the parking lot, and couldn't get ZO6's to move at all. Found it better just using a couple guys to push them.

Bill Dearborn

Highly doubtful the car was driven on salty/slushy roads. To do it on a regular basis in snow country you would want different wheels and tires which adds a couple thousand to the cost of the car. For that kind of money you can get a 20 year old beater and drive it instead. I drive my car all year round but in the winter I don't drive it if the roads are going to be wet or slushy. On a dry road you can get some salt dust but that isn't the same as having sand and salt pasted into the car by driving down a slushy road.

I am the third owner of my car. The two previous owners probably drove the car some in the winter. The first owner took delivery in February and the car looked like the second owner used it as a semi daily driver so probably saw winter driving during its second winter. I have been through that car many times on the lift as I prepare for various track events and the only rust that is starting to show is on the exhaust system. The steel floor reinforcement bars that the seats bolt to look just like they did when the car came out of the factory. The car has seen some winter driving in 4 winters and really doesn't show any damage from it. Conversely, my 03 Tahoe has seen extensive winter driving and the frame is rusty but that doesn't mean much. The only areas that I am concerned about are the brake lines and the bottoms of the doors. I have seen California cars that were used near the ocean that were in worse shape.

Bill

Zoxxo

http://www.darkmars.com/cf/chassis/z06_dip.avi



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